Let's get started by saying if you're mind is already made up that Quinn Ewers is holding the offense back like some uneducated beat writer or if you're opinion is somehow that Quinn's QB efficiency is something that is on him and him alone to fix then this post will not be for you. It will not be your echo chamber of ignorance. That being said, can Quinn play better? Yes. Every single aspect of football is formed with continual pursuit of perfection, while knowing that it is fully unattainable. A QB can go 20/20 and still miss reads, be the benefactor of PI's negating an incompletion, or many other things. Against Arkansas Quinn was effective for most of the game and erratic on a few snaps. Arkansas had 2 weeks to put in the same game plan that Barry Odom rolled out against Sark 3 years ago. The 3 high safety look hasn't been put on film yet this season by the Pigs that I've seen when browsing other games. And before people start talking about this being a game plan problem, you aren't going to put in 6 periods of practice preparing for a game plan an opposing DC has not put on tape. You have to adjust to these things in game, at half time, and in the 2nd half. We did not adjust very well in the first half and the second half was more about possessions that adjustments. Yet we still went into our rivals house can came out with a win. Aslo post-game, coach Pittman said they were able to run more man coverage than zone. He lied.
Pass 1 - Right away first pass of the game we have a 3 high look and we know we're looking at zone off of the alignment. Easy read here as he has either Bond or Helm and he decides to go with his arm strength to beat the LB. Would argue Helm is the better throw here but only because the LB makes an athletic play to get a piece of the ball.
Pass 2 - Zero respect for the play fake here. Short side screen goes for very little.
Pass 3 - One of the rare times that we are going to get a man look and Quinn overshoots this homerun ball. Gotta hit these. These throws are the one thing Arch does better in the passing game.
Pass 4 - 4-man rush gets home way too fast because of pressure off of the edge. We'll come back to this concept later with a variation of using the back for the wheel route outside and the dig with an over instead of this switch wheel concept. After watching our WR group against zone week in and week out, I find myself wanting to yell at the replays here. This is 3rd and 9. We don't need 20 yards, we need to move the chains. Helm's depth is about 7 yards and Moore is about 17. Why? Keep your eyes on Moore as he runs across the open zone and just continues on into coverage. People would argue he's open but to hit him on the run at full speed Quinn would need to be letting this ball go as he's passing behind the LB. IMO what needs to happen here is the Moore needs to sit down at the hash and show Quinn his big number zero and make himself an easy target. Regardless, RT gets smoked and a good rush lane off the left prevents Quinn from being able to escape. Helm to Golden on the dig to the switch wheel by Wingo and then back to Moore on the progression.
Pass 5 - Tip your cap as this is just really good awareness by the DL who blows up what would have been a massive gain.
Pass 6 - This is technically a pass. Bond got benched after this effort which allowed the play to get blown up from the start.
Pass 7 - Thing of beauty right here. This is how you fire a dart into the soft spot.
Pass 8 - There's nothing wrong with this decision going to Wingo 1 on 1. The problem is that Quinn is late. This ball needs to be out a half second sooner. It's the difference between a catch and a PBU. If you don't like the 1 on 1 from a leverage standpoint then Moore is coming open underneath. You have to trust that your WR is going to turn the DB instead of waiting until he does. If you don't like Quinn you'll say that Moore is the right throw, but I'd take this one on one every time. Just needs to get rid of it sooner.
Pass 9 - Got'em. This is why we throw a lot of WR screens and coming off of a missed shot, this is a great call by Sark. 16 didn't like the film room today.
Pass 10 - Corner blitz here and if Campbell does a better job Quinn likely doesn't get unsettled. Regardless, you would like to see him stick his back foot in the ground and deliver the ball to Davis. This one is on Quinn.
Pass 11 - Another rare man occurrence as Arkansas brings pressure on 3rd and long. Nothing coming across the field quick enough here and the protection doesn't hold up long enough for Ewers to avoid sacking himself. These are fun to make fun of but this happens when your eyes are down field. If he doesn't sack himself he'll be able to get to Golden on the scramble drill. Bolden doesn't get the rub to the left side of the screen which would have left Bond wide open. These are my own little bones to pick. It's 3rd and 6 and the shortest route we have is Helm at 7 and Bond at 9. Golden is 12 and Bolden is a run away.
Pass 12 - Nifty little play design - Bond has zero interest in blocking anyone.
Pass 13 - Really good discipline by the Arkansas defense as they aren't biting on the screen game here. A better ball might be to lay this thing way down there in the endzone, but you don't mind a try at a hole shot. Either way there's nothing here on the play side, there's a zoomed-out view right behind this clip. 3 deep has a lid on everything. Better decision to probably check this thing down to Helm and continue your nickname. You can question a lot of things here but the sefety at the top is not giving anything. He's still sqaure when Quinn lets this go which means Wingo didn't do enough to turn him inside and there's not anything he could have done to make that happen as help is to the inside. It's just not a great play design against this coverage.
Pass 14 - We're up to 14 passes with 12:15 to go in the 2nd quarter because we can't run the ball against a light box. This is a great play call by Sark here with the TE slip screen.
