Sims on game day vs practice

[Northeast Stinger]

Most of the misses WERE easy throws to extremely wide open receivers. Carter was getting insane separation all night long. The play calling was working, we just couldn't manage to get the ball out on time and/or to the receiver. It's pathetic that NIU was in such soft coverage and we still couldn't

I don't want to see a coaching change yet, but the excuses are old and overplayed now. At what point do we have CGC's players here? Are we not there now?

Agree that the play calling was good and created open receivers for what should have been easy throws. My point was that the QB was jittery and had not established any rhythm. If he had made some short easy completions first he might have gotten in rhythm which would have helped on those longer throws.

 

[smokey_wasp]

In fairness, we will never know if Sims might have settled in. I do think Yates earned a start, regardless.

 

[wesgt123]

In fairness, we will never know if Sims might have settled in. I do think Yates earned a start, regardless.

Knowing this coaching staff, they won’t start him because when they see something/someone working, they immediately go away from it.

 

[SteamWhistle]

I’ve said for 3 years Yates was the only QB on the roster who actually had good QB play in Highschool. Gleason and Sims both had very underwhelming Senior Seaons, and i’m pretty sure Peery didn’t even have a Senior season. Idc how fast Sims was clocked running at practice, it doesn’t matter when he can’t keep a defense honest with basic throws that anyone at the P5 level has to make. With the Weapons we have at RB all we need is a game manager. I understand National title teams have elite QB play but there’s no excuse for this team to not win 5-6 games with average QB play. That’s all i’m asking for... AVERAGE.

 

[GTBandit22]

The answer to this is simple and I'm at a loss to see what it hasn't happened: let him run more. I'll repeat that, let Sims run more. He's good at it and it'll take some of the pressure off his reads as well as off the OL.

Below is my comment after NC State last year, and it was true last night too. I think DP just runs his system of plays and wants to be 50/50, efficiency or good sense be damned. I remember watching Clemson give us 15 yard cushions under fridge, so he ran comeback routes like 20 times. Paul would run the same play over and over if the defense didn’t adjust. DP seems to outsmart himself at times, instead of making the defense stop a play that is gashing them.

Sims didn’t have a great game. The receivers didn’t help nor did the OL. He is a willing runner but I’m struck repeatedly by the impression that DP wants to throw the ball 30 times every game. Even the duke game we would drop back while gashing them. I don’t mind dropping back on first but maybe a screen or a dump off would be better than a max protect chuck deep

Nothing like running a zone read for 30 yards then throwing 3 incompletions

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

There is a reason why Norvell pull Sims offer when he took the FSU job and I think everyone might be seeing why. I don’t think Sims has what it takes to beat teams with his arm and doesn’t give you enough with his legs to make up the difference.

This is the answer. Sims made it thru high school on raw talent. Never had elite coaching and obviously not getting any elite coaching here. And I’ve never seen his super speed. Sure, he is fast as most guys his size and age are but nothing elite. We aware all expecting a big step forward from him this year and it’s not happening.

 

[alagold]

Sometimes you can help a QB by giving him easy throws to start the game, swing passes, dump off throws, screen passes and short come back routes. The kid needs help setting down and seems to be feeling the pressure.

YES--ANOTHER reason to question coaching.Give the guy a gimme pass or two.Hell,we running it great,why even pass then.

 

[swampsting]

Something everybody’s favorite whipping boy Mike Sewak said he learned from Bobby Dodd - make sure the first pass you call is one your QB can complete, even if it doesn’t gain much

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Something everybody’s favorite whipping boy Mike Sewak said he learned from Bobby Dodd - make sure the first pass you call is one your QB can complete, even if it doesn’t gain much

I am an advocate of that philosophy. Let the quarterback get in rhythm. Harder throws are easier once you are warmed up in a game.

There used to also be a philosophy that if your QB still can’t get over his nerves let him (make him?) run quarterback sneaks and keepers. Getting hit will take the edginess off some quarterbacks. Not advocating just saying that used to be a thing.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

There is a reason why Norvell pull Sims offer when he took the FSU job and I think everyone might be seeing why. I don’t think Sims has what it takes to beat teams with his arm and doesn’t give you enough with his legs to make up the difference.

Begs the question, what did he know that Collins and by extension the rest of us did not know?

 

[TampaGT]

Begs the question, what did he know that Collins and by extension the rest of us did not know?

He is too inconsistent to build an offense around. His throwing motion doesn’t lead to being very accurate. A guess on my part, but I bet his success in hs was more about being a bigger and better athlete than a good Qb.

 

[AugustaSwarm]

I don't think any of Sim's misses were to Carter. I think one was to Gibbs, and I put that one on Gibbs instead of Sims but that's neither here nor there. I thought 3 were to McGowan. There was the deep on in the endzone where it looked like Sims tried to throw it to the open area and let McGowan run under it and just didn't get enough air. There was the one on the left side of the play where it was underthrown. Both of these should have been thrown better but it also seemed like McGowan was slow to pick up the ball in the air and adjust to it, although I'm not sure he could have caught either of them anyways; just something I want to keep an eye on for him. Then there was the one early to the right where it the pass was low and back into the defenders legs. Maybe the fourth down play?

Sorry I was rambling a bit. I didn't mean to imply that Sims missed Carter, I was simply stating that Carter (and most of our receivers) were wide open all night - even after Sims left the game. I mean super wide open - like yards of separation.

Sims was rattled and looked a bit cagey to me - in a game that he should have pretty comfy and very well prepared for. The emphasis, to me, should be on the word prepared. Sims wasn't. Our defense wasn't. The team wasn't. I've lost confidence in this staff to have the players prepared, much less developed.

