Digging Deep in to Offense Being Offensive

[Chin Diesel]

During the UVA game thread I brought up that it seemed like 2nd down was too often a disaster creating third and long instead of third an manageable.

Against my better judgement, I actually looked up UConn's drives and looked for real evidence. This post will contain more characters than the rest of my posts combined for the season.

Executive Summary:

Passing 3-10 for 3 first downs and 47 yards, 0 TD, 0 Int.
Running 12-36 and two sacks, 1TD. Had +52 on two longest running plays. -16 for the other 10 combined.

Bottom line. UConn needs plays that incrementally gets the ball to within 3rd and 5 or less. One of the reasons teams bring pressure is that Shirreffs is often taking 5 step drops on 3rd down due to distance to go.


Here's UConn's 2nd down plays for the game against UVa. Judge for yourself.

First Offensive Series:

• 2nd and 7 at CONN 47
  (13:51 - 1st) Arkeel Newsome run for a loss of 2 yards to the UConn 45

Second Offensive Series:

2nd and 9 at CONN 26
(7:18 - 1st) Bryant Shirreffs pass complete to Noel Thomas for 16 yds to the UConn 42 for a 1ST down


2nd and 11 at UVA 44
(7:18 - 1st) Bryant Shirreffs pass incomplete to Noel Thomas

Third Series:

2nd and 7 at CONN 39
(12:42 - 2nd) Bryant Shirreffs run for a loss of 1 yard to the UConn 38

Fourth Series:


2nd and 12 at CONN 17
(8:15 - 2nd) Arkeel Newsome run for 38 yds to the UCONN 45 for a 1ST down VIRGINIA Penalty, face mask (15 yards) (Quin Blanding) to the Virg 30 for a 1ST down

2nd and 6 at UVA 7
(8:15 - 2nd) Bryant Shirreffs run for 4 yds to the Virg 3


Fifth Series:

2nd and 10 at CONN 13
(1:29 - 2nd) Bryant Shirreffs sacked by Micah Kiser for a loss of 3 yards to the UConn 10

Sixth Series:

One play (horrible call which ended in a sack) and then halftime.

First half summary. Seven plays on second down.

Four runs.

Newsome runs for 38 on one of them.

The other three plays?

-2 yards which took team from 2nd and 7 to 3rd and 9. A positive 2 yard run would have set up 3rd and 5.
-1 yards which took team from 2nd and 7 to 3rd and 9. A positive 2 yards would have set up 3rd and 5.
+4 yards which took team from 2nd and 6 to 3rd and 2.

Three pass plays.

One completion for +12. First down.

One incomplete which left team at 3rd and 11.

One sack for -3 which took team from 2nd and 10 to 3rd and 13.

Second Half Summary:

First Series:


2nd and 5 at CONN 30
(15:00 - 3rd) Bryant Shirreffs pass complete to Noel Thomas for 13 yds to the UConn 43 for a 1ST down

2nd and 8 at CONN 45
(15:00 - 3rd) Bryant Shirreffs pass incomplete, broken up by Andrew Brown

Second Series:


2nd and 7 at CONN 41
(10:07 - 3rd) Arkeel Newsome run for 14 yds to the Virg 45 for a 1ST down

• 2nd and 3 at UVA 38
  (10:07 - 3rd) Bryant Shirreffs run for a loss of 1 yard to the Virg 39

Third Series:



2nd and 7 at CONN 49
(6:09 - 3rd) Ron Johnson run for 1 yd to the 50 yard line

2nd and 7 at UVA 40
(6:09 - 3rd) Bryant Shirreffs run for 3 yds to the Virg 37

2nd and 8 at UVA 24
(2:22 - 3rd) Bryant Shirreffs pass incomplete to Arkeel Newsome

Fourth Series:


2nd and 2 at CONN 28
(14:06 - 4th) Bryant Shirreffs pass complete to Hergy Mayala for 17 yds to the UConn 45 for a 1ST
2nd and 4 at UVA 23

(14:06 - 4th) Arkeel Newsome run for a loss of 7 yards to the Virg 26 Arkeel Newsome fumbled, recovered by Virg Andrew Brown

Fifth Series:


2nd and 10 at UVA 37
(11:59 - 4th) Bryant Shirreffs pass incomplete to Tyler Davis

2nd and 12 at UVA 17
(11:59 - 4th) Bryant Shirreffs sacked by Andrew Brown for a loss of 8 yards to the Virg 25

2nd and 8 at UVA 10
(11:59 - 4th) Bryant Shirreffs pass incomplete to Hergy Mayala


2nd and Goal at UVA 1
(7:55 - 4th) Bryant Shirreffs run for 1 yd for a TD, (Bobby Puyol KICK)

Sixth Series:

2nd and 7 at CONN 27
(4:56 - 4th) Bryant Shirreffs run for 4 yds to the UConn 31

2nd and 6 at UVA 22
(4:56 - 4th) Bryant Shirreffs pass incomplete to Noel Thomas


Second Half Summary: 15 plays on 2nd down. 7 Passes, 4 Runs by Shireffs and one sack of Shirreffs. 3 runs between Newsome and Johnson.

Runs:

+14 by Newsome. First down.
+1 by Johnson. Sets up 3rd and Six.
-7 by Newsome. Fumble on toss. Recovered by UVa.

Shirreffs runs:

-1 yards turning 2nd and 3 in to 3rd and 4.
+3 yards turning 2nd and 7 in to 3rd and 4.
-12 yards on a sack turning 2nd and 12 in to 3rd and 20.
+1 yards for TD!!!!!

Shireffs passes:

+13 to Thomas. First down.
Incomplete leaving 3rd and 8.
Incomplete leaving 4rd and 8.
+17 to Mayala. First down.
Incomplete leaving 3rd and 10.
Incomplete leaving 3rd and 8.
Incomplete leaving 3rd and 7.

 

[Chin Diesel]

I'm sure there are math mistakes in there somewhere. I really lost track of what the heck I was doing for the sole purpose of starting the narrative.

2nd down results have really put the team in a bind for converting 3rd downs at a high rate and extending drives.

 

[JMick]

It's a pet peeve of mine to lose yards on 2nd down. As an OC, 2nd down is the most important down imo. It's the time you can open up the playbook and get creative and call pretty much whatever you want as long as there wasn't a huge loss on 1st down or a penalty. Losing yards on 2nd down is completely deflating to the momentum of a game.

 

[ibleedhuskyblue]

If you look at the distances to go, it seems first down is almost just as bad (a couple less lost yardage plays).

Everything is 2nd & 8/9/10/7/etc...

If we're going to run on first down, the damn plays have to develop faster...imo

 

[JMick]

If you look at the distances to go, it seems first down is almost just as bad (a couple less lost yardage plays).

Everything is 2nd & 8/9/10/7/etc...

If we're going to run on first down, the damn plays have to develop faster...imo

A lot of our shotgun draw runs develop faster than our runs under center... it's crazy.

 

[RedStickHusky]

I remember you making that comment on thinking you were spot on. In aggregate it doesn't look as bad as I thought but it only takes one bad 2nd down to kill a drive. JMick is also correct, 2nd down is when we should be taking shots down field, especially if we're ahead of the chains after 1st down.