Matt Wyatt breaks down our 4th quarter offensively...

[dawgstudent]

http://mississippistate.247sports.com/Board/59413/Wyatts-Monday-Morning-Quarterback-21502459/1

With permission from Paul to post...

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There's been much debate about the 4th quarter play calling, and rightfully so because that's when the offense stalled. Here are the 4th quarter offensive plays:

Possession 1, 15:00, MS 9
1 & 10, QB run, +2 gain (clock moving)
2 & 8 , QB check at LOS, play action pass, pocket collapse, Dak gets back to LOS
AU rushed only 4
Personal Foul, Day
3 & 13, Perkins run, +12 1/2 gain (1/2 yard short) = punt

Possession 2, after INT, 12:38, MS 48
1/10, 3 wide, play action throw, comeback open, Dak throws short, incomplete
2/10, 3 wide, Holloway sweep, +7 gain
3/3, 4 wide, complete to Perkins, steps out of bounds, +1 gain
4/2, Empty, Prescott run, first down at AU 32 10:45

1/10 False Start
1/15 Time Out (alignment confusion Prescott, Chappelle, Ross, Wilson)
1/15 3 wide, zone-read, QB keep +2 gain
2/13 3 wide, motion to empty, QB draw 0 gain (penetration)
3/13 (9:00 remaining) 3 wide, Incomplete to Lewis across marker (open vs zone, great protection, shoulda/coulda) = punt

Possession 3, 6:10, MS 20
1/10 4 wide, fake wide zone, QB keep, +1 gain (clock moving)
2/9 motion to empty, 10yd comeback to Morrow, covered batted away (stops clock at 5:30)
3/9 time out
3/9 4 wide, blitz, complete to Lewis, 8+ gain, (need 9)
4/1 (4:30) empty, Prescott draw +5 gain = first down

1/10 @ MS 32
1/10 4 wide "stack", play action screen to RoJo covered, Prescott pulls down and makes +1 gain
2/9 3 wide, motion Holloway to "sweep" look, give to Perkins instead, +4 gain
3/5 (2:50) 3 wide, motion Lewis in backfield and fake to him, QB keep +3 1/2 gain (1 1/2 yard short)
Punt with less than 2:30 remaining

17 offensive plays run in 4th quarter
10 run
7 pass (two ball was not thrown, went 2 for 5 otherwise)
three incompletes were: drop by Lewis for first down in AU territory, under thrown comeback by Dak, and batted down out route to Morrow

Summery: given the situation nursing a lead in the fourth quarter, I'm okay with more runs than passes A) given the previous success running the ball, and B) it gets the clock moving.

Like I said in my column, another wide run or two from Holloway or Lewis might've been the answer in hindsight... "hindsight" being the key term. (preface: I'd be a millionaire if I could go back to 21 yrs old, given my excellent hindsight)

Other than that, the biggest issue to me appears the lack of composure the offense showed in the 4th quarter, i.e. personal foul, two protection break downs vs 4-man rush, dropped 1st down, miss an open guy, false start at the AU 32, subsequent burned time-out can't get freshmen lined up, and THREE times coming up 1 yard short of the marker. ((that's 10 screw-ups in the course of 17 plays, btw))

Anyone that says "play calling" in general was the biggest 4th quarter problem is speaking from emotion and not looking closely enough.

 

[cheewgumm]

Obviously compelling.

Speaking with emotion without thinking sometimes...guilty.

 

[operch]

Good post and I basically BUY. Will say the non catch for the 1st down would have been above and beyond. But you need an A&B every once in a while.

 

[TDawg52]

makes a lot of the posts and posters below look very uninformed and ignorant.... sometimes it's best to let the dust settle before you start slinging more dirt...

 

[DAWG61]

Good post. If Mullen runs Shump during the 4th we win this game. We choked on the road in Dak's first SEC start on both sides of the ball and Collins laid a turd with his passive play-calling on the last drive. Oh and Mullen let it all happen because he's too busy chewing on his playcard instead of out coaching Malzahn. Malzahn's upper-cut at the end was actually him fisting Mullen's ***.