 

[g0lftime]

For any of you that competed in athletics you know that you can have an off day. Sims has had a lot of accolades and all the talk about his great potential during the off season. He may have just put too much pressure on himself. Yates deserves to start this week based on his play. Maybe that takes some of the pressure off Sims and he can fight to get his job back.

 

[CuseJacket]

Thought 3:

Sims was 3 for 8. It's not like he was out there blundering 25-30 throws.

In order (w/ running total):

1. Incomplete (0 for 1)
2. Complete (1 for 2)
3. Incomplete (1 for 3)
4. Complete (2 for 4)
5. Incomplete (2 for 5)
6. Incomplete (2 for 6)
7. Incomplete (2 for 7)
8. Complete (3 for 8)

Recognizing that several of those incompletions were with guys running wide open, at what point in the sequence above would folks have stopped calling the "throw to guys wide open" plays? We didn't reach scale imo, even though many of the throws were cringey.

"There have always been accuracy questions". First, I agree. Second, I'll point out that his 37% completion rate yesterday was well below his 55% clip last year. There's no reason our OC should have expected the results of the first 8 attempts, nor due to sample size had a ton of reason to believe he would not snap out of it. Many of his misfires last year were while running for his life. Yesterday was just... wtf.

I'm also not saying it's entirely on Jeff. Seems it was more in his head yesterday than anything which coaches are in part responsible for. There is just a lot of extrapolation on play-calling for 8 plays which in theory I think we'd all have expected Jeff to complete at a greater clip. Hindsight 20/20 though. I totally get that we were running well.

https://ramblinwreck.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Game-Book-NIU-22-GT-21.pdf

 

[GSOJacket]

I think DP just runs his system of plays and wants to be 50/50, efficiency or good sense be damned. I remember watching Clemson give us 15 yard cushions under fridge, so he ran comeback routes like 20 times. Paul would run the same play over and over if the defense didn’t adjust. DP seems to outsmart himself at times, instead of making the defense stop a play that is gashing them.

Exactly!!

 

[Yaller Jacket]

Great perspective, Cuse! On "Seems it was more in his head yesterday than anything which coaches are in part responsible for." Sometimes early in a golf round, you miss a couple of 3-4 foot putts. Then the next time you have one you concentrate as hard as you can but it doesn't matter. You miss every one of those. Similarly, we have all seen a pitcher having a spell of wildness. He has a 3-0 count and everyone can see the batter is taking the next pitch. All he has to do is throw it down the middle. But he throws it two feet high. The harder he focuses the worse he does,. Wonder if, after a couple of bad throws, Jeff fell into that pattern. He might well have come out of it in the second half, but we'll never know.

 

[SteamWhistle]

The only excitement that remains for this season is seeing our offense with Yates.

 

[alagold]

Given our Spring "game", it makes me wonder how much REAL action /pressure Sims has had since last season.This game was a total choke job on passing .NIU was about 119th in US in defense last yr with DBs being weakpoint this yr. SCARY that we couldn't pass on them.REAL scary.

 

[stech81]

Maybe CGC needs to look into hiring a real QB coach , but that would be a smart move and I haven't seen anything that tells me he thinks ahead.

 

[GTBandit22]

Thought 3:

Sims was 3 for 8. It's not like he was out there blundering 25-30 throws.

In order (w/ running total):

1. Incomplete (0 for 1)
2. Complete (1 for 2)
3. Incomplete (1 for 3)
4. Complete (2 for 4)
5. Incomplete (2 for 5)
6. Incomplete (2 for 6)
7. Incomplete (2 for 7)
8. Complete (3 for 8)

Recognizing that several of those incompletions were with guys running wide open, at what point in the sequence above would folks have stopped calling the "throw to guys wide open" plays? We didn't reach scale imo, even though many of the throws were cringey.

"There have always been accuracy questions". First, I agree. Second, I'll point out that his 37% completion rate yesterday was well below his 55% clip last year. There's no reason our OC should have expected the results of the first 8 attempts, nor due to sample size had a ton of reason to believe he would not snap out of it. Many of his misfires last year were while running for his life. Yesterday was just... wtf.

I'm also not saying it's entirely on Jeff. Seems it was more in his head yesterday than anything which coaches are in part responsible for. There is just a lot of extrapolation on play-calling for 8 plays which in theory I think we'd all have expected Jeff to complete at a greater clip. Hindsight 20/20 though. I totally get that we were running well.

https://ramblinwreck.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Game-Book-NIU-22-GT-21.pdf

I believe 5-6-7 were after a 20+ yard zone read run. Most were open but after the first two series it seemed forced.
I think my main issue with DP is the passive way his offense is run. Paul had the triple which the defense could dictate who got the ball, but that was only one play. When playing with Toby at QB we went to a midline/QB follow heavy. When Taquan was in, we ran a lot of QB counter to get him on the edge. I think we run the same offense with Jeff in that we do with Yates in, and would with the other two as well.
We seem to let the defense determine what we are doing, which is fine for a base, but I don’t think we run enough plays to isolate matchups besides “give it to Gibbs”. Where are the screens, arrow routes, backfield motion to get him in space? It may be coming but it was disheartening to hear them talk about him watching Kamara film and doing nothing like they do for Kamara in NO.
My worry is much bigger than Sims being off or “passing too much”, it’s that if we are overloading him with information based on the defense when if we could simplify and isolate Gibbs, he would play a lot faster. JMHO.