JAY JORDAN: UNI film review

[jbhtexas]

And yet, if three possessions had gone for TD's instead of drive ending mistakes, the score may have been 28-6. Yeah, I get it, they didn't, but what would the collective group be saying if that was the result? Pretty happy...right? Better to make the mistakes against UNI, learn, and improve for the next game.

The success of the offense style used during the UNI game is sensitive to "big" mistakes. That's the problem. Mistakes are going to happen. Just as an example, if your offense averages one drive-ending type mistake per 10 plays, and the offense style takes 10+ plays to score a TD...well...you see the potential problem.

Yes, mistakes killed the ISU drives, but when you run an offense that always has to string a bunch of plays together to score, drives are going to be killed by mistakes.

 

[SCarolinaCy]

Well, if you don't count the TD that got called back.

By the way, on that play, what did people see? I missed the replay but a guy in our section said the replay showed the O-Lineman pancake blocking his guy with his hands inside and it wasn't a hold. Anyone want to comment or post a clip?

Basically, it was a takedown. Ref standing right there.

 

[Statefan10]

Basically, it was a takedown. Ref standing right there.

The crappy thing is that he didn't need to do it at all. There was a 0% chance that guy was going to even be 5 yards close to the play at the goal line.

 

[FinalFourCy]

And yet, if three possessions had gone for TD's instead of drive ending mistakes, the score may have been 28-6. Yeah, I get it, they didn't, but what would the collective group be saying if that was the result? Pretty happy...right? Better to make the mistakes against UNI, learn, and improve for the next game.

Now, if we bring out the same boring, conservative offense against Iowa...then I'll jump on the WTF bandwagon.

So you’re asking what we would be saying if we had an effective game plan that facilitated scoring in the face of a normal amount and severity of errors? Probably something of nature that it looks like we took the next step- that we’re no longer a team with a good defense but an offense that will limit the wins.

You mean like the Iowa game last year?

What drive ending mistakes are you referring to?
-On the first penalty we had 3rd and 1 two plays later. The drop was a killer, but will happen. Remember Butler drop issues?
-On the second penalty we had 1st and 14 rather than 1st and 10. That’s drive ending? I guess if your game plan is overly restrictive, it could be.
-the third penalty (Meeker downfield), resulted in 1st and 15. If that’s the standard of a drive killer, we’re in trouble, with such a thin margin against UNI.

This team has a lot of talent and potential. Hopefully we’ll never be that mistakenly limited again.

 

[SCarolinaCy]

The refs were garbage. They had no consistency.

The Purdy play was called a fumble, and not overturned. The nearly same exact play later in the game by the UNI QB was called a fumble and overturned. Neither play was a fumble.

 

[Statefan10]

So you’re asking what we would be saying if we had an effective game plan that facilitated scoring in the face of a normal amount and severity of errors? Probably something of nature that it looks like we took the next step- that we’re no longer a team with a good defense but an offense that will limit the wins.

You mean like the Iowa game last year?

What drive ending mistakes are you referring to?
-On the first penalty we had 3rd and 1 two plays later. The drop was a killer, but will happen. Remember Butler drop issues?
-On the second penalty we had 1st and 14 rather than 1st and 10. That’s drive ending? I guess if your game plan is overly restrictive, it could be.
-the third penalty (Meeker downfield), resulted in 1st and 15. If that’s the standard of a drive killer, we’re in trouble, with such a thin margin against UNI.

This team has a lot of talent and potential. Hopefully we’ll never be that mistakenly limited again.

I don't think there were huge, glaring mistakes that made this game what it was.. It was a lot of little things here and there that kept us from having very easy avenues to put up points. Poor play calling on a 3rd and 1 and then a 4th and 1, a couple dropped balls, a running back not seeing the whole field and gaining maybe 15 extra yards, a couple of those penalties. All of those things caused us to stall out on a few drives that would've likely resulted in scoring.

