Starting QB speculation

[lv20gt]

I swear people have forgotten just how bad on offense we were last year. Lets look at some of the highlights. So far through 3 games Sims has had effectively 8 three and outs (including 3 play drives ending in a FGA when we started in field goal range). So that's an average of 2.7 per game. Here are some games from last year and their 3 and outs.

UGA - 11 three and outs.
NCSU - 3 three and outs
VT - 8 three and outs.
UVA - 3 three and outs
Pitt - 6 three and outs.
Duke - 6 three and outs.
UNC - 4 three and outs.
Temple - 4 three and outs (2 were from Oliver fwiw but 2 were in the second half when Graham played so it is still the same rate for the most part).

Just for fun because Graham played little if at all.

Citadel - 2 three and outs.
USF - 3 three and outs.
Clemson - 7 three and outs.

Last year we averaged 4.8 ypp.
This year we have been averaging 5.7 ypp (18.75% increase)

Graham - 6.03 yards per pass attempt
Sims - 7.09 yards per pass attempt (17.5% increase)
Graham - 2.9 yards per rush
Sims - 5.05 yards per rush (74% increase).

But people love pointing to the deep ball. Let's see how often that actually happened last year. I'll assume passes 30 or more yards were deep balls.
UGA - 0
NCSU - 1
VT - 0
UVA - 3
Pitt - 1
Miami - 2
Duke - 2
UNC - 2
Clemson - 1

That is a total of 12 plays. Yes, those are pretty plays and I wish Sims had better deep balls but this offense does not work without the ability to throw the mid and underneath throws and Sims has shown to be much better than Graham at that. And if Graham had significantly improved in that regard over the course of the year why did he, as a returning starter, see no action? Maybe there is some non football related reason for that and he is secretly Sims but with the ability to throw the deep ball and not turn it over ever. I hope so. But I'm not holding my breath and think people are just grasping at bling hope for a solution that probably doesn't exist.

 

[kg01]

3 games in and we're totally off the rails. Lol

I won't follow suit and sully the names of our guys but if folks think a white knight is gonna roll in and fix all that ails us, prepare for more disappointment.

Or maybe all you care about is seeing a certain guy start win, lose or draw..

Smh, agendas.

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

Regardless of the QB, when everyone runs the same offense, he better be pretty good. The future depends on it.

 

[ramblinwreckguru]

Perhaps the players know that coach is "playing for the future" instead of playing the QB that will give us the best chance to win now. The players who give their blood and sweat on every play want to win now most of all.

 

[Space Jacket]

Regardless of who is playing quarterback, 4 interceptions are unacceptable. The coaching staff runs the risk of losing the rest of the team if turnovers from the QB position continue at this pace

 

[orientalnc]

Regardless of who is playing quarterback, 4 interceptions are unacceptable. The coaching staff runs the risk of losing the rest of the team if turnovers from the QB position continue at this pace

I agree, but two of those INTs are not on Sims. Another was a miss read and the 4th was a bad throw. Still, we had a lot of other mistakes that cost us the game. This loss is not on Sims' back.

 

[LibertyTurns]

@lv20gt Nice breakdown. I will point out that 116 of our 174 yds passing yesterday came on 4 plays. We garnered 58 yds on the other 24 passes for a whopping 2.4 yds per play. 15% of the passing plays got 70% of the yds. Playing offense like this is akin to buying a lottery ticket. We keep forcing the pass even when it’s not there. People are attributing the motivation behind this to something other than trying to win & it’s hard not to blame them.

We lost Mason but clearly need to run the ball more. We have the backs to do it & not only that we have 3 backs with differing skillsets- Gibbs has speed on the outside, Smith is great inside & Griffin’s sort of a durable, dependable get me 4-5 ypc back. We needed to run the ball more last year and did not figure it out until too late. We’re on the same trajectory this year.

 

[GTZachary]

@lv20gt Nice breakdown. I will point out that 116 of our 174 yds passing yesterday came on 4 plays. We garnered 58 yds on the other 24 passes for a whopping 2.4 yds per play. 15% of the passing plays got 70% of the yds. Playing offense like this is akin to buying a lottery ticket. We keep forcing the pass even when it’s not there. People are attributing the motivation behind this to something other than trying to win & it’s hard not to blame them.

We lost Mason but clearly need to run the ball more. We have the backs to do it & not only that we have 3 backs with differing skillsets- Gibbs has speed on the outside, Smith is great inside & Griffin’s sort of a durable, dependable get me 4-5 ypc back. We needed to run the ball more last year and did not figure it out until too late. We’re on the same trajectory this year.

Also need Gibbs on the field more. I’m all for rotating backs and carries, but Gibbs is special. Even if he’s not getting the carry he needs to be out there as a receiver. Will be interesting to see the participation report, I’d guess he was on the field for less than half the snaps. It was a revolving door at back, no rhythm.

