Assessing our WR's...

#1
avolation

avolation

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Photo By Bennett Scarborough on UTSports.com

The photo above is of Tyler Byrd taking flight to high point a pass last Saturday night at the Battle at Bristol. Unfortunately, the pass flew too far and Byrd landed a few feet out of the end zone, but it left me saying, "Wow, did he actually catch that pass?"

If you take a glance at our passing stats, you might confuse them for Vanderbilt's. 10 for 19 for a total of 91 yards. Not much to write home about. But in this offense, on this team, passing statistics seem to have very little correlation with overall success. Here's some key points that I noted after watching the game a second time.

1. Blocking needs to improve: Our WR's (and TE's on occasion) missed too many blocks on bubble screens and short passes. I saw Josh Smith miss 2-3 blocks and Ethan Wolf missed one which resulted in a broken plays. I understand that those blocks are not easy to execute, especially when it's obvious where the balls going, but still we've got to stay on those blocks better.

2. We've got to run better routes: Last play of the first drive Malone spins around to look for the pass, but clearly is not expecting it and the ball goes wide left. Not a great throw, but definitely not a good route. 7:15 in the 2nd quarter we take a shot into the end zone at Croom. He's got a favorable one-on-one match up with a smaller defender and somehow doesn't even come close to catching the ball. He turned too much of his body around to find the pass and his vertical route starting fading to the left and away from the ball. With that kind of match up he needs to run hard at his defender and only turn and jump to high point the ball once he gets to the end zone. Last example. 3rd Quarter 7:49 left, Dobbs tries to hit Smith on a 15 yd comeback on the left sideline, but Josh Smith must have lost his footing. He fell down, out of bounds of all places, and the ball hit him in the back. Gotta be better than that. Overall our WR's need to run every route like they are about to catch the football. Expect it receivers.

3. Impressed with Jennings TD catch: Guy has got a ton of fight in him and I loved seeing him pull that one down.

4. Get ready for Byrd-Man: After catching a glimpse of Tyler on Saturday, I'm super pumped to watch him the rest of the year. We need to target him AT A MINIMUM 5 times a game. He looked like the most explosive player on the field while he was out there. I think Byrd will continue to get more reps in the slot and I think he might get his first TD this weekend during garbage time late in the game.
 
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#3
#3
We have more potential at WR and TE than we have had in years. If we had even "average" play from the OL our passing game would be a legit weapon. No QB and I mean NO QB is going to do any better than Dobbs when a 3 man rush can beat 5 OL and have their hands on the QB practically as fast as he gets the snap.
 
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#5
#5
ITSGR82BATNVOL said:
We have more potential at WR and TE than we have had in years. If we had even "average" play from the OL our passing game would be a legit weapon. No QB and I mean NO QB is going to do any better than Dobbs when a 3 man rush can beat 5 OL and have their hands on the QB practically as fast as he gets the snap.
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100% agree with you. Dobbs is perfectly capable of throwing for 300 yds a game if we had a line that would give him 4 seconds to throw the ball.
 
#9
#9
DeBord is part of the problem. I re-watched the entire game yesterday and we threw across the middle of the field exactly 1 time....1. There were only 2 passes that were even between the hash marks.
 
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#10
#10
fade route said:
DeBord is part of the problem. I re-watched the entire game yesterday and we threw across the middle of the field exactly 1 time....1. There were only 2 passes that were even between the hash marks.
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Debord doesn't trust Dobbs' throwing IMHO. He relies almost entirely on "smash" (Hurd), "scramble" (Dobbs) and "sidelines" (pass to WR in the flat).

One could argue that with 6 or 7 in coverage, its tough to complete too many passes however.

If I were scheming against the Vols, I would spy the QB, rush 3, leave 2 LBs to stop Hurd / cover intermediate passes to TE and drop the other 5 into zone coverage.
 
#11
#11
utvols74 said:
Debord doesn't trust Dobbs' throwing IMHO. He relies almost entirely on "smash" (Hurd), "scramble" (Dobbs) and "sidelines" (pass to WR in the flat).

One could argue that with 6 or 7 in coverage, its tough to complete too many passes however.

If I were scheming against the Vols, I would spy the QB, rush 3, leave 2 LBs to stop Hurd / cover intermediate passes to TE and drop the other 5 into zone coverage.
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:shhh:...don't give everything away...:biggrin:

GO VOLS!
 
#12
#12
This is by far the most intelligent and reasonable thread about Dobbs and our passing game that I have ever read on any of the Tennessee forums. Dobbs isn't perfect, but he is more than capable. He needs help from the o-line and for Debord to give him more chances to throw over the middle (he has always shown great accuracy throwing over the middle). The receivers also need to run every route with the expectation that they are getting the ball...but that's about the only complaint with them. I think they are prepared for a break out year. If the o-line would give Dobbs time to throw and Debord would give him more opportunities with quick slants and 10-15 yard throws across the middle of the field, then I think the perception of our passing game would be drastically different.
 
#14
#14
GUYS, GUYS, GUYS..............don't get your hopes up about us throwing the ball around as Butch and Debord will ONCE AGAIN go to the utmost of Conservative play calling before the Florida game...............Butch & Debord is ways TOO SCARED to open up the playbook before florida.......my thing is open up the play book and try the plays on a lesser team like Ohio and that gives Florida more to think about during that week of practice..........which doesn't allow them to load the box from the START OF THE GAME !!
 
#15
#15
Yep the play calling has to do with them not wanting to give the playbook away before Florida. Then we will unleash the Big Orange fury!!!! GBO!!! VOLS ALL THE WAY!!!
 
#16
#16
The receivers are having to come back and/or stop for most passes and have made some spectacular grabs. I don't think we can say one way or the other how they're doing running routes. They do need to get better at blocking though.
 
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#18
#18
865Volfan11 said:
Yep the play calling has to do with them not wanting to give the playbook away before Florida. Then we will unleash the Big Orange fury!!!! GBO!!! VOLS ALL THE WAY!!!
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There's no magic plays locked in a vault waiting to be unleashed on the football world. If you watched the first two games, you've seen our playbook.
 
#20
#20
You can't have a good passing game if you seldom throw the freakin' ball! We've got some talent at WR and TE but hardly use it. How many touches did Byrd get against VT--one? That's typical. One way you compensate for a mediocre offensive line is to mix up your play-calling and so keep a defense on its heels. We are headed for trouble against florida as the Vols are in the same conservative, limited play-calling mode as we've been since Jones got here. Can you imagine if we had a guy like Fuentes as our OC? We'd be MUCH better.
 
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