This is what happens when you do not have a rushing offense that can take one yard from an opponent when it is required.

I thought they could have used that tight end sneak out play to Mack that scored a big TD against Stanford again. If executed properly and at the right time, he's wide open.

On every short yardage situation this year, when we line up in the "I" formation with TE acting as a fullback, we called a roll right pass.
Pitt was waiting for this all the way.

This is more of the "too cute by a half" of the Kelly era. Why not just a simple dive using the big TE as a ball carrier? The worst that could have happened was no gain and a turnover. Make it and game over.

Cross is correct below, eating the ball was the correct move once the routes closed up.

And how I remember it playing out. I couldn't believe he didn't throw it to Wright - which followed my disbelief of the playcall itself.

If he was able to release cleanly after the snap, Pitt's #20 would have been put in no man's land trying to decide whether to cover him or Wright. As it turned out, the backside defender (LB?) was able to run with Weishar and give the appearance that he was covered, and the two DL had by then shifted into the passing lane.

most likely been a better result than eating the ball a few yards short

On a 15 yard pass...probably would've been tackled 12-18 yards further than where Book got tackled.

Also, no where in my post did I defend the play call, so take a chill pill. Can say a player didn't make the right decision without defending Kelly. Can also say that he made the wrong decision without saying he is a bad player. This is a message board

one lineman one quarter back two tight ends and one hopelessly out of position wide receiver . Additionally the would have been only a lineman and quarter back between the db and the end zone. To make matters worse there would have been three blockers to block two guys.

A pass has risk. We were ahead. Late in the game. Our defense is stalwart. He did the right thing by not throwining.

of a punt return for a touchdown. Would have to presume he would be throwing towards our guy, who would at worst fight for the ball and make a tackle if he lost that battle. Agree to disagree I guess

In the return game. Y’know, having practiced with a soccer ball and all that.

Might’ve been a decent segment of practice to work on kick returns Brian.

I don't trust our crappy O-line, because I think Quinn is not going to pan out as a quality OL coach. That was Kelly resorting to hiring a buddy, and very few of those have worked out.

So given the crappy OL play (if you want to argue that's on BK for a crappy OL I won't argue) but given what Long has to work with up front, and the proven effectiveness of this short TE pass, I have no issue with the play call. Book has to just throw it. There were opportunities to hit both Wright or Weishar in this situation.

My feeling is that the OL is going to be worse the farther they get away from Hiestand, but a few still have the skills they learned under him. As our young players get older it will really show itself.

usually one route is designed to free up the other--for example, against a cover 3 look, you will often see an inside receiver/TE run a quick out (1 route) and the outside wr run a quick slant. That's designed to exploit the hole in the zone coverage as the corner plays outside technique as he has deep third and the ss/olb has flat and will follow the quick out and not be able to recover to defend the slant. However, I have noticed it more and more this year that teams are overplaying the first option (in this example, the slant) and giving up the "clearing" route (quick out) and qb's are sometimes not sure what to do.

That kind of looks like what's happening here--Kelly likely assumes that the defense will flow to the first out and not be ready for the second/layered route over top. If you notice, the defensive back/OLB (can't tell which position he is) stays flat and doesn't attack the quick flat, and from depth (where the qb is, of course) that makes it look like he's still in play on the layered route. Book needs to learn to read that better, as he really isn't in play on either route. Charlie Weis used to refer to this (probably still does, I assume) as "getting middled." The guy plays the middle/splits the difference and it causes the qb some hesitation.

... as Book gains experience.

he just needs to learn to feel the defense better; just because a guy is "there" doesn't mean that the wr is covered. Need to see beyond jersey color and into body positioning, etc. Also, needs to understand that he needs to make the entire read and not just assume that the primary route is going to be open.

This is all on tape now--understand, I didn't watch the game so I cannot speak to exactly what Pitt was doing but I can see on this play what the confusion likely was. My guess is that teams will start to overplay the primary read and force Book to go to his second and sometimes third options. I think that the coaching staff also needs to do a good job of scheming things correctly so the defense doesn't just know what we're going to do based on their coverage pre snap and our formation/personnel grouping. We can't be baited into doing what they want us to do.

...and away from the execution.

Your description makes it seem like the play called wasn't one that Book executes well yet. It might be a successful play when Book is more experienced, and the only way he's going to learn to read it correctly is to run it in games.

However, giving Book a play that challenges his coverage reading skills on fourth down in a close game seems like a bad idea to me. The call on 4th and short might be sheer genius a year from now, but it wasn't a good idea on Saturday.

this year. Book has shown the ability to throw back to Boykin/Kmet and like you guys said will continue to progress toward more consistently doing that (*any BK QB regression aside).

Good info.

I thought for sure this was a roll right, throw back to the opposite side TE play. He, too, was uncovered.

But you usually don't want a right handed QB rolling right, throwing across the field , particularly late in the play. WE saw how that resulted earlier the game.

with the back side look initially not being part of the read. However, if the guys in the box notice that nobody covered the guy, they will come back to it later. He does that a lot with his outside zone play action/half roll.

