Point Spread vs. Notre Dame

[puc86]

6 minutes ago, John Lewis said:

Just my opinion here, but could it be that we didn't want to show much from our passing game just yet?

One thing that I would say is an improvement was getting our speed out into space, which wasn't the case last season.

It could be but when you are trying to go from zero to something it would not be uncommon to want to practice some of that in a game situation. I do not think we should have ran through every play in our book but we should have been able to see that there was a noticeable change in direction in the area with the most room for improvement especially when it coincides with the specialty of the new head coach. 

[puc86]

12 minutes ago, NewEnglandBull said:

What is your quantified definition of improvement this week? I would like to know your benchmarks so you don’t come back after the game whining about CJS sucking after the #7 team in the nation blows our doors off...then finishing with your usual statement about 07.

It is probably going to be a rather nuanced improvement but if I get to anchor the argument strictly on stats I would go with 500yds, 4tds and 0 interceptions so that we could settle somewhere around 225-250 yds 2tds and an INT but as Football is a tad bit more art than science you know it when you see it. This last game? By sight or by stats I know what improvement looks like and that ain't it chief. 

[John Lewis]

6 minutes ago, puc86 said:

It could be but when you are trying to go from zero to something it would not be uncommon to want to practice some of that in a game situation. I do not think we should have ran through every play in our book but we should have been able to see that there was a noticeable change in direction in the area with the most room for improvement especially when it coincides with the specialty of the new head coach. 

There was noticeable change in the offense, which is good on all fronts. We ran a few different passing plays that worked well for Jordan. I would expect to see much more this weekend, as I would expect to see our speed used more in space, however we can get our play makers there.

[chapelbull]

Jordan McCloud was still the quarterback, the improvement wasn't going to be over the top.   How about we ended up with all 3 quarterbacks able to leave the field under their own power for a step in the right direction?

 

And really, why is anyone responding to puc on this topic?

[puc86]

Just now, chapelbull said:

Jordan McCloud was still the quarterback, the improvement wasn't going to be over the top.   How about we ended up with all 3 quarterbacks able to leave the field under their own power for a step in the right direction?

 

And really, why is anyone responding to puc on this topic?

That is actually some tangible improvement especially with the lineman being out. Because I am an enjoyable conversationalist and despite people thinking they enjoy echo chambers once they achieve them they recognize it is not quite as enjoyable as they imagined. 

[NewEnglandBull]

17 minutes ago, puc86 said:

It could be but when you are trying to go from zero to something it would not be uncommon to want to practice some of that in a game situation. I do not think we should have ran through every play in our book but we should have been able to see that there was a noticeable change in direction in the area with the most room for improvement especially when it coincides with the specialty of the new head coach. 

No spring practice, 4 weeks of contact...no way they have even had near enough time to practice their entire playbook. CJS has even said this on multiple occasions. You’re trying to get to water from a stone...

Edited September 14, 2020 by NewEnglandBull

[puc86]

2 minutes ago, NewEnglandBull said:

No spring practice, 4 weeks of contact...no way they have even had near enough time to practice their entire playbook. CJS has even said this on multiple occasions. You’re trying to get to water from a stone...

All I have to do is hit it with my staff... I would agree that we did not have enough time to practice our entire playbook in practice and that is why I doubt the hope that what we saw yesterday was holding back for the ND game, we need the practice more than we need to be cloaked in secrecy so it would have made sense to work on some of those improvements in our scrimmage game which would not require executing the whole play book (it just would have been nice to see that the pages exist and can be executed to some degree). 

[TheAccountant]

Another improvement I think we should talk about, was penalties. Granted, there is definitely a lot of room for improvement, but we had 5 penalties for 50 yards. Last season we averaged 8-9 penalties for 71 yards per game. 20 yards may not seem like a lot, but that's 4 offside penalties or 4 false start penalties or a mixture of the two that could be game changing penalties. 

[Rocky Style]

22 minutes ago, chapelbull said:

How about we ended up with all 3 quarterbacks able to leave the field under their own power for a step in the right direction?

This is true. This is an improvement over CCS sending injured players out to get concussed in pointless plays.  

[NewEnglandBull]

4 minutes ago, TheAccountant said:

Another improvement I think we should talk about, was penalties. Granted, there is definitely a lot of room for improvement, but we had 5 penalties for 50 yards. Last season we averaged 8-9 penalties for 71 yards per game. 20 yards may not seem like a lot, but that's 4 offside penalties or 4 false start penalties or a mixture of the two that could be game changing penalties. 

Fewer penalties and no turnovers. That alone will keep us close in AAC games.