Fletch had 12 measly carries before that game-winning drive

[caneforlifeforreal]

Yes, but even that drive, pass for 14. Pass for 21. Here we go.

End around to Marion, loss of 4. Why? We actually did convert that though, but why? On 3rd and 4, your running back ran for 24 yards.

And then what does he do? First and goal from the 10, Fletcher has had ONE carry on this drive to this point, you put a 190lb freshman WR in to run an off tackle counter play in the low red area. WHAT? Good lord. Toney is ******* awesome. Do we really think the best way to squeeze the most juice out of his talent is to run him off tackle in the low red area?

Agree wholeheartedly on the premise and the sentiment. However that particular play is not the best example. We had the best offensive lineman in the country that is incredible in space, that just whiffed on the block and the edge yanked Mali. If CICI makes that block or doesn't whiff, Mali scores or close bc we had space and only one DB that has to chase Mali to at least the two. It was well designed and a good call.

But the whole too Mali centric is spot on. A decoy game plan would've been perfect.

The end around with Marion? I lost my mind

 

[OrangeBowlMagic]

Agree wholeheartedly on the premise and the sentiment. However that particular play is not the best example. We had the best offensive lineman in the country that is incredible in space, that just whiffed on the block and the edge yanked Mali. If CICI makes that block or doesn't whiff, Mali scores or close bc we had space and only one DB that has to chase Mali to at least the two. It was well designed and a good call.

I disagree. Fletcher runs through that tackle, imo. I didn’t dislike the call. I disliked running it to who we ran it to. That call is fine at a different point on the field. In the red area, with all the big bodies in there, stop getting cute and run your 230lb back.

 

[Stingarov]

Yeah should have been a Corey Dillon Bengals/volume day and it was obvious early.

I also figured that was the PLAN going into the game, because we hadn't really seen much of him for a while.

I thought Mario was James Starks-ing him (resting him up / healing him up in the last half of the year to go hard if making the playoffs like Green Bay used to do).

I do know Taint fans are scared to death of him lol.

 

[caneforlifeforreal]

I disagree. Fletcher runs through that tackle, imo. I didn’t dislike the call. I disliked running it to who we ran it to. That call is fine at a different point on the field. In the red area, with all the big bodies in there, stop getting cute and run your 230lb back.

I agree Fletcher should've been getting the carries in there. **** if you saw my text thread with my boys, Im going harder than you are right now about it. Lol My boy @Ashevegas Cane as well screaming for it. He got a signed McGahee jersey delivered during the game and we saw it as a sign. Lol GIVE IT TO OUR FEATURE BACK

But in good discussion the Malicat (that term is becoming a bit derogative the last 24 and I hate that bc its great when used properly) gave us a man advantage in the run game that ON THIS PARTICULAR play it gave us the space and advantage that would've been beautiful

But for christ sakes Dawson, read the room, read the defense, make em stop it. They couldn't.

Someone joked earlier and I did yesterday but wouldn't be incredible if OSU doesn't know what to expect. Lol what if through this whole season of the pendulum swinging from extreme A gap predictable to Mali gadget, that we actually find balance at the right time. We survived and advanced. These last three games we could be getting better. Our best offensive game is out there

 

[Hurracanes]

Lacking a big physical TE is part of it.

I agree our TE room is not good but that has absolutely nothing to do with our issues with this offense. This is all on Dawson and has been going on all season long. Yesterday, was incredibly frustrating and quite frankly the last straw for me. If he’s not getting bailed out by Cam Ward, he’s getting bailed out by Heatherman.

 

[nvlahos]

It’s clear Dawson (and Mario if he has influence) has no feel for the game.

In games where we should pass more we run and in games where we should run more we get cute

Need to be better against OSU

 

[supersaiyanshel]

Ive been critical of him (not that hes a bad back, just that he lacked that game breaking burst).

Fletcher looked as explosive as Ive ever seen him yesterday. Never seen that version of him. Like even his stride seemed more powerful. Looked like one of the UM greats.

 

[BeastMode]

Dawson was awful I just can’t get over had bad he was yesterday.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

... and we'd produced zero TDs and a pitiful 103 yards passing with 4 minutes left in the game.

I rode the short bus to school.

Forget any nonsensical bull**** the coaches said after the game. Why, seriously, did we not prioritize the running game for the first 56 minutes?

But that's not even the most relevant stat.

We only had FORTY-TWO offensive plays before that final TD drive, not counting punts and field goals.

So Fletcher got the ball nearly 29% of all our offensive plays. We just didn't have very many offensive plays.

I remember one very instructive play in particular. One of the guys I was watching with said "Miami is going tempo" because we were about to snap the ball with 29 seconds left on the playclock. But then everyone started ******* around and we ran over 20 seconds off the clock before we snapped it.

