Vanilla Offense

[dgtatu01]

After 3 games this year and 2 offensive coordinators who were both gurus and very creative before they came here, I am convinced that Coach Stoops is meddling in the offense. We are so vanilla both on the plays we are running and our play calling timing. Our run is so easy to stop because everyone knows we are running on 1st down.

This is frustrating, but the most frustrating thing to me is the number of times we run on 2nd and long. That's fine from time to time, but when we keep picking up 3 or 4 yards on 2nd and long we still have 3rd and long and then we are ion a bad spot.

I don't think Towles is great, but he is better than he looked last night. Our play calling is just making us easy to defend. We are constantly playing ourselves into easily defended positions.

 

[KWilt43atbuzz]

Farrrrrr Stoops and Farrrrr Calipari too!!!

 

[UK till Death]

Towles is better than he showed?

Based on what evidence, precisely?

He has sucked for 9 games now.

 

[johnnyrockets]

Last night at least, I'm not sure what you wanted Dawson to do. They were struggling to run because UF was dominating us on the line. UF was up in press coverage frequency, making bubble screens and slants pretty tough to call, and longer-developing plays meant Towles had to have time in the pocket, which he frequently didn't. What plays were on, really? I, like others, do wish we'd have seen another screen or two. I think they called one in the fourth quarter off play action, and when Towles came up from the simulated handoff he got swallowed up.

The couple of times PT got time back there, he made some decent throws. I'm aware he also missed some throws. He made a big time play on Baker's drop to avoid the sack and deliver the ball on a dime from 40 yards.

 

[calsgals]

With how poorly our O-line played I thought Dawson called a good game.

 

[catrecruit]

With how poorly our O-line played I thought Dawson called a good game.

SO was our O-Line better last year when we put up 30 ?

 

[Blueaz]

I think (hope) the vanilla play calling the last two years is attributed to very low confidence in execution by our the QB. Anything else, is cause for concern

 

[ManitouDan]

Insult to good Vanilla .

 

[calsgals]

SO was our O-Line better last year when we put up 30 ?

I didn't say they were better, if you go back and read what I wrote I said with how poorly they PLAYED. Last year is irrelevant.

 

[wildcatglenn]

Part of it is zero confidence in Patrick to throw down the middle. We saw why tonight. He is very inaccurate in the middle. If that is the case I think you have to give the backup a shot and see what he can do. But yes the play calling is very vanilla and predictable

 

[Get Bucket$]

With how poorly our O-line played I thought Dawson called a good game.

What specifically did you like about our play calling? How can someone have called a good game when we had approximately 250 yards of total offense?

 

[calsgals]

Part of it is zero confidence in Patrick to throw down the middle. We saw why tonight. He is very inaccurate in the middle. If that is the case I think you have to give the backup a shot and see what he can do. But yes the play calling is very vanilla and predictable

I agree to an extent. Our O-line couldn't protect, on the rare occasion they did PT was inaccurate or the receivers dropped passes. I'll use the term loosely because by no means is not scoring a TD successful but the only glimmer of success we had was from our running game. The play calling may have been predictable but when that's the only thing somewhat working..

 

[johnnyrockets]

What specifically did you like about our play calling? How can someone have called a good game when we had approximately 250 yards of total offense?

I would submit there wasn't an obvious strategy that would have worked against a team that was killing us rushing 4 and playing press coverage with all-conference to All-American corners.

Again, what would people have liked to see? You guys calling for "more slants" act like our WRs could beat their CBs off the LOS for timing patterns. I wanted more screens, then we tried one and PT got eaten alive before he could even look up. I just think we played a defense that was much better than us, and was strong in areas where we are particularly weak. I don't think Dawson was forgetting some obvious answer to what they were doing defensively.

 

[Xception]

If you blame the offensive line then how do you explain the second half at usce or ULL for that matter ? A dynamic first half against usce and your telling me they made adjustments that took everything away to the point that we couldn't get a first down ? Oh penalties I forgot , if you get a few penalties it's expected to never get a first down .

There is a pattern here and you can blame something every Sunday to excuse it but there is a prevalent play it safe approach with a coach and I suspect it's Stoops . Brown came in known for the air raid and ran gut for a year .

 

[sgt4269]

ice ice baby

 

[Smashcat]

Insult to good Vanilla .

 

[BlueTick2]

Receivers dropping good pass doesn't help any QB.

How many drops should have been caught?

 

[dgtatu01]

Farrrrrr Stoops and Farrrrr Calipari too!!!

