What happened to the passing game?

[RenoGuy]

The passing game really diminished this last season, and I'm not sure why. It could be that we emphasized the run more, and we did pile up much more run yardage (345 yds per game in 2009 vs. 278 in 2008 and 214 in 2007). Or could it be we were really hurt by the loss of receivers like Mitchell and McCoy? Or some other reason?

In 2007 we passed for 253 yds per game (Kaep and Graz) and got 16.4 yds per catch with total att-comp-td-int at 383-201-29-8.

In 2008 we passed for 231 yds per game and got 13.4 yds per catch with tot att-comp-td-int at 418-224-22-9.

In 2009 we passed for 161 yds per game and got 12.3 yds per catch with tot comp-att-td-int at 293-170-21-6.

So pass attempts went way down in 2009, and yds per catch have been steadily decreasing. Passing TD's stayed pretty steady from 2008 to 2009.

So far as receivers go, senior Mike McCoy had 53 catches for 45.5 yds/g and 2 TDs in 2008.

Freshman Brandon Wimberly had 53 catches for 56.4 yds/g and 6 TDs in 2009, so he's been a more than adaquate replacement for McCoy, and still has tons of upside being a freshman.

But we lost Marko Mitchell who had 61 catches for 87.8 yds/g (18.7 yds/catch) and 10 TDs in 2008.

Chris Wellington had 42 catches for 48.6 yds/g and 6 TDs in 2008. But those numbers plumeted to 24 catches, 27.2 yds/g, and 1 TD in 2009. What happened to Wellington?

We did pick up some nice help at TE where Green got 23 catches, 20 yds/g, 5 TDs and Session got 30 catches, 28.3 yds/g, and 2 TDs.

So in 2009 we had no one to replace Mitchell's 87.8 yds/g and 10 TDs. You'd of expected Wellington to get some of that, but his numbers went down.

I think it's clear we need to do much better in the passing game. Teams with good coaches and time to prepare can slow down the running game. We need to be able to reliably get first downs on 3rd and 5+ plays. And a 30+ yard pass now and then would sure help as well. We just didn't have that this year.

So far as next year goes, Wimberly should certainly improve and will probably be our #1 guy again. But he's more of a guy who gets yards after the catch rather than a deep threat, not that he has to be. With the guys we have, I think only LJ Washington might be a deep threat next year. Or hopefully whatever happened with Wellington can be fixed.

So far as the new guys coming in go, it looked like Chilli might of been a deep threat, but he's gone for good it looks like. Durant looks like a great athlete, but I'm not sure if he'll be a deep threat or not. But if he could do what Wimberly did, that would be great. Basically I think we need more guys who can get open and make first downs. Do we have any other receiving prospects who can step in and contribute next season?

Any thoughts of what went wrong with the passing game this season? And what's the outlook for next year? We need to reverse this downward trend.

[wolfone]

Quite simply, we didn't need to pass the ball that mucht his season. Check out passer ratings and completion percentage for a more accurate gauge of the passing game.

[RenoGuy]

Quite simply, we didn't need to pass the ball that mucht his season. Check out passer ratings and completion percentage for a more accurate gauge of the passing game.

Well, yeah I guess, if you look at the averages. Our running game improved about 70 yds/g from 2008, and the passing game decreased about the same.

But as I said, it's clear the running game alone doesn't do well in games with good coaching, early in the year games vs Div I schools, or bowl games (with some exceptions which were still losses).

In 2008 we had 7 200+ yd passing games, 3 250+ yd games, 2 300+ yd games, and zero games below 100 yds.

In 2009 we had 2 200+ yd passing games, 1 250+ yd game, zero 300+ yd games, and 2 games below 100 yds.

In 2009 we could not rely on turning on the passing game at will as we could sometimes in the past to make up for problems with the running game. The passing game was broken.

I think it has to do with less experienced receivers having trouble getting open, and poorer pass blocking giving the QB less time. There are still issues with passing accuracy at times, but overall I don't think that's the major issue. But that's just my opinion. Kaep has been able to put up great passing yardage in 2007 and 2008, but something went wrong in 2009.

[gunslinger]

IMO, you guys have hit on a problem with our offense. Most people would say our offense is great, but in big games against teams that are as talented or more talented than you, you better have some balance.

I think the teams that are as athletic or more athletic than us simply know they can cover our guys one on one. That is a huge advantage to a team playing defense against us. It means one more in the box on the run or spying Colin. To me if you can cover man-man, it really takes the pressure off the defense and helps the front seven get after it. Can you imagine playing linebacker and not worrying about anything but the run? Have you ever watched a game and say to yourself how do those guys get so wide open? How many times did we see Boise's guys run free, SMU guys run free, ND's receivers run free???? Point is, they are more athletic than our guys and we are trying to cover them one on one. If as a receiver you aren't licking your chops to man on man cover, somethings wrong. Even more so, if you can't run free more than half the time on man to man cover, you are either to slow or run terrible routes. I don't believe you even need to be the fastest, you just need to be a good route runner and on the same page as the QB.

