Quick, horizontal passing--an answer to Speight's woes?

Submitted by Eye of the Tiger on

After last week's game, and especially after reading TomVH's article for ESPN on Speight's accuracy issues, I've been wondering again why we don't see more quick, horizontal passes. After all, with a QB in shotgun and 3-5 WRs spread wide, you can get the pass off before blitzers can get to the QB. And you also prevent the defense from stacking the box. 

To my layman's eyes, this seems like a good (partial) solution for a QB who is pretty accurate when he's got protection and very inaccurate when under pressure. 

Obviously I know very little about calling plays compared to our staff, but do you guys--and especially those of you with coaching experience--think that might be a good way to use the numbers we have at WR and TE, mitigate the inexperience of our RG/RT, gain yards and build our QB's confidence? 

Alternatively, why avoid doing this, or only do it occasionally? I assume there are good reasons, I just can't think of them.*

Thanks in advance for your answers. 

 

*I remember in 2013 when almost everyone (including me) was calling for Borges to run bubble screens, then when we did in 2014, it turned out we were not good at them.  

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dipshit moron

September 13th, 2017 at 1:47 AM ^

i am pretty sure the coaching staff is working on the things they believe will work. its called game planning. i think i will just relax and enjoy the games.

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Reader71

September 13th, 2017 at 6:47 AM ^

I was. At no point did it feel like we would lose that game. I was disappointed with how our offense was playing, but I've watched enough football to relax throughout. I don't get why people were so apoplectic during and after that game. It was ugly at points, but that's football. I can be dissatisfied with one aspect of the team and still remain relaxed.

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Chipper1221

September 13th, 2017 at 7:59 AM ^

But let's stop there and think. A few years ago we would lose to Florida and lose to a UC level opponent in a game like that. Now we are the youngest team in college football. There are hiccups and fingerprints of youth all up and down this offense. Things have looked sloppy yes but you know the best part? Through the youth and the offensive woes we are 2-0 and won both games by 20+ points. Given the circumstances I'm happy with his team right now and confident the growing pains will slowly go away.

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JTrain

September 13th, 2017 at 9:15 AM ^

People need to realize that this is a new offensive coordinator/philosophy/QB coach with pep Hamilton. It will take a bit for them to get settled in. I think wilt and Jed Fisch were pretty tight.
Combine this with our dozen new wide receivers and tight ends...well...it isnt going to be "seemless".
People need to chill the f*ck out.

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Maize and Blue…

September 13th, 2017 at 8:20 PM ^

We don't have a new offensive coordinator we have a new passing game coordinator. Speight has had all spring, summer, and fall to work with his "new" WRs except the one who he has the most chemistry with because he was suspended for the spring and summer. Last year Speight went without Chesson all spring and summer as he was recovering from a knee. Just the facts.

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Red is Blue

September 13th, 2017 at 7:28 PM ^

Rudock got markedly better as 2015 went on. I think there is a lot to be said for how comfortable you are (in game situations) with the scheme and those around you. Players often talk about the game slowing down for them. Maybe all these changes have sped Speight up a bit mentally and it has manifested itself in his accuracy.

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Squash34

September 13th, 2017 at 1:32 PM ^

People forget this is the youngest fbs team. Moreover, they seem to not understand just how important overcoming adversity is for any team, and how it is even more important for a very young team. They have had adversity in both games, and still won by a good margin. This will be incredibly important later in the year when they roll into a white out in Happy valley and at Camp Randle. I mean, do people want this very young team to have their first adversity at psu at night?

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Squash34

September 13th, 2017 at 5:27 PM ^

Did you stop reading after the first sentance? Because the point is that it is important for young inexpernced teams to face adversity in early on wins so they are prepared when it happens on the road verse good teams later in the season.

Clemson, Osu and Bama were all the youngest teams in their conferance last year in regards returning players. All 3 had early season struggles while the young guys got there feet under them. Hell, Saban went on a rant about how embarrased he was after their week 2 win and Clemson was in a bunch a very close games early. Young teams will have games where they can not get out of there own way. Its about what they do to overcome the adversity.