Pass 15 - Here's one that had OB pissed off. Most will call this an inaccurate throw by Quinn and it's because Helm is supposed to be coming back in. We'll note this in the 2nd half when Quinn hits nearly this same concept to Davis but Davis is breaking back in after going outside the numbers. Chalking this up to fatigue as Helm just came off of the screen two plays ago. Helm's body language seems to indicate he knew he missed this one.
Pass 16 - Hello MF'n pass interference. We finally get man coverage and another 1 on 1 attempt and this was a bad missed call.
Pass 17 - Right read, perfect throw. Not typical for Helm to drop one like this.
Pass 18 - Another man to man win. Right on time for a first down.
Pass 19 - Couple of things here. It's rare to get a shot against 3 high and when you do, you can't under throw it. The ball is obviously to long but I'm not fan of the direction of the route either. With 3 high you have to get vertical in these zones and not drift across to where help should be. Ewers is letting this ball go when they are 15-20 down the field. Gotta get more vertical. It would have still been overthrown and it's well covered so an underthrow is potential disaster.
Pass 20 - Sark starting to figure something with the route concepts in the zones. Needed more of these. This is a dart right on the numbers and a nice pick up for a first down.
Pass 21 - Twice we've run this to the wide side of the field which gives us a chance to get a 1 on 1 and break a tackle. Bolden is nice on these.
Pass 22 - This is a really good look at what 3 deep looks like from behind the play. It's why I yell at the TV for more curling type routes. There's zero doubt the coaches know this but trying to adjust it mid game is easier said than done. Quinn does a really good job getting this ball out quick as Blue has space to operate. These deep crossing concepts are just inadequate vs a blanket like this. All eyes are on the QB. Quinn could hammer this into Bolden if he would just cut off his route and settle up. It seems to me that this has not been designed or coached. And if it has, our guys really have a hard time doing it.
Pass 23 - Quinn just needs to throw this into bleachers. Blown up from the start. A lot of talk about him being better. As you see in the coverage above, there's not a lot of room for him to be a significant amount better in the first half. Sark is struggling to dial things up that work consistently in the passing game and the running game is struggling. But Quinn being better here keeps you in FG range. Throw it away.
Pass 24 - IMO this is a lucky play call on a bluff from Arkansas either that or 10 is a film wizard and knows this look and our tendencies. Right place right time. Not in love with the play call. Back to back negative plays put us out of range. 1 on Quinn, 1 on coach.
Pass 25 - Working a 2 man concept at the bottom and Helm is pretty much all that's here. You guys tell me what you see on the route concepts. I'm certainly not a multi-million-dollar coach with decades of experience but there are voids in this 3 deep and we just run from one defender to the next without ever sitting down. Ewers needs to be more efficient right? Where to?
Pass 26 - Needing to push the ball down the field here and our guys seem lost. Bond has no clue he has one on his hip. The only thing alive here is the check down to Helm and he probably gets tackled in bounds.
Pass 27 - See pass 4 above with an added variation of motioning to empty and Blue having the wheel route. Quinn starts by checking backside for pressure as he will be empty post motion. If there’s pressure, he’s going to know he has the shallow cross from right to left which is Bond. No backside pressure so we know Bond is not hot, and we also know that he’ll be #5 in the progression, and it is going to be dead after we read 1 thru 4. Also means if we get to thru reads 3 and 4 clean, we need to look to reset the pocket or scramble.
The first two progressions below can be flip flopped IMO. This is a right side read first but I'll go Helm to the dig based on down and distance. Again we are 3rd and 3 here and we need a first down which will stop the clock. Why are we so deep with our concepts?
1) Helm - Cross
2) Golden - Dig
3) Blue - Wheel
4) Bolden - Deep Over
5) Bond - Shallow Cross
Golden is usually the guy who comes free but the outside safety doesn't honor the wheel and jumps the dig. Quinn almost took a chance at Helm but he's covered. Bolden can also make this easier by giving Quinn his numbers after passing the Mike… because in the real world, if Ewers is going to lead Bolden at full speed, he needs to throw the ball at the same time that’s he’s calling back his decision to throw to Helm which is when Bolden is just past even with the Mike. However, Bolden is continuing on to a place where there’s underneath coverage (check the depth of the corner from the broadcast view and his eyes). Bolden doesn't even put his eyes back to the QB until he's about 5 yards away from the numbers on the opposite side of the field and Quinn is already getting sacked. Bolden is running to a place where Ewers would need to put a perfect ball over the corner away from the safety. If Bolden squares up in the zone all Ewers has to do is hit him in the numbers after resetting his feet. The worst thing that can happen is a PBU from the hit coming from the safety.
There's a theory that Quinn doesn't need to step up here. In past games, Banks usually buries his man when he goes across his face (remember UGA?). The DE did a good job of getting Banks off balance and separating to make the sack when Quinn moved up in the pocket.
And that's the end of the first half. The offense has a Quinn Ewers problem at times. It also has a zone defense problem. And with 5-6 in the box, we should be able to run the ball much better than we did this game. Will any of these get fixed this season? I'm not sure. You'd have to think that at some point we'll stop running ourselves into coverage. The statement that Quinn Ewers is holding the offense back is just a shitty opinion without a view of what goes on during the game. It takes all 11 plus a great game plan to put up video game numbers. They all can be better. When it's going really good, it's not all because of Ewers and when it's not going really good, it's not all because of Ewers.
2nd half tomorrow.
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