So Tommy Decided to Pass?

[huskerfan92]

WRs run routes on bootleg to draw defenders off edges, and RB or FB flare to same side as QB.

Nothing out of the ordinary at all about what was going on in the screenshot of the 3rd down play above. If anything, it lends to the idea of why Tommy threw the ball. Defender in his face stopping him from turning corner, defender on inside cutback lane. Ozigbo is releasing from a bad block and has lots of space. Armstong likely thought it was an easy dump off and Ozigbo is in better shape to get the 1st down than he would be. Either way, Tommy has to be aware of the situation there and the best play is just to eat a loss or no gain.

I don't even remember what formation we were in on this play, but just an illustration of what a bootleg might look like while run out of I-formation ..

What I think we can all agree on is that a bootleg was an absolutely terrible call. Especially when the coaches don't believe the quarterback can run the ball, yet in the biggest situation say "Alright we want you to run it, make sure you absolutely don't throw it though" to the one guy on the team that would have an instinct to throw the ball. I don't care if they said to Tommy 8,000 times not to throw, if he sees a defender in his face his first instinct is going to be to throw the ball. If they simply just handed it to Jano or Ozigbo there would've been no part of their brain that said, "Screw it we're throwing this one"

 

[MichiganDad3]

If MR saw the bad formation why not call a time out? I don't understand.

 

[Redux]

If MR saw the bad formation why not call a time out? I don't understand.

Because he called the bad formation.

 

[MichiganDad3]

Why no FG on 4th down? You have a reasonable chance of putting the game out of reach.

 

[Count 'Bility]

Well regardless of all that. The coaches have gone to pretty much an all pistol offense in order to play towards Tommys strengths and comfort zone. It's no secret the offense has not been good when going under center. yet on that play, and important one. they go under center in a conventional I.. If youre going qb run, put the dude in the pistol and give him a read where he's comfortable. or a speed option that he has a knack for. Why take a guy out of his comfort zone at such a critical moment?

 

[Bowfin]

Could it be that Tommy was told to run a bootleg, but got into the huddle and called a pass play by mistake? Then when he recognized the play as not the one he thought he called , decided to treat it as a passing play it was?

Of course, this meant he didn't figure out that seconds off the clock was the more important desired outcome of the play.

 

[zoogs]

Well regardless of all that. The coaches have gone to pretty much an all pistol offense in order to play towards Tommys strengths and comfort zone. It's no secret the offense has not been good when going under center. yet on that play, and important one. they go under center in a conventional I.. If youre going qb run, put the dude in the pistol and give him a read where he's comfortable. or a speed option that he has a knack for. Why take a guy out of his comfort zone at such a critical moment?

Actually, remember the breakdown of Langsdorf's formations thread? Huskers have gone far away from the pistol this year and it seems to be mostly working to Tommy's strengths (a lot of gun, a lot of center). I'll have to refer you back to the Rivals article there as formations aren't something I pay a huge amount of attention to.

The playcalling tonight was really iffy though.

 

[Count 'Bility]

I guess my description of pistol is different than some. I see shotgun as deep. Pistol is shorter. I know pistol is mainly defined by the back being behind the qb. I define it as a shorter gun. Tommys up 4-5 yards instead of the old 7 yard gun. I just call it pistol i guess. My bad if it's wrong. it makes the play quicker into developemt. Its like a whole half count quicker to get the ball to a back from this "pistol/short shotgun" set we're seeing everywhere than it is from under center. Which is why you see it on the goal line. ppl b!^@h about it on goal line when in fact it's quicker hitting than under center.

That's why I call it pistol.

and after that, my point in regards to Tommys comfort zone remains. and in that situation it was head scratching. I was in shambles when they lined up.

 

[BigWillie]

WRs run routes on bootleg to draw defenders off edges, and RB or FB flare to same side as QB.

Nothing out of the ordinary at all about what was going on in the screenshot of the 3rd down play above. If anything, it lends to the idea of why Tommy threw the ball. Defender in his face stopping him from turning corner, defender on inside cutback lane. Ozigbo is releasing from a bad block and has lots of space. Armstong likely thought it was an easy dump off and Ozigbo is in better shape to get the 1st down than he would be. Either way, Tommy has to be aware of the situation there and the best play is just to eat a loss or no gain.

