Need better QB play

Sat Sep 20, 2014 7:40 pm

Minus the last miracle pass that's 2 games now with less than 100 yards passing. I don't think the protection was that bad and the fumble in the pocket was just a very bad turnover. Have to either throw it away or protect the ball with two hands. I thought our protection did a pretty good job of picking up a very aggressive FAU blitz scheme.

I think Colby's come a long way, but he still has a ways to go. A lot of open receivers out there when the defense brings 6 and our protection does pick it up.

Sat Sep 20, 2014 7:50 pm

He had 160, and you do have to include that last pass.

That said, a lot is on Vigen who is intent on running a spread offense for some reason. And a spread offense that is very close to what we ran under Arroyo. He needs to let our runningbacks and o-line (which is better at run blocking anyways) run the ball up the middle. We had success with it early on, and Vigen went away from it and put everything on Kirk. Because of this, our offense had a lot of 3 and outs, and left our defense out there for a long time.

Bohl said one thing about our offense, and Vigen is making him into a liar.

Sat Sep 20, 2014 7:52 pm

Well that was really far from a spread offense, It's basically what Bohl said it would be but you have to open the running game up by passing and we are failing at that in a big way.

Look at MSU they are power run and air it out for 300+ a game.

Sat Sep 20, 2014 7:57 pm

I do think Vigen went away from the running game a bit too much. However that was far from the spread offense. Simply have to execute better. We can't be exclusively a power run team. I thought the O line played well enough to score more than 20 points.

Sat Sep 20, 2014 8:04 pm

May not have been the spread, the play calling reminded me a lot of Arroyo.

Sat Sep 20, 2014 8:04 pm

fromolwyoming wrote:He had 160, and you do have to include that last pass.

That said, a lot is on Vigen who is intent on running a spread offense for some reason. And a spread offense that is very close to what we ran under Arroyo. He needs to let our runningbacks and o-line (which is better at run blocking anyways) run the ball up the middle. We had success with it early on, and Vigen went away from it and put everything on Kirk. Because of this, our offense had a lot of 3 and outs, and left our defense out there for a long time.

Bohl said one thing about our offense, and Vigen is making him into a liar.

Posts like these make it sound like Kirkegaard threw the ball 40 times today. He attempted 23 passes in the game, compared to 29 runs by Wick and May.

Sat Sep 20, 2014 8:11 pm

joshvanklomp wrote:
fromolwyoming wrote:He had 160, and you do have to include that last pass.

That said, a lot is on Vigen who is intent on running a spread offense for some reason. And a spread offense that is very close to what we ran under Arroyo. He needs to let our runningbacks and o-line (which is better at run blocking anyways) run the ball up the middle. We had success with it early on, and Vigen went away from it and put everything on Kirk. Because of this, our offense had a lot of 3 and outs, and left our defense out there for a long time.

Bohl said one thing about our offense, and Vigen is making him into a liar.
Posts like these make it sound like Kirkegaard threw the ball 40 times today. He attempted 23 passes in the game, compared to 29 runs by Wick and May.

Had less than 50% completion, a LOT of shot gun formations, o-line was overwhelmed a lot, and no screen passes were called (which would have taken a lot of pressure off).

Sat Sep 20, 2014 8:13 pm

joshvanklomp wrote: Posts like these make it sound like Kirkegaard threw the ball 40 times today. He attempted 23 passes in the game, compared to 29 runs by Wick and May.

He attempted 23 passes, but was also sacked 5 times and had a few other runs for negative or neutral yardage. I can't remember many of the sacks being on the O Line either. Can't expect them to hold their blocks that long.

Sat Sep 20, 2014 9:37 pm

calpoke25 wrote:
joshvanklomp wrote: Posts like these make it sound like Kirkegaard threw the ball 40 times today. He attempted 23 passes in the game, compared to 29 runs by Wick and May.
He attempted 23 passes, but was also sacked 5 times and had a few other runs for negative or neutral yardage. I can't remember many of the sacks being on the O Line either. Can't expect them to hold their blocks that long.

He was sacked 5 times because the defense knew they could blitz every down until Kirk could prove he could them them pay for it and he never did (until the end of the game). Sacks are as much his fault as anyone, He has to be able to read the blitz and get a screen pass off.

Sat Sep 20, 2014 9:44 pm

You either pick up the blitz or pass to the place where the blitz came from. We do neither. Colby stands in the pocket like it will never collapse, the anti-ACS if you will.

