Here's the problem with the offense

[Bulldog from Birth]

We've had 3 major events converge to create this cluster of an offense:

(1) We are installing a totally new offensive system.

(2) This new offensive system does NOT fit our QB's skill-set....at all.

(3) And I think more importantly, our QB is coming off a catastrophic leg injury. He certainly has some demons in his head about it. And probably more important than that, he's had very little practice time to absorb the offense. It took him a LONG time to become even a slightly below average SEC passer. I think the time off was devastating to him maintaining that level he'd gotten to.

It absolutely stinks that all this corrupted such a promising season. But it's already been corrupted and nothing can be done now. I still believe we hired a very smart capable head coach and coaching staff. If we wanted to maximize this year, then Greg Knox should've been the hire, and we could've just kept the Mullen play-book and know-how. I still choose to believe Moorhead can be very successful here, especially if Shrader is solid and sticks with us. Give Moorhead at least 2 years. If he's still continuing to have 10 or less points a game in most SEC games in Year 2, then it's time to cut bait.

 

[LawDawg97]

Good post. Sucks to be where we are, but we’ve lost to 3 top 15 teams (2 of those on the road). 2 years ago we scraped 5 regular season wins together. Last year we scored 3 on Georgia and 10 on Auburn.

While many dreamed this team could have had 10 wins this year, truth is Mullen had us no better than the 8th best recruiting class in the SEC the past 4 years, usually outside the top 10 in the SEC. Florida and LSU consistently outrecruit us. They have players on the field.

If Moorhead can execute a gameplan against A&M and get us to 8-4 it will show us a lot. His offense better show up this weekend.

 

[philduckworth]

1. If you can't install your system in a spring and a fall then it's the wrong system.

2. Then adjust your schemes to fit your talent. That's what gurus do.

3. He was no contact in the spring but so are all QBs. He's a 5th year senior, he knows how to play. He looked fine running all over AU and KSU. Our run game creativity in 3 of 4 SEC games has been non existent.

 

[cheewgumm]

Just get the ball to your best players - Hill and Williams. Proven performers. The end.

 

[tatedog]

We've had 3 major events converge to create this cluster of an offense:

(1) We are installing a totally new offensive system.

(2) This new offensive system does NOT fit our QB's skill-set....at all.

(3) And I think more importantly, our QB is coming off a catastrophic leg injury. He certainly has some demons in his head about it. And probably more important than that, he's had very little practice time to absorb the offense. It took him a LONG time to become even a slightly below average SEC passer. I think the time off was devastating to him maintaining that level he'd gotten to.

It absolutely stinks that all this corrupted such a promising season. But it's already been corrupted and nothing can be done now. I still believe we hired a very smart capable head coach and coaching staff. If we wanted to maximize this year, then Greg Knox should've been the hire, and we could've just kept the Mullen play-book and know-how. I still choose to believe Moorhead can be very successful here, especially if Shrader is solid and sticks with us. Give Moorhead at least 2 years. If he's still continuing to have 10 or less points a game in most SEC games in Year 2, then it's time to cut bait.

The parts that are in bold do not jibe.

 

[Leeshouldveflanked]

I’m sure Joe is a nice guy from a blue collar family...Heck, Saban even worked at his daddy’s gas station... Joe even loves baseball....BUT HE IS NOT A SEC FOOTBALL COACH.

 

[HumpDawgy]

The main problem is that before the season started, JoMo said he wanted to throw deep and have plenty of chunk plays, and throw a lot of 50/50 balls. So far we have thrown more 0/100 balls.

 

[Arthur2478]

Our run game creativity in 3 of 4 SEC games has been non existent.

Agreed! I remember once the entire LSU game where we ran outside the tackles. It was a toss to Hill and he picked up about 15 yards. We didn't run outside anymore after that. I'm okay with recognizing we can't throw the ball and sticking to the run, but atleast mix it up a bit. Every single play between the tackles isn't a recipe for success against SEC defenses.

 

[codeDawg]

The problem with our offense is that we have a a kid playing QB who literally could not throw the ball without a defender catching it. I’ve defended Nick a lot, but Sat was on him and KT should have played the 3rd Quarter.

