A Little Perspective..

[BlueDogs]

I hated the PP hire, but I have to admit he has the D and Specials playing very well. The good news is NC State is a high quality team with an excellent offense and we shut them down. If we can even get the O to be mediocre, this team can have a very good season. Whitmer is not a bad QB relative to our post Dan O parade of QB problems. Receivers can generally catch and McCoombs is average. I think there is enough there to get to an acceptable level of offensive production. This is a scenario that good coaching should be able to improve.

Today was painful precisely because the game was winnable. It's the worst kind of loss because we brought half a team to play. This will quickly become a gut check for PP, and we'll have to see if he has the nuts to make real changes in O schemes and play calling or whether he goes stubborn like HCRE.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

I don't understand the affection for Whitmer. I'm not saying he'll never be good and I'm not ready to give up on him - yet. However, it's mind boggling to hear he's good or looks good.

He has 0 TDs and 5 INTs.

Yes, he is a first year QB, but over the past 8 years we've run out a ton of guys with little to no experience. I mean, hell, McEntee even managed to throw more TDs than INTs last season.

 

[BlueDogs]

I don't understand the affection for Whitmer. I'm not saying he'll never be good and I'm not ready to give up on him - yet. However, it's mind boggling to hear he's good or looks good.

He has 0 TDs and 5 INTs.

Yes, he is a first year QB, but over the past 8 years we've run out a ton of guys with little to no experience. I mean, hell, McEntee even managed to throw more TDs than INTs last season.

Can't disagree with the feeling, but he seems to throw a good ball generally as compared to out past QBs. He can complete passes with accuracy. He's making bad decisions and forcing the ball under pressure and that killing him.

 

[UConnDan97]

I was thinking about putting out a similar thread. Things were not good on offense today. They were SO NOT GOOD! But there are a lot of things that I'm really happy about with this team, and I really do feel like the offense is going to be able to put up points against the turtles next week. Geremy Davis looks like a real player, I don't think we've seen anything close to the best from Whitmer yet, and McCombs, Nick Williams, etc., can still make plays.

Let me put it another way: if the OLine gets on the same page, would anyone be shocked if this team puts up 21 to 24 offensive points per game? I've got news for you all; with this defense, 24 points is an automatic win. Hell, 21 points is an automatic win. That OLine just needs to get on the same damned page, but if they do, this year will end up being a very very good year. Let's hope they turn it around on Monday...

 

[huskysupporter]

There absolutely was some good news. Our defense is insanely good. Still were a little susceptible to pass plays over the middle, but nothing like last year. The recovery speed of the front 7 is ridiculous, and the safeties are fast and aggressive. What a fun D to watch. So much speed.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

After torturing myself watching the game again on DVR last night and calming down overnight here are the changes I'd like to see.

- Scrap the wildcat. We just don't have the personnel up front for it to be effective. And by God, if they keep it, a little variety please. But I've run out of patience with the whole package. Give the offense to Whitmer and let him develop.

- We need to use more RB's. McCombs is not the type of back to continually run inside the tackles. The only success (I know, relative term) we had running the ball is when LM got to the edges. I have no idea what Joe Williams brings to the table, but his RS is toast. Let's see what we have. It boggles my mind why this staff is ok with substituting QB's but we can't give McCombs a breather or play to his strengths.

- I'm not sure what to think with the OL. I'm not sure putting Foley back in that role would make a difference to be honest. I think we just may not have the personnel there anymore. It's not something we're used to seeing. FWIW, after watching the game again last night I thought Bennett played pretty well and Masters was ok. The others just stunk the place up. Right now we have a huge liability at center and yet most of the running plays are right up the gut. Jimmy's and Joe's or X's and O's? Probably a little bit of both.

- It's been said a million times in the past 18 hours....but Whitmer needs to learn to go through his progressions quicker and make better decisions with the football. Those 3 picks were on him yesterday. 2 bad decisions and 1 bad throw. The last pick off the play action was just terrible. You have to read that safety better. And Geremy Davis needs to make a better effort there too. He could've prevented that INT with a little more effort.

- I would not be upset if DeLeone handed in his retirement papers today. I've spoken with him a couple of times at events and he's a nice man but for such a complex offense it sure looks pretty vanilla. Just not getting it done.

- A few months ago I said that I would cancel my season tickets if we ever hired Bobby Petrino. This morning I find myself semi-pining for him.

 

[pj]

Very much in agreement with UConnDan97 and Jimmy Serrano. Wildcat didn't produce anything; and with a weak offensive line and lacking super-athletic backfield playmakers, one shouldn't expect it to produce anything if the team is not allowed to throw out of it and the substitution of a quarterback signals the defense what's coming. If they couldn't throw out of it against UMass and couldn't throw out of it against NC State, they can't throw out of it against anybody. Time to drop it and let Whitmer and the receivers develop. They need to focus on short passes to begin with and therefore they need all 3 downs to sustain a drive.

Whitmer needs our patience and I'm happy to give it to him. But the offense needs to commit to him and help him develop. Call plays that help him develop an ability to read, check down, and make high percentage short passes. We saw against NC State the power of starting the running game with short swing passes or passes into the flat, letting McCombs get a little more open space. The play-calling needs to support what the players have shown they can do. Give him options of the WR 10+ yards down field, Griffin and Williams in the middle, McCombs or Osiecki outside, and let him learn how to find the open guy and complete high percentage plays.

As Dan says, if we score 20 points a game, we win every game. McEntee was scoring 28 ppg late in the year against Big East defenses. I don't see why we can't reach the same mark with Whitmer. If we do then we can still have a tremendous year.

The onus is on the coaches now. I'm amazed the offense didn't work more of this out preseason or against UMass, but I expect them to do it quickly now that they have quality game tape.

 

[uconndogs]

I will never set foot in the Rent again if we ever hired Petrino.

 

[HuskyBandDad]

I will never set foot in the Rent again if we ever hired Petrino.

If we ever did hire him and we lost the first game everybody would be screaming to fire him.

 

[mattp]

- A few months ago I said that I would cancel my season tickets if we ever hired Bobby Petrino. This morning I find myself semi-pining for him.

imagine a Bobby Petrino offense paired with a Donald Brown defense. good lord it would be ridiculous.

yesterday's game was the first in the P era where i genuinely hated the playcalling. every drive started with two runs between the tackles. our only effective runs were when we spread out their defense or when we got McCombs in a little space, but we're running between the tackles on our first and often second downs. i don't necessarily want to see the wildcat scrapped altogether, but why haven't we tried to pass out of it for the last two games? when we didn't pass out of it against UMass i thought we were saving it for NCState, but apparently we're saving it for game 12 of the season. our offense yesterday was actually more vanilla than UMass. against UMass we at least found creative ways to get Nick Williams involved, and i assumed we'd see more of that yesterday, but instead we got two straight hand offs up the middle for no gain. as for Whitmer, let's not kid ourselves, he throws a ton of picks, and more often than not QBs that throw a ton of picks continue to throw a ton of picks. it's like he doesn't see the NCState players on the field.

our defense is legit, and as awful as our offense performed (which i'm putting 90% on Deleone's playcalling) we lost a close game that most here had pegged as a loss going into the season so i'm still optimistic about the season. i just hope Deleone watches the film from yesterday and understands why our offense was so ineffective. once we started tossing it around we actually moved the ball. with our o line and McCombs being the type of running back that he is, he can't run the ball against 8 in the box. we need to spread it out.