Napier is a bad OC? BS, and here's why (very long)

Sep 29, 2009, 3:06 AM

Those of you who are saying Napier is a bad OC need to go back and watch our games and analyze them. You SHOW us why he is, as I'm about to show you WHY he's a good OC (and a pretty ###* good one at that) by breaking down the TCU game after going back and breaking it down drive by drive. This is all 11 of our possessions broken down with ACTUAL GAME FILM that I WATCHED (not "but I heard this guy say this who heard it from this guy who sat next to this guy behind the players bench who heard....)

So without further ado, enjoy the read (4 pages long in Word but most of y'all should appreciate this)

1st Drive Recap

We kicked a field goal and scored 3 points. Parker just missed Ford on the sideline for the first down on 3rd and 3. The play calling was EXCELLENT but the execution by the players lacked on about 3 plays. This drive featured a LOT of MISDIRECTION plays (that’s how we moved down the field). This was a 16 play drive. Lots of shorter plays to keep the 3rd downs short, this is a must (we were 10th going into the game in the ACC on 3rd downs, that HAS to get better to win consistently)
Poor Execution or poor play calling? +1 to execution close to the goal line.

2nd Drive Recap

Drive started at 40 yard line do to ball being kicked out of bounds. 3 and out due to a 3rd and 8. The play call on 3rd and 8 was an option out of the shotgun trips formation (trips to left) to the right , IMO the first ### play call of the game. You run to the side with ONE WR to block downfield?! They lined up Hughes out further than he normally plays on the line along with a safety, corner, and two linebackers to that side! This should have been the time to call an audible (especially with Ford in motion to the right because it drew a defender with him).
Poor Execution or poor play calling? +1 to the play calling (3rd down call would have been good on 1st or 2nd down, not 3rd as Danny Kanell as a former NFL quarterback pointed out)

3rd Drive Recap

Defense stopped TCU on 4th and Inches to get us the ball (momentum back in our favor). Drew a late hit penalty on first down to get us 15 yards and another first down. Parker throws a GREAT (more like PERFECT )pass (that’s why he’s the starting QB) that only Palmer can catch and does for a first down to move the chains. Later in the drive on a 2nd down and 10, Spiller gets contact that could have been pass interference on defense but it turned out to be good coverage so the no call was the right decision here ( I was LIVID during the game when this happened but officials made the right call this time). 3rd and 10 run by Parker for 8 yards so 4th and 2. Again we didn’t convert a 3rd down due to it being 3rd and Long (this MUST be fixed in every game from here on out).
Poor execution or poor play calling? +1 to execution

4th Drive Recap

Drive started at the 44 YARD LINE. Brown drops a pass on 2nd and 3 that hit him in the hands and a pass thrown by Parker that only Brown could catch. Made it 3rd and 3. Spiller runs to the left for a first down. 2nd and 6 Parker reads defense, calls it out, throws 3 yard pass to Taylor to make it 3rd AND SHORT. Sweep play makes it 4th and short. Quick snap on 4th and inches and we DON’T GET IT (NO PUSH from the offensive line). BAD play call here, you’re down 7-3 in the 2nd quarter with 4:24 left on the clock, you have the option of a 52 yard field goal or to go for it. YOU TAKE THE #### POINTS! Jackson has PROVEN he can make these no problem. You get the game to a 1 point game and keep playing, this wasn’t your offensive’s last drive of the game, NOT EVEN CLOSE!
Poor execution or Poor play calling? +1 to BOTH, O-line HAS to get that push but the coaches HAVE to take the points!

