Passing in 2014

[Longestday]

No I am not drinking cool aid, but I see a good year in the passing game 2014.

Waller, Smelter, Summers, and Denis have another year under the belt.

Autry is back!

Searcy and Jeune will push the others to get better.

I am no scout, but Byerly and Justin have good field vision and will learn to keep "3 seconds" from rushing the passes. Byerly may have a little more "touch" control on Justin… but Justin is always a sprint away from a TD.

A healthy OL will also go a long way.

Passing needs to be a threat or the box will get loaded….

 

[Yaller Jacket]

I've got those gold colored glasses on this time of year too.

You're right, though. We probably have the best overall receiving corps and the most accurate passers in the PJ era.

I would like to see a passing game which is totally unpredictable. Throw it on any down except third and long. Our linemen are not recruited to be pass blockers and my guess is they don't practice it as much either. So when everyone is expecting pass and we call it, they don't stand a chance.

 

[GTonTop88]

I've got those gold colored glasses on this time of year too.

You're right, though. We probably have the best overall receiving corps and the most accurate passers in the PJ era.

I would like to see a passing game which is totally unpredictable. Throw it on any down except third and long. Our linemen are not recruited to be pass blockers and my guess is they don't practice it as much either. So when everyone is expecting pass and we call it, they don't stand a chance.

Yea it was so obvious last year. Throw the hail mary on 1sr down if we were gonna try to go deep, then run on 2nd, 3rd depended on if it was short or long. So defense basically keep your safeties back on first, all out blitz on 2nd and play zone on 3rd.

 

[IronJacket7]

Passing needs to be a threat or the box will get loaded….

this

 

[Techster]

If pass blocking doesn't improve, I don't see how it's better than last season. Sorry, would love to see a better passing game as I'm a big fan of passing attacks, but given that we'll be inexperienced on the OL and we have a young QB without much experience, it's hard for me to see a much better passing attack.

I'll be more than happy if I'm wrong about this.

 

[AE 87]

If pass blocking doesn't improve, I don't see how it's better than last season. Sorry, would love to see a better passing game as I'm a big fan of passing attacks, but given that we'll be inexperienced on the OL and we have a young QB without much experience, it's hard for me to see a much better passing attack.

I'll be more than happy if I'm wrong about this.

If you define better passing game in part by more passes, I don't think you'll see it. Otherwise, I think we will.

 

[GTL]

If pass blocking doesn't improve, I don't see how it's better than last season. Sorry, would love to see a better passing game as I'm a big fan of passing attacks, but given that we'll be inexperienced on the OL and we have a young QB without much experience, it's hard for me to see a much better passing attack.

I'll be more than happy if I'm wrong about this.

I'm really, really hoping the passing game becomes what it should be under PJ. Joshua and to a lesser extent, Tevin, just weren't accurate enough to make the defenses pay. Vad couldn't sell the option well enough to make passing a surprise. Remember how often Joshua missed a wide open receiver? Teams were so up on stopping variations of the option, they didn't look for the pass.

Hopefully, JT will run the base O well enough to make the pass come as a surprize to the D, as it should in this offense. And to hit the receiver with regularity.

 

[DallasBuzzFan]

Last year we started a ton of drives with an incomplete pass play. We threw the ball with a less that 50% completion rate. So, basically we started a lot of drives with 2nd and 10 or worse due to sacks. We are not cut out to convert first downs with 2nd and long. If we run our base offense and throw on 2nd and 3rd down, as we have prior to last year we can and will be very good again. I think the line will be improved and the other personnel will be better as a WHOLE.

This will also help our defense by not having so many three and outs.

 

[Longestday]

Watch other teams pass. They don't get more than 3 seconds most times. The QB's have got to get back, check down, and pass or throw away or run. This not a 7v7. You got to be good in chaos. Long passes have got to be quick long passes.

I want to be more accurate with touch with receivers doing their job, don't have to be more often.

