Henry James like the Colt’s hands under his rear
In case you haven’t noticed, we like the shotgun formation. Suzanne Halliburton reported in the off-season that last year’s team lined up in the shotgun 80% of the time IIRC. I’d love to find a link to the article but I can’t find it without diving through the 46 arrest reports. Where have all the "good kids who graduate" gone? We miss you, Trey Bates.
ChrisApplewhite made me do it
In Orlando, we lined up in the shotgun on 69 of our 90 offensive plays (77%) and gained 333 yards (220 passing and 113 rushing) for about 4.8 yards per play.
We actually ran the ball from under center on 19 of the 21 plays (tendencies, anyone?). That’s why the double move Shipley made after we ran play action from under center was so wide open in the fourth quarter.
In those 21 snaps where we lined up with Colt under Center, we managed 155 yards (39 passing and 116 rushing) or 7.4 yards per play. Amazingly, ten of those 21 plays lost a yard, gained a yard, or were stopped for no gain. Folks, that is not getting a push from your front unit including both tight ends.
86% of our yards from under center came from five plays:
- 9 yard end around (it is not a reverse) to Shipley in Q1
- 28 yard run on second and two from Jamaal Charles in Q3
- 38 yard play action pass to Shipley mentioned above in Q4
- 46 yard run on first and ten from Jamaal Charles in Q4
- 12 yard run on second and seven from Jamaal Charles in Q4 where he fumbled while running out the clock
That is known as a recipe for disaster.
Plus/Minus
Everyone seemed to enjoy last week’s Plus/Minus on the linebackers so I decided to resurrect it.
This week, I decided to do it a little differently as I am going to attribute series to linebacker groupings as opposed to individual players. Generally speaking, we plug our LB groups in for a possession and they play out the possession come hell or high water, so I broke the groups by possessions this week. The only possession I noticed the LBs rotate out was where they went for it on fourth down and didn’t convert in the third quarter. Muck was replaced by Derry at some point in that possession. He could have been dinged up and I missed him leave the game.
UCF ran 67 offensive plays for 326 total yards for an average of 4.9 yards per play in 16 possessions. They went "three and out" on 7 of the twelve possessions (58.3%). That is outstanding. In addition, there were two other possessions were UCF’s offense went "three and fumble" and the Pick 6 possession.
It was those pesky other 6 possessions where the defense really got hurt (4 TDs, FG, and turnover on downs after driving for 8 plays and 37 yards).
This week Muck and Norton did not play together on the field (save special teams). If one was in, the other was watching. That is a departure from the TCU game.
The starting backers (Bobino, Derry, and Killebrew) got 8 of the 16 possessions as a group. Bobino and Derry got a 9th possession as the lone backers in the fourth quarter when we started and stayed in a nickel package.
Those 9 starter possessions break down as follows:
Pick 6 - well done
4 "three and outs - outstanding"
1 forced fumble; no recovery
4 TDs
40 plays for 244 yards (6.1 ypp)
Net -22 points
The Norton, Killebrew, and Derry group had four possessions and all were three plays long. Two "three and out" and two "three and fumble". Twelve plays for 43 yards (3.6 ypp), and two turnovers. Net 0 points.
The Muck, Bobino, and Killebrew group had two possessions (one of which where Muck was pulled at some point) which resulted in a FG and a turnover on downs. Thirteen plays for 68 yards (5.2 ypp). Net 3 points.
The Muck, Bobino, and Derry group had one possession which was a "three and out". 3 plays for 1 yard. Net 0 points.
Maybe that is why Mack Brown is having a hard time getting Muckelroy and Norton snaps…they just keep coming off the field in 3-play increments.
"We would still like to play Jared [Norton] and Roddrick [Muckelroy] more. We are hoping that we will get to start rotating like we wanted to and that is every other series with the guys."
I realize the plays are off by one and the total yards are off by 30, but someone needs to tell the official score keeper that one. The numbers do not lie.
Lies, damned lies, and statistics