FanPost

Offensive Play Calling

One may look at the offensive stats Syracuse put up on Saturday and think "wow what a powerful offense". Sure, Nassib broke the record for receiving yards and completions in a game...but I saw a MAJOR problem that needs to be addressed now, before its too late.

The reason why Nassib had so many completions is because he threw the ball either to receivers at the line of scrimmage or in the flat the majority of the time. I see where Hackett is going with this one. He wants our receiver (or RB for a screen play) to simply get the ball, and then be able to beat the defenders on the ground.

This only works if your offense is bigger, faster, and stronger than the defense. This forces every single one of our offensive players to make their correct block or the play is screwed. Going up against a decent Northwestern allowed Nassib to throw the ball sideways, let our receivers block, and give the guy with the ball a chance to make some moves. Going up against USC, THIS WILL KILL US. Their defense will be too fast and too strong for us to rely on our offensive blockers to pave the way for our receiver to dance around.

I noticed that we started putting points on the board when we threw the ball DOWN THE FIELD, with some great throws to our TE's and WR's and it really opened up our offense. I can't stand to watch Nassib throwing the ball sideways anymore, and maybe the "most completions ever in a Big East game" should be more of a worry about our play calling than a plus. My opinion is almost any "solid" quarterback could have made that many completions if their O-coordinator planned a million passes to receivers behind the line of scrimmage or within 2-3 yards of the line of scrimmage.

I don't want to discount what Nassib did, as he proved himself being a solid leader. But, if we don't start playing forward instead of sideways, faster defenses like USC and Mizzou will clobber us.

I'd really love everyones opinion on this. Let's hope to shock the world on Sat....Go Orange.