 

[patdog]

Couple of issues I have with that play calling. 2 very unimaginative QB runs up the middle on 1st and 15 and 2nd and 13 on the 2nd possession. Other than that, I agree, the problems were mostly execution, not play-calling.

 

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

Good post and I basically BUY. Will say the non catch for the 1st down would have been above and beyond. But you need an A&B every once in a while.

Kevin Prentiss and Kelvin Love agree.

 

[121Josey]

Mostly disagree. Won't deny the mental lapses in the 4th, but I was wondering if the powers that be were watching the same game. It was clear that Dak was having trouble with passing after taking a beating for most of the game. We kept calling passing plays that just ended up leaving Dak to run for little gain. A designed run would have garnered at least 2 yds.

We were running cookie cutter patterns while they were giving us the run.

Here's the designed runs:
3 & 13, Perkins run, +12 1/2 gain
2/10, 3 wide, Holloway sweep, +7 gain
4/2, Empty, Prescott run, first down at AU 42(??) 10:45 ((+4??))
1/15 3 wide, zone-read, QB keep +2 gain
2/13 3 wide, motion to empty, QB draw 0 gain (penetration)
1/10 4 wide, fake wide zone, QB keep, +1 gain (clock moving)
4/1 (4:30) empty, Prescott draw +5 gain = first down
2/9 3 wide, motion Holloway to "sweep" look, give to Perkins instead, +4 gain
TOTAL: 35/8 = 4.375

Here's some calls that I had overt disagreement with in real time.

Possession 2, after INT, 12:38, MS 48
3/3, 4 wide, complete to Perkins, steps out of bounds, +1 gain (disagree with spreading the field here).

1/10 @ MS 32 (under 4 mins)
1/10 4 wide "stack", play action screen to RoJo covered, Prescott pulls down and makes +1 gain (this play didn't have a snowball's chance in Hawaii of working. This play stalled the drive)

 

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

Anything with 4 wide is not happening with this offense. That we keep going back to this dry well is frustrating as a fan.

 

[maroonmania]

1/10 False Start
1/15 Time Out (alignment confusion Prescott, Chappelle, Ross, Wilson)
1/15 3 wide, zone-read, QB keep +2 gain
2/13 3 wide, motion to empty, QB draw 0 gain (penetration)
3/13 (9:00 remaining) 3 wide, Incomplete to Lewis across marker (open vs zone, great protection, shoulda/coulda) = punt

The above is only major problem I had with playcalling. We are sitting after the INT at the Auburn 37 so you are flexible to run WHATEVER you want, without having to be all that worried about a turnover deep in your territory, with a 1st and 15 due to a stupid illegal procedure and we run 2 straight QB draws up the middle for a combined 2 yards. So we essentially gave ourselves one chance at making the first down on the 3rd down play but Lewis can't hold onto the ball. Now I will say on the 1st and 15 if Dak had given Perk the ball going wide instead of pulling it back in to go up the middle Perk had all kinds of daylight so maybe that was just a bad read by the QB and not really a bad play call. But anyway THAT was the time to do something Auburn was completely unprepared for not the time to call 2 runs up the middle.​

 

[BigMotherTucker]

We can should'a - could'a - would'a this thing to death...

The problem is our coach flat out sucks. Plain and simple. Im sick of seeing us (him) get out coached week in and week out. I flip the channel and watch UCLA come from something like 28 down to beat Nebraska... When my team is down like that we stay 17ing down... Im sick of it. I love Matt Wyatt... I really do. But I dont give two ***** what our drive chart looks like in the 4th qtr. The fact of the matter is Mullen looks clueless and lost out there and that translated BIGTIME to our players in the 4th qtr.

I joke and kid about FIRE MULLINZ NOW!!!111!!1, but to be honest... If that SOB didnt come back next year I wouldnt shed one tear. Bring on the next over paid ******* to run this 17er. He couldnt do any worse.

