Playcalling - Beating the Dead Horse

by Joe 96alum on Nov 13, 2009 12:04 AM EST Comment 29 comments

PSU-OSU drive chart2 (via jjkjr2717)

PSU-OSU drive chart (via jjkjr2717)

Here's the flickr link, I created GIF's from a .pdf so I'm not sure how this is going to look.

I went to the game and watched from the upper deck in the south end zone, and watched my recording when I got home on Monday. I saw here a lot of discussion about playcalling, whether it’s too conservative or not, so I made a chart while watching the recording, to try to understand what was for me a completely unexpected final score.

I picked the 6 best and 6 worst plays of the game from the chart. Of the six best (green & bold text, #16, 20, 27, 30, 40, 41 on the chart), five had the QB under center and four of those were passes, all had TE’s on the line of scrimmage. The six worst plays (red italics, #1, 42, 48, 52, 56, 59) show more empty backfield and formations without tight ends. Overall, there were five plays run with an empty backfield, and they totaled 10 yards gained, and incompletion, an INT, and no first downs. So I think we can ditch the empty backfield plays. (I should note I didn’t tally anything after the INT.) It reinforces my long-standing disdain for the empty backfield formation.

The Lions came out firing with six pass plays in the first nine, but nothing to show for it. The scoring drive started with three straight runs and then the swing pass to Zug for a big play. The scoring drive was run-run-run-passZug-run-run-run-passInterference-4plays to muck and grind into the endzone. My impression in looking at this chart is that our offense is much better with DC17 under center and a threat to run behind him in the backfield.

The play that made me most furious was #56, the wide pitch to Royster that was stuffed. Has this play been run all year? I can’t remember seeing it any other time, maybe some of you can. Is there no trust in your senior QB here? This is where I thought about one of the Iowa posters that said our offense doesn’t have an identity, and I wonder if it’s true. If we’re tied in the 4th quarter at Michigan State and it’s 3rd and 3, what’s the call going to be? Sometimes I wonder if there's a federal law against running the same formation twice in a row. Maybe simplification would be better against better teams.

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Comments

at first i was like if it’s a dead horse why keep beating it, and then i was like this is actually pretty interesting, and then i was like i’m going to bed cause this is depressing to think about

by PSUmob on Nov 13, 2009 12:31 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

I'll have to read this when

I get back. This looks like an interesting piece but I gotta vacate the 717 for 814 ASAP. PSU-35 IU-10

by penntatefan on Nov 13, 2009 6:49 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Rep it 4Life!

"For me the game wasn’t grounded in reality. It was about the uniform you put on that turned you into a warrior. It was about the mythology of the battle, the victory, the defeat, the struggle." - Mike Reid, PSU '69

by jtothep on Nov 13, 2009 9:30 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Where are you from in

the 717. I grew up in New Holland. Ever get back?

One man doing the work of 100's for the good of 1000's

by rahpsu92 on Nov 13, 2009 12:54 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I'm from South Central

PA. About 2hrs SW of NH. Real close to the MasonDixon line, so close we’d go ’crost the border to get the Maryland rednecks to buy us booze insteada effin wif da State Stores.

I’ve got a brother, a nephew & lots of fam there, so return semi-frequently. And am a thousand times more scared of the po-leece there than anywhere in DC.

by jtothep on Nov 15, 2009 8:34 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

717 never sleeps

"The only cohesive passing game in the whole damn conference was in Happy Valley." -Rivalry Esq.

by BSmith717 on Nov 13, 2009 4:36 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Look, man

You’ll get a rec everytime just for the effort it took to watch that game again and actually make charts.

Sam Lickliter. Never forgive. Never forget. Beat IU.

by ReadingRambler on Nov 13, 2009 9:22 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

I've been for a while...

conservative isn’t always the worst thing.

And kudos for charting all this. It definitely beats a bunch of guys speculating on what seems like horrific play-calling after every loss.

by jimbo2psu on Nov 13, 2009 9:26 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Conservative..

isn’t bad, when you have a clear advantage in talent. Recently, the problem in games like anO$U and Iowa is predicitability, not conservative play calling. IMO.

Never mistake effort for achievement.

by Esteban d' Amur on Nov 13, 2009 10:02 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

conservative isn't bad when you are fairly even in talent as well

why go risky and give the other team something to take advantage of?

The only time you should play “risky” is when either you are at a big disadvantage (see Malcolm Gladwell’s David vs Goliath piece), or if you have such an overwhelming advantage that you can’t possibly lose even if you make a ton of mistakes.

by The JuggerNitt on Nov 13, 2009 11:58 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

RUN THE BALL WITH CLARK

Run the ball with Clark. I’ve been saying that all season long.

