Why I'm thrilled we are 9-2 but I'm not going to stop complaining about the offense...

[StormyCOUG42]

Listen, 9-2 is a heck of a record and I'd much rather be here than 2-9... of which the memories of a recent past do not escape me. But here is the thing. I did not expect to be 9-2 DESPITE the offense. This is a Leach run offense... we are supposed to be at or near the top in the conference offensively. Instead, our offense has regressed this season. We are averaging five less points per game, Luke's stats are also down (honestly, he should have broken these PAC-12 records weeks ago) . We are a middle of the road PAC-12 team offensively. Meanwhile, our defense is playing lights out. This is the best defense that I can recall since I attended WSU in the 2000s. This is a lightning-in-a-bottle level defensive effort for the season. I have no doubt that if you put the 2015 and 2016 (pre-Cracraft injury) offenses with this defense, our team would be at least 10-1 if not undefeated and we'd be looking at potentially the unthinkable for a WSU team. I'm not sure we can maintain this level of defensive effectiveness from season to season. I fully expect Grinch to be gone after the season. He deserves either a HC position or a high paying DC position in the SEC. We might be back to needing to put up 40 a game to win next season. So while "waste" probably isnt the right word to use for a 9-2 season... with how our defense has played and how our offense is supposed to be able to play, it almost feels like we are wasting a once in a generation effort by our defense. We won last night. I am thrilled. But our inability to get any sort of consistency on offense is maddening and the frustration is compounded by the fact that this has been a season long problem. Seriously, how do you go +5 in turnovers and only manage to win by 8 points... the fact that Utah even had a desperation attempt to score and tie at the very end is absurd. Our offense allowed them to stay close by not being able to score TDs off of Utah mistakes.

Anyhow, on to the Apple Cup. I hope we crush the Huskies... really, I'll take a one point win... but I'm going to be furious if our defense puts us in a position to win the biggest game of the year and our offense never gives us a chance. A win in Seattle is going to take a complete game in all three phases, which is something I haven't seen much of this season.

 

[GrayOnGray]

As I recall, some of our 10 win seasons had a few ugly wins. Funny though, I really can't remember which ones they were.

 

[Coug90]

As I recall, some of our 10 win seasons had a few ugly wins. Funny though, I really can't remember which ones they were.

Every 10

Listen, 9-2 is a heck of a record and I'd much rather be here than 2-9... of which the memories of a recent past do not escape me. But here is the thing. I did not expect to be 9-2 DESPITE the offense. This is a Leach run offense... we are supposed to be at or near the top in the conference offensively. Instead, our offense has regressed this season. We are averaging five less points per game, Luke's stats are also down (honestly, he should have broken these PAC-12 records weeks ago) . We are a middle of the road PAC-12 team offensively. Meanwhile, our defense is playing lights out. This is the best defense that I can recall since I attended WSU in the 2000s. This is a lightning-in-a-bottle level defensive effort for the season. I have no doubt that if you put the 2015 and 2016 (pre-Cracraft injury) offenses with this defense, our team would be at least 10-1 if not undefeated and we'd be looking at potentially the unthinkable for a WSU team. I'm not sure we can maintain this level of defensive effectiveness from season to season. I fully expect Grinch to be gone after the season. He deserves either a HC position or a high paying DC position in the SEC. We might be back to needing to put up 40 a game to win next season. So while "waste" probably isnt the right word to use for a 9-2 season... with how our defense has played and how our offense is supposed to be able to play, it almost feels like we are wasting a once in a generation effort by our defense. We won last night. I am thrilled. But our inability to get any sort of consistency on offense is maddening and the frustration is compounded by the fact that this has been a season long problem. Seriously, how do you go +5 in turnovers and only manage to win by 8 points... the fact that Utah even had a desperation attempt to score and tie at the very end is absurd. Our offense allowed them to stay close by not being able to score TDs off of Utah mistakes.

Anyhow, on to the Apple Cup. I hope we crush the Huskies... really, I'll take a one point win... but I'm going to be furious if our defense puts us in a position to win the biggest game of the year and our offense never gives us a chance. A win in Seattle is going to take a complete game in all three phases, which is something I haven't seen much of this season.

