My thoughts on the offense(the good and well mostly bad)

Topic

I’ll start with the good:

Morris: Dylan Morris was best part of the game. His stats didn’t do him justice. So many drops, but kid hit huge third down passes. Never looked rattled either. Our coaching scheme sucks, Morris had no easy throws. No play action passing or even safe passes to TE’s. Only criticism of Morris is stares down guys. Way too many batted balls. Was so poised tho. Looked like a vet, not a guy making first career start in a rain storm. Think we can grow with Morris.

Sean McGrew: Highly rated RB coming out of High School, every time we give him a chance all he does is shine. Yet with the game on the line when he was clearly our best back he was nowhere to be found. His best asset is his pass catching yet minus one wheel route at Cal in 2018 and one 4th down pass at Oregon in 2018 we never use him in the pass game.

The bad:

Richard Newton: He’s not good. This will piss a lot of people off but his numbers in Pac-12 play only isn’t good. He can’t break off any big runs and his vision is so terrible. I don’t get how he has this myth of having good vision but he has no vision. He just runs into the backs of our OL and doesn’t ever cut back ever.

WR’s: Starting to think this could be a Junior Adams problem. We are finally playing our best guys. Bynum, Puka, Ty Jones and our two talented true frosh Rome/McMillan. Didn’t even see Chin out there. Yet drops, drops, and more drops. Remember when Adams claimed we’ll attack the ball last year? When?!! Our guys never make contested catches since he’s taken over as WR coach.

John Donovan: I hated the hire and somehow he’s even worse than I thought. It’s 2020 and we are calling fullback dives. Nothing easy on offense for a young QB either. No play action passing, no roll outs, nothing to the TE, no WR screens, no screens in general. Morris on that late scramble showed he can run yet no run-pass option for him on third and short. Instead just running Newton into an 8 man box for a gain of one in the RZ. This offense felt outdated in the 1990’s let alone in 2020. Why any WR or TE would ever come to UW after watching this is beyond me.

Bonerpopper: His rotation at RB is awful. Cam Davis whenever he has a chance looks good but we refuse to use him. McGrew clearly best back but won’t be used. Instead he features our 3 star JAG’s who nobody wanted in Pleasant and Newton. Pleasant actually had some nice runs unlike Newton. Looking at recruiting UW is fascinated with the big 3 star JAG with no speed so expect this trend to continue while Sam Adams/Cam Davis rot away on the bench.

Replies

Agree on pretty much everything here. I’ll add a few random thoughts:

– The front seven is not good. Nobody on the D line could handle getting double teamed which is essential to running a 3-4 scheme. We lost contain a lot(Bowman was the culprit on a bunch of these). We still haven’t found an effective inside linebacker to play opposite Ulofoshio. Getting Letuligasenoa back could really help us here.

– The running back rotation is a major head-scracher. No clue why McGrew doesn’t get more touches.

– Offensive line and power-run scheme worked well last night. Blocks by the h-back sprung some chunk plays in the run game.

– Agreed on pass scheme. My fear when I heard that we wanted to run a “pro style” offense was that we were going to force Morris or Thompson, two guys who like to roll out and have the pocket moved around, to be pocket-passers and we did just that.

Our front 7 unexpectedly lost Levi and Tryon so I expected some struggles. Bowman is another Doog legend who people think is good cause he gets some sacks but is so awful against the run he’s a liability.

My thoughts

When I saw the rain I knew that it was going to be a “run the damn ball” night.

Based on my eyes. McGrew is the most dangerous but the reality is we can’t pound him all
night long because he’ll end up getting hurt.

Cam Davis looks like a true RB. Knows how to shift his body and keeps is pads low. Newton does
have a issue looking stiff on contact but he’s a bigger so it’s ok.

Kamari is a big kid that catches the ball well. I see he and McGrew getting some wheel routes in the near future for big gains.

OL run blocked well. They were inconsistent at times but managed very well. We got a promising group here, lots of film to watch this upcoming week and coaching based on actual performance.

I don’t give a shit what anyone says. The plays out of the I Formation to the H-Back were nice. Harkens back to the days of Pat Connif. You gotta have that threat of the bruiser coming right down the middle.

John Donovan is going to be fine. The concepts in this game were extremely simple.

The WR learned that games are not practice. That kid Wright is going to be playing on Sundays soon. At this level they need to learn to be physical. Ty is still not bringing the physicality that he needs to. He’s not a threat to run away from guys so contested balls have to go his way.

after the drop Bynum delivered another good performance. Mr. Steady.

What was pleasing to see were good formations. Players in their proper spot and not a bunch of needless guys going in motion and other shifts. Games will get more sophisticated as the practice reps and gameplans dictate.

Other than it appearing that Sirmon is just not working out well opposite of Edefuan I can’t think of too many trouble spots. Run defense will improve. ZTF is picking up right where he left off last year. Latu needs to show up and guys need to respect edge containment.

Special Teams needs extra practice reps.