Sorry for not posting the thread for live updates but it seemed like the site was having some issues.
Offensive day today, so here's what Shannon Dawson had to say (a lot, so this is only part one):
On if he saw anything different when he watched game film:
Nah. I mean, we just got a little off the third quarter really. Missed some throws that would've put the game out of reach, and just gotta make those plays. Simple. They were there. Is that what you saw?
On what he's worked on with Towles on missing those throws:
He just needs to calm his feet down. There were times when, I think, if you look at the throws we threw vertical that were there that we missed, there were a number of the that were just missed. But there were probably three of them that were bad throws. And so, I don't know, on those three -- I think, one to Juice where he threw the pick, I think that should've been a 75-yard touchdown, but I think he was just trying to be too perfect with it. A lot of the time when a guy's wide open like that -- and he overthrew a couple right before that, so I just think he was like, 'Well, I'm not gonna overthrow him this time.' Well, he underthrew him and he got picked. You just gotta play ball. Understand that when we throw vertical routes -- I mean, we didn't know what they were gonna do defensively, so they come out and stack the box and challenge our receivers. Well, when you challenge our receivers, we're gonna challenge you. And so, the completion percentage nationally, if you watch football across the nation, on vertical routes go down. Around 45 to 50 percent is typically what you complete. You don't complete 80 percent when people man-press you. So with that being said, our completion percentage went down. When we hit, we hit big, and when we didn't, obviously it was a missed opportunity.
Now the problem was more so probably me. I took some shots, probably, when I -- and got us in second and 10 a lot. I don't think I helped the defense a whole lot with my aggressiveness at times. And so I probably have to do a better job of understanding the flow of the game and trying to grind out some first downs at times, but it's hard when they're sitting there giving you exactly what you want and you have a guy that you know can beat him. And so we just got to make the play and we didn't.
On moving on from good or bad plays and just playing the next play:
Absolutely. Even when he threw the pick and came over to the sideline, I told him, I said, 'Forget about it. There's nothing you can do about it now. We'll get the ball back here in a minute.' And then they went down and scored and things got tight, and then he went out there and made a throw that was probably one of the better throws all night. It is what it is. I saw no panic. It was unfortunate to be in that situation, to be honest with you, because the way we were playing overall offensively, we should've put the game out of hand, and we didn't. And so, that's a combination of, I think -- and I don't know if you guys are watching football all across the nation, but there's a lot of people looking sloppy. It's the first game. That's probably got a lot to do with it. And we were playing a team -- you got to give those guys some credit, too. They didn't quit, and they're used to winning. The moment wasn't too big for them and they kept playing and they clawed their way back into it, and then we made some plays at the end that won the game. And we stayed calm, nobody panicked, and we went out there and hit a couple throws and ran the ball in and scored.
I mean, you can view it one of two ways. You can view it negatively, which I think after the game I did. Probably a lot of people did. But after watching the tape I don't know if I would have done anything much different from what they were giving us. I think we were spot on with the way we attacked. We just missed in the third quarter, and we got cold in the third quarter. We missed a couple throws. Not necessarily that they were bad throws. They were just slightly out of reach. And so, you're not going to complete every one of them. I mean you can watch television other than us. Nobody does. So, a couple of them were bad throws. I think he had about four or five bad plays in the game, really, that stuck out. But the bad part about those four or five is they probably were touchdowns. So they kind of really stuck out.
On how Towles responded in practice:
Good. He was fine. I mean, he was fine in that situation. He was fine after the game. He was fine when we watched tape. I mean, it's all about how you approach things. And so to me, I tend to focus on the 90 percent of the stuff he did well. I let other people -- like the people standing around me -- focus on the 5 percent he did bad. So, I try to keep my cup half full.
Offensive day today, so here's what Shannon Dawson had to say (a lot, so this is only part one):
On if he saw anything different when he watched game film:
Nah. I mean, we just got a little off the third quarter really. Missed some throws that would've put the game out of reach, and just gotta make those plays. Simple. They were there. Is that what you saw?
On what he's worked on with Towles on missing those throws:
He just needs to calm his feet down. There were times when, I think, if you look at the throws we threw vertical that were there that we missed, there were a number of the that were just missed. But there were probably three of them that were bad throws. And so, I don't know, on those three -- I think, one to Juice where he threw the pick, I think that should've been a 75-yard touchdown, but I think he was just trying to be too perfect with it. A lot of the time when a guy's wide open like that -- and he overthrew a couple right before that, so I just think he was like, 'Well, I'm not gonna overthrow him this time.' Well, he underthrew him and he got picked. You just gotta play ball. Understand that when we throw vertical routes -- I mean, we didn't know what they were gonna do defensively, so they come out and stack the box and challenge our receivers. Well, when you challenge our receivers, we're gonna challenge you. And so, the completion percentage nationally, if you watch football across the nation, on vertical routes go down. Around 45 to 50 percent is typically what you complete. You don't complete 80 percent when people man-press you. So with that being said, our completion percentage went down. When we hit, we hit big, and when we didn't, obviously it was a missed opportunity.
Now the problem was more so probably me. I took some shots, probably, when I -- and got us in second and 10 a lot. I don't think I helped the defense a whole lot with my aggressiveness at times. And so I probably have to do a better job of understanding the flow of the game and trying to grind out some first downs at times, but it's hard when they're sitting there giving you exactly what you want and you have a guy that you know can beat him. And so we just got to make the play and we didn't.
On moving on from good or bad plays and just playing the next play:
Absolutely. Even when he threw the pick and came over to the sideline, I told him, I said, 'Forget about it. There's nothing you can do about it now. We'll get the ball back here in a minute.' And then they went down and scored and things got tight, and then he went out there and made a throw that was probably one of the better throws all night. It is what it is. I saw no panic. It was unfortunate to be in that situation, to be honest with you, because the way we were playing overall offensively, we should've put the game out of hand, and we didn't. And so, that's a combination of, I think -- and I don't know if you guys are watching football all across the nation, but there's a lot of people looking sloppy. It's the first game. That's probably got a lot to do with it. And we were playing a team -- you got to give those guys some credit, too. They didn't quit, and they're used to winning. The moment wasn't too big for them and they kept playing and they clawed their way back into it, and then we made some plays at the end that won the game. And we stayed calm, nobody panicked, and we went out there and hit a couple throws and ran the ball in and scored.
I mean, you can view it one of two ways. You can view it negatively, which I think after the game I did. Probably a lot of people did. But after watching the tape I don't know if I would have done anything much different from what they were giving us. I think we were spot on with the way we attacked. We just missed in the third quarter, and we got cold in the third quarter. We missed a couple throws. Not necessarily that they were bad throws. They were just slightly out of reach. And so, you're not going to complete every one of them. I mean you can watch television other than us. Nobody does. So, a couple of them were bad throws. I think he had about four or five bad plays in the game, really, that stuck out. But the bad part about those four or five is they probably were touchdowns. So they kind of really stuck out.
On how Towles responded in practice:
Good. He was fine. I mean, he was fine in that situation. He was fine after the game. He was fine when we watched tape. I mean, it's all about how you approach things. And so to me, I tend to focus on the 90 percent of the stuff he did well. I let other people -- like the people standing around me -- focus on the 5 percent he did bad. So, I try to keep my cup half full.
