He just did his with Bud Davis on their new show. He is much more brief, but essentially says the same things as James. "Same stuff we've seen for 3 years"
Linked video in new thread in which I think the best part of their show was discussion on what do we do moving forward.
I think the issue is the scheme. I liken it to playing a video game on hard mode. The plays require perfect execution by every player in order to work. The throws have to be perfect on most plays for a chance of a completion. There are no easy mode throws to get the QB confidence like we see in other offenses.
The plays were there for Mertz. He just wasn’t reading the field quick enough and was inaccurate when he did read it correctly.
I am saying the windows in this offensive scheme are smaller than the windows in other schemes. The UM QB had some wide open windows to throw into with easy reads. How many times have we had a wide open receiver running down the field?
Quite a few if you watch those game reviews. Off the top of my head, Badger had two easy posts if Mertz just throws the ball away from the defender and I think it was Dike open on a go on the other. Now I think Mertz had more time in the first half than he did in the second half so there’s that.
On those posts, there was a defender with 3-5 yards each time. Yes Mertz could have threw him open, but there was still a defender in proximity. I am talking about having no defender within 5-10 yards of the receiver as the ball gets there. We don’t see those types of windows in this offense, while we see that happen to our defense all the time.
I do agree to some extent, but how much of the problem is scheme and how much of the problem is Mertz not throwing on time (or inaccurately) or our receivers not getting separation?
It has occurred to me that the reason for Mertz’ high completion and low interceptions, last season, was because he does not have a downfield game and had to throw short. Am I offbase ?
It’s scheme imo. I definitely think mertz can play better but on the badger throws the defender was still right on his hip. For years we have talked about our receivers not getting separation. Maybe it’s something else?
But AR didn’t have issues throwing the deep ball and our run blocking was fine. Obviously his mobility helped the run game, but AR’s issues were the short passing game. I’m leaning towards scheme is fine, but our personnel isn’t elite and that Napier doesn’t have a feel for calling the right plays and is too predictable at times.
The scheme is a huge part of the problem…. Plain & simple. There are teams, that we’ll play in conference, that do a ton more, with less talent.
Several experienced observers have said repeatedly that the WR route trees and personnel selection routinely make things harder rather than easier. GNFP and Shane have pointed out similar things all three seasons that we bunch our receivers in awkward ways that limit open spacing and allow fewer defenders to cover more routes, send slower receivers deep while keeping playmakers short, concentrate on the wrong side of the field based on formation, etc. None of that takes away from Graham having a bad day passing and simply being off, but it also doesn't help and generally makes our passing game tougher to be successful even when he's throwing more accurately. The missed post to Badger early on, for example, was broken down by Shane to be a poorly run route and poorly thrown ball, both missing tons of details that should have been present at this level.