5th Drive Recap

Even with the ######## call on Spiller not going out of bounds (when he did, CLOCK should have stopped but they kept it running), we scored our only Touchdown of the game (if Parker throws a better ball to Spiller deep it’s a touchdown without having to grind it out running with Spiller scoring anyway but still great play call and good execution).
Poor Execution or poor play calling? Neither for this drive even with the early mistakes due to scoring a touchdown, touchdowns make up for mistakes like the snap infraction.
End of first half, we have the lead 10-7 (shoulda had a shot to make it 13-7)
6th Drive Recap
Start drive at 32 yard line. Dwayne Allen ruined a good play call on 1st and 10 due to not getting free and the pass ends up incomplete. 2nd and 10 Palmer has to make that catch to help Parker out (but Parker didn’t throw a good pass there). 3rd and 10 ball had to be thrown away due to poor poor POOR offensive line protection on that play. 3 and Out
Poor Execution or poor play calling? +1 to poor execution

7th Drive Recap

6 yard run by Spiller on first, 2 yard pass to Palmer on 2nd, makes it 3rd and 4 and Ford catches pass for 1st down, another good throw by Parker (again 3RD AND SHORT KEY HERE). 2nd and 7 good extension of play from Parker and Palmer almost got the catch in bounds. 3rd and 7 (3rd AND LONG) and Parker overthrew Ashe (Parker shoulda made that throw).
Poor Execution or poor play calling? +1 to poor execution

8th Drive Recap

1st and 10 run up to gut to Spiller to make it 2nd and 7. 2nd and 7 was a pass missed by Spiller (right through his hands). 3rd and 7 (3rd and LONG) HB draw to make it 4th and 3 (THIS WAS THE 6TH STRAIGHT FAILED 3RD DOWN CONVERSION ATTEMPT) Conservative play call on 3rd and 7 due to field position around our own 20 and still leading by 3.
Poor execution or poor play calling? +1 to poor execution.

9th Drive Recap

1st and 10 bad throw due to O-LINE not blocking D-line, not Parker’s fault for having 3 guys in his face, just had to get rid of the ball. 2nd and 10 offsides on TCU makes it 2nd and 5, 2nd and 5 great run by Spiller to get 13 yards and a first down to our 42 yard line (Taylor lead blocking for Spiller, GREAT play call and great blocking by the o-line, receivers, and Taylor). 1st and 10 Spiller great run again to the right for 34 yards, 1st and 10 Spiller run to make it 2nd and 3 (he has to come out do to needing a break, he was on the sideline gasping for air after those consecutive runs, he TORCED that TCU defense those last few plays), 2nd and 3 Harper run for 3rd and 3, 3rd and 3 DROPPED PASS by Palmer that would have been a first down (HIT PALMER IN THE #### HANDS!). 4th and 3 we miss a 34 yard kick (coulda been 14-13 or if you go back to my analysis in the first half 16-14 with US being back in the lead….)
Poor execution or poor play calling? Neither, Jackson just missed the kick, but the play calling was GREAT, and the team executed well except for Harper’s 0 yard run (you can thank the O-line for no push on that play) and Palmer dropping the pass on 3rd down before you blame Jackson missing the FG.

10th Drive Recap (the rain REALLY picked up at the start of this drive and was definitely a factor)

