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

[Jonathan Hodges]

Some observations on the offense:

- The offense really stopped itself with turnovers in the second half
(Dunsmore drop in which Persa admitted that he threw the ball a little
behind him; I think it still should have been caught, & Ebert fumble).

- On NU's first drive of the 2nd half (three-and-out), Fitz noted that Persa
kept the ball on an option play and if he would have pitched to Smith, there
would have been a nice gain (I haven't rewatched that specific play,
though).

- Over 70% of NU's plays were passes (including sacks but not including a
couple Persa scrambles).  Persa set a personal record of 331 yards in a
single game.  The offense was moving the ball and NU actually averaged 6.3
yards per carry on the ground - and were particularly effective in the red
zone (all 3 TDs were rushes; NU had to kick the short FG due to time - no
TOs and clock ticking so had to pass) thanks to the run game.  While it was
disappointing that NU didn't go more to the run, by the time they had the
ball in the second half for a significant amount of time, they had already
fallen behind (hence, passing).

- Persa is obviously averse to running with the football.  He said as much
going into the year, as did the coaching staff.  The lingering physical
effects of the Achilles certainly has some to do with it, along with a
mental and a strategic aspect.  I think trying to find an open guy down
field is usually a better option than Colter style tuck-and-run, but
eventually that will catch up to him (in the form of sacks, which he's
experienced 8 times since his return).  He has obviously still been in the
adjustment period.  Hopefully he can gain some confidence and run a little
more than he has so far; it certainly helps NU move the ball and pick up
first downs.

- The offensive tempo is troubling at times (always up tempo) but I would
much rather have that problem than having an offense that gets confused and
can't run hurry up since it is much easier to slow things down (wait at the
line).  Also, it's clear that the NU offense works very well when they pick
up momentum and can run the hurry-up.

- NU's completion rate seems lower probably because of Colter (his cmp rate
is around 67%, which is still rather high).  Persa is over 71% right now and
hopefully that will increase with receivers not dropping as many key passes
as they did against Michigan.  Note that NU did a nice job on the outside WR
screen play multiple times (although Michigan did later adjust to that with
an extra S over there).

Jonathan

--
Jonathan Hodges
Contributor, HailToPurple
Web: http://www.hailtopurple.com/jhodges/
Twitter: @hailtopurple
Email: j-hodges at alumni.northwestern.edu



On Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 11:45 AM, Tom Maycock <tkmaycock at yahoo.com> wrote:

> > 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
>
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