With that said, I would have run the heck out of a 5 WR set. I said it in a earlier post, last year Kap threw for 800 yds and 8 TD's in the last 2 games. Why? I believe because the two teams did not game plan for it, instead they game planned for the run. If you run the 5 WR set, you make Kap make the decision who is open. I also like the fact that it spreads the defense and if we do not pass block well, Kap is free to take off. I will take my chances with him running through a hole one on one anyday.

I am not suggesting that we move away from the run. I just am saying that an offense with the read-option and a passing game to go with it would be lethal. Change it up once in a while to get the defense thinking. In the big games we are to predictable and the games we blow people away we are just that much more athletic than them.

I thought Kaps touch and accuracy were way better this year. Obviously he really worked on them over the year. Sure he missed some open guys, but tell me what QB over the course of the year doesn't, as well as what QB doesn't have people drop passes. I don't think its a Kap deal, I think its a system or young receiver problem. Maybe at the end of the day the WR feel like they are just blocking all the time and have a hard time getting excited about being a WR at Nevada.

IMO we really need to put some time in at recruiting that position. We really missed Mitchell and McCoy, if for nothing else than their experience and willingness to aggressively go after the ball. Maybe we should look at running Louks at the slot position or WR. He has the speed and playing QB in the past should have a feel for the passing game.

I would hope we get a bit more balanced next year and for the years to come. I like our offense, I just think passing is the part Coach needs to put some more time in this spring and fall. It appears to me that we will have to score at least 45 each game to win.

[battle.borne]

What is troubling, from a personnel standpoint, is that the two JUCO wideouts which were recruited to produce immediatly were completely worthless. Malcolm Shepard was billed as a big play reciever but that never materialized. Not to mention Moe Patterson, who was billed as a speed guy, contributed nothing and apparently wasn't even considered for punt or kick returns. Losing LJ was a huge lose for the passing game in hindsight.

[Darth Kaepernick]

What is troubling, from a personnel standpoint, is that the two JUCO wideouts which were recruited to produce immediatly were completely worthless. Malcolm Shepard was billed as a big play reciever but that never materialized. Not to mention Moe Patterson, who was billed as a speed guy, contributed nothing and apparently wasn't even considered for punt or kick returns. Losing LJ was a huge lose for the passing game in hindsight.

How about this one. Dwayne Sanders...what happened to him? He made a great catch during the drive we scored on. He was less than 200 yards away from the all-time kick return yardage record.....TWO YEARS AGO. Was he in the dog house or something? All spring and fall I watched Sudfeld and Quilici catch everything that was thrown at them. Not the fastes guys but they found the open spot on the field. Didn't Insley run like a 4.7? He just knew how to get open and get after the ball. That's what Brandon seemed to do this year a bit. But I can't remember anyone else being overly-agressive for the ball. I remember more times a guy stopped his pattern short or didn't look for the ball than I remember a guy fighting a defender off and making a great catch. How many times do you remember Colin throwing a bad pass and someone other than Wimberly making a "great" catch and bailing him out? I can remember more Boise St players (and not just Young and Pettis) doing that for Kellen Moore this year (and I only watched like 3 BSU games total) than I can Nevada guys and I watched every Pack game from start to finish this season.

I guess my point is, why didn't we do something to shake things up a bit more? Anderson and Washington started to get reps and they seemed like they were making something out of those but then both got hurt I think.

We are way too predictable and vanilla in our passing game. We rarely test defenses deep and even more rarely test them deep over the middle. Nearly everything that is thrown is 10-12 yard comeback on the sidelines. Or 5-7 yards in the flat to the slot guy. Too many 3 WR sets with all guys running patterns to the same half of the field. And I'm not just talking about this year. Think about how many times you can remember Marko, Mike, Chris, Brandon, and Trey catching a ball right past the first down marker as they are heading out of bounds. Now think about how many times you remember one of those guys catching a ball over the middle just behind the line backers. I bet you can remember 10:1 those scenarios.


When I think about teams that have success against us, I think about the following:

1st and 2nd down play action with a flare out to the back, a middle or outside screen to a WR or RB, a TE dump, or a quick slant. All plays that rarely allow a QB to even be pressured and also attack our agressive DE's.

We rarely run any of those plays.

