Here's the reality of our team

[Commercecomet24]

I watched washington state vs cal from 2014 last night and cal played rush 3 drop 8 all night. Connor Holliday threw for over 500 yards and they scored 59 points, they lost 60-59. The difference was Holliday was making quick decisions with no hestiations and hitting the open man and exploiting the open windows in the zone coverage. The difference between Holliday and Costello, decision making and decisiveness on where to go with the ball.

[Jack Lambert]

I watched washington state vs cal from 2014 last night and cal played rush 3 drop 8 all night. Connor Holliday threw for over 500 yards and they scored 59 points, they lost 60-59. The difference was Holliday was making quick decisions with no hestiations and hitting the open man and exploiting the open windows in the zone coverage. The difference between Holliday and Costello, decision making and decisiveness on where to go with the ball.

It will get better the more they run it.

[HailStateSZN19]

I watched washington state vs cal from 2014 last night and cal played rush 3 drop 8 all night. Connor Holliday threw for over 500 yards and they scored 59 points, they lost 60-59. The difference was Holliday was making quick decisions with no hestiations and hitting the open man and exploiting the open windows in the zone coverage. The difference between Holliday and Costello, decision making and decisiveness on where to go with the ball.

Bingo.

It had ZERO to do with scheme. Leach's offense works perfectly fine when the other team drops 8 into coverage. I don't think it was so much that KJ couldn't read the coverage, it was he was just horrific making decisions. The plays were there to be made all night long. It wasn't like Arky just absolutely threw a blanket over the plays and there was nothing there. If KJ is more decisive and takes what is there and WIDE OPEN, then we're not having these conversations today. We would have won. Maybe it would have been a little closer than expected but we woulda escaped with the win. Hopefully, KJ picks up on those things and the decisiveness comes more and more with game reps.

[Commercecomet24]

Bingo.

It had ZERO to do with scheme. Leach's offense works perfectly fine when the other team drops 8 into coverage. I don't think it was so much that KJ couldn't read the coverage, it was he was just horrific making decisions. The plays were there to be made all night long. It wasn't like Arky just absolutely threw a blanket over the plays and there was nothing there. If KJ is more decisive and takes what is there and WIDE OPEN, then we're not having these conversations today. We would have won. Maybe it would have been a little closer than expected but we woulda escaped with the win. Hopefully, KJ picks up on those things and the decisiveness comes more and more with game reps.

Yeah he double clutched and hesitated all night long, gotta be decisive. It's those split second decisions that make this offense go. Lot of timing involved in this offense and if you hesitate those windows close fast.

[Jack Lambert]

Yeah he double clutched and hesitated all night long, gotta be decisive. It's those split second decisions that make this offense go. Lot of timing involved in this offense and if you hesitate those windows close fast.

It's new to him and he has the toughest job to learn. He will get better.

[Extendedcab]

My concern is When!

[Commercecomet24]

It's new to him and he has the toughest job to learn. He will get better.

I believe so too. We'll definitely know more saturday.

[GoDawgz]

This. Had Leach put in any other Qb on the roster we win that game. They dared us to run the ball via handoff or Qb improvising and he still wouldn't do it.

"If" Leach would have changed QB's Barry Odom would not have stayed in the zone.

My question is, did anyone else think something was wrong with KJ's arm? It appeared as if he was shot putting the ball more often than not, which leads to over throws (Pick six) and dirt balls (like the one on 4 & 1).
Hopefully I was looking way to hard for a reason for being off.

[Jack Lambert]

I believe so too. We'll definitely know more saturday.

I keep hearing it takes time for it to take off. I suspect it will look better Saturday. I would bet that KY does exactly what Arkansas did but Leach will the QB better.

[basedog]

I guess I saw a different O line than some. Pass protection was ok because we had 5 on 3. But run blocking sucked all game especially during crunch time. There were no D linemen for the Hog on their backs all game.

I gave our offensive line a D, hell if I was playing QB against the Hogs I could stand back there several seconds!

