[NU Sports] In defense of McCall's Play Calling

[Tom Maycock]

> Which leads me to believe a big part of the problem is that he's not very 

> good at reacting to the other team's halftime adjustments. 

I just watched the replay of the game, and I don't think that's really true. Almost without fail, the Cats offense was moving the ball at roughly the same success rate in the 2nd half as we were in the first half. The fact they couldn't sustain the drives didn't have anything to do with being conservative as far as I can tell. 

Here's what I noticed, with the helpful memory refresher of the play-by-play chart:

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/playbyplay?gameId=312810077&period=3


First, I had forgotten that we held Michigan to no gain and a 1 yard loss on their first two plays of the half (Tyler Scott!!!!), and had them at 3rd-and-11 on their own 19. 

Imagine if we had stopped them on that 3rd down, and gotten the ball back in good field position, up 28-14 with barely a minute gone in the 1st half. Ah, what could have been. Instead, they got the conversion, 4 yards on the next play, and then the bomb that Matthews was in position for, but couldn't break up. 

But, back to the offense:

The first drive was a really damaging 3-and-out after Michigan's first TD. 

Yeah, we ran for no gain on 1st down, but I believe that was an option call, and not a surprising one given the success we'd had in the first half. The real drive-killer was a sack on second down (either a total breakdown by the O-line or a great effort by Michigan's front 4, depending on your perspective). Nothing conservative about that, we just got beat. Incomplete pass on 3rd.

Then Michigan fires off another long, time-consuming drive for a TD. By the time get the ball back again, the 3rd quarter is almost gone. 

We complete passes of 7, 11, and 6 yards, and then you get the Dunsmore whiff that turned what should have been another first down into a game-changing interception. Again, nothing conservative here, and Persa was pretty much dead on, with receivers getting open. Dunsmore would have run for even more yards if he made the catch (and he did that look-up-the-field-to-run-before-catching-the-ball thing), and Persa could have run for the first if he wanted to. 

Michigan scores again. Now we're really in the hole, 35-24, but the offense clicks off:

7 yard run
5 yard pass (1st down)
10 yard pass (1st down)
2 yard run
15 yard pass inteference penalty (1st down)

So far, so good. Then:

pass to Ebert for 3 yards, but then fumbles (stripped on good effort by Michigan D)

Next drive, still only down 11 thanks to the blocked FG:


5 yard pass
9 yard pass
6 yard run
7 yard pass

Michigan starts to get more pressure:
incomplete
5 yard pass
incomplete (Lawrence drops a catchable pass that would have been a 1st. well-defended, but should have squeezed it anyway)
The infamous sack play

Sigh.

In the good news front, our receivers are really starting to block well on running plays, which is a big reason why our running game is so much better. In particular, Christian Jones looks to be really good at it already, which is huge for a freshman. 

Tom