Because of these things, instead of scoring being at the least 17-6 when the "fumble" happened, it was 10-6. Coach Campbell has talked about those adversity moments in the past 3 years where his team had to figure out who they wanted to be. Sure this game should not have been as close as it was, but we saw a sophomore quarterback drive his team down the field still running a conservative offense, and make a few nice throws in crunch time to his receivers. He then took off and would've won the game for us in regulation but the hold happened which led us to OT.

 

[FinalFourCy]

Except they did blink....they lost.

Clearly the offense needs to get better, no question. But have you watched Campbell's teams over the past two season (two of the better seasons we've ever had BTW)? When we need to score 40 to win, we have. When we need to score 20 to win, we have.

My whole point isn't to have a "false dilemma", its to let all of the crazies who think the sky is falling after one game realize that it's really not.

Right, in 3OT on an improbable fumble recovery.
I appreciate the “we won, so the game plan and offense was good” thought. Very economical.

Have we? Have you watched the 2018 Iowa and TCU games. Or the 2017 KSU and WVU games?

But if you’re contending we can score when the staff believes we need to, I completely agree. That’s also why the risk management displayed in these low-scoring close games is quite bad, and has cost us in the past. That’s not conservative offense, that’s needlessly limiting offense.

The sky isn’t falling. We have a good team, one much better than the approach taken against UNI. Hopefully we see more consistently effective offense and don’t waste a 10-win defense level defense

 

[SCarolinaCy]

As always, fantastic analysis by Jay.

https://cyclonefanatic.com/2019/09/jay-jordan-at-the-end-of-the-day-uni/

On defense, I would like to see some more blitzes. The few we had were effective. In some cases we were just 1/2 second too late. On one case, #9 coming in untouched to the QB blind side, whiffed on the tackle. You can have 12 players back on defense, but if the QB has all day to throw the ball, he will find someone open.
At the 1:30 mark in the first qtr, Bickham misses two tackles on back to back plays.

We had first and goal on the 4 yd line with a chance to win in the first OT, and settled for a FG. In the 3rd OT we have the ball first and goal to win the game, and fumble, only to score on the next play. Yikes!

 

[Statefan10]

On defense, I would like to see some more blitzes. The few we had were effective. In some cases we were just 1/2 second too late. On one case, #9 coming in untouched to the QB blind side, whiffed on the tackle. You can have 12 players back on defense, but if the QB has all day to throw the ball, he will find someone open.
At the 1:30 mark in the first qtr, Bickham misses two tackles on back to back plays.

We had first and goal on the 4 yd line with a chance to win in the first OT, and settled for a FG. In the 3rd OT we have the ball first and goal to win the game, and fumble, only to score on the next play. Yikes!

I'm almost 100% positive we ran the same play on 1st and 2nd down on this drive. Sweep right to Croney, sweep right to Croney, and then a back shoulder fade to Jones?

 

[ArgentCy]

No one said it was a "good game plan". Almost everyone is saying the offense needs to greatly improve.

But WE WON THE DAMN GAME. And I think (hope) Matt Campbell has earned the respect to show he will right the ship.

We've had this problem for three years. It is not solved. Unless we want to be a poor man's SEC team with a great defense and no offense. He's a good coach and great recruiter. We need an OC.

 

[FinalFourCy]

I don't think there were huge, glaring mistakes that made this game what it was.. It was a lot of little things here and there that kept us from having very easy avenues to put up points. Poor play calling on a 3rd and 1 and then a 4th and 1, a couple dropped balls, a running back not seeing the whole field and gaining maybe 15 extra yards, a couple of those penalties. All of those things caused us to stall out on a few drives that would've likely resulted in scoring.

Because of these things, instead of scoring being at the least 17-6 when the "fumble" happened, it was 10-6. Coach Campbell has talked about those adversity moments in the past 3 years where his team had to figure out who they wanted to be. Sure this game should not have been as close as it was, but we saw a sophomore quarterback drive his team down the field still running a conservative offense, and make a few nice throws in crunch time to his receivers. He then took off and would've won the game for us in regulation but the hold happened which led us to OT.

Right, you articulated well the thin margin for error the game plan allowed for. Is that a good approach against UNI? Many of these type of mistakes will occur in every game. Did limiting the offense help us against Iowa and TCU last year? Did it help us in the win against Memphis? I think our offense can be better than most give it credit for.

