Is the deep ball our problem on both side of the ball?

[cldawg]

To me it looks like our offensive struggles are directly related to Relf not being able to connect on the long passes. Everything "clicked" for him around the AR game last year. Now he has no feel on the long passes, so everyone can play us tight and take away the run. That is also killing any chance of the quick little dump off passes that opened up at the end of last season.

On defense we are playing not to give up the deep ball, and by doing so we are opening up all of the underneath stuff. This is why a team like La Tech was so hard to get off the field. It seems that our DBs are not able to cover one on one. In the LSU game we backed them up inside the 5 after a great punt. The first play, we crowd the line and pull up the cornerbacks when we had mainly been playing off 10 yards. The first play is a deep pass for a 40+ yard gain.

If we could get Relf to hit some passes we can make up for the defensive struggles. I would also think Mullen and Les are having sleepless nights going back and forth on giving Russell a chance Saturday, or do we let Chris try to manage it and hope it "clicks" soon.</p>

 

[GrooGruxDawg]

If Relf starts throwing slightly more accurate passes down field and our WR's actually make an effort to catch the ball then no. Maby my depth perception from the stands is off a little but I watched several balls fall incomplete last week that looked catchable and our WR's made absolutely no effort to even try and reach out for them. Our defense on the other hand is just a big ? on every down. We were able to stop LSU's ridiculously good offense from getting in the endzone until the 4th quarter, but we allowed La Tech and Auburn to score more points than LSU. I just dont get it.... Manny come back! You can blame it all on me!<div>
</div><div>As far as playing Russell goes, depending on how the game is going we'll probably let him lead a drive mid-way thru the 3rd quarter but I still have most of my faith in Relf. I say give Favre a chance, If he comes out and is everything he has been hyped up to be then great and if he fails miserably and turns out to be the next Tyson Lee then at least we wont have to hear any more **** about tweets and texts saying "If it was me I would have completed that pass"</div>

 

[tenureplan]

Outside of the LSU lone touchdown and maybe the La Tech touchdown that wasn't, when have we been burnt deep?

 

[GrooGruxDawg]

you replied. I've been up all night writing a paper and it sounded good when i first typed it, cut me some slack.

 

[Beretta.sixpack]

his deep ball throwing his more of a line drive type throw, ive had said this every single time to my friends around me when he has thrown it....that's not necessarily a bad thing, he has a cannon for an arm, and it is evident in his deep ball.....however, when our WRs have no separation, it is going to always be overthrown or intercepted with his cannon shot on a laser....

If the WRs get some separation, then you will see them catching more of them.....otherwise, look for INTs or INCPs....

 

[maroonmania]

Relf doesn't throw a perfect deep pass that drops right in the lap of the WR even when covered, I just don't think he's capable of that. However if WRs would get some actual separation for the DBs, which they seemingly NEVER do, then Relf is good enough to hit them. The only time we've got to see that though is against Memphis. Apparently it takes a defense as bad as Memphis for our WRs to get even slightly open best I can tell.

 

[tenureplan]

Against Auburn, we had several wide open deep guys that Relf overthrew.

 

[cldawg]

It is frustraing when Relf is actually getting some time to make some throws and he is staying in the pocket. The line did an ok job of protecting him at times against LSU, but like you said we could not get a WR open. At least we don't still have the midget back there getting balls batted down. </p>

 

[SyonaraStanz]

That pass was a perfect pass by Lee. Our corner had good coverage; however, the pass hit the receiver in the numbers, while the corner was positioned directly behind him, which led to the immediate tackle. You just have to tip your hat on those kinds of throws.

I feel like our coaches aren't letting the corners carry enough of the load, leading to the soft coverages and constant 7 yard short passing gains by opponents.