Agree with everything. We are all thrilled at the results in the W/L column, but the unexpected dominance of this defense and having a 5th year Sr record breaking QB, this is when you need to capitalize and win the conference. But the offense has been so inconsistent (putting it nicely) it still feels like it's a huge uphill climb even being right there. We are currently watching the Palouse Posse and the Air Raid version of a Chad Davis led offense. There were no message boards back in those days, but I can imagine the conversation would have been similar. I hope the defense can continue to carry us, and if Leach and Falk can have an epiphany over the bye and figure their shit out, I will gladly eat my words.

 

[cr8zyncalif]

Guys, it is pretty obvious that our O is simply not as good this year as it was last year. You can slice and dice it any way you want. We had what was probably the most favorable schedule in the history of the program and a returning QB who all would agree had a great year last year. In the PAC that normally means good things. We have won 9 games because of our defense. If we had last year's defense to go with this year's offense, how many games would we have won this year? I'm thinking 6. Maybe 7 if the O really rose to the occasion...I think our offensive approach has been altered a bit this year precisely because the D is so good. We had to hang it out there on O more last year because the D was not so good. I suspect we've overdone the offensive conservatism a bit this year, and that is more on Falk than it is on Leach.

Regardless, I'm not complaining. 9 wins heading in to the Apple Cup is a great season. I will point out, however, that Luke needs to bring last year's mind set into the game if we are going to beat the Huskies. We need full potential from the O to match the D.

 

[ElComanche]

Beating the mutts is possible. However Falk just cannot throw a pick six and take a lot of sacks. He needs to unload the ball and throw it out of bounds if need be.I hope that Falk does not bring last years mindset against the mutts. That was not a great game last year.

 

[earldacoug]

Too many zero or negative gains on 1st and second down. Need to run the ball more on those downs as there is nothing to lose and a lot to gain by running it. Just done understand the stubbornness here by Falk and Leach. Don't tell me Utah always had too many guys in the box, that's BS. There were times there wasn't.

 

[Glad Cougar]

7 carries by Morrow and 2 pass completions to him the entire game. Jamal has shown to be a real good weapon. Should have used him more often....especially at 2nd and 3 or 3rd and 2. There should be no reason to have to throw the ball 69 times in a game that WSU led for the entire duration.

Having said that, some of the usual criticism of Falk isn't really backed by evidence in this game. He was sacked only once, I distinctly remember him getting off at least 4 passes when it looked like he was going to be sacked (the nifty, on the run, forward flip on a scramble was something I've never seen from Luke) and as someone mentioned, the pass to Patmon should have been a TD. My biggest criticism was his reluctance to call more running plays. I don't put all that on Falk, Leach is the coach and can ultimately influence the game plan.

Glad Cougar

 

[Flatlandcoug]

The talk of running the ball makes sense except for the fact that with the way that Leach has his QB's run the offense, Utah was taking away the run. According to what I've seen, an Air Raid QB is supposed to count the number of opposing players in the box. Any time it is 6 or more, you are supposed to pass because hypothetically, you should have gaps in coverage due to man on man situations. Utah on defense would put 6 guys in the box and then drop two of them into coverage. Occasionally, they would blitz linebackers who acted like they were going to stay in coverage. They mixed it up enough to make it difficult to judge what they were going to do. Utah happens to have a reputation for good defense overall and their defensive backs were pretty damned good for the most part.

Unfortunately, our offensive line continues to struggle with the blitz and Morrow got absolutely dumptrucked on at least one occasion, making it hard for Luke to make any kind of decent play when they blitzed. As I said in another thread, it's obvious that too many people on this board struggle with the idea that the other teams are trying too. I do think that Luke (and Leach?) should have been calling more plays with slant routes or drag routes across the middle because it seemed to me that we could have made a living off those. We had some but I would have called it every down until Utah quit blitzing. I do agree that sometimes, we should run the ball even when the numbers aren't there just to keep Utah honest.

I do like the comments about negative or no yardage plays. At one point, half of Utah's plays resulted in negative plays. Was that because they failed to execute or was our defense playing well? Perspective can be fickle.