[Captain Falcon]

It's easy to forget that even after we looked great on offense against LSU, that was our team's first game ever using this system and they faced a DC that made zero adjustments against them. Once defenses started making adjustments, growing pains were inevitable in hindsight. I'm not sure losing to Arkansas was inevitable, but there certainly was a perfect storm of crap that contributed to that happening. It just is what it is, we had to learn a lesson the hard way unfortunately.

As others have said, zone defenses don't render the Air Raid totally useless, it just makes it really important to execute the little plays and not force bad decisions. We didn't do a good job of that and that's why we lost. I expect us to get better at that as time goes on, probably even this week to some degree. But while this offense is supposedly quick and easy to install, I think it's going to take some time and additional experience for us to really execute it effectively. Even though Costello is a fifth year senior, he's been with our team since June and has played a grand total of two games in this system. Even for an older guy there can be growing pains.

That's why I'm really curious to see what guys like Rogers and Robertson look like the next couple of years. They have experience with this system from high school, so once they get some college experience under their belts they could be lethal in this offense after a year or two. Costello is a one year stop gap that hopefully works out great but at the end of the day it's just a one year deal. And Kylin in this offense is only a one year deal too. It's possible that this whole thing is very much a work in progress for a couple of years until we have a roster that is well versed and has a lot of experience in this system. Until then, I expect you'll see stops and starts where one week we look great and the next week we may look terrible. It's going to be a week by week thing until our guys really get used to what they have to do in this offense, and it could mean we have a very so-so record this season.

[R2Dawg]

Marks and Johnson are studs.

I agree. I thought they both looked good. Marks has a nice burst and Johnson hits hole hard, legs never stop moving. We got two good backs for several years. What happened to Lee W? He didn't really show me much last year, worried he may not make it.

[bulldawg28]

"If" Leach would have changed QB's Barry Odom would not have stayed in the zone.

My question is, did anyone else think something was wrong with KJ's arm? It appeared as if he was shot putting the ball more often than not, which leads to over throws (Pick six) and dirt balls (like the one on 4 & 1).
Hopefully I was looking way to hard for a reason for being off.

I was wondering is his arm that weak? I think fatigue kicked in. Throwing over 80 passes a day M-Thu then playing Saturday caught up to him.

[GoDawgz]

I was wondering is his arm that weak? I think fatigue kicked in. Throwing over 80 passes a day M-Thu then playing Saturday caught up to him.

Definitely could have some rubber arm going on. It just didn't look the same as the week before. Hopefully this isn't a lingering issue..... like Stevens' injury's last year.

Next game!

[tenureplan]

When dumping it off, we need to hit guys in stride, not with their backs to the defense. What happened to the shallow cross?

[Homedawg]

Definitely could have some rubber arm going on. It just didn't look the same as the week before. Hopefully this isn't a lingering issue..... like Stevens' injury's last year.

Next game!

His arm strength isn't elite... it's ok. His decision making was a tad slow. Which is what I saw in scrimmage. But it got better in LSU game. So it could be just a timing and trust deal.

[Homedawg]

When dumping it off, we need to hit guys in stride, not with their backs to the defense. What happened to the shallow cross?

Ran it plenty the other day. But against a zone it's a different deal.

[coachnorm]

I would like to invite fellow elitedoggers to go on YouTube and closely look at the pick6. Our receiver was reading the coverage, especially the corner-back as the ball sailed over his head. Consider extracting this play and rendering it in slow motion as I did. The receiver was totally unaware that the ball was thrown directly over his head which means no body extension to possibly make a play. Our receiver did not know that the pass was intercepted? It does not matter what you run in the passing game if the receivers are not bad ass battlers and able to see things in a timely manner. Great passing game teams have receivers who battle and win, very few get separation.

[Cooterpoot]

Definitely could have some rubber arm going on. It just didn't look the same as the week before. Hopefully this isn't a lingering issue..... like Stevens' injury's last year.

Next game!

He throws that many passes every practice. Nothing wrong with his arm.