LSU did a good job of taking away what worked against Auburn in the horizontal game while still playing tight between the tackles. We handed the ball off and they didn’t have any more success than Nick.

We needed to be able to complete a couple of passes to loosen up the LOS and Nick just made bad decisions over and over. He’s the QB. I know he wants to make a play, but he has to just eat the ball sometimes.

 

[coach66]

I agree a change should have been made at QB and it should be clear to everyone

this week a change will be made if results aren't happening. Nick is struggling mightily.

 

[drt7891]

We all love to hate on bubble screens...

The parts that are in bold do not jibe.

But Mullen used to run the **** out of those and swing passes. I think that hid a lot of Fitz’ passing woes. Mooreheads passing game is more centered on downfield passing... which Fitz has shown to not be good at.

Think about it... we are running the ball well, but what has killed drives? Either Fitz overthrowing someone, a receiver dropping a pass, or a pick.

We’ve got to get a screen game/perimeter game going or we will be toast. We may have some creative downfield route concepts, but those don’t do **** for anyone if you can’t create space and effectively get the ball downfield.

 

[TBone.sixpack]

It’s almost cruel to him to not make a change.

 

[WutheringDawg]

Agreed! I remember once the entire LSU game where we ran outside the tackles. It was a toss to Hill and he picked up about 15 yards. We didn't run outside anymore after that. I'm okay with recognizing we can't throw the ball and sticking to the run, but atleast mix it up a bit. Every single play between the tackles isn't a recipe for success against SEC defenses.

I don't really want to even get into the passing stuff because it's been hashed and rehashed a million times, but this is something that really has me shaking my head. I think that I would be placed on the Moorhead apologist side of the fan base because I haven't vocalized a desire to fire him after half a season, but what I saw against LSU was really disheartening. Literally the only success we have had in SEC play has been empty set, motion the back into the backfield and run option out of that. We attacked the edges vs Auburn for 43 minutes of game clock. After the game, Moorhead said something about it having been "on the cutting room floor." I guess we swept the cutting room and shredded everything within, because like you said, we did nothing but Fitz up the gut twice then Fitz throws a pick for the entire game. Why did we see nothing of what had brought us success in week 6?

 

[TheStateUofMS]

1. If you can't install your system in a spring and a fall then it's the wrong system.

2. Then adjust your schemes to fit your talent. That's what gurus do.

3. He was no contact in the spring but so are all QBs. He's a 5th year senior, he knows how to play. He looked fine running all over AU and KSU. Our run game creativity in 3 of 4 SEC games has been non existent.

Then how come at this point in his career he hasn't been able to adjust protection to pick up a blitz? Know where his matchups are and get the ball ACCURATELY to the WR with the favorable matchup? How come he regressed in the passing game since his Soph year? Could it be there was film on him and DCs knew he wasn't a true threat to ever pass the ball effectively?

Simply put, Fitz's best passing games under Mullen were ones against not so great team and when he didn't throw INTs. Notice I didn't say 4Td, 250yd 1int type games.

Go look at his stats. He's NEVER been a good passer and NEVER been able to read defenses. He's a WR playing QB. He would have transfered from MTSU to FBS if he wanted to play QB or would have converted to WR. He ran a Wing T in HS. Mullen literally tried to teach a great athlete who had never truly played QB, to play QB in the SEC.

Sure, Mullen could scheme around him, but Fitz never beat anyone who was really good. Fitz actually held us back, which comes down the main issue with Mullen, his lack of desire to recruit at a mid SEC level. He hated recruiting, didn't think he had anything to sell here and we had seasons that were incredibly up and down because of it.

Mullen left Moorhead a stacked team everywhere except at starting QB. Perhaps KT and Mayden can do better. They were actually QBs in HS. Shradder, however, is a bigger Trace McSorley and will be Joe's guy. Joe has also shown that he can hold on to recruits like he did last year and shows with his first full class it's going to be a good one. We have 18 commits and ranked about 20. Mullen would have a full 25-28 and his best year was 17 and averaged about 25.

 

[TheStateUofMS]

I'm in 90% agreement. The leg injury hampered Fitz's top end speed, but he's still a great runner.