I agree with Josh Pate's comments on the offensive play calling. What say you?
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Offensive play calling
- Thread starter PsuLIT
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Spot on, IMO. Coach will never explain the strategy ……maybe after he retires 🤷🏿♂️
Will certainly be a major topic all week long .
Will certainly be a major topic all week long .
OMG thanks for that. This is exactly the right take.
I was rage-viewing it too. Kotelnicki was beyond awful. I just couldn't believe it. If there was a way to bench an offensive coordinator and just let someone else take over play-calling, that was the time. Take the clipboard away from the guy please.
Allen AVERAGED 7.8 ypc for the game. Singleton is playing on one leg and he averaged over 7 ypc. At very least you keep handing the ball to those guys until Boise finds a way to stop it, and THEN you attack something else. Probably Boise couldn't stop it. Their level of athletes was such that even if they put 8 in the box, PSU was still handling them. This was not known before the game but you could definitely see in the first quarter that they were athletically overmatched. Coach K should have noticed it but his head was too deep in his play sheet I guess.
Franklin even talks about it, he has this expression, sometimes you have to be content to be boring. Sometimes you just have to take the win and not care how cool you look winning. This was one of those times.
Coach K was so enamored of his cute game plan he kept calling gadget plays and silly stuff (NONE OF WHICH WORKS against high-level defenses anyway, so why bother???). The cute stuff kept blowing up. He just lost perspective. His head was in his game plan instead of being in the game. Then when he ran out of gadget plays, he kept calling deep drops against a blitzing defense WITHOUT quick release options!! Allar knows a blitz is coming -- it's the only way they play defense -- and coach K doesn't have anybody in the flat. It was so easy to beat that blitz and Coach K kept getting Allar sacked.
It is not overstating to call this coaching malpractice. The PSU O-line was manhandling that defense. This game should have been over by halftime. Or certainly in the 3rd quarter. Coach K singlehandedly kept them in a game.
I have to say, I was sorry when Coach K didn't get the job at West Virginia. This is a really good offensive line and this team would be better without the gadget play bullshit at this point. Especially against a freaking Mountain West defense, they could just tee off and blow these guys off the field -- so why didn't they? We could all see it.
I was rage-viewing it too. Kotelnicki was beyond awful. I just couldn't believe it. If there was a way to bench an offensive coordinator and just let someone else take over play-calling, that was the time. Take the clipboard away from the guy please.
Allen AVERAGED 7.8 ypc for the game. Singleton is playing on one leg and he averaged over 7 ypc. At very least you keep handing the ball to those guys until Boise finds a way to stop it, and THEN you attack something else. Probably Boise couldn't stop it. Their level of athletes was such that even if they put 8 in the box, PSU was still handling them. This was not known before the game but you could definitely see in the first quarter that they were athletically overmatched. Coach K should have noticed it but his head was too deep in his play sheet I guess.
Franklin even talks about it, he has this expression, sometimes you have to be content to be boring. Sometimes you just have to take the win and not care how cool you look winning. This was one of those times.
Coach K was so enamored of his cute game plan he kept calling gadget plays and silly stuff (NONE OF WHICH WORKS against high-level defenses anyway, so why bother???). The cute stuff kept blowing up. He just lost perspective. His head was in his game plan instead of being in the game. Then when he ran out of gadget plays, he kept calling deep drops against a blitzing defense WITHOUT quick release options!! Allar knows a blitz is coming -- it's the only way they play defense -- and coach K doesn't have anybody in the flat. It was so easy to beat that blitz and Coach K kept getting Allar sacked.
It is not overstating to call this coaching malpractice. The PSU O-line was manhandling that defense. This game should have been over by halftime. Or certainly in the 3rd quarter. Coach K singlehandedly kept them in a game.
I have to say, I was sorry when Coach K didn't get the job at West Virginia. This is a really good offensive line and this team would be better without the gadget play bullshit at this point. Especially against a freaking Mountain West defense, they could just tee off and blow these guys off the field -- so why didn't they? We could all see it.
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It is so frustrating to watch. It seems they should keep doing what's working until it doesn't, then try something different. But what do I know 🤷♂️
Wandering Spectator
Well-Known Member
I’m left wondering if this team just doesn’t practice screen passes. Everyone knew Boise State was gonna blitz all night and I’m not sure we threw a single screen pass at it.
2nd qtr was crazy. Very confused by the long bomb blitzkrieg when the running game was crushing it. And when we had a quick 14 point lead🤷🏿♂️
And it was interesting that the announcers said that all week long Franklin was talking up Omari as a secret weapon. A burner. He could fly past anybody……something we rarely saw all season long.
So here are my theoritizations: 1) We haven’t been successful all year throwing deep so teams play us tight to the line to stop run first. He knew the Boise dbacks could be beat and he wanted to put a lot of long balls on tape so next opponent would play back.
2) He wanted both Allar and Omari to have success and build confidence. Get timing down. Give o line confidence.
Certainly was a different game. The worst part was Allar taking so many sacks. And big, deep sacks. He needs to learn to just throw it away when needed. Losing 12-15 yds is terrible.