1st and 10 Poor Blocking from the line, loss of 5 yards by Spiller, 2nd and 15 screen pass gets us to 3rd and 10, 3rd and 10 pass to Spiller for a 1st down (Great patience while being pressured from his backside for Parker to get the ball to Spiller), 1st and 10 pass deep to Ford incomplete, ford fell down so we don’t know if we he would have caught it or not (good play call though on 1st down after picking up a long 3rd down to try and catch TCU off guard for a TD), 2nd and 10 run for Spiller for 0 yards (O-line got beat AGAIN), 3rd and 10 Parker mishandles snap, gets it back and throws it deep incomplete but Ford got hit before the ball got there so penalty and 15 yards and first down for us, GREAT play out of a bad one by Parker to keep it alive, 1st and 10 Spiller runs for 0 yards, 2nd and 9 pass thrown to Brown for deep first down BUT the OLINE AGAIN f’s it up for us with an illegal formation, GREAT play call and GREAT job by Parker to keep the play alive and find open man down the field, even with the penalty (would have given us field position at TCU 25) so its 2nd and 14 now, 2nd and 14 again GREAT play call and Parker keeps play alive and throws ball deep (he kept his eyes down field in the face of extreme pressure from TCU’s D-line and threw it against his body) to Ford and gets a horse collar tackle added to the end of the play (extra 15 yards) so its 1st and 10 at the 13 yard line (3 mins left at this point), 1st and 10 sweep to Spiller, POOR blocking and stopped back at 16 yard line. 2nd and 13 pass to endzone, Parker misfired to Dwayne Allen (GREAT PLAY CALL BY NAPIER, Parker had Allen and just overthrew him by a little bit), 3rd and 13 (3rd and LONG), Parker pass incomplete, no one got open and he almost threw a pick trying to make a play, 4th and 13 and we took a timeout to get the play call, BAD COACHING move here (I’ll explain why in a minute). 4th and 13 play is incomplete (Good pass play call, but it was a low percentage play no what we ran).
Poor Execution or Poor play calling? Both, poor execution because we didn’t score or gain a yard on 2nd 3rd or 4th down, and #### POOR COACHING for going for it on 4th and 13 when you’re 2 for 6 all season and 0 for 1 today from INCHES AWAY. You waste a timeout to go for it on 4th and 13 and come up short. You kick the field goal, you’re down 14-13, you kick the ball and you still have 3 timeouts left to have plenty of time on the clock to get down the field and score. Even with Parker playing well on that last drive (he carried us to the 13 yard line), you don’t make him have to win the game on his arm if you don’t have to, I’d much rather him have to get about 30 less yards on the final drive to get in field goal range and win the game that way instead of him having one shot on 4th and 13 to win the game. TCU went 3 and out and punted the ball to us with 1:03 left on the clock for our final drive so you can’t say the D wouldn’t have stopped them. Again, poor poor poor coaching play call on that 4th down.

11th and Final Drive Recap

This is just horrendous clock management at the end of the game. Calling that timeout on 4th down on that last drive cost us here, we could have had one in our pocket with 1:03 left in the game and only be down by 1 (or if we kicked a FG in the first half instead of going for it on 4th down we lead 16-14 and possibly run the clock out). We got the ball at the 43 yard line to start the drive (now what do some of y’all think about the missed FG earlier and the one we didn’t kick in the first half? 25 yards is a hell of a lot easier to get than 57). 1st and 10 pass dropped by Ashe about 20 yards down the field (HIT HIM IN THE HANDS!), 2nd and 10 pass caught by Ashe for 9 yards and THE CLOCK KEEPS TICKING, fumbled snap on 3rd down and it was 4th down and short so you can’t kill the clock so you throw a hail mary and don’t get it to end the game. HORRIBLE MANAGEMENT ALL AROUND (we BETTER practice this, THIS WEEK, not next week, THIS WEEK, NO REASON for such crappy clock management there).

So,
Was it the execution that cost us or the play calling that cost us this game? You could argue the playing on the last drive of the game, but there is no way you can blame Napier for this loss when the drives were stopped because of POOR EXECUTION by our PLAYERS. They HAVE to get better under pressure (the whole team on the final drive had to be better, we were just standing around half of those last 63 seconds) but that final drive should never have had to happen if we had taken the points given to us (the missed FG and the one we didn’t take in the first half on 4th down). You are playing a top 15 team that is a non-conference opponent and you know they are that good and YET you DON’T take the points opportunities when you have them. The play calling was only about 15% of why we lost the game, but the other 85% is squarely on the players this time. BC game we were conservative but today we had some EXCELLENT play calls from Napier. You CANNOT blame this loss on Napier’s play calling, you can blame it on the poor execution of our players for not making the 2nd down plays to get us in more 3rd and shorts which lead to 3rd and longs (We had a TON of 4th and shorts because we had 3rd and Longs)

Bottom Line, the players start executing more consistently as a whole means we'll get more 3rd and shorts and more 3rd down conversions which will turn into long drives (helping our defense stay fresh) and score more points to win football games.

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Napier is a bad OC? BS, and here's why (very long)

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