 

[GCdaJuiceMan]

Also need Gibbs on the field more. I’m all for rotating backs and carries, but Gibbs is special. Even if he’s not getting the carry he needs to be out there as a receiver. Will be interesting to see the participation report, I’d guess he was on the field for less than half the snaps. It was a revolving door at back, no rhythm.

I’ll be the first person to stand up and say Gibbs needs the ball in his hands every play but nothing from yesterday stood out about our RB rotation. Everything seemed very fluid there. We have to keep their legs fresh. That allows them (Smith, Griffin and Gibbs) to come in and blow by gassed defenders.

 

[Pointer]

This year was gonna have an asterisk next to it and now I think for us its a throw away. I think we need to stay committed to Sims so he can develop and learn from his mistakes. He was not as bad as the stats show. Two ints were where he got hit and the ball floated into Syracuse’s arms, another he sailed a little high, but the last one was bad.

What will be the excuse next year? We processed allot of guys who weren't getting it done so we are a young team again? This team returned second most starters in the country, I expected better than this now. We shouldn't be throwing away seasons anyways, it's like nfl and nba teams tanking for better picks, which often doesn't work in the long run. You have to build a winning culture instead of throwing away seasons.

I have, however, been impressed by how much better the o line has gotten. Don't get me wrong, there's still improvement to be had, but still impressive. Rb is still good, but other than that, it doesn't look very good. I see the potential Sims brings though, he is electric, but he is also making some freshman mistakes. Does he give you the best chance to win right now? One could argue not. Wouldn't it be better to let him develope more and give him a chance next year?

 

[Pointer]

I’ll be the first person to stand up and say Gibbs needs the ball in his hands every play but nothing from yesterday stood out about our RB rotation. Everything seemed very fluid there. We have to keep their legs fresh. That allows them (Smith, Griffin and Gibbs) to come in and blow by gassed defenders.

And it's clearly working, the RB's have been a force, I assume coach choice is responsible for this.

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

Perhaps the players know that coach is "playing for the future" instead of playing the QB that will give us the best chance to win now. The players who give their blood and sweat on every play want to win now most of all.

Well, if they want to win now maybe they shouldn’t turn a 3rd and 2 into a 3rd and 7 by false starting. Maybe our WR’s should remember that only 1 can go in motion at a time. Maybe our defensive players should look at the ball then look at their feet and hands and make sure their foot and hands are lined up in front of the ball. If these guys want to win now then make winning plays. Our players, not coaches, missed easy tackles (#2 especially) and were consistently two steps behind their responsibility. Our kicker kicked the ground before the ball. Not one coach lined up for a play. Players make plays not excuses. The social media stuff is the land of excuses.

 

[ramblinwreckguru]

Well, if they want to win now maybe they shouldn’t turn a 3rd and 2 into a 3rd and 7 by false starting. Maybe our WR’s should remember that only 1 can go in motion at a time. Maybe our defensive players should look at the ball then look at their feet and hands and make sure their foot and hands are lined up in front of the ball. If these guys want to win now then make winning plays. Our players, not coaches, missed easy tackles (#2 especially) and were consistently two steps behind their responsibility. Our kicker kicked the ground before the ball. Not one coach lined up for a play. Players make plays not excuses. The social media stuff is the land of excuses.

Every bit of this is the coaches' responsibility to clean up. They're not doing their jobs.

 

[Pointer]

Well, if they want to win now maybe they shouldn’t turn a 3rd and 2 into a 3rd and 7 by false starting. Maybe our WR’s should remember that only 1 can go in motion at a time. Maybe our defensive players should look at the ball then look at their feet and hands and make sure their foot and hands are lined up in front of the ball. If these guys want to win now then make winning plays. Our players, not coaches, missed easy tackles (#2 especially) and were consistently two steps behind their responsibility. Our kicker kicked the ground before the ball. Not one coach lined up for a play. Players make plays not excuses. The social media stuff is the land of excuses.

Literally your whole post is a long paragraph of excuses. They are all things that the coaches are paid to teach and fix.

 

[LibertyTurns]

Also need Gibbs on the field more. I’m all for rotating backs and carries, but Gibbs is special. Even if he’s not getting the carry he needs to be out there as a receiver. Will be interesting to see the participation report, I’d guess he was on the field for less than half the snaps. It was a revolving door at back, no rhythm.

I’ll be the first person to stand up and say Gibbs needs the ball in his hands every play but nothing from yesterday stood out about our RB rotation. Everything seemed very fluid there. We have to keep their legs fresh. That allows them (Smith, Griffin and Gibbs) to come in and blow by gassed defenders.

And it's clearly working, the RB's have been a force, I assume coach choice is responsible for this.

