Breaking down last year's offensive game film

[BULLZ]

The past few days I have watched the game film for our team and here are a few takeaways from watching a good part of the season as a whole:

 

Our inverted wishbone package where the 3 backs are in the backfield along with flowers and the other guys become lead blockers is absolutely our best package and hands down puts up the most production.

 

Flowers elusive ability is one of the best in the country in my opinion. THE ONLY PROBLEM is that when he breaks out on the run a lot of his throws are inaccurate.  He is always gonna have that escapability BUT if he can become a better thrower on the run we can be that much more dangerous. There were MAAAANNNYYY drives upon rewatching film that would have been extended had he hit his target after his scrambles.

If flowers just MODERATELY improves as a passer, we can be a 10+ win team. Watching the offense you realize our run game is like a raging bull (no pun intended) that is being limited ONLY by our lack of passing and teams stacking the box. If we can improve this aspect of the game, WATCH OUT.

 

AN INCREDIBLE AMOUNT OF THE SEASONS passing touchdowns were 50+ bombs that flowers would throw up to Adams or whoever else, whether it be off of flea flickers, or half back passes or the pump fake screen deep post pass. We relied a little TOO much on the big play.

 

We had VERY FEW successful throws in the intermediate  15-30 yrd range.

 

There were few times where Flowers actually went through his entire progression and picked apart the defense (whether that is because of the line not giving him time, or receivers not getting open, I dont know. 

 

Our play calling at the end of the year still had VERY FEW downfield pass plays. 90 % OF OUR OFFENSE was run plays, wr screens, draws, and dump passes. 

This is concerning as you would hope they would have more trust in Flowers throwing towards the end of the season.

 

 

After watching film, going into next season in my opinion we have 2 huge factors that are going to determine wether we improve or stay the same: the defense (with Tom Allen leaving) and Flowers passing/ pass playcalling.

If the passing game stays the same as this year and the defense stays more or less the same I think you could expect a similar result in our record. 8 or 9 wins.

If the defense gets worse I think we are at best a 8 win team.

If our passing offense gets moderately better and defense stays the same we are looking at a 10+ to 1 loss team IMO. Because if our pass just becomes a remote threat in the other teams eyes then our run game is going to explode and we will simply be imposing our will on other teams.

 

Thoughts? Rebuttals? Lets get the conversation going, its the offseason.

 

 

 

Edited April 28, 2016 by BULLZ

[ssgCraigO]

I see what you mean about the short passes and run game. However, I don't think that has anything to do with trust in QF's passing ability. I think a lot of people forget that CWT wants to run the ball. I don't think CWT has ever stated anything different, in fact he has always said he wants a power running team. When Mack averages 7 ypc, why would you try to over complicate it.

This scheme of running 70% of the time and quick, short throws, forces teams to stack the box. Which leads to all the big plays off of play action. I have heard the arguments that if they respected QF's arm it would open the run game up even more. Yes, however, the offense is designed to bring the defense in, then go over their head.

I don't think QF is instructed to go throw his progressions. CWT has even stated that he instructs him to go through the 1st read and if that's not there, look to run. I think as the season went on, you saw QF do less of that, and look for the pass play. Im sure you seen it where instead of taking off he would just scramble to keep to play alive and keep his eyes looking for a receiver. I honestly thought that was QF's biggest strength, that he knew when to pass it, and when to just take off and get the yards.

He does become inaccurate on the move though I agree. Also, I agree that if he gets moderately better in the passing game, we could be looking at 10 wins. Like everyone has pointed out before, there were times when he would just go completely cold and become wildly inaccurate. 

 

In saying that though, even if QF becomes a great passer, I don't see CWT going away from the running game. Ever. It's just the offense he wants to run. It's just like Mike Leach will not go away from the pass, even when it is not working. CWT will stick with the run game, even if it is getting stuffed.

[Triple B]

1 hour ago, BULLZ said:

Our play calling at the end of the year still had VERY FEW downfield pass plays. 90 % OF OUR OFFENSE was run plays, wr screens, draws, and dump passes. 

