Rebuilding

[curiousfan]

We don’t seem to have ways to get the ball to playmakers in space. Look at what CU did with ETN when they realized they couldn’t run block. They threw it to him. They also throw tons of screens that put a WR in position to make one guy Miss and then go a long way. Everybody does that. It looks like we have no confidence in throwing the ball more than 15-20 yds in the air which makes it hard to get the ball to the edge. But we could at least do jet sweeps.

This is what makes no sense on the playing calling side. We used to run the option lots more. Teams like Army, Navy and AF are very successful without throwing much

What was the first series at Merc?

1st and 10 at FUR25 rush for 6 yards
PASS 2nd and 4 at FUR31 pass complete
PASS 1st and 10 at FUR45 pass complete
PASS 2nd and 4 at MER49 pass incomplete
PASS 3rd and 4 at MER49 pass incomplete
4th and 4 at MER49 punt

4 passes and after Wynn got 6 yards on the 1st play and needing 4 2x to get 1st down

Play calling that series was good....THE PROBLEM was execution!

[curiousfan]

Yesterday was hard to watch.

Defensively, we are fine. Furman's defense has played well all season and looks to keep getting better. You just can't keep putting the defense in a situation where they have to hold an offense out from the 50 yard line all afternoon.

The offense has looked terrible. Hard to sugar coat it any other way than that.

right. Look, I saw what we all saw yesterday. I don't sugar coat it.
O IS HORRIBLE. Can't run option.. can't get 3 yards on a rushing play... But w all this talk of pioneer - c'mon. we made the playoffs 2 of the last 3 years and won the conference 2 years ago (granted, mostly w a different OC !!!). We just need to really change the offense. maybe the coaches think these players can't block or throw or get open for a long pass ? I am guessing - that does take strong LOS and QB and WR w speed... Maybe they don't think we have the capability? which is bad since it is their players now... No sugar on that either.

Someone posted up thread about no use of Kendall T. He did carry it ONCE I yesterday - and got 5 yards. He has speed we need on the field in my (admittedly uneducated) spectator opinion. Just like a few weeks ago Jackal noted where we blocked incorrectly and he still got an 11 yard TD.

WE NEED MORE SPEED AT SKILL POSITIONS. A Peay exploited this over and over against us and made us look foolish.. We also need better BLOCKING !!!!!!!

DING DING DING! Now we are getting it! WE NEED MORE SPEED and PLAYMAKERS at the WR and QB position...

[apaladin]

Have to say this is the slowest offense I have ever seen. The offensive line is slow, the receivers are slow and the QB is slow not just in foot speed but just generally slow moving and slow executing.

[The Jackal]

Yesterday was hard to watch.

Defensively, we are fine. Furman's defense has played well all season and looks to keep getting better. You just can't keep putting the defense in a situation where they have to hold an offense out from the 50 yard line all afternoon.

The offense has looked terrible. Hard to sugar coat it any other way than that.

Defense is better than the offense of course. The run defense seems to be good. Pass defense is not very good, but when has it ever been good? Yesterday we saw a freshman more than double his previous high in passing yards and throw for well over 400 yards and shred the defense. We rarely get to the QB and when we do we miss the tackle more than not. Rarely get off the field on third and long because no pass rush.

Pass defense is fine.

Furman basically made Mercer's offense a scramble drill Saturday - QB spins out of pressure, keeps play alive, finds receiver working to get open.

To their credit, they did a great job of doing that. Furman was in their face all afternoon and struggled to get the QB to the ground (I lost track of how many times Furman defenders had their hands on the QB and were unable to get him down).

But again, you can only ask a defense to hold the line so many times in a game (or a season). At some point, you need to give them more than 50 yards to work with.

[The Jackal]

The last Mercer TD had to be a blown assignment as no one was within 10 yards of the receiver. Jackal I defer to your football wisdom but as an ordinary fan I think our defense is B at best. Our pass defense has been very porous this year and even our run defense seems to not be as good as many of our stout defenses in the past. True they have been on the field a lot but it does not seem like they have gotten many “big stops.” I think our problems are in all 3 areas, not just offense.

My two criticisms are that Furman struggled to get off the field on third downs and just didn't get the QB down.

We had 8 tackles for a loss, two sacks, two picks, and had our mitts on the QB umpteen times only to watch him spin out of pressure and find an open receiver.

It's easy to look at the passing numbers and ask where our defense was. I mean, some of the plays you can't do anything about. There was a long pass to #13 in the second half that Blackshear really couldn't have been in a better position on - perfect throw/perfect catch. Not much you can do.

I've said this a bunch, but I don't care much about total yardage - the name of the game is to score points. Mercer wasn't really able to break through against Furman's defense until late in the 4th quarter, and I think that was largely because our offense just couldn't stay on the field. Mercer had two drives in the 4th quarter start at their own 45.

[MNORM]

I have no idea how to fix this!

Coaches were successful with an exceedingly questionable roster but now can't compete with the guys they recruited and plenty of depth.

As long as we are discussing the sky falling, how many other teams do yall think are better set up for long term success in the conference. I don't see this as the beginning of a VMI dynasty.

/I am still for banning fans that bring up Pioneer.

....we had Cronic on the coaching staff back then.
Mercer and Furman are clearly two programs going in opposite directions. I keep seeing and hearing about all these talented recruits, yet, we're getting worse. Only thing I can figure the problem lies with is coaching. Tired of having this conversation every four years.

[apaladin]

Jackal, yes we were in a good position sometimes but what about all those receivers wide open and no one close to them? The fact is we faced a team with a freshman QB averaging 145 yds a game passing and gave up a school record 406 yards with a high percentage of completions. Gave up 19 yds per completion. Just hard to put a positive spin on that.

[youwouldno]

The last Mercer TD had to be a blown assignment as no one was within 10 yards of the receiver. Jackal I defer to your football wisdom but as an ordinary fan I think our defense is B at best. Our pass defense has been very porous this year and even our run defense seems to not be as good as many of our stout defenses in the past. True they have been on the field a lot but it does not seem like they have gotten many “big stops.” I think our problems are in all 3 areas, not just offense.

My two criticisms are that Furman struggled to get off the field on third downs and just didn't get the QB down.

We had 8 tackles for a loss, two sacks, two picks, and had our mitts on the QB umpteen times only to watch him spin out of pressure and find an open receiver.

It's easy to look at the passing numbers and ask where our defense was. I mean, some of the plays you can't do anything about. There was a long pass to #13 in the second half that Blackshear really couldn't have been in a better position on - perfect throw/perfect catch. Not much you can do.

I've said this a bunch, but I don't care much about total yardage - the name of the game is to score points. Mercer wasn't really able to break through against Furman's defense until late in the 4th quarter, and I think that was largely because our offense just couldn't stay on the field. Mercer had two drives in the 4th quarter start at their own 45.

You've got the be the only person on Earth that bypasses statistics and points to the scoreboard - in games your team lost.