On another play, an aTm defender was running off the field. Beck turned his head and was looking straight at him. As the ref quickly moved out of the way to allow the snap, Beck did NOT force a quick snap to get the free play due to the defensive penalty.

WE WASTE SO MUCH TIME ON OFFENSE. Certain posters get defensive of Mario and Shannon, certain posters like to tell us about other successful teams who are slow on offense, but the reality is Miami has the athletes and ability to run our offensive pace faster, while putting defenses on their back foot, and we choose not to do so. We are slow by design, not necessity. The slowness does not yield better playcalling or audibles or matchup problems. Frequently, we simply move the running back from one side to the other, or put a guy in motion who could have gone in motion 15 seconds earlier.

FORTY-TWO offensive snaps (not counting punts and FG tries) prior to our FINAL DRIVE. That is just terrible. We can bemoan Fletcher only having 12 runs at that point, but the problem was pace, not percentage.

 

[Calinative]

The thing is if we would have given the ball to Fletcher far more A&M likely would have done the same thing every other team did early/mid season which was sell out and crash your safeties to stop the run. And then in the final drive those runs probably don't work. And in the game the wind and Beck weren't on for us. Deep passing was out of the picture basically. So by the end of the game the ball may have been in Becks hand.

This won't be good enough at all against Ohio St. But he needs to use Toney specifically as a decoy more and to actually remember Toney is a WR! It's okay to try to get him the ball 10 yards down field! As well as all our other WRs! Like yes we have to probably run at least like 5-7 jets/passes/wildcat type plays with him per game. But also this game we only had like 47 plays? In those defensive games like that you can't afford so many wasted plays as we had

 

[TheOriginalCane]

So why, at some point, did Mario (of all people!) not go to Dawson and demand: Pound 'em with running game

We were behind 3-0 and needed to catch up?

The wind was so strong it was impacting the hand-offs?

Mario was happy with his late-season public image rehabilitation and didn't want to go full-caveman?

 

[TheOriginalCane]

Absolute coaching malfeasance.

We have a big problem with adjusting the game plan based on how the game is going. But also we are terrible at creating a gameplan based on the other teams strengths and weaknesses. I spent a fair amount of time on the Texas A&M board this week. Leading up to the game they talked a lot about how bad their run defense is and how worried they were about our run game. And their super strength is third down defense so you don't want to get in third and long. All of this screams a gameplan of running the ball.

For Texas A&M their plan on defense was stop Toney at all costs and be prepared for gadget plays. So we played right into their strengths and their preparation and completely ignored their major weakness.

Not gameplanning for the other team's weaknesses/strengths cost us the SMU game too. SMU had one of the top run defenses in the country and one of the absolute worst pass defenses. We came out and tried to pound pound pound the rock and no surprisingly it didn't work. It's all very square peg/round holeish.

For the record, I'm pretty much agreeing with you.

But you know what allows us to "adjust the game plan based on how the game is going"? RUNNING MORE PLAYS.

Drive 1: 5-and-out (1 first down)
Drive 2: 4-and-out (1 first down)
Drive 3: 3-and-out
Drive 4: 4-and-out (1 first down)
Drive 5: 3-and-missed FG
Drive 6: 6-and-missed FG (1 first down)
Drive 7: 8-and-MADE FG (3 first downs)
Drive 8: 3-and-missed FG
Drive 9: 4-and-out (1 first down)
Drive 10: 2-and-out FUMBLE
Drive 11: 6-and-MADE TOUCHDOWN (2 first downs)
Drive 12: VICTORY FORMATION

Two sustained drives all day, both of which resulted in points. Three missed FGs, two of which came with no first downs (already in scoring range).

We could maybe adjust the offensive game plan if we could actually see how the game is going. By, you know, running more than 48 offensive plays in 11 drives. That's just over FOUR PLAYS PER DRIVE.

Terrible.

 

[BlueLightning]

If Fletcher had those 17 carries in the first half and was flirting with 100 yds before the half, play-action with Beck would have left the middle of the field wide open...Even with the wind the passing game would have opened up for the intermediate routes.

 

[Hold My Beer]

WE WASTE SO MUCH TIME ON OFFENSE

-- LAST POSSESSION OF FIRST HALF --
1:51: 1-10 on the A&M 46: Fletcher 3-yard gain
1:09: 2-7 on the A&M 43: Fletcher 1-yard loss
0:26: 3-8 on the A&M 44: Beck to Daniels 14-yard completion

That's 1 minute, 25 seconds ¸— with plenty of standing around watching the clock tick down — for three snaps on a drive that started on the plus side of midfield in a scoreless game. We were playing for the field goal with a less-than-elite kicker on a blustery Texas afternoon. For real.