The other thing that bothers me is this: When you watch Navy or Georgia Tech, they never abandon what they do well because of their opponent. And they don't abandon it if it gets stuffed on the first couple of series. We on the other hand seem to abandon the read option when playing ND, Boise, and SMU or when it's not immdiatly working. But when we do abandon it, we don't go into something that throws a team off like a hurry up 5 wide spread set. We just stay in pistol and start doing standard gives, QB iso, and we run pass out of our base sets with our base routes. I just don't get that thinking at all.

[FR4NV]

How about this one. Dwayne Sanders...what happened to him? He made a great catch during the drive we scored on. He was less than 200 yards away from the all-time kick return yardage record.....TWO YEARS AGO. Was he in the dog house or something? All spring and fall I watched Sudfeld and Quilici catch everything that was thrown at them. Not the fastes guys but they found the open spot on the field. Didn't Insley run like a 4.7? He just knew how to get open and get after the ball. That's what Brandon seemed to do this year a bit. But I can't remember anyone else being overly-agressive for the ball. I remember more times a guy stopped his pattern short or didn't look for the ball than I remember a guy fighting a defender off and making a great catch. How many times do you remember Colin throwing a bad pass and someone other than Wimberly making a "great" catch and bailing him out? I can remember more Boise St players (and not just Young and Pettis) doing that for Kellen Moore this year (and I only watched like 3 BSU games total) than I can Nevada guys and I watched every Pack game from start to finish this season.

I guess my point is, why didn't we do something to shake things up a bit more? Anderson and Washington started to get reps and they seemed like they were making something out of those but then both got hurt I think.

We are way too predictable and vanilla in our passing game. We rarely test defenses deep and even more rarely test them deep over the middle. Nearly everything that is thrown is 10-12 yard comeback on the sidelines. Or 5-7 yards in the flat to the slot guy. Too many 3 WR sets with all guys running patterns to the same half of the field. And I'm not just talking about this year. Think about how many times you can remember Marko, Mike, Chris, Brandon, and Trey catching a ball right past the first down marker as they are heading out of bounds. Now think about how many times you remember one of those guys catching a ball over the middle just behind the line backers. I bet you can remember 10:1 those scenarios.


When I think about teams that have success against us, I think about the following:

1st and 2nd down play action with a flare out to the back, a middle or outside screen to a WR or RB, a TE dump, or a quick slant. All plays that rarely allow a QB to even be pressured and also attack our agressive DE's.

We rarely run any of those plays.

The other thing that bothers me is this: When you watch Navy or Georgia Tech, they never abandon what they do well because of their opponent. And they don't abandon it if it gets stuffed on the first couple of series. We on the other hand seem to abandon the read option when playing ND, Boise, and SMU or when it's not immdiatly working. But when we do abandon it, we don't go into something that throws a team off like a hurry up 5 wide spread set. We just stay in pistol and start doing standard gives, QB iso, and we run pass out of our base sets with our base routes. I just don't get that thinking at all.


Darth,

This really got me thinking about something from the past. Coach Ault used to be known as the "Riverboat Gambler." But we hardly ever take chances anymore. We also used to run a lot of plays with the intention of scoring. But now it seems like we settle for long drives. I wonder if all the bad defense we have played over the years has caused the coaching staff to want to use our offense as a defense? I know that everyone understnads that we can't just outscore the BCS schools like we did in 1AA. But there has to be some of that stuff still in the system. Do you think Colin could hang with the wide open stuff?

[Wolfhomie]

Colin was able to hang with it a few years ago when they almost knocked off Boise in Boise and he could do the same now IMHO.

[Wolf Pack Jack]

Colin was able to hang with it a few years ago when they almost knocked off Boise in Boise and he could do the same now IMHO.

IMO Colin plays best when he's able to free style a bit, like that 07 Boise game. He appears to be way too structured right now by coach. Maybe over coached? He should have the green light every time he rolls out if someones not open. Eventually someone will come open in that style. Instead, he gets in trouble.

To Darth: I agree about abandoning what we do best. I've mentioned it here before. The lack of patience we show on offense sometimes in big games appears to hurt us. In the Boise game we all but abandoned the read option in the second half when it clearly started opening other things up in the first. Then there's ND where we run up and down the field only to try passing down close. It's mind boggling. I said it back then, when you get the chance to play in South Bend, you go in there and do what you do best, you don't F around with a bunch of stuff you might want to use later.

To FR4NV: I understand what you mean about new coach compared to old coach. We used to see a much more agressive style of offense when coach was younger. He gambled, called trick plays, you name it. Unlike the bowl games where we see nothing. No creativity what so ever. Also, yea, we should use our offense to make up for the defense. We know we're capable, but it doesn't happen in the big games. Coach blaming the defense in the ND game was insane. We didn't score any points! eye eye eye, as my grandma would say

Frustrating.