Official UTEP Game Day Thread

[tman87]

Yeah. I don't mind the quick hitters to the flat to a TE or WR, but they have to be sharp enough that you're looking at positive yards of them even if it's just a couple.

Those are plays that I never expect to be big gainers but that action can be used to set up other stuff down field, but they absolutely can't be things that get you behind the chains

Bubble screen types of plays make the defense play honest. But I am not a fan of throwing the ball to the flat 5+ yards behind the LOS in general. NU has particularly been bad executing these plays. WR's don't block their man well often, the ball often makes the receiver turn the wrong way and loses them any momentum. Too often we have seen these plays be losses. The net gain is not worth the squeeze IMO, but you have to run a few to keep defenses honest a bit. We simply need to execute all phases of these plays better - blocking, route running and ball placement by the QB.

 

[Baron Winnebago]

Bubble screen types of plays make the defense play honest. But I am not a fan of throwing the ball to the flat 5+ yards behind the LOS in general. NU has particularly been bad executing these plays. WR's don't block their man well often, the ball often makes the receiver turn the wrong way and loses them any momentum. Too often we have seen these plays be losses. The net gain is not worth the squeeze IMO, but you have to run a few to keep defenses honest a bit. We simply need to execute all phases of these plays better - blocking, route running and ball placement by the QB.

Definitely. In the past and again on Saturday those "easy" passes were more difficult than throwing stuff downfield and that's not the risk profile you want.

 

[Pepe Silvia]

Bubble screen types of plays make the defense play honest. But I am not a fan of throwing the ball to the flat 5+ yards behind the LOS in general. NU has particularly been bad executing these plays. WR's don't block their man well often, the ball often makes the receiver turn the wrong way and loses them any momentum. Too often we have seen these plays be losses. The net gain is not worth the squeeze IMO, but you have to run a few to keep defenses honest a bit. We simply need to execute all phases of these plays better - blocking, route running and ball placement by the QB.

One of the throws I loved that hasn't been talked about is a check down to a rb (EJ?) in the flat. It was 3rd and short inside the 10 yard line. He put the ball perfectly in front of the rb so that his momentum was already going up field and we got the 1st down with maybe a yard to spare.

It's a simple throw, but it's been years since we had anyone who could place that ball correctly. That one throw was worth 4 points for keeping the drive alive

 

[nja13]

It's a simple throw, but it's been years since we had anyone who could place that ball correctly. That one throw was worth 4 points for keeping the drive alive

Looks who's all confident in the kicking game suddenly.

 

[LoudHogRider]

Aaron Murray (Old UG QB) broke down Dylan Raiola and I thought he did a really good job. The surprising thing to me out of this was how many times he pointed out how lazy our receivers were being and he was right. I put blame on Fidone for some of those flat routes but honestly our WRs just did a shitty job blocking on at least one of them. A couple of the "bad throws" I thought from Raiola were actually just caused by receivers jogging in their routes and taking too long to develop.

Perhaps the "Wonder Kid" will watch this and see what Murray sees with receiver route running. Time to coach 'em up!