Sorry for the repost, but how can anyone blame playcalling??

Nov 13, 2016, 4:59 AM

Deshaun set a Clemson and ACC record with 580 passing yards with 3 TD's and a QBR of 84.1.

Mike Williams had 15 catches for 202 yards with a TD.

Artavis Scott had 13 catches for 125 yards with a TD.

Jordan Leggett had 6 catches for 95 yards.

Gallman ran for 3 TD's.

We had 33 first downs and were 12-18 on third downs.

We ran close to 100 plays with only 3 punts.

I suppose you might want to complain that we didn't run the ball enough. Well the run wasn't working AT ALL, and we were without both of our starting OT's with Hyatt going down early in the first quarter. Taylor Hearn missed multiple blocks on running plays.

It would have been terrible play calling for us to continue to get stuffed running the ball against a top 10 rush defense instead of exploiting a bottom 10 pass defense that they weren't able to stop all night. Deshaun's tipped pass interception was bad luck, but the two in the end zone that ultimately played a huge roll in us losing the game can't be blamed on play-calling.

On the first one, Deshaun read the defense as single coverage man when it was actually 4 quarters zone where the CB had safety help. It wasn't a "trap" where the CB/S disguise coverage—it was a flat out misread.

The second end zone interception with the 70 yard retun was a throw directly to the defender. Inexplicable

On the fourth and one where we failed to convert the first down to give us a chance to kneel the clock out, it bad execution. If it wasn't for the obvious missed block then Gallman would have easily picked up the first down.

Leggett missed a couple blocks on running plays to Gallman throughout the game.

Earlier on the final drive when Cain caught the ball with his knee on the ground which negated he 9-10 yards run after the catch for the first down, you can't honestly blame that on playcalling can you?

On an incompletion late in the first half when Cain made the wrong read and ran the wrong route, was that bad playcalling or was it bad execution??

These are rhetorical questions because I know many of you "Football Experts" will blame playcalling pretty much every time.

There is a YUGE difference between bad execution and bad play-calling.

There was absolutely no way we were going to be able to get the run game going with a make-shift O-line with both of our starting OT's out for nearly the entire game. Also, contrary to a lot of misinformation that I've seen on here, Pitt plays primarily a four quarters zone defense, which makes it much more difficult for Deshaun to find the YUGE running lanes like in man coverage. Plus, with him coming off of an injury, there was no way that we were going to running Deshaun 10-15 times in the game.

Playcalling was outstanding for the most part.

Extremely questionable penalties by the incompetent refs with 5 or 6 of them coming on 3rd downs (effectively resulting in a turnover because they would have been punting) was the biggest factor.

The second biggest factor were the two interceptions in the endzone that potentially cost us 14 points.

The third biggest factor was terrible execution in the form of missed blocks on offense, an incorrect route by Cain, Cain putting his knee on the ground negating 9-10 yards after the catch, Kendall Joseph's failure to cover Connor on Pitt's 2nd TD when Boulware was running a C-gap blitz, and the inability for our defense to adjust to the shovel pass until late in the game.

I'm very confused about our inability to cover the shovel pass considering that it's something that Pitt runs multiple times in most of their games. It looks very similar to the one that Urban Meyer ran at Florida where he uses the Tailback, the H-Back, a traditional or split TE in motion, a WR on presnap orbit motion, or a traditional FB when there is one in the game.

Pitt's OC Canada called a great game and he did an oustanding job of slowing down our blitz with those shovel passes. I believe that Pitt's O-line leads the ACC in fewest sacks allowed. If they aren't ranked first, they're probably 2nd behind GT's run heavy triple-option.

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Good analysis. The only thing I take exception with (regarding play calling) were the 3rd and 4th down calls on our last drive. As you pointed out, we had replacements in the game for both offensive tackles, so what do we do? On 3rd, we run a toss sweep to Gallman behind the right tackle. On 4th, we run a toss sweep behind the left tackle. Never mind that the toss sweep has yet to be successful all year, we run it not once, but twice. As you also pointed out, the ONLY thing that was working was the pass, so maybe it would have been wise to stick with what was working.

Did play calling cause us to lose the game? No, it did not. But, did play calling at a critical time contribute to us not having a chance to win? IMHO, yes it did.

Hats off to Pitt on a spectacular game plan. They exploited our weaknesses. First, the shovel pass gashed our run blitz time after time. Second, the wheel routes got them man coverage on our LBs and led to critical big plays. And before someone starts screaming that Ben can't cover the pass, I'll just say that it's unreasonable to expect any linebacker to cover a TE or WR 35 yards down the field. Finally, the inside counter took advantage of our over-pursuit. For whatever reason, CBV was unable to come up with an answer... hey, it happens to the best. Combine all that, stir in some truly lousy officiating, and add a pinch of unexplicable PI's by the best quarterback I've ever seen, and it adds up to a big fat loss.

The Tigers are really going to have to suck it up over the next two weeks to get back on track. I, for one, will be right there screaming my head off for them. Win or lose, they'll always be my Tigers!

Go Tigers!

Sorry for the repost, but how can anyone blame playcalling??

Re: Sorry for the repost, but how can anyone blame playcalling??

Re: Sorry for the repost, but how can anyone blame playcalling??

As we know NOW a FG would have won it. Coaches didn't have

Yes, you're right about that.

Re: Sorry for the repost, but how can anyone blame playcalling??

Re: Sorry for the repost, but how can anyone blame playcalling??

Re: Sorry for the repost, but how can anyone blame playcalling??

Re: Sorry for the repost, but how can anyone blame playcalling??

I agree with you as well

You ask how anyone can blame play calling....

2 INT's in RZ + Pitt 14 pts off penalties = 28 pt swing

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