Of course, now he is calling plays with a very mediocre qb but when he has the horses he is as good a play caller as there is. I am not sure if that is what Kelly and co. were doing here.

Completely uncovered. Probably would've walked into the endzone.

Wright was open if he spots him fast enough.

Another decision would have been to run behind Mustifer. He had initial leverage and pushed his guy back. Kramer smashed his guy as well. One yard.

Nice post with the pictures.

I'm gonna resize those.

Another potential option would've been to loft it over the top Tony Jones who ended up being open -- but that's asking a lot and not really realistic.

It made it easier to see development for me.

Here's the formation as the ball is snapped:



The play action fake -- which, by the way, continues to be awful and fooled no one. We really need to work on that:



The "something interesting" happens here. Book seems to glance at Wright. Wright is still in full sprint and has not turned back to look for the ball. This is truly a "glance" -- Book looks at him for a split second, and then locks his attention downfield. Perhaps a symptom of being relatively inexperienced. But to me, his eyes in this frame are on Wright.



And this frame brings us right before my other images. You can't tell but he's turning his head from Wright towards Weishar.

1) our fullback is slow out of his stance; note the qb separated from center and the OL firing off while he is still in his stance. Same issue with the playside TE and wing

2) if we had motioned that wing to the left/backside the LB's would have had to shift over and we could have run iso to the right and easily made the first down before the mike could have reacted back over the top. With our wr so close to the box, we also likely could have run toss sweep left for a big gain. If we had simply motioned the H back a bit (just past the TE) we could have run iso and had the fullback pick up the mike. In other words, the running plays are there we just choose not to run them. Hell, we could have just run zone left force and had everyone reach and we likely would have easily made the first down. the ILB is playing hard inside technique and not even respecting D gap to the left. The TE could reach and the FB chip to force (climb to the backer) and it would have been one on one with the free safety unless the corner came in (though the wr should have run him off).

3) given this set, it appears the corner is playing flat and is going to read the qb all the way. This is how Book gets "middled." Instead of having the wing/H release to the flat, if he had run a clear out/go, the corner would have had to make a choice--overplay the TE coming to the flat or play the clear out. Both routes would have been wide open, most likely. All 11 guys on defense are in the picture and you can see the FS flat footed. If you're going to take a shot, take a fucking shot and get some balls. This is too cute by half.

4) The wr also has a lot of space on his side and could/should have run a go, which at a minimum would occupy the corner and most likely the free safety, allowing the backside TE drag to open up once the LB come up to respect the run fake. The corner is playing hard inside technique and a quick outside fade with plenty of room to operate would have been wide open.


Basically, everything should have been open but for poor play design. Before the homers get all upset and remind me that we are 8-0 I would just point out that sometimes you win or lose despite yourself and there is a lot to learn from this tape, most likely.

And force the DB to make play on Book.

Should he/could he have just hit Wright right away and gotten the line?

Kelly was coaching up Book pretty good after the play - I wonder if Book overthought it, didn’t pull the quick trigger to Wright and missed his window.

The Pitt defender was closing on Wright pretty strong and hard and the gain would have been a yard and half at best - but still it would have been good enough.

This question has nothing to do with the philosophical issues I and most of us have with calling a pass play in this situation.

That's got to happen on 4th and 1.

it perhaps should have been his first read, I don't know what he is looking at pre-snap.

making a ton of money to see the same things?

I believe we have lined up in that formation at the goal line multiple times as well. I believe every time I've seen us use this formation we have passed. The play action is going to become a waste of time if Kelly throws out of that formation every damn time.

Surely a receiver downfield was not the primary read on 4th and 1.

3rd or 4th and short to catch the defense by surprise and spring a big play?

This is why I don't understand the desire for play action in this case. We didn't need a big play, or points, or anything beyond a first down.

It's not appreciably different whether that separation is a scoring play that gains a couple of yards or a first down that gains a couple of yards. Play action is an effective play in that situation as long as there's a true running threat.

downfield.

It was after that series that some people commented that Kelly grabbed Book by the head or something. Watching it on tv it didn’t look bad to me.

From what I could tell Kelly was upset with him for not passing it short to the TE when he was open.

Even if Book missed the open short receiver it doesn’t excuse us for not being able to get the first down on a run between the tackles.

After a shitty playcall gone wrong. Especially if the camera is on him. The point he is making: hey world, it's this motherf'er's fault. Not mine. Play would have worked, if not for this meddling kid.

want their son playing for Kelly

it tells your OL that the coaching staff doesn't believe they can get one yard (or whatever the distance was) rushing.

They obviously also don't have faith in the QB sneak, even though that's one of the most successful plays in the NFL for getting a yard (84% or something similar).

had absolutely no push.

notice 4 nd OLinemen taking on 3 pitt players, with 2 of the nd guys ending up on the ground. that's right - 4 on 3 and 2 of the 4 ended up on the ground.

this team will not survive on Book's arm, Dexter's legs or the defense. The OL needs to get its shit fixed.