Riley "Never Considered" Making A Change At QB

Perhaps the answer to this is just finding ways to take responsibility out of Lee's hands. Easier said than done but it's clear his decision making isn't there and he's especially struggling with man under coverage.

For example, limit Lee's options. Give him one or two reads with a safety dump off to a running back. Or, what about a play action rollout with a dump off to a TE or FB out of the backfield? If his read isn't there then get him to dump the ball or throw it away. Unfortunately, we've seen Lee stare down wide receivers and still loft gimme balls. If they dumb this down for him and he's still making those errors, he has to be held accountable. He can't just continue to misread man under coverage, throw picks and trot back out onto the field. It's unacceptable.

I think Riley made a good point in Saturday's pre-game interview, too: one of the best ways to help a struggling quarterback and iffy pass protection is to run the ball effectively. The line isn't doing Lee or the team a lot of favors in this area. Every yard is still a fight... even on that 97-yard scoring drive from last weekend. They're just not built to handle a QB struggling this much even if all the struggles aren't entirely his fault.

 
knapplc said:
There are a few issues with this, and all of them represent a huge problem here.

1)  Patrick O'Brien isn't remotely ready to go.  This, after enrolling early, spending two springs, and one full season, including two summer workouts, in the program under this OC, the alleged "Quarterback Whisperer."

2)  O'Brien is ready to go, but the coaches think he'll get killed behind this O Line.  Which is a huge problem pointing at Cavanaugh.

3)  O'Brien is ready to go, they're not that worried about the O Line, but they think Lee is really the guy to lead us this season, meaning we have another Sam Keller situation on our hands.

4)  The coaches see no benefit to letting Lee view a series or two from the sideline to get his bearings.  This is patently false, though. 
Click to expand...


That's a good breakdown. I also wonder about the confidence of this coaching staff. As the wheels have come off, have they gone into bunker mode and lost the ability to adapt and make changes? That's not that unusual for leaders under tremendous stress and out of their depth.

 
teachercd said:
I think he is just saying this but I am sure he thought about yanking him.  I really think this is more just coach-speak.  I mean there is no way it didn't cross his mind.
Click to expand...
As much as I'd like to believe this is nothing more than coach speak, it really wouldn't surprise me if Riley never considered pulling him.

 
knapplc said:
I imagine 80% of Husker Fans were hoping for just that on Saturday.  I know I was.
Click to expand...
His interception rate is very high but could be much higher. Hes been getting away with throwing into double coverage constantly, against lesser teams, i just wonder how bad it will get against better teams. I hope they limit his passing, and focus on utilizing our stable of good running backs. 

 
Of course Riley isn't going to pull Lee...he's gonna ride that horse until it becomes glue. 

What we really should be asking is if Riley is going to consider making a change at playcalling and OC/O-Line coach. This team has the kids to be successful with a run-first offense that can set up the pass. 

We went 13-26 last week. I'd dare suggest we scale that back even further to ~18 passing attempts/game, and bring out some of the Jet Sweeps we have in the playbook...and maybe add some new ones as well (e.g. Diamond formation would work great considering we have three RBs that all are worthy of time on the field...)

 
RedSavage said:
As much as I'd like to believe this is nothing more than coach speak, it really wouldn't surprise me if Riley never considered pulling him.
Click to expand...
Well, there is a chance Riley didn't even know what was going on during the game but I still think it was just coach speak

 
Huskerzoo said:
Maybe this is just me, but I think it's mental. 

Someone earlier mentioned that they felt like the coaches talked him up too much to pull him. I think it's important to remember, it wasn't just the coaches. The media also had nothing but good things to say. It also wasn't just the local media. This suggest to me, that Lee is killing it in practice, he also looked good in the Spring game. Not amazing, but certainly better than this. 

So now he's in pressure situations and it just keeps going poorly. He's making bad reads, forcing things that he shouldn't etc. I've got to think there's something about game situations that rattles the kid. He clearly throws a good ball that seems to be a consensus. It doesn't matter how tight your spiral is though when you're making bad reads and forgetting to go through the steps. I think it's just going to keep compounding too. 

IMPO, I'd be having him spend time with a sports psychologist on the sideline. 
Click to expand...
Or he could simply be one of those people that crumbles under pressure...

 
VectorVictor said:
What we really should be asking is if Riley is going to consider making a change at playcalling and OC/O-Line coach. This team has the kids to be successful with a run-first offense that can set up the pass. 
Click to expand...


I don't think we do. You could call out our play success Saturday based on the pre-snap alignment of their safeties. This team has not had much success when teams have numbers in the box.

 
Enhance said:
Perhaps the answer to this is just finding ways to take responsibility out of Lee's hands. Easier said than done but it's clear his decision making isn't there and he's especially struggling with man under coverage.

For example, limit Lee's options. Give him one or two reads with a safety dump off to a running back. Or, what about a play action rollout with a dump off to a TE or FB out of the backfield? If his read isn't there then get him to dump the ball or throw it away. Unfortunately, we've seen Lee stare down wide receivers and still loft gimme balls. If they dumb this down for him and he's still making those errors, he has to be held accountable. He can't just continue to misread man under coverage, throw picks and trot back out onto the field. It's unacceptable.

I think Riley made a good point in Saturday's pre-game interview, too: one of the best ways to help a struggling quarterback and iffy pass protection is to run the ball effectively. The line isn't doing Lee or the team a lot of favors in this area. Every yard is still a fight... even on that 97-yard scoring drive from last weekend. They're just not built to handle a QB struggling this much even if all the struggles aren't entirely his fault.
Click to expand...


Not sure that would help.  Last week against NIll we ran a two-man route with max protection.  Lee still threw into triple coverage rather than single.

 
In fact, Lee needs more options.  He seems to lock on his intended receiver more than Armstrong did, staring them down at the snap even when he has time to make multiple reads.  He also doesn't seem to audible much, and needs to do it more when the defense tips its hand based on our alignment. 

Lee doesn't appear to be reading the defense at all.  He just gets the play call and goes in and runs that play.  Best example of that is Stanley being left alone on NIU's first pick-six.  Lee hadn't even thrown the ball and the DB had taken four steps toward DPE, yet Lee threw it to him anyway.  Make a simple read on that play and Stanley has the easiest TD of his career.

 
Back
Top