Great guy and a winner. I give him all the props for the life of our Offense. The offensive scheme is brilliant and plays to our strengths. However, in my humble opinion, as a Sunday morning quarterback, his play-calling last night left a lot to be desired. Nothing personal, just my observations.
Everybody in the world knew that throwing against OSU on first down was the way to go. Jack Hamm, our man Phil, and others mentioned it multiple times. Yet, JoMo stuck with RPO runs on first down for much of the game and rarely did it result in positive yards, especially in the 2nd half. It became even more confounding when OSU pinned their ears back during the entire 4th qt and blitzed LBs on first down, continually putting PSU is second and long.
Secondly, JoMo failed to utilize his best player the entire game. Which is EXTREMELY confounding. Against UM, just the week prior, we ran pitches to Barkley to gain the edge, we threw 2 wheel routes to Barkely, we even ran a couple of option plays outside the tackle box, to allow Barkley some space and speed. We did that exactly ZERO times against osu. When PSU decided to play for a field goal, which I don't fault them, considering it gave us a two score lead, handing it to Barkley on one of those sweeps would have been a touchdown.
So, it's not just the fact that we didn't allow Barkley the ball in space, it is WHAT IT ALLOWED OSU TO DO TO OUR OL. That is the key. The entire 4th qt, the osu corners played up tight to the line, with two safeties 12-15 yards deep in the secondary. All three of their LB's were right up in the box. RPO in that scenario, with that type of talent & numbers is a major FAIL, hence why we worked hard to get Barkley outside during the Michigan game. To alleviate pressure on our OL, all JoMo had to do was go back to Mich. Options run to the outside, quick screens or pitch outs to Barkley would have SEALED THE GAME early in the 4th qt. What did JoMo do? Well, you saw if for yourself. No running game and no time to throw. I know the editors of bluewhite have put more blame on the OL than the coaches, but in my humble opinion, JoMo set our OL up for failure. If we are going to win another big game, it will have to come on the back of Barkley. He is why we are where we are, and without him, such as last night, a non factor for 3 1/2 qts, we won't win. If we play OSU, Ga, Clemson, BAMA or any of the like, they are gonna blow up our backfield from the start of the game.
Nope, this game falls at the feet of JoMo.....I've said it, it's done and I'm moving on to Mich St...hoping for some improvement of our RPO scheme.
Everybody in the world knew that throwing against OSU on first down was the way to go. Jack Hamm, our man Phil, and others mentioned it multiple times. Yet, JoMo stuck with RPO runs on first down for much of the game and rarely did it result in positive yards, especially in the 2nd half. It became even more confounding when OSU pinned their ears back during the entire 4th qt and blitzed LBs on first down, continually putting PSU is second and long.
Secondly, JoMo failed to utilize his best player the entire game. Which is EXTREMELY confounding. Against UM, just the week prior, we ran pitches to Barkley to gain the edge, we threw 2 wheel routes to Barkely, we even ran a couple of option plays outside the tackle box, to allow Barkley some space and speed. We did that exactly ZERO times against osu. When PSU decided to play for a field goal, which I don't fault them, considering it gave us a two score lead, handing it to Barkley on one of those sweeps would have been a touchdown.
So, it's not just the fact that we didn't allow Barkley the ball in space, it is WHAT IT ALLOWED OSU TO DO TO OUR OL. That is the key. The entire 4th qt, the osu corners played up tight to the line, with two safeties 12-15 yards deep in the secondary. All three of their LB's were right up in the box. RPO in that scenario, with that type of talent & numbers is a major FAIL, hence why we worked hard to get Barkley outside during the Michigan game. To alleviate pressure on our OL, all JoMo had to do was go back to Mich. Options run to the outside, quick screens or pitch outs to Barkley would have SEALED THE GAME early in the 4th qt. What did JoMo do? Well, you saw if for yourself. No running game and no time to throw. I know the editors of bluewhite have put more blame on the OL than the coaches, but in my humble opinion, JoMo set our OL up for failure. If we are going to win another big game, it will have to come on the back of Barkley. He is why we are where we are, and without him, such as last night, a non factor for 3 1/2 qts, we won't win. If we play OSU, Ga, Clemson, BAMA or any of the like, they are gonna blow up our backfield from the start of the game.
Nope, this game falls at the feet of JoMo.....I've said it, it's done and I'm moving on to Mich St...hoping for some improvement of our RPO scheme.
