Is our WR/slot group THAT bad?Is "lack of separation" a coaching issue?

There are plenty of teams with far less talent than us that put competent passing offense on the field every week.

We don’t have an elite WR group, but our biggest problem is that we don’t have an offensive philosophy at all.

Quickness (not straight line speed but acceleration and abrupt change of direction) is an issue with this group of WR and it needs to be resolved next year. But experience is a bigger problem and that will get better.

It's nearly 100% a coaching issue. Even a mediocre receiving crew can excel if the passing schemes match up with the defensive strategy. Stacking the box means there's man coverage....absolutely no excuse not to put up HUGE passing numbers when you have a guy with Fromm's ability passing against man coverage and a stacked box.

They zoomed out for one play tonight to show how the WRs were covered. It was like 3rd and 14, 3WR TE set, Jake in the gun and had plenty of time to throw. The camera shot showed 3 WR running essentially 8-10 yard single-move routes (2 looked almost like seam routes?), and a TE deeper at the line of gain. There were no cross routes to pick a receiver open or force defenders to switch. There were no secondary moves after the called move wasn't open. It looked like something a 15yo flag football qb would draw in the dirt during the huddle.

By my count, we went to a bunch set ONCE tonight, and it resulted in a 20-30yd gain to Pickens, who was wide open. When man press is slowing down your receivers, you fricking scheme with bunch formations, crossing routes, anticipation routes (button hooks/ins/outs/slants), and definitely some RB screens being the WR can immediately pick up and hold their blocks outside.

It's 100% scheming. It can't be overstated how much coaching can overcome talent deficiencies. We don't have that much of a talent deficiency at the skills positions which speaks volumes to just how badly Coley is at scheming this offense.

quote:

---

It doesn’t make any sense. It’s not like Coley just walked on from a HS team and has never been around a passing game before.

---

Coley has been a bad OC and play caller his entire career.

He is a recruiter.

Kirby is 100% at fault for not hiring a real coordinator.

quote:

---

They showed the all 22 view on a couple plays and the issue I saw was this: 3rd and 13. 5 wide receivers, empty backfield. D rob runs 15 yard post. Pickens like a 10-12 yard comeback, Simmons a 5 yard curl. Woerner a 7 yard out and wolf a 7-10 yard in. Might have a couple details wrong but the issue is it’s 3rd and 13 and only one route has a legitimate shot at achieving that. That’s asanine.

---

I mean, Pickens ran a 2 yard out route on 3rd and 3 on our first possession

The defense is all over pretty much every wide screen we run now because of how predictable it is. Poor James cook is a sacrificial lamb when they do that running back motion screen/swing pass thing

Yep, last night was not a good measure of our passing offense.
Our best receiver is injured.
With 3 TO's vs SC, Kirby obviously told Fromm not to throw any questionable passes.
And with the terrible weather conditions it became obvious that we would either win with the running game or not.
Hopefully we actually learned something about blocking on the outside for the running game which will pay dividends vs Florida and Auburn.

quote:

---

This isn't on the receivers.

---

quote:

---

It's 4 parts philosophy/coaching and 1 part Jake not throwing into tight windows/finding the open guy.

---

I agree. The receivers make it near impossible to throw timing routes (fades and backshoulders) when they get jammed at the line.
But a lot of issues are also present. Fromm is the one with the ball, and he isnt letting these rip. I dont blame him (3 INTs with high percentage throws 2 weeks ago. Tight ends catching 0 out of 8 pass attempts. We throw over the middle, but it is rare. The 4th down conversion to pickens last night was one).

I dont know if it changes anyone's opinion. But fromm told the coaches that he didn't feel good about the slick balls.
Does that affect how we look at the receivers? Coaches? Fromm?