Yea, concussion, yea, yea, blah, blah…..bottom line is, we can’t win when Clark doesn’t run the ball effectively. Whatever happened to keeping the defense honest?

yes, im still little bitter.

"We are not normal. We are legends. We are Penn State." - Deon Butler

by Stately NOVA Lion on Nov 13, 2009 9:31 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

The pitch to Royster

I don’t question to decision to go with that play call, however, they should have changed the direction the play was run.

They ran that fake-FB TB pitch to the short side of the field and Royster was essentially gobbled up by 2 defenders and the sideline. Had they run that play to the other side, Royster would have had a good chance to outrun the LB and DE to the sideline.

by Screen Name 20 on Nov 13, 2009 10:38 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

I hated the pitch to Royster...

….because we hadn’t run it all year.

by hbeach08 on Nov 13, 2009 12:37 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

That's what I was thinking.

I can’t remember it being used, although I didn’t watch any of the OOC games. Then again, maybe it would have worked to the wide side. By the chart, the TE was on the wide side there.

by Joe 96alum on Nov 13, 2009 12:50 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

That's what it doesn't bother me

It would be something OSU wouldn’t expect or have prepared for. I’ll have to rewatch the play but I don’t think the problem was in the play call, more in the direction of the play.

by Screen Name 20 on Nov 13, 2009 1:38 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

if we hadn't run it all year

then the opponent wasn’t expecting it. so goes the theory…

by Mr. Rosewater on Nov 19, 2009 2:49 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Fourth and five yards to go with six minutes left...

We punt.

Don’t they know how draining that is on their team and their fans? Why didn’t we just forfeit and go home?

by smashtheguitar on Nov 13, 2009 11:21 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

heh, would they still score it 1-0?

by The JuggerNitt on Nov 13, 2009 11:59 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

No, probably something like 6-4.

by Screen Name 20 on Nov 13, 2009 1:40 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Way late for this but...

Thats when I got angry and pissed off! Seriously, 4th and 5 with SIX to go and youre packing it in and punting? UUUUUUUGGHHHH. still a little bitter about that.

Then we went for it on a later 4th down with 2-3 minutes to go??? I don’t remember if we completed it or not but it didn’t matter since we were down 3 cores and I had a violent rage building inside wondering just what the hell they thought they were doing.

by bconway6 on Nov 20, 2009 12:57 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

One of the reasons

I did this was that because in this game, the Iowa game, and the Rose Bowl, it seemed like there were about 5 – 8 minutes of game clock time where everything went down the toilet, it wasn’t that we’re getting beat like a drum all game long. We can pick apart the mistakes on special teams and defense, but sometimes the offense just has to keep up. Here there’s three straight sequences in the second half where we try to pick up third downs with runs.

by Joe 96alum on Nov 13, 2009 12:47 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Success under center

could be attributed to the extra bodies assigned to block their D-line. I’d like to see the number of successful plays where a TE was assigned to help keep Heyward from blasting through into the backfield a nanosecond after the snap.

Awesome work. +1

One man doing the work of 100's for the good of 1000's

by rahpsu92 on Nov 13, 2009 1:00 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

The pitch to Royster

was NOT run all year, but yet there were 3 defenders there! Doesn’t anyone seem to think this is suspicious? Seems they new exactly what plays we were going to run all night long. And why do we have just one person calling the plays in? Not saying that O$U cheats. Just sayin.

by eggsnbeer on Nov 13, 2009 8:17 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

/mandatory

Sam Lickliter. Never forgive. Never forget. Beat IU.

by ReadingRambler on Nov 13, 2009 10:01 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

well, david jones IS a buckeye alum...

by Mr. Rosewater on Nov 19, 2009 2:50 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Answer me this

How does PSU barely score one TD on OSU at home, while a feshman in his first start leads Iowa to 24 points at OSU?

Clearly, there is a problem.

by gcdyersb on Nov 16, 2009 1:46 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Yes, I can write it for you:

Iowa’s offensive line is damned good and finally healthy. Did you see the zone runs they executed against OSU? Beautiful.

DO YOU HAVE PRIDE, DANNY?

by ReadingRambler on Nov 16, 2009 9:15 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Also, Iowa's offense only scored 17 points

They returned a kickoff for a TD.

DO YOU HAVE PRIDE, DANNY?

by ReadingRambler on Nov 16, 2009 9:15 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I admit

I am indeed guilty of not watching the game. I only looked at the score and thought WTF, how does Iowa do this with its #2 QB and #3 RB. I guess we need more corn to feed our linemen.

Special teams not fair catching or fumbling the ball? What is this kick returning TD of which you speak? I have not heard of such a thing this year! Special Teams? How about Special Needs Teams? Yes, I went there.

by gcdyersb on Nov 16, 2009 12:36 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs