Miles comment in todays's advocate

He said "it's not the call" to politically correct himself when he had started to say the calls were bad.

I think this is another case of Les' lips moving but not really saying much of anything.

If he really believes that, it doesn't bode well. I mean, the coach should call plays that puts his players in the best position to succeed. The plays they're calling don't do that. Jefferson in the pocket is not working, due to his taking too deep of a drop, and his general lack of pocket awareness. Much more effective to roll him out. The option is not working. Why run it?

quote:

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It’s not the play call; it’s the execution,” Miles said. “When you call the pass, you’ve got to protect the passer.

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hmm... my first thought is to be concerned that Miles thinks the play calling was okay. While I am no expert, I agree with many of the criticisms I've seen on here over the past few weeks.

Starting with the option: we don't look good running it, and I don't think that will change, unless they have RS run it. I doubt we average more than 2 ypc running it the last 3 games. The only credible reasoning I've seen for it is from Carl Dubois' article saying it was ineffective, but helped stretch the D, which allowed the middle to open up when running Scott. Even if this is true, it seems like the intent is basically to forfeit 1st down, so you can gain 4 yards on 2nd down. This doesn't seem like sound strategy. The option just isn't working the way we're running it, so should be scrapped. All it does is set us up for 2nd and long.

There are other ways to make the running game effective. I don't think I've even seen one draw play this season. Not to mention more use of misdirection plays.

Passing plays-- not my observation, but someone said when we want to throw the ball deep, everyone is going deep, with no short to intermediate routes. If this is true (and it does seem on most of JJ's sacks that he is staring way downfield), then it doesn't seem like good play calling. Not only does this make it easier for the dbs to be in the same area and cover the receivers better, but it takes more time and allows the pressure to get to JJ. It definitely seems work needs to be done to give JJ shorter outlets to dump the ball off. If they send one or two receivers deep to draw the safeties away, JJ should be able to make nice short, accurate throws to the 3rd receiver, the TE or a RB, who should be running shorter routes.

quote:

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"It’s not the play call; it’s the execution,”

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This worries me.

Its both. There is no way he should have reasonably expected to execute some of those plays against Florida.

I think the reasoning behind using the option is to slowly transition the offense to suit Russell Shepard in the future (If he is indeed to be QB). They've just not thought it through very well.

A good recent example of a transitional offense would be West Virginia last year. Noel Devine's numbers dropped considerably and the WRs got more attention as Pat White threw the ball more to lay the groundwork for this year with QB Jarrett Brown.

If this is the case - Perhaps Jefferson knows the gameplan isn't favorable and it's hurting his confidence.


Just a thought.