 

[Glad Cougar]

Every 10

Agree with everything. We are all thrilled at the results in the W/L column, but the unexpected dominance of this defense and having a 5th year Sr record breaking QB, this is when you need to capitalize and win the conference. But the offense has been so inconsistent (putting it nicely) it still feels like it's a huge uphill climb even being right there. We are currently watching the Palouse Posse and the Air Raid version of a Chad Davis led offense. There were no message boards back in those days, but I can imagine the conversation would have been similar. I hope the defense can continue to carry us, and if Leach and Falk can have an epiphany over the bye and figure their shit out, I will gladly eat my words.

Not an unreasonable post, but from a historical perspective, under Chad Davis in 1994, WSU had SIX games in which it scored one TD or less. To compare Falk with Davis doesn't seem appropriate, IMO.

Glad Cougar

 

[FootballJunkie101]

Listen, 9-2 is a heck of a record and I'd much rather be here than 2-9... of which the memories of a recent past do not escape me. But here is the thing. I did not expect to be 9-2 DESPITE the offense. This is a Leach run offense... we are supposed to be at or near the top in the conference offensively. Instead, our offense has regressed this season. We are averaging five less points per game, Luke's stats are also down (honestly, he should have broken these PAC-12 records weeks ago) . We are a middle of the road PAC-12 team offensively. Meanwhile, our defense is playing lights out. This is the best defense that I can recall since I attended WSU in the 2000s. This is a lightning-in-a-bottle level defensive effort for the season. I have no doubt that if you put the 2015 and 2016 (pre-Cracraft injury) offenses with this defense, our team would be at least 10-1 if not undefeated and we'd be looking at potentially the unthinkable for a WSU team. I'm not sure we can maintain this level of defensive effectiveness from season to season. I fully expect Grinch to be gone after the season. He deserves either a HC position or a high paying DC position in the SEC. We might be back to needing to put up 40 a game to win next season. So while "waste" probably isnt the right word to use for a 9-2 season... with how our defense has played and how our offense is supposed to be able to play, it almost feels like we are wasting a once in a generation effort by our defense. We won last night. I am thrilled. But our inability to get any sort of consistency on offense is maddening and the frustration is compounded by the fact that this has been a season long problem. Seriously, how do you go +5 in turnovers and only manage to win by 8 points... the fact that Utah even had a desperation attempt to score and tie at the very end is absurd. Our offense allowed them to stay close by not being able to score TDs off of Utah mistakes.

Anyhow, on to the Apple Cup. I hope we crush the Huskies... really, I'll take a one point win... but I'm going to be furious if our defense puts us in a position to win the biggest game of the year and our offense never gives us a chance. A win in Seattle is going to take a complete game in all three phases, which is something I haven't seen much of this season.

Agree the offense hasn't been perfect but what's up with the Wazzu's DB's holding and grabbing the WR's? Seems to me the DB's are not being taught sound coverage technique. CB #4 was called for holding twice and was holding on the play when he gave up a TD yesterday. I would be more concerned about the chronic holding problems by the Wazzu DB's at this point. When your defense gives up 514 yards to Arizona with most coming up the gut on running plays there's a major glitch in your defense preparation and or philosophy.

 

[WASH ST A&M FAN]

Looks like we are 12th Ranked Defense in the Nation & #2 in Pac12.

But I’m sure you knew this Mr. Junkie101

https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/stat/opponent-yards-per-game

 

[dgibbons]

Agree the offense hasn't been perfect but what's up with the Wazzu's DB's holding and grabbing the WR's? Seems to me the DB's are not being taught sound coverage technique. CB #4 was called for holding twice and was holding on the play when he gave up a TD yesterday. I would be more concerned about the chronic holding problems by the Wazzu DB's at this point. When your defense gives up 514 yards to Arizona with most coming up the gut on running plays there's a major glitch in your defense preparation and or philosophy.

Right....

 

[How_did_this_happen?]

