Bryce had a rough game Saturday Night

I think the other thread rightly notes that it was pretty clear the shoulder was sore and effecting his accuracy, and that may have also effected decision making, but boy we missed some plays that could have totally changed drives/scoring in the 3rd quarter.

3rd Quarter, 13 mins left, 2nd and 7



In a 2nd a 7, Bryce clearly pre-determined he wanted to go to Jase on a steak down the right side against a safety. He was well covered, ball was overthrown, sets up 3rd and long.

As you can see (and like with most of these see better in motion), Earle broke off a quit 4 yard out and had the DB on his heels. That would have been an easy 4-6 yards and set up 3rd and short (or even a 1st down). This was just a choice instead of not throwing to an open man on a read, but it was looking for the big thing when it wasn't exactly guaranteed to be there instead of taking a small profit.


3rd Quarter, 13 mins left, 3rd and 7

Very next play



Brooks breaks off his route to the center of the field. The DB in zone is running full speed towards the sideline and Brooks crosses his face. Easy throw for a 1st down. Bryce doesn't throw it, keeps looking, runs around the pocket and ends up throwing a long incompletion to Gibbs I believe down the seam. Punt.


3rd Quarter, 7 mins left, 1st and 10

This was a play action delay throwback play that was set up perfectly and had exactly what we wanted - Gibbs all alone with 30 yards of grass in front of him. For whatever reason Bryce just doesn't throw him the ball. No clue. This is a huge gain, and knowing Gibbs, possibly a touchdown. Instead, Bryce runs around and eventually comes back to Gibbs but only to throw it 10 feet over his head to throw it away.




3rd Quarter, 3 mins left, 1st and 10

Brooks is wide open on an RPO pull and Bryce just makes a really bad throw. JPW was so shocked by how bad a throw it was on the radio that he said that he assumed maybe Brooks broke the route off too far down the field, because he'd never seen Bryce miss a ball that badly.





3rd Quarter, 2.5 mins left, 3rd and 8

After a 2 yard run following the previous play, we are in 3rd and 8. 2 guys break their routes to the middle in front of the zone. Earle appears to be the better option as #14 is locked on closing on Latu (though he is flat footed) and #13 is 6 yards off and behind Earle. He chooses Earle and throws it into the dirt.




3rd Quarter, 0.5 mins left, 1st and G

Nice play design, we get Latu with 2 steps on the LB and the WR has pulled the DB to the corner of the end zone with his back turned. However, Bryce's throw is behind Latu which forces Latu to slow down, the LB catches up and contests the pass ending in an incompletion.






TL/DR - I love Bryce, he's awesome and he's been a warrior the last few weeks with the shoulder. Also, BoB is pretty blah and has a big hand in a lot of issues we have. However, while BoB's plan wasn't dynamic Saturday, if Bryce makes normal Bryce throws and reads we're up 38-0 at the end of 3 quarters and probably have 400 yards of offense. As others have noted, because of how State was playing, running the ball was going to be difficult but there were going to be options in the intermediate range of the field and short options if pass pro held up and guys cleared LBs/hybrids in the middle (pass pro did hold up), but the QB has to make those throws quickly and accurately. Bryce just really didn't, and the entire offense was ineffective because of it. Guys weren't open on every play (a few in the 3rd there were zero good options, Bryce maneuvered the pocket to wait for them to come free correctly), but there were a bunch of plays where multiple guys had open bubbles and open non-congested space in front of their line of acceleration.

Bye week is badly needed.