 

[horshack.sixpack]

What frustrates me is that other teams seem to nearly always have some number of plays that they run to perfection when the going gets tough. In other words, the only way that you are going to stop them is if you call the perfect defense and execute perfectly. We don't appear to have a set of plays that we can rely on in the same manner. We tend to look anxious and often shoot ourselves in the foot.

I think that Tom Landry once said something to the effect of not practicing until you finally get it right, but practicing until you can't do it wrong. That is what I feel is missing. That is how I believe that many programs with lesser athletes manage to churn out amazing offensive numbers. Long story short, execution is on the coaches whether it be from not calling plays that they knew we could run or not having the players ready to run any "sure thing" plays. Not that I expect perfection, but I would love to have the sense that we were really a well oiled machine. Instead, I've seen us look about the same on offense since the beginning of last season. That's a long time to go putting a team on the field that doesn't "appear" any better to the casual football fan.

Without a lot of X's and O's, I'd say that the biggest problem is that the offense just doesn't pass the smell test. I hope it is only a few correctable coaching moments away from being fixed, but given how long the problem has persisted, I am not optimistic on that front.

 

[randystewart]

When my team is down like that we stay 17ing down

THIS^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
One of my biggest frustrations is that if we get behind, it is game over. Not sure what it is (obviously offense related) but if that had been us with the chance to drive down and win, we wouldn't have crossed the 50. I can only think of one game under Mullen where we were legitimately close to a come from behind win (AU Relf fail at goal line).

 

[BigMotherTucker]

We had the exact same scenario against So Carolina a few years ago. They go down and throw a jumpball TD (piss poor D call on our part, by the way) and take the lead. We have a chance to drive and score. SO Carolina ran prevent for half the field and when we crossed the 50 they brought the pressure. Tyler throws a pick to end the game. Thats how you play D on a final drive. Not the BS prevent.

 

[dannyripms]

Nope, if we don't seek perfection then we will never be a great ball club. Saban demands perfection and he gets it most the time. And you can't say it's because of the athletes because they had some crappy coaches and couldn't do anything with them. Saban comes in and wins immediately. So it's all on the coaches.

 

[MagnificentBastard]

Damn, I wish I could forget LSU in 09. How did you do it? Sorry to remind you. But you are right they are few and far between. The flip side is Auburn is the only team to come back and beat Dan when we had a lead after 3 quarters.

 

[dannyripms]

I think maybe its mullens attitude towards the team, he tries to be their friend too hard and doesn't get on them enough. He needs to walk in and demand more. More intensity.

 

[DocHolliday.sixpack]

Bingo...we have a winner!!!

I thought the same thing during the Bama game. aTm comes out and throws up 14 like it's nothing. Kyle Field going absolutley crazy, stadium shaking, annoucers "JFF is doing it again". What does Saban and Co. do? Calmy reply by bringing the beat down. Yes I know, we aren't Bama blah blah blah. But as you pointed out, normally if were are down, the scenario becomes, OH NO, just how bad are we going to get embarrassed?

We were out coached. We were out coached in the Egg Bowl, we were out coached against Northwestern and on and on it goes. I honestly believe we were the more talented team Saturday. Out coached. To boot, we ran Shump ONE play, one play. Are you kidding me? Dude was bulldozing tacklers (plural) every time he was given an oppurtunity. How do we utilize him?? One play.

Sheeeshhhh this get's old

 

[randystewart]

Damn, I wish I could forget LSU in 09. How did you do it?

****, good call. Looking back on that one, we should have seen this whole play calling debate coming..

 

[chew1095]

Yep and just wait until the animosity in the locker room starts i.e. why the hell am I not getting as many, or any, touches as Player X who hasn't done **** all game. Because, if it has not started yet, it's coming. These situations are very formulaic and predictable.

 

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

 

[randystewart]

Because, if it has not started yet, it's coming

It was happening before the season started. Griffin and Holloway even tweeted/retweeted things after the Oklahoma State game along the not getting the ball lines.

 

[RocketDawg]

Weren't we down 14-0 early before taking the lead until there were 10 seconds left in the game? Now you may have been talking about being down late in the game, but we were down in this game and came back.