This is concerning as you would hope they would have more trust in Flowers throwing towards the end of the season

We averaged 44 points/game over the last 4 games of the regular season, averaging 23 pass attempts/game .... and don't really know how many pass plays were actually called because they could have ended up in QF's scrambles for positive yards. Personally, I don't see anything that needs to be fixed in the play calling area. Our offense is predicated on the run, coming from 3 positions, and looks to have been executed quite nicely at the end of the year (bowl game notwithstanding), so I don't see a real case for changing anything in that regard. Can QF complete more passes? Absolutely, there are very few qb's who can't .... but the focus for this year's offensive success should be on the revamped OL, not the qb position.

[BULLZ]

9 minutes ago, Triple B said:

We averaged 44 points/game over the last 4 games of the regular season, averaging 23 pass attempts/game .... and don't really know how many pass plays were actually called because they could have ended up in QF's scrambles for positive yards. Personally, I don't see anything that needs to be fixed in the play calling area. Our offense is predicated on the run, coming from 3 positions, and looks to have been executed quite nicely at the end of the year (bowl game notwithstanding), so I don't see a real case for changing anything in that regard. Can QF complete more passes? Absolutely, there are very few qb's who can't .... but the focus for this year's offensive success should be on the revamped OL, not the qb position.

Out of those 23 attempts the vast majority of them were bubble screens, jet sweeps with the forward flip that technically counts as a pass. I just think that if we implemented some time of intermediary pass game our offense could be that much better.

The tight end seam passes were money ALL YEAR we need to do more of that stuff. 

Plus we have the best receivers USF has EVER had. We need to utilize that strength.

[Triple B]

2 minutes ago, BULLZ said:

Out of those 23 attempts the vast majority of them were bubble screens, jet sweeps with the forward flip that technically counts as a pass. I just think that if we implemented some time of intermediary pass game our offense could be that much better.

The tight end seam passes were money ALL YEAR we need to do more of that stuff. 

Plus we have the best receivers USF has EVER had. We need to utilize that strength.

You missed my point .... I don't care where the passes were. We averaged over 6 td's a game at the end of the season doing what we did. I'm good with that philosophy and 44pts/gm going forward.

[FlowerPower]

1 hour ago, BULLZ said:

There were MAAAANNNYYY drives upon rewatching film that would have been extended had he hit his target after his scrambles.

One of those situations that stung the most was during the bowl game. I believe it was a 4th down situation late in the game, Flowers scrambles, receiver was wide open but the ball was thrown waaay over his head. We then went on to lose the game. 

[MMW]

13 minutes ago, HOTbull19 said:

One of those situations that stung the most was during the bowl game. I believe it was a 4th down situation late in the game, Flowers scrambles, receiver was wide open but the ball was thrown waaay over his head. We then went on to lose the game. 

It almost sounds like you are blaming that one throw (under pressure after being flushed out of the pocket) as the reason we lost that game.  

I will assume you are not trying to say that because it would be kind of silly.

[bullsbucsfan426]

You're right, but Flowers looked better in spring, and I think he really is dedicated to working on his game and getting better. He got better and better as the year went on. Here's an example-he was bad against Maryland, which ended up having a horrid pass defense. He was amazing against Cincy, which also had a very bad pass defense. 

I recall the TD pass he had to mack against Temple, and that was an "on the move, play breaks down" kind of pass. So we know he's capable of it, just needs to work on it more. 

[footnfan1]

QF is a complete game changer. If he gathers a 5-15 yard passing game, that's the conference title. He needs to stay healthy though, people will have  a target on hos back and chest. 

[raptorcj]

3 hours ago, HOTbull19 said:

One of those situations that stung the most was during the bowl game. I believe it was a 4th down situation late in the game, Flowers scrambles, receiver was wide open but the ball was thrown waaay over his head. We then went on to lose the game. 

I know the deflating feeling you're talking about, but man, we wouldn't even have finished within 10 if it hadn't been for QF. Not to mention it's really unlikely (IMO) that we'd have made a bowl game without him in the first place.