It’s hard to call that last drive being too conservative, given in desperation we went for it in fourth down. It’s amazing how much more effective our offense is when desperation forces us to score.

 

[CycoCyclone]

Love Jay's analysis, our O-Tackles need a lot of work. They couldn't set an edge to save our lives.

 

[Statefan10]

Right, you articulated well the thin margin for error the game plan allowed for. Is that a good approach against UNI? Many of these type of mistakes will occur in every game. Did limiting the offense help us against Iowa and TCU last year? Did it help us in the win against Memphis? I think our offense can be better than most give it credit for.

It’s hard to call that last drive being too conservative, given in desperation we went for it in fourth down. It’s amazing how much more effective our offense is when desperation forces us to score.

I don't think we wanted to be slinging around the football with Zeb as our QB.. That's just me.

 

[FinalFourCy]

No one said it was a "good game plan". Almost everyone is saying the offense needs to greatly improve.

But WE WON THE DAMN GAME. And I think (hope) Matt Campbell has earned the respect to show he will right the ship.

Great, than why did you feel compelled to respond to criticism of the game plan?


Link to those saying the sky is falling? I’m guessing you won’t find as many of those as you’ll find those bullish on the game plan.

What does “Campbell has earned the respect to show he will right the ship” even mean? No, CMC hasn’t earned the right to not be critical of the offense on a Cyclone football message board.

 

[stuclone]

No one said it was a "good game plan". Almost everyone is saying the offense needs to greatly improve.

But WE WON THE DAMN GAME. And I think (hope) Matt Campbell has earned the respect to show he will right the ship.

Ding ding ding

 

[FinalFourCy]

I don't think we wanted to be slinging around the football with Zeb as our QB.. That's just me.

We just had him pass it effectively 28 times in regulation against TCU. As you can see from UNI, you don’t reduce risk running more ineffective, predictable plays.

Kempt played most of the Iowa game.

 

[Statefan10]

We just had him pass it effectively 28 times in regulation against TCU. As you can see from UNI, you don’t reduce risk running more ineffective, predictable plays.

Kempt played most of the Iowa game.

I think we were running an offense that was taking what UNI was giving us. I wish we would've been a little bit more open with the offense and use Purdy a bit more, but we moved the ball effectively most of the time. I would have also liked for us to come out in the second half and maybe spice things up a little bit. We really didn't stray away from the game plan and it did almost cause us to lose the game.

If we come out against Iowa and do the same thing, I would be extremely surprised and also disappointed. I believe our offense is going to look completely different and everyone on here is going to be saying "if we had that offense against UNI we would've killed em".

 

[FinalFourCy]

I think we were running an offense that was taking what UNI was giving us. I wish we would've been a little bit more open with the offense and use Purdy a bit more, but we moved the ball effectively most of the time. I would have also liked for us to come out in the second half and maybe spice things up a little bit. We really didn't stray away from the game plan and it did almost cause us to lose the game.

If we come out against Iowa and do the same thing, I would be extremely surprised and also disappointed. I believe our offense is going to look completely different and everyone on here is going to be saying "if we had that offense against UNI we would've killed em".

Hopefully we see more than we did a year ago against Iowa.

I don’t have an inherent problem taking what a defense gives you, but what a defense “gives” you isn’t independent of the performance of the offensive staff. I like conservative, ball-control, I just don’t think this staff is particularly good at it.

 

[Statefan10]

Hopefully we see more than we did a year ago against Iowa.

I don’t have an inherent problem taking what a defense gives you, but what a defense “gives” you isn’t independent of the performance of the offensive staff. I like conservative, ball-control, I just don’t think this staff is particularly good at it.

Two years ago we threw it all over the field against Iowa and seemed to have a good scheme about it as well. We'll see how it goes.

 

[isufbcurt]

We've had this problem for three years. It is not solved. Unless we want to be a poor man's SEC team with a great defense and no offense. He's a good coach and great recruiter. We need an OC.

ummm, we have one now.