Listen, 9-2 is a heck of a record and I'd much rather be here than 2-9... of which the memories of a recent past do not escape me. But here is the thing. I did not expect to be 9-2 DESPITE the offense. This is a Leach run offense... we are supposed to be at or near the top in the conference offensively. Instead, our offense has regressed this season. We are averaging five less points per game, Luke's stats are also down (honestly, he should have broken these PAC-12 records weeks ago) . We are a middle of the road PAC-12 team offensively. Meanwhile, our defense is playing lights out. This is the best defense that I can recall since I attended WSU in the 2000s. This is a lightning-in-a-bottle level defensive effort for the season. I have no doubt that if you put the 2015 and 2016 (pre-Cracraft injury) offenses with this defense, our team would be at least 10-1 if not undefeated and we'd be looking at potentially the unthinkable for a WSU team. I'm not sure we can maintain this level of defensive effectiveness from season to season. I fully expect Grinch to be gone after the season. He deserves either a HC position or a high paying DC position in the SEC. We might be back to needing to put up 40 a game to win next season. So while "waste" probably isnt the right word to use for a 9-2 season... with how our defense has played and how our offense is supposed to be able to play, it almost feels like we are wasting a once in a generation effort by our defense. We won last night. I am thrilled. But our inability to get any sort of consistency on offense is maddening and the frustration is compounded by the fact that this has been a season long problem. Seriously, how do you go +5 in turnovers and only manage to win by 8 points... the fact that Utah even had a desperation attempt to score and tie at the very end is absurd. Our offense allowed them to stay close by not being able to score TDs off of Utah mistakes.

Anyhow, on to the Apple Cup. I hope we crush the Huskies... really, I'll take a one point win... but I'm going to be furious if our defense puts us in a position to win the biggest game of the year and our offense never gives us a chance. A win in Seattle is going to take a complete game in all three phases, which is something I haven't seen much of this season.

Can you condense that?

 

[CougPatrol]

We are all thrilled at the results in the W/L column, but the unexpected dominance of this defense and having a 5th year Sr record breaking QB, this is when you need to capitalize and win the conference. But the offense has been so inconsistent (putting it nicely) it still feels like it's a huge uphill climb even being right there. We are currently watching the Palouse Posse and the Air Raid version of a Chad Davis led offense.

OK, slow down.

1) This is not the Palouse Posse defense. Herc is the best WSU defensive player of all time, but our defense as a whole can be beaten. The Posse couldn’t.

2) Chad Davis? Did you just compare this offense to Chad Davis? I’ll give you a pass since you likely werent old enough and escaped having to sit through the 94 season, but I wasn’t so fortunate.

The 94 offense would have scored fewer than 15 points against Boise St, USC, Oregon, Cal, Colorado, Stanford, Utah, and Utah. Trust me.

 

[CougPatrol]

Right....

Did you just respond with “right” on a football message board?

Get out!

 

[YakiCoug]

As I recall, some of our 10 win seasons had a few ugly wins. Funny though, I really can't remember which ones they were.

The Arizona game in '97. Oregon in '02 (Gesser handed the ducks two TDs). The '03 win over the Beavs had more turnovers than a bakery. There were others we were lucky to get out of Dodge with a win.

 

[CougPatrol]

The Arizona game in '97. Oregon in '02 (Gesser handed the ducks two TDs). The '03 win over the Beavs had more turnovers than a bakery. There were others we were lucky to get out of Dodge with a win.

The Illinois game in 1997 was a stinker.

 

[YakiCoug]

The Illinois game in 1997 was a stinker.

As was the '97 game that fright night in Tempe.

 

[CougPatrol]

As was the '97 game that fright night in Tempe.

Yea, that game was a lot like the Arizona game this year. That ASU team we played, on that given night in Tempe, was a top-10 program playing in front of an electric home crowd. UA this year isn’t at that level, but Tate is an amazing athlete, and it’s really tough for anyone to stop them in Tucson.

 

[Glad Cougar]

OK, slow down.

1) This is not the Palouse Posse defense. Herc is the best WSU defensive player of all time, but our defense as a whole can be beaten. The Posse couldn’t.

2) Chad Davis? Did you just compare this offense to Chad Davis? I’ll give you a pass since you likely werent old enough and escaped having to sit through the 94 season, but I wasn’t so fortunate.