I think RB rotation is probably the one item P’nut has managed well. Gibbs is getting a good percentage of carries (1/3) and more importantly he’s mostly getting the type of carries he’s good at. Smith and Griffin are used effectively. Maybe you could argue Smith is not on the field enough as he might be our best overall back.

I’m not even sure I’m finding fault with P’nut‘s playcalling all that much other than he‘s almost to where I can predict his pass plays nearly 100% of the time. If I can do it, opposing DC’s are probably having a field day.

What I believe is happening is teams are playing bend but don’t break against us because our threat of scoring is low. You let us rack up the meaningless yds & wait for us to make a mistake. The odds are good. If it’s not Sims throwing an INT, it’s getting cute and calling a predictable pass or crapping ourselves with penalties. We seem to lose faith in our running game on the other half of the field. We should stick with the running except maybe more Smith & Griffin and less Gibbs. Use Gibbs when we have a long field with a lot of room to run.

Last year when the QB had time we threw behind the opposing defenses leading to big gainers or TDs. Most of the time Graham was running for his life. We’ve got the time to pass now with much better blocking but seemingly do not have the long ball threat anymore. This lets the opposing secondaries play tighter coverage and it’s only going to get worse until we prove we can throw deep.

I’d say P’nut gets paid the big bucks to figure this out but he doesn’t. Let’s hope the light bulb comes on. Even though it has not been at P5 level, he must have coached his way out of similar situations at some point in his career.

 

[GTZachary]

I think RB rotation is probably the one item P’nut has managed well. Gibbs is getting a good percentage of carries (1/3) and more importantly he’s mostly getting the type of carries he’s good at. Smith and Griffin are used effectively. Maybe you could argue Smith is not on the field enough as he might be our best overall back.

I’m not even sure I’m finding fault with P’nut‘s playcalling all that much other than he‘s almost to where I can predict his pass plays nearly 100% of the time. If I can do it, opposing DC’s are probably having a field day.

What I believe is happening is teams are playing bend but don’t break against us because our threat of scoring is low. You let us rack up the meaningless yds & wait for us to make a mistake. The odds are good. If it’s not Sims throwing an INT, it’s getting cute and calling a predictable pass or crapping ourselves with penalties. We seem to lose faith in our running game on the other half of the field. We should stick with the running except maybe more Smith & Griffin and less Gibbs. Use Gibbs when we have a long field with a lot of room to run.

Last year when the QB had time we threw behind the opposing defenses leading to big gainers or TDs. Most of the time Graham was running for his life. We’ve got the time to pass now with much better blocking but seemingly do not have the long ball threat anymore. This lets the opposing secondaries play tighter coverage and it’s only going to get worse until we prove we can throw deep.

I’d say P’nut gets paid the big bucks to figure this out but he doesn’t. Let’s hope the light bulb comes on. Even though it has not been at P5 level, he must have coached his way out of similar situations at some point in his career.

I’d be ok with more Smith carries at the expense of a couple of Gibbs carries if we got Gibbs more touches in the passing game. Smith hits the hole so quickly. To be fair, I think we called a few more passes to Gibbs and the plays got blown up before they developed. I want him in the slot some too though.

 

[TruckStick]

Our backs have the talent needed to win games. This comes down to coaching at the QB position. Extra work will be needed to develop your players faster or your job is on the line. Specifically CDP.

 

[LibertyTurns]

I’d be ok with more Smith carries at the expense of a couple of Gibbs carries if we got Gibbs more touches in the passing game. Smith hits the hole so quickly. To be fair, I think we called a few more passes to Gibbs and the plays got blown up before they developed. I want him in the slot some too though.

You’re right about Gibbs out of the backfield. It’s a underutilized weapon currently. I’ll keep repeating, Gibbs excels in open space. Any way we get him there the better.

 

[Scubapro]

What I believe is happening is teams are playing bend but don’t break against us because our threat of scoring is low. You let us rack up the meaningless yds & wait for us to make a mistake. The odds are good. If it’s not Sims throwing an INT, it’s getting cute and calling a predictable pass or crapping ourselves with penalties. We seem to lose faith in our running game on the other half of the field. We should stick with the running except maybe more Smith & Griffin and less Gibbs. Use Gibbs when we have a long field with a lot of room to run.

This is what I was trying to point out during the FSU game.
They played us vanilla coverage waiting for us to screw up between the 30s.
If we didnt make a big drive ending mistake they changed up the coverages knowing Patenaude wouldn't go away from the pass
I think we will continue to put up significant passing and rushing yards...points are another matter

 

[slugboy]

You’re right about Gibbs out of the backfield. It’s a underutilized weapon currently. I’ll keep repeating, Gibbs excels in open space. Any way we get him there the better.

I think all three of our main backs look great in space. I’d like to see Gibbs in the slot and Mason/Griffin/Smith at RB. The run/pass or run/run options for that could be really exciting