 

[danny daniel]

I'm really, really hoping the passing game becomes what it should be under PJ. Joshua and to a lesser extent, Tevin, just weren't accurate enough to make the defenses pay. Vad couldn't sell the option well enough to make passing a surprise. Remember how often Joshua missed a wide open receiver? Teams were so up on stopping variations of the option, they didn't look for the pass.

Hopefully, JT will run the base O well enough to make the pass come as a surprize to the D, as it should in this offense. And to hit the receiver with regularity.

Agreed. Knowing that there will not be great pass protection the improvement in passing will come from better decision making about more quickly finding the open receiver, when to throw to the receiver, when to throw it away, and when to tuck and run. As a more conventional passer Byerly seems to more quickly find the open receiver and deliver the ball quickly as he should. Justin seems to be able to start to run and still stay focused on the receivers so that he buys himself more time to run or pass. His called pass plays will be exciting as he is more dangerous when he is forced to run. There will be improvement if we just avoid the -15 yard losses and the easy picks. Our WRs are a + so that will add to improvement.

 

[Buzztheirazz]

I just read in the dean Buchan article that we were dead last in passing completion percentage. Nowhere to go but up....

 

[gtrower]

I'll be pleasantly surprised is JT is an effective passer. The best thing he can do though is to run the option clean. Passing isn't that hard when the receivers are running free behind safeties playing the run.

 

[gtrower]

I just read in the dean Buchan article that we were dead last in passing completion percentage. Nowhere to go but up....

Anybody that has a lower completion percentage than us (excluding Army, Navy, AF, and any other team running the option) is having a BAD year.

 

[AE 87]

As HS Sr, JT completed 65.5% of 168 passes for 1652 yds, 9.8 ypa. From last year, it seemed to me that he squared well, stayed balanced and could have a very fast release. I think he's going to be the best passer we've seen. Fwiw, I didn't say that about Vad.

 

[TampaGT]

I think the passing attack will be better this year. It will not be because JT is a better passer or better WR or Oline. It will be better because I think the run game will be better this year. The d will focus more on JT speed on the corner and the overall run game that I think you will see more people running wide open.

 

[Eric]

I like JT, anxious to see the passing from him. Really only good tape I have on that is from the BYU game.

 

[Techster]

If you define better passing game in part by more passes, I don't think you'll see it. Otherwise, I think we will.

I define a better passing game as the ability to pass when we have to pass, and the ability to hammer a defense when we do pass as that's what our passing game is meant to do (the latter, not the former).

Everything we've heard is conjecture to this point. We can hope that better talent on the OLine leads to better pass blocking, we can hope that being better at the running game gives us better opportunities in the air, we can hope that having a QB that's "bought into" the system makes us an overall better offense, so on and so forth. Until we see it on the field, it's pure speculation. Call me jaded, and I probably am, but this is offseason talk.

Like I said, I hope that I am so wrong that JT passes for over 2,000 yards and big time dual threat QBs start lining up to play in our offense. But going off history, JT's first season will more than like mirror Josh's, Vads', and Tevin's first season (well, Tevin's first 6 games).

 

[AE 87]

@Techster no worries, for the most part, that's why I said, "I think." I think I gave some reason to believe that JT will be better beyond mere speculation.

 

[nodawgs]

Several reasons why passing will never be strong in this system:
1) OLine fires out and does not pass set. This is harder to keep a rushing DLineman in front of you. Fire out and miss, and there is no recovery and qb is on the run before he can complete his drop.
2) We run isolation routes almost exclusively. These routes have the least margin for error for a QB. Much harder for a qb.
3) We throw a lot of deep balls. It's harder to complete a 45+ yard pass, and a lot of times it's more about simply showing the deep ball to keep the safeties back than it is about completing passes.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

I wanna see our passing efficiency back up in the tops in the nation. That is what our passing game is designed to do. It's not designed to hit a lot of passes a game, it's designed to hurt the D big time when we do.