The 94 offense would have scored fewer than 15 points against Boise St, USC, Oregon, Cal, Colorado, Stanford, Utah, and Utah. Trust me.

CP, just want to make sure you saw my post. I'll repeat, the 94 Palouse Posse team has 6 games where the Chad Davis offense scored 1 TD or less. Amazing that anyone would compare Falk to Davis.

Glad Cougar

 

[GrayOnGray]

Every 10

Agree with everything. We are all thrilled at the results in the W/L column, but the unexpected dominance of this defense and having a 5th year Sr record breaking QB, this is when you need to capitalize and win the conference. But the offense has been so inconsistent (putting it nicely) it still feels like it's a huge uphill climb even being right there. We are currently watching the Palouse Posse and the Air Raid version of a Chad Davis led offense. There were no message boards back in those days, but I can imagine the conversation would have been similar. I hope the defense can continue to carry us, and if Leach and Falk can have an epiphany over the bye and figure their shit out, I will gladly eat my words.

Chad Davis?

 

[How_did_this_happen?]

CP, just want to make sure you saw my post. I'll repeat, the 94 Palouse Posse team has 6 games where the Chad Davis offense scored 1 TD or less. Amazing that anyone would compare Falk to Davis.

Glad Cougar

Agree. No comparison. Still somewhat upset that Price couldn't at least get us an AVERAGE QB that season for that defense. We should have finished in the top 5.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

OK, slow down.

1) This is not the Palouse Posse defense. Herc is the best WSU defensive player of all time, but our defense as a whole can be beaten. The Posse couldn’t.

2) Chad Davis? Did you just compare this offense to Chad Davis? I’ll give you a pass since you likely werent old enough and escaped having to sit through the 94 season, but I wasn’t so fortunate.

The 94 offense would have scored fewer than 15 points against Boise St, USC, Oregon, Cal, Colorado, Stanford, Utah, and Utah. Trust me.

I actually appreciate when someone throws out a comparison between Falk and Davis. At that point, you know that they've lost all perspective and you can freely ignore anything else they write on the subject.

 

[YakiCoug]

Agree. No comparison. Still somewhat upset that Price couldn't at least get us an AVERAGE QB that season for that defense. We should have finished in the top 5.

He did, but Ryan Leaf was redshirting in '94.

 

[How_did_this_happen?]

He did, but Ryan Leaf was redshirting in '94.

No other options? What a colossal missed opportunity.

 

[Cougatron]

it's official. We are a spoiled program.

#3 in the nation in passing. top 25% percentile in offense.

Where was the defense against Arizona? It wasn't the offense letting them blow by for those big play touchdowns repeatedly?

The offense has its issues, but the defense has its hiccups at times as well, but what people are confusing is the fact that we have 2 good units now. Special teams would be there if we had a punter.

It's not that the offense is completely terrible. It's that the offense sputters at times AND we have good play on the defense.

Before because the defense wasn't as good the offense really stood out as carrying the team.

Now it looks like the defense is carrying us (which it is in some cases yes), but they are supposed to stop the other team. They are supposed to try and force turnovers. We finally are seeing it and people are now looking at other areas to critique.

We need more consistent play on offense, and we need better punting etc. People can see that, but don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

 

[StormyCOUG42]

we are #3 in passing because we throw it more than anyone in the country (128 more attempts than the second team). It's an inflated statistic. We are also #129 in rushing because we never run the ball. We are #36 in PPG which puts us a little outside the top 25 percentile. Its 6th in the PAC 12... so we are an average PAC 12 offense. For comparison we were #18 in PPG in 2016... and #2 in the PAC 12.

As for the Arizona game, we played well defensively in the first half. We got down big and the defense got gassed and they started to press. Things just got messy in the second half. I still believe that the defense would have played better if the offense hadn't always forced the D to save their butts.

 

[YakiCoug]

No other options? What a colossal missed opportunity.

Price was redshirting him for the NFL...