I don't even remember what formation we were in on this play, but just an illustration of what a bootleg might look like while run out of I-formation ..

What I think we can all agree on is that a bootleg was an absolutely terrible call. Especially when the coaches don't believe the quarterback can run the ball, yet in the biggest situation say "Alright we want you to run it, make sure you absolutely don't throw it though" to the one guy on the team that would have an instinct to throw the ball. I don't care if they said to Tommy 8,000 times not to throw, if he sees a defender in his face his first instinct is going to be to throw the ball. If they simply just handed it to Jano or Ozigbo there would've been no part of their brain that said, "Screw it we're throwing this one"

If you choose to believe Langsdorf, he said he made it very clear that this had to be a run play.

 

[huskerfan92]

WRs run routes on bootleg to draw defenders off edges, and RB or FB flare to same side as QB.

Nothing out of the ordinary at all about what was going on in the screenshot of the 3rd down play above. If anything, it lends to the idea of why Tommy threw the ball. Defender in his face stopping him from turning corner, defender on inside cutback lane. Ozigbo is releasing from a bad block and has lots of space. Armstong likely thought it was an easy dump off and Ozigbo is in better shape to get the 1st down than he would be. Either way, Tommy has to be aware of the situation there and the best play is just to eat a loss or no gain.

I don't even remember what formation we were in on this play, but just an illustration of what a bootleg might look like while run out of I-formation ..

What I think we can all agree on is that a bootleg was an absolutely terrible call. Especially when the coaches don't believe the quarterback can run the ball, yet in the biggest situation say "Alright we want you to run it, make sure you absolutely don't throw it though" to the one guy on the team that would have an instinct to throw the ball. I don't care if they said to Tommy 8,000 times not to throw, if he sees a defender in his face his first instinct is going to be to throw the ball. If they simply just handed it to Jano or Ozigbo there would've been no part of their brain that said, "Screw it we're throwing this one"

If you choose to believe Langsdorf, he said he made it very clear that this had to be a run play.

I feel like they did indeed call a QB run play. If they said they called a run play in the press conference, and they didn't the backlash in the locker room would be ridiculous. I just don't understand what's so hard for these guys to allow the running backs to run the ball

 

[Count 'Bility]

WRs run routes on bootleg to draw defenders off edges, and RB or FB flare to same side as QB.

Nothing out of the ordinary at all about what was going on in the screenshot of the 3rd down play above. If anything, it lends to the idea of why Tommy threw the ball. Defender in his face stopping him from turning corner, defender on inside cutback lane. Ozigbo is releasing from a bad block and has lots of space. Armstong likely thought it was an easy dump off and Ozigbo is in better shape to get the 1st down than he would be. Either way, Tommy has to be aware of the situation there and the best play is just to eat a loss or no gain.

I don't even remember what formation we were in on this play, but just an illustration of what a bootleg might look like while run out of I-formation ..

What I think we can all agree on is that a bootleg was an absolutely terrible call. Especially when the coaches don't believe the quarterback can run the ball, yet in the biggest situation say "Alright we want you to run it, make sure you absolutely don't throw it though" to the one guy on the team that would have an instinct to throw the ball. I don't care if they said to Tommy 8,000 times not to throw, if he sees a defender in his face his first instinct is going to be to throw the ball. If they simply just handed it to Jano or Ozigbo there would've been no part of their brain that said, "Screw it we're throwing this one"

If you choose to believe Langsdorf, he said he made it very clear that this had to be a run play.

I feel like they did indeed call a QB run play. If they said they called a run play in the press conference, and they didn't the backlash in the locker room would be ridiculous. I just don't understand what's so hard for these guys to allow the running backs to run the ball

because thus far our qb is still the best, most experienced running back on the team.

 

[husker_rob]

What I think we can all agree on is that a bootleg was an absolutely terrible call.

What would be so wrong with calling a bootleg in that situation?

You're probably not going to get the first down running power off-tackle. They were stacking the box pretty deep by that point.

Granted, that would have been infinitely better for us than what we ended up with -- but maybe what we ended up with wasn't what the coaches wanted either.

So they call a play that (1) doesn't even involve a mesh point (extra safe), (2) would hopefully move the runner away from the teeth of the defense, and (3) might even take an extra second or two off the clock because it's a stretch play...

