Game Thread. WSU vs. BSU

[BleedCrimsonandGray]

Yeah I concur there. I don't have the stomach to watch the replay, but from my 12 hour-old hazy memory.:

Seems like on some of the blitzes Mateer had time for a quick read and throw. Was it him or our receivers not adjusting to the obvious blitz? Screen shots didn't show what they were doing. And while he hung in there a few times later in the game, he seems to have "take off" on the front of his mind all the time. Maybe some designed rollouts with a pulling guard would have combatted the blitz, and given him time to read while having the run option there. That one 2nd (?) down play - he rolls, nobody is within 20 yards of him, and he throws a well-covered pass. WTH?

Did our TE(s) even play? There's your blitz outlet.

Seems like we never ran it outside. Pitches, bootlegs, jet sweeps? Why no I formation on some of those 3rd/4th and shorts? The 4th down on our own 28 was horrible. Shit BSU had what - 8 guys on the line? A pitch or bootleg or anything other than straight up the gut. Or maybe just punt.

Aside from the horrible interception, I thought Mateer had a pretty good game throwing. 26/37, 327 yards, 2 TD's. Not a fan of his sidearm fastball motion, but I guess we are stuck with it.

I can see future opponents watching this tape and blitzing the shit out of us after this debacle. kind of the reverse of the Leach-era "drop 8".

That 2nd down play... Williams was wide open and had 3 yards on the guy; Mateer short-armed it and gave the defender time to close. But yeah, he could have just ran for at least 10 as well.

And yeah, blitz recognition and adjustment should be a team effort - Mateer has to know the hot route and the WR has to know and execute it. None of that happened.

Several of the blitzes saw the middle of the field completely vacated - why isn't the inside WR (Z?) running a hard slant or drag to fill that space? Motion to it, make them get out of the blitz. Not sure what Arbuckle had in mind, but just letting the BSU defense pin their ears back and not trying to do anything about it was curious coaching to say the least. Most of the blitzes they were running umbrella 4 man zone over the top, so there was room to nail 5-10 yard routes, but their coaches did a good job of scouting and made the WSU offense play to their weakest attribute. And again, no response from WSU at half time or any other time.

 

[UberCougars]

You’re a f’ing clown that can’t get beyond coaching high school JV.

*freshman team

 

[Coug90]

That 2nd down play... Williams was wide open and had 3 yards on the guy; Mateer short-armed it and gave the defender time to close. But yeah, he could have just ran for at least 10 as well.

And yeah, blitz recognition and adjustment should be a team effort - Mateer has to know the hot route and the WR has to know and execute it. None of that happened.

Several of the blitzes saw the middle of the field completely vacated - why isn't the inside WR (Z?) running a hard slant or drag to fill that space? Motion to it, make them get out of the blitz. Not sure what Arbuckle had in mind, but just letting the BSU defense pin their ears back and not trying to do anything about it was curious coaching to say the least. Most of the blitzes they were running umbrella 4 man zone over the top, so there was room to nail 5-10 yard routes, but their coaches did a good job of scouting and made the WSU offense play to their weakest attribute. And again, no response from WSU at half time or any other time.

If your OC and QB aren’t on the same page that’s how things look. They both had terrible nights last night.

Also effect of a tough environment. Playing behind the chains with pre snap penalties and not being able to make checks and slide protections at the LOS. I’m sure they prepared for it but they handled it poorly.

 

[NMBRCRNCHR]

The old adage of "they ran into a buzzsaw", was quite applicable last night, at least from my perspective.