 

[YakiCoug]

we are #3 in passing because we throw it more than anyone in the country (128 more attempts than the second team). It's an inflated statistic. We are also #129 in rushing because we never run the ball. We are #36 in PPG which puts us a little outside the top 25 percentile. Its 6th in the PAC 12... so we are an average PAC 12 offense. For comparison we were #18 in PPG in 2016... and #2 in the PAC 12.

As for the Arizona game, we played well defensively in the first half. We got down big and the defense got gassed and they started to press. Things just got messy in the second half. I still believe that the defense would have played better if the offense hadn't always forced the D to save their butts.

And Arizona gives up the fewest sacks because its O-line is impenetrable... . Every team is a system team.

 

[grahamcoug]

Agree. No comparison. Still somewhat upset that Price couldn't at least get us an AVERAGE QB that season for that defense. We should have finished in the top 5.

You are right. We had a hard time moving the ball on offense in 94. The defense was quite frustrated with the offense. Polar opposites that year between d and o.

 

[cr8zyncalif]

And Arizona gives up the fewest sacks because its O-line is impenetrable... . Every team is a system team.

Yaki, it may be that my sarcasm meter is not properly adjusted. But Arizona's O line is far from impenetrable. On the other hand, their QB is hard to catch, and that tends to lead to few official sacks. Lots of busted plays...but few sacks. UA's QB is possibly the best D1 QB this year in terms of making lemonade from lemons when he is forced to scramble. Give him props for that.

 

[Coug90]

Too many zero or negative gains on 1st and second down. Need to run the ball more on those downs as there is nothing to lose and a lot to gain by running it. Just done understand the stubbornness here by Falk and Leach. Don't tell me Utah always had too many guys in the box, that's BS. There were times there wasn't.

Even if they were in the box they were on their heels ready to bail because we weren't even trying to run. UW will do the same damn thing. I always heard Leach was a master of adjustments and would routinely come out after half time and run teams out of the stadium. Haven't seen that happen in a long time.

Btw I know he is offensive coordinator...anyone in the know does he have eyes in the press box relaying anything to him? Because it seems like both Falk and Leach are clueless as to what the defense is doing and finding their weaknesses, and that might help.

 

[grahamcoug]

You are right. We had a hard time moving the ball on offense in 94. The defense was quite frustrated with the offense. Polar opposites that year between d and o.

The d held its opponents to about 74 yards rushing and 149 yards passing. The offense averaged 201 passing and about 80 yards rushing. We had 10 receiving touchdowns that year.

 

[Coug90]

OK, slow down.

1) This is not the Palouse Posse defense. Herc is the best WSU defensive player of all time, but our defense as a whole can be beaten. The Posse couldn’t.

2) Chad Davis? Did you just compare this offense to Chad Davis? I’ll give you a pass since you likely werent old enough and escaped having to sit through the 94 season, but I wasn’t so fortunate.

The 94 offense would have scored fewer than 15 points against Boise St, USC, Oregon, Cal, Colorado, Stanford, Utah, and Utah. Trust me.

Fair enough, and you are correct I did not watch those games...it was a bit of an off the cuff comparison..it was also a different era of football so points and passing yards are poor comparisons. Point is the defense is dominating and the offense is crapping their drawers.

 

[Cougatron]

we are #3 in passing because we throw it more than anyone in the country (128 more attempts than the second team). It's an inflated statistic. We are also #129 in rushing because we never run the ball. We are #36 in PPG which puts us a little outside the top 25 percentile. Its 6th in the PAC 12... so we are an average PAC 12 offense. For comparison we were #18 in PPG in 2016... and #2 in the PAC 12.

As for the Arizona game, we played well defensively in the first half. We got down big and the defense got gassed and they started to press. Things just got messy in the second half. I still believe that the defense would have played better if the offense hadn't always forced the D to save their butts.

We are #3 in passing because we run the AIR raid. It's not the ground raid. It's the AIR raid.

Who checks to the run? Luke does.

You know who is #1 in rushing... NAVY.... because Navy runs...the option... where is Navy in passing? #128 because they run the option.

It's almost as if certain offenses are geared certain ways...

But what you also fail to actually realize is that we have 279 sack yards which negatively effects our rushing.

Here's our running back averages

Morrow 6.3 ypc
Williams 4.28 ypc
Wicks 4.88 ypc
Harrington 4.00 ypc.