I'm not saying that. I am critiquing our offense. I think the recruiting and defensive play have improved by leaps and bounds since he arrived. The offense has stayed at the same level. I think we could go .500 in the SEC if we average 24 pts per game this year, but I am not sure we can do that with the offense I have seen this far.

 

[TuckyFan]

Last night at least, I'm not sure what you wanted Dawson to do. They were struggling to run because UF was dominating us on the line. UF was up in press coverage frequency, making bubble screens and slants pretty tough to call, and longer-developing plays meant Towles had to have time in the pocket, which he frequently didn't. What plays were on, really? I, like others, do wish we'd have seen another screen or two. I think they called one in the fourth quarter off play action, and when Towles came up from the simulated handoff he got swallowed up.

The couple of times PT got time back there, he made some decent throws. I'm aware he also missed some throws. He made a big time play on Baker's drop to avoid the sack and deliver the ball on a dime from 40 yards.

How about rolling the pocket? How about a couple of draws or middle screens--plays that make DL with their ears pinned back pay. Those are more attractive options than doing the same thing and expecting different results. Particularly when those same things yield negative results because they play right in to what a defense is doing.

 

[BigBlueManSouthCentralKY]

The play calling seems to be a problem. It was so much alike the first two games. The whole field isn't being used and is too predictable.

 

[Grumpyolddawg]

After 3 games this year and 2 offensive coordinators who were both gurus and very creative before they came here, I am convinced that Coach Stoops is meddling in the offense. We are so vanilla both on the plays we are running and our play calling timing. Our run is so easy to stop because everyone knows we are running on 1st down.

This is frustrating, but the most frustrating thing to me is the number of times we run on 2nd and long. That's fine from time to time, but when we keep picking up 3 or 4 yards on 2nd and long we still have 3rd and long and then we are ion a bad spot.

I don't think Towles is great, but he is better than he looked last night. Our play calling is just making us easy to defend. We are constantly playing ourselves into easily defended positions.

Lots things going on in this thread.

Of course Stools wants to run the ball, contrl the clock and keep the defense on the sideline. Every goo defensive coach knows having the ball is the best way to keep the other team from scoring. I don't think he is controlling play calling but keeps veto power.

Towels struggles with short and medium range passes, he throws a good deep ball. The tea issue is when missed it is usually high, miss high over the middle very often means an not. Is Barker better, no idea myself, but the coaching staff thinks he is and they are them everyday. Now I don't know this about Barker, but our thought to be a starter at an this year has a reputation of enjoying college life a lot more than learning the playbook, so we got a grad transfer. I don't know if this is an issue with Baeker, but he has had some press at UK from off the field events.

OL was an issue last year, Towles took a beating, it is again this year and will continue to be until UK gets OT with length, agility and the feet to handle speed rushers. You think getting the crap knocked out you.time after time doesn't have a negative effect on your play?

Look back at the earlier games, even to last year, he did pretty well last year until the better teams showed up and he started getting hit a lot. And this year the first halves he has looked pretty good,UK had good leads at the have, teams adjusted to get more pressure and hits on him and his play dropped. ANd play much better when they aren't taking a beating.

 

[WayneinSarasota]

Farrrrrr Stoops and Farrrrr Calipari too!!!

 

[Chuckinden]

When a defense takes things away from the offensive scheme, you have to have something else to offer. We just didn't have it.

 

[Soupbean]

With how poorly our O-line played I thought Dawson called a good game.

Can't go long with ya there. I was probably the biggest Dawson promoter coming into this year but have to admit I've been underwhelmed so far. Don't see a style and play calling seems out of sorts and without imagination all three games.

As for last night everyone in the house could see and feel that the rush was a problem yet he never made an adjustment. When you see your line getting beat you don't just say oh well maybe they'll hold up this time. You ADJUST and go to the short hitting pass game. This should be a much bigger part of our game plan anyway IMO with our quick elusive receivers but it's is definitely what you turn to when your QB doesn't have time.

Add to that Patrick is much better when he has first read plays to run like quick outs slants digs etc where he knows where he's going with the ball and can throw in rhythm. When he has to scan the field and pick through options 20 yes downfield he tends to hold it waiting for them to break open and then tries to gun it in there which is why he overthrows so much. Give him short patterns that he can throw to a spot on time and he will look much better and we would have moved it better last night. Disappointed Dawson couldn't see that

 

[Vonburns1]

If you want to blame Stoops for something, blame him for the defense, especially the corners. That's where his focus has been. I don't buy that PT at 6'5" can't pass for slants or TE. What I do blame is 5 step drops which take more time which he didn't have. And oh yeah, the D played great.