Sat Sep 20, 2014 9:50 pm

laxwyo wrote:You either pick up the blitz or pass to the place where the blitz came from. We do neither. Colby stands in the pocket like it will never collapse, the anti-ACS if you will.

I can agree with this, Our backs pick up the Blitz sometimes but even if we pick up the blitz he doesn't beat them through the air so they just keep doing it.

Sun Sep 21, 2014 1:02 am

If Kirk's the best we have we are going to continue to struggle on offense. Air Force stuffed the run by putting as many as 9 in the box and we couldn't take advantage? FAU blitzed and we can't find the hot receiver. I hope there is someone's coming along somewhere to improve the QB play.

Sun Sep 21, 2014 1:10 am

Pokes Forever wrote:If Kirk's the best we have we are going to continue to struggle on offense. Air Force stuffed the run by putting as many as 9 in the box and we couldn't take advantage? FAU blitzed and we can't find the hot receiver. I hope there is someone's coming along somewhere to improve the QB play.

They didn't take advantage? Last I checked, we won both games, and we won both games with the passing game on the final drive.

But keep thinking we haven't been able to take advantage yet...

Sun Sep 21, 2014 1:15 am

joshvanklomp wrote:
Pokes Forever wrote:If Kirk's the best we have we are going to continue to struggle on offense. Air Force stuffed the run by putting as many as 9 in the box and we couldn't take advantage? FAU blitzed and we can't find the hot receiver. I hope there is someone's coming along somewhere to improve the QB play.
They didn't take advantage? Last I checked, we won both games, and we won both games with the passing game on the final drive.

But keep thinking we haven't been able to take advantage yet...

It took a miracle timed fumble to get that last offensive series. Any other day or game, we lose.

Sun Sep 21, 2014 7:39 am

Would be nice to win a game or two by putting the other team away mid-way through the third quarter by punishing them if they blitz too much or put 9 players in the box and then just grind them to dust as we run out the rest of the clock, since they actually have to respect the pass.

That said, winning is far more important than how you actually get the win. On the other hand, we're 3-1, but could fairly easily have been 0-4 too.

Sun Sep 21, 2014 8:12 am

joshvanklomp wrote:
Pokes Forever wrote:If Kirk's the best we have we are going to continue to struggle on offense. Air Force stuffed the run by putting as many as 9 in the box and we couldn't take advantage? FAU blitzed and we can't find the hot receiver. I hope there is someone's coming along somewhere to improve the QB play.
They didn't take advantage? Last I checked, we won both games, and we won both games with the passing game on the final drive.

But keep thinking we haven't been able to take advantage yet...

Last year everyone was giddy over the fact we were 4-1 with the only loss being an inspired effort at Nebraska. Several folks on here, including myself, expressed concern about the defense and were shouted down by others claiming claiming CFB was all about offense we would just simply wear out the scoreboard en route to a MWC championship. We all know what the results were when we entered conference play. Good defenses shut down DC's offense and had a field day with our defense. I am thrilled with what Bohl has accomplished so far and happy we are 3-1 but we need better QB play going forward!

Sun Sep 21, 2014 8:48 am

I would just like to add that I'm impressed by our boards knowledge of Cowboy football. We knew EXACTLY how our positions would be this year with maybe OL being a little better than we imagined. We've been calling this for months in advance. kudos!

We do need better QB play moving forward, but we all knew this long before we kicked off this season. Don't act shocked now.

Sun Sep 21, 2014 8:59 am

Realistically, we all knew we are a year or two away from better quarterback play when Brett left early and earrings followed DC away. Anything any qb currently on the roster gets done this year is gravy, as far as I'm concerned. Keep up winning, Colby!

Sun Sep 21, 2014 9:09 am

Pokes Forever wrote:Good defenses shut down DC's offense and had a field day with our defense.

Bohl's defense is not Christensen's defense. And the defense actually has time to rest on the sidelines between series.

Sun Sep 21, 2014 9:16 am

Last year through four games, the defense allowed 1,687 yards. This year, that number is down to 1,482 yards. Taking out the Nebraska and Oregon games, the defense has allowed 1,157 yards in 2013 and 926 yards in 2014. And this year's defense has performed a lot better in the red zone. In three of first four of 2013 (not Nebraska), teams scored on 15 of 17 trips to red zone, all touchdowns. In 3 of our 4 games (not Oregon), there have been ten times our opponent has been in the red zone. In those ten tries, they've come away with just 35 points (3 TDs, 5 FGs).

But keep thinking the production is exactly the same...