Every single one of our backs in over 4 ypc. Every single one.

And without sacks we are over 1000 yards rushing.

But .wait.. there is more..

The RBs have 850 yards receiving.

So in total the RBs have almost 2500 yards of offense.
And guess .what.. the receivers have about 3500 of offense receiving.

Of the 6000 yars of offense the WRs and the RBs are about 60/40

The things that are bothering us this year is

Luke is down 4% in completion percentage
Luke is down . .4 yards per attempt

We've allowed 10 more sacks this year than last year.

Last year total we had 2.23 sacks per game
This year we have 3.5 sacks per game

Rushing we rushed last year for 27 carries per game this year 25.

So in the grand scheme of things...

We've rushed a little less
We haven't protected as well
We've completely passes slightly less.

So the QB is the same.

But we were missing the two receivers he was most familiar with
And we are missing a couple lineman from last year

Those slight tweaks explain the fluctuation.

Luke has always been a guy to be a little too cautious. It's always been his flaw, but unless you are like brand new to Cougar football and haven't been following it closely...i hate to break it to you but this is exactly what we have been doing with Falk.

Will more aggressive play produce better results? yeah probably, but as we've seen with Hilinksi / Halliday that comes with its drawbacks as well (Picks / mistakes)

 

[YakiCoug]

Yaki, it may be that my sarcasm meter is not properly adjusted. But Arizona's O line is far from impenetrable. On the other hand, their QB is hard to catch, and that tends to lead to few official sacks. Lots of busted plays...but few sacks. UA's QB is possibly the best D1 QB this year in terms of making lemonade from lemons when he is forced to scramble. Give him props for that.

Pardon my being satirical. That was my point: UA's read option is designed to not give up sacks, especially when its point man is a stud runner.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

We are #3 in passing because we run the AIR raid. It's not the ground raid. It's the AIR raid.

Who checks to the run? Luke does.

You know who is #1 in rushing... NAVY.... because Navy runs...the option... where is Navy in passing? #128 because they run the option.

It's almost as if certain offenses are geared certain ways...

But what you also fail to actually realize is that we have 279 sack yards which negatively effects our rushing.

Here's our running back averages

Morrow 6.3 ypc
Williams 4.28 ypc
Wicks 4.88 ypc
Harrington 4.00 ypc.

Every single one of our backs in over 4 ypc. Every single one.

And without sacks we are over 1000 yards rushing.

But .wait.. there is more..

The RBs have 850 yards receiving.

So in total the RBs have almost 2500 yards of offense.
And guess .what.. the receivers have about 3500 of offense receiving.

Of the 6000 yars of offense the WRs and the RBs are about 60/40

The things that are bothering us this year is

Luke is down 4% in completion percentage
Luke is down . .4 yards per attempt

We've allowed 10 more sacks this year than last year.

Last year total we had 2.23 sacks per game
This year we have 3.5 sacks per game

Rushing we rushed last year for 27 carries per game this year 25.

So in the grand scheme of things...

We've rushed a little less
We haven't protected as well
We've completely passes slightly less.

So the QB is the same.

But we were missing the two receivers he was most familiar with
And we are missing a couple lineman from last year

Those slight tweaks explain the fluctuation.

Luke has always been a guy to be a little too cautious. It's always been his flaw, but unless you are like brand new to Cougar football and haven't been following it closely...i hate to break it to you but this is exactly what we have been doing with Falk.

Will more aggressive play produce better results? yeah probably, but as we've seen with Hilinksi / Halliday that comes with its drawbacks as well (Picks / mistakes)

Goddammit Tron.....don't make me agree with you. That was a seriously good writeup.

 

[CougEd]

Agree. No comparison. Still somewhat upset that Price couldn't at least get us an AVERAGE QB that season for that defense. We should have finished in the top 5.

He did but it would have cost WSU Ryan Leaf so Price didn’t sign the player .

 

[How_did_this_happen?]

He did but it would have cost WSU Ryan Leaf so Price didn’t sign the player .

Maybe.

 

[CougEd]

Maybe.

Maybe what ?