Right now, PSU is fully capable of playing on offense the way that the 2021, 2022 and 2023 Michigan teams did; the o-line is opening up huge holes and the two backs are running better than they have all season. The play calling for the middle two quarters was moronic.
Tengwell did a preview on Boise’s blitzes and the need to have a ‘hot’ receiver available for a short, quick pass. We needed that check down a few times last nite.
I think it is like most people, he realizes that the coaches know way more than we do, but our perceived common sense says why not keep doing what's working? It would be interesting to know what AK's thought process was.
Yes, and he's right to say that because usually the play caller knows more than the fans. This was a rare exception and Pate explained why. It was so flagrant and obvious. PSU is running the ball right down their throats with ease and then Coach K starts calling gadget plays that get the players so confused they can't remember the snap count, and the gadget plays get blown up by a defense that can't stop simple stretch plays.
I mean, geez, look at the 1st quarter, PSU is just manhandling those guys, they run 3 plays at tempo and Boise is so winded they can't get any pass rush and Allar can do what he does really well, relax in the pocket for 4-5 seconds and throw a perfect ball 40 yards downfield. That was working just fine, but then Coach K got the itch to call his razzle dazzle stuff.
Later PSU was in 3rd and 2 that was just there for the taking and Coach K calls a deep shot against the one thing Boise can do -- blitz -- and Allar gets sacked because there isn't even a dump-off option.
We didn't throw a single pass to Singleton
Run the ball with play action passes sprinkled in. It’s not rocket science. He was an offensive lineman for Pete sake. No need to put gadget plays on film anymore, there is a whole season for Defense Coordinators to watch.
The momentum changer was when PSU had the ball in Boise territory after a turnover but gave it right back on a missed handoff. That wasn't a bad play call, just bad execution.
I did not see any screen plays. Did I miss something? Also no draw plays. And, when they needed one yard for a first down, they throw the ball. Our two backs were getting 6 or 7 yards a carry. Why pass? Dumb
They attempted two screens to Warren. Allar threw one away and was sacked on the other.
I honestly don't have a clue why OCs insist on auditioning for head coaching jobs at the expense of my beloved nittanies. Just kidding. A friend noticed something else and it was the complete confidence of HCJF during the first half and right after halftime. It seemed to him that they had the game in the bag and the play calling was to serve notice to our next opponent on diversity. I laughed a bit saying it was wishful thinking but who knows? This friend is usually spot on
3rd and one and he calls a pass play in the middle of the field which is way off. I don't understand why franklin cant override that call? also, why all of a sudden we are throwing the ball 50 yds. down the field? we never seem to complete them.
Yeah that pre-halftime interview was something Franklin practiced, it was a little bit PR but there was also truth to it in this case. Everyone could see how much PSU was dominating at the LOS. All they had to do was button up the mistakes and execute on offense and they would control the game.
I was wondering if Coach k had been drinking before the game. The play calling made little sense. It seemed as if we were outsmarting ourselves
I kind of agree but I think it's more about "what else works" so when we play next week or Oregon/Ohio State/Texas he's seen what does and doesn't. I wish he'd just kill teams but, as someone else said, he plays with his food first lol
All I know is Jay Paterno would have out at least 50 on this team.😻
Thank you for sharing. I think he was spot on. I think that AK needs to stop auditioning for a head coach job and just coach the offense, meaning that he gets too cute in an effort to look innovative on a national stage. Every real football fan that watched that game knew that a couple successful screen passes blows up that Boise Blitz.. What do you think ND or Georgia runs next game? All out blitzes. AK better be ready.
What is the issue w/ Singleton?
He had one good play and looked fine?
Poor rest of game.
Man, I swear when they cut to Chris Fowler, Joey Galloway, and Desmond Howard for analysis from time to time that they all seemed liked they had started drinking already. Fowler in particular looked hammered. Lol. We were all dying.
They went golfing earlier in the day and were clearly drinking then
Fully agree. Stop with the stupid, ill-timed trick plays and focus on the bread and butter basics and time management. When you're up by 21, then open up the trick bag.
Someone said he was playing on one leg? Nothing that I had heard.
Outside one run, he was ineffective (but that one run was the dagger but most on Oline).
Nick’s pass blocking continues to be bad.
Should have just run the ball - preferably Allen.
Why complicate things…forced us to play a full 4Q - instead of just 1.5 Q
Watch his long TD in the 4th quarter and you can see he has an issue with one of his legs and he was having diifficuulty setting a strong base during his pass blocking in the backfield. Heee is still not 100%.
I commented in the game thread during the first quarter that Boise was having trouble getting off their blocks. Something like that just doesn't suddenly change, and yet we decided to take the pressure away from them.
It was mind-numbing. Those kinds of coaching errors, when combined with player errors (especially personal foul penalties) will make it very difficult to defeat a better team. This is why we raise the issue in a game that was easily won. It isn't because we are bad fans. It's because we want to see the team win in the more challenging games.
It was mind-numbing. Those kinds of coaching errors, when combined with player errors (especially personal foul penalties) will make it very difficult to defeat a better team. This is why we raise the issue in a game that was easily won. It isn't because we are bad fans. It's because we want to see the team win in the more challenging games.
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