What would be so wrong with that call? As long as you tell your QB you cannot pass (duh) and you must get down before hitting the sideline, what is so wrong with that?

I mean, I'll answer that ..... "it didn't work." That's really what it's all about. Hindsight.

Sometimes sh*t happens when dealing with college athletes.

I still believe, absolutely nothing about our head coach or assistant coaches would make me believe they're so concerned about themselves that they want to sell out their players. It doesn't make sense. At all.

 

[germanforbigred]

This coaching staff... oh boy. Seriously I had great expectations, for whatever reason, but I am giving up on them. Somebody in the game thread said the play calling looks like if someone with no clue is playing a game on madden. That's what I thought mind boggling plays over and over again. Should TA know better to not throw the ball in that situation? Absolutely, but why not just run a draw? Why not call a TO and talk it over? That's the third time I recall where they easily could and should have called a time out. Let the clock run down take a TO and talk it over. Tell TA to not throw the ball at any circumstances if you wanna call that QB sweep. I don't get it. They look like freshmen coaches.

And then look at UM or Florida. That happens when you spend the bug dollars. More talent? Probably. But you know what? Heluva lot better coaching. UM first back to back shutouts like 30 yrs, Florida absolutely kills Ole Miss, No. 3 in the nation.

Why don't we do that? Can't be the money. Even if you don't want to spend that much money going making it once in a four year tenure to a better bowl or maybe even playoffs is going to compensate spending more. This is so frustrating another two or three years wasted to a mediocre coaching staff.

 

[huskerfan92]

What I think we can all agree on is that a bootleg was an absolutely terrible call.

What would be so wrong with calling a bootleg in that situation?

You're probably not going to get the first down running power off-tackle. They were stacking the box pretty deep by that point.

Granted, that would have been infinitely better for us than what we ended up with -- but maybe what we ended up with wasn't what the coaches wanted either.

So they call a play that (1) doesn't even involve a mesh point (extra safe), (2) would hopefully move the runner away from the teeth of the defense, and (3) might even take an extra second or two off the clock because it's a stretch play...

What would be so wrong with that call? As long as you tell your QB you cannot pass (duh) and you must get down before hitting the sideline, what is so wrong with that?

I mean, I'll answer that ..... "it didn't work." That's really what it's all about. Hindsight.

Sometimes sh*t happens when dealing with college athletes.

I still believe, absolutely nothing about our head coach or assistant coaches would make me believe they're so concerned about themselves that they want to sell out their players. It doesn't make sense. At all.

Because

A) You call a kneel, Tommy doesn't think about throwing the ball

B) You call a QB Sneak, Tommy doesn't think about throwing the ball

C) You hand it off to the running back, nobody thinks about throwing the ball

But instead we went with option D, which was the bootleg. Which yes, athletes make mistakes and Tommy did on that play. But why even risk a player making a mistake. If you call a bootleg, the quarterback might have a sudden lapse of judgement to throw the ball. This happens in college and the NFL. Look at Eli Manning week 1 against the Cowboys. Basically the same exact situation. Giants have the ball with about a minute left down by the goal line, they roll Eli out on a bootleg. They tell Eli, "Hey if you don't see anything just fall down". Yet, a seasoned veteran with two super bowl rings made the mistake of throwing it out of the end zone, giving the Cowboys just enough time to go down the field and score the winning touchdown. What's even more ironic is this came from our current offensive coordinator's former team. So that is what is wrong with calling the bootleg in that situation. Because it still leaves the very slight possibility that the player may mess it up

I couldn't care less if we got a first down or not in that situation, it doesn't matter. The only thing you should be focusing on in that situation is the clock. It is up to the coaches to call a play that will give us the highest chance of keeping that clock moving. You hand it up the gut or kneel it every time.

 

[husker_rob]

But you're making stuff up.

There were no option routes. Sam makes that very clear. The coaches make that very clear.

This wasn't the same scenario as Eli. There was no pass option.

It was a bootleg. No pass option.

I mean, if we would have lined up with 5 wideouts and called a QB draw, would you say it was just too tempting for Tommy not to pass it? It makes no sense.

Tommy threw it when it was a running play with no option.

Love the guy. He's been our offensive MVP this season. But he either misinterpreted the call or he made a bonehead play.

Either way, the coaches weren't responsible here.