 

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ST3

September 13th, 2017 at 11:21 AM ^

The answer to this is simple. Look over to the sidelines. Realize that RichRod nor Hoke is there anymore. Breathe deep. Smile.

The answer to Speight's woes are to realize he had one bad game on the road against a tough defense. He played well enough against Cincy. At Harbaugh's press conference he mentioned that Speight was 58% against Cincy. Harbaugh tracks this stuff like the fierce competitor he is. He is not playing favorites or politics. He is being very analytical about this. He knows Speight is his QB because of all the metrics he tracks during spring and fall practices and games. He surely wasn't happy about 44% against Florida, but they have a solid defense, and I'm sure Jim had the occassional bad game in his college and pro career. It's so nice having a guy in charge of things who actually played the position, unlike Al Borges.

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lhglrkwg

September 13th, 2017 at 9:29 AM ^

was the time between it became 17-14 and 24-14. I was worried one more Speight turnover would have me in the fetal position on the floor

Otherwise, I was fairly relaxed and frustrated. For long periods of the game, it looked like a 10 point lead might as well have been a 40 point lead

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kehnonymous

September 13th, 2017 at 11:58 AM ^

Cincinnati... not so much. I'm certainly not saying you're a Pollyanna since I was not seriously worried about losing last week either.  But I am very concerned about Speight's inability to grab the reins of the offense and continued propensity to make at least three drive-killing mistakes per game - especially against the 2nd-worst team we're gonna play this year.  It was aggravating to watch, especially on the heels of our offensive sludgefarts to end last season.

However, you know who else is concerned about this?  Harbaugh and Speight.  They're going to do their best to fix the offense going forward and the braintrust we have now is the most likely and qualified one we can conceivably have to attempt this.  As fans, that's really all we can ask.

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kehnonymous

September 13th, 2017 at 3:25 PM ^

Maybe Cincy does have a pulse, but there wasn't much to indicate up until Saturday that they did.

I don't think it's overreacting to say that I'm still concerned that Speight's having accuracy issues and making drive-killing mistakes that, if not cleaned up, will cost us against better teams.  I'm not saying bench him for the waterboy, but you are what your record says you are and there've been too many bouts of prolonged ineffectiveness for the last 5 games he's played.  It's understandable given the departures and overall youth on this team and the throughput is also not where we would like it to be at this point.  I hope he and the offense can find their way again.  I think they *can* and I am 100% they're doing their level best to get all 11 guys working in concert.

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Squash34

September 13th, 2017 at 1:24 PM ^

I also did not feel like they would lose. But I made the mistake of putting money on a young team to cover a 4.5 td spread after a big win. So, I was not very relaxed in the first half because I needed them to stop shooting themselves in the foot to win my bet. Once I gave up on the bet I was relaxed.

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bronxblue

September 13th, 2017 at 2:50 PM ^

Yeah, it was amazing to see people worried about Cincy to the degree people were.  This wasn't Hoke-era "not as good as we all hoped" exposure.  It was a bad couple of quarters against an overmatched team.  We see that every week in college football, and virtually every time the better team pulls away.  

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ijohnb

September 13th, 2017 at 6:52 AM ^

is seriously one of the worst comments to a post I have ever seen. OP has some good points, don't be an ass because you don't.

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pkatz

September 13th, 2017 at 8:30 AM ^

Problem is Speight is a RS Jr who has had ample exposure to good coaching (Harbaugh & Co) as well as his own QB guru... if he hasn't gotten past bad footwork/habits at this point, it's hard to imagine he'll suddenly master that during the stress of an actual game.



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Everyone Murders

September 13th, 2017 at 8:57 AM ^

There's something to that.  HOWEVAH, I don't recall Speight having to adjust to the pocket collapsing as the O-Line gels (especially on the right side).  And he is also working with young receivers who may not always be running their assigned routes in game situations.  There are a lot of moving parts here.

We see NFL QBs float passes when flushed from the pocket on occasion.  Let's give him a few more games before writing him off as having reached his ceiling.

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