Replay Booth: Offense vs. Florida State
Everyone knows the offensive performance against Florida State wasn't exactly the best we've seen from this offense, and in some ways it may have been one of the worst, so let's take an in-depth look and see what we've really got here.
If you missed the "Replay Booth" post from the Ole Miss game, or forgot some of the metrics used, refer to that post for an explanation of what everything means. Feel free to leave questions as well.
If you're reading this from the homepage, you'll find the rest of the post below the jump. It's really long and would make the front page huge, so click below to see the play-by-play and analysis. If you came straight to this post, ignore what I just said and keep reading.Ln Dn Ds O Form DForm Type Play Player Yards W19 1 10 Shotgun 5-wide Nickel Pass Slant Brinkman 0 Incomplete pass thrown into traffic. Skinner probably shouldn't have tried to make that throw, although there may have been uncalled interference (BR, 1). W19 2 10 I Form 4-3 Run Blast Adams -2 Defensive tackle comes untouched into the backfield. Ben Wooster got schooled (-1). W17 3 12 Shotgun 3-wide 4-3 Pass Rollout Brinkman 0 Really good protection, particularly good block by Birdsong (+1). Great coverage by FSU makes Riley throw it away (TA, 0) Drive Notes: Punt. 0-0, 14:00 1Q. Clearly never good to start with a 3 and out. Ln Dn Ds O Form DForm Type Play Player Yards F45 1 10 Shotgun 5-wide Dime Pass Shallow cross M. Williams 1 Quick timing route and a good pass by Skinner (CA, 3). Williams had an easy 3 yard gain but tried to make more of it and lost a couple, which wasn't very smart. F44 2 9 ? ? Run Blast Adams 5 Wake ran this play quick trying to get an advantage on FSU, and caught ESPN off guard in the process. We miss the beginning of the play so I don't know exactly what happens, but it looked like a good push from the whole line and a nice run by Adams straight up the middle. F39 3 4 Shotgun 3-wide 4-3 Run Option Boldin 5 Skinner and Boldin, who came in motion to the backfield, run the option to the right to pick up the first down. I like this play a lot and wish we would see it more often. Well done by all. F34 1 10 Ace 3-wide 4-3 Pass Rollout M. Williams 0 FSU brought a couple blitzers here and the line picked it up fairly well as Skinner rolled left and made a tough throw on the run. It would have taken a pretty incredible catch by Y'lou, but I don't think Skinner had any other options (IN, 3). F34 2 10 Ace 3-wide 4-3 Run Off-tackle Adams 0 The center Bailey is pulling on this run to the right but there wasn't any push and nowhere for Adams to go. (-1 for Bailey and Griffin) F34 3 10 Shotgun 5-wide 3-3 Pass Slant M. Williams 3 Skinner gets rid of this ball over the middle to Williams in a hurry, catchable but not perfect (CA, 2). A blitz was coming and Nenon picked it up nicely, but Birdsong didn't do so well on the end (+1, -1) Drive Notes: Field Goal, 3-0, 11:30 1Q. The first three plays were nice, but things stalled again. Skinner looks a little ""off"" already. Ln Dn Ds O Form DForm Type Play Player Yards F27 1 10 Shotgun 5-wide Nickel Pass WR screen Brinkman 8 Easy screen to Brinkman on the right (CA, 3). Birdsong misses his block badly again (-1) but Bailey has a nice block out in front of the play (+1). F19 2 2 Ace 3-wide 4-3 Run Counter Adams 6 Good looking counter to the right. Rinfrette makes an excellent cut block to lead the way (+1). F13 1 10 Ace 3-wide 4-3 Run Dive Adams 1 Dive straight up the middle - looked like Wooster tried to block the wrong guy and the one he missed made the tackle (-1). F12 2 9 Ace 3-wide 4-3 Run Draw Adams -3 A draw play where everyone picked up their block except for fullback Belton (-1). F15 3 12 Shotgun 5-wide Nickel Penalty Holding Griffin -10 This would have been the only touchdown of the game with a nice connection from Skinner to M. Williams, but for a holding penalty in the backfield by Griffin (-1). Wasn't a really bad hold, but they'll still catch you sometimes. F25 3 22 Ace 3-wide 4-3 Run Off-tackle Adams 16 Good run play to the right picking up a chunk of yards. Nice blocks by both Bailey (who was pulling) and Belton (+1 each). Drive Notes: Missed field goal, 3-0, 8:00. Swank doesn't miss many 27 yard field goals, and it was a bad sign of things to come. It's definitely frustrating to start a drive on your opponents 27 and come up with nothing. Two turnovers, two drives starting on the opponents half of the field, and only 3 points to show for it. Ln Dn Ds O Form DForm Type Play Player Yards W27 1 10 Shotgun 3-wide 4-3 Penalty Holding Nenon -10 I believe this penalty was called on Nenon (hard to hear - they were talking about Brett Farve over the top of the referee. -1). Was an option draw up the middle by Skinner. W17 1 20 Ace 3-wide 4-3 Pass Post Wooster 0 Trying to hit Wooster across the middle but he was well covered. Pretty good protection, but not a great pass (IN, 1) W17 2 20 Ace tight 4-3 Run End around Boldin 6 Boldin gets the ball on an end around to the left, but 6 yards on 2 and 20 isn't going to cut it. I'd like the play in other situations, though. W23 3 14 Shotgun 4-wide Nickel Pass Fly M. Williams 52 This was probably the best deep ball Skinner's thrown all season, and Williams almost dropped it but managed to hang on (DO, 3). Protection was good as well. Great 3rd down conversion F25 1 10 Ace 3-wide 4-3 Run ? Pendergrass -9 FSU D-end jumps the snap count perfectly and Nenon never even had a chance to make the block. Just a great defensive play, although some snap cout variation would probably help. F34 2 19 Ace 3-wide 4-3 Run Off-tackle Pendergrass 1 The backside lineback comes all the way across to make this play off tackle to the right. Bailey was pulling and probably should have blocked that linebacker instead of the corner he ended up blocking (-1). F33 3 18 Shotgun 2RB Nickel Pass Sack Skinner -10 Another missed block by Birdsong leads to this sack (-1, PR). Not a good start to the night for him, and it knocks Wake out of field goal range. Drive Notes: Punt, 3-0, 3:00 1Q. A very promising drive goes downhill in a hurry towards the end with some great defensive play by FSU Ln Dn Ds O Form DForm Type Play Player Yards W45 1 10 Shotgun tight 4-3 Pass Shallow cross Brown 20 Beautiful play here as Skinner dumps the ball of to Y'lou coming shallow across the middle (CA, 3). Wake's WRs had run of the man coverage and there was plenty of open space for Y'lou to run. F35 1 10 Shotgun 3-wide 4-3 Penalty False Start Griffin -5 Flinches a bit early (-1). F40 1 15 Ace 3-wide 4-3 Run Draw Pendergrass -2 This play was a perfect example of a running back taking too long in the backfield. The blocks were all there but Pendergrass doesn't hit the hole and gets tackled in the backfield by a saftey. That shouldn't happen. F41 2 17 Shotgun 5-wide Nickel Pass Fumble Skinner -7 FSU brought 6 and Wake only had 5 to block with, so there wasn't much they could do. Skinner just needed to get rid of the ball faster (PR). Drive Notes: Fumble, 3-0, 13:00 2Q. In 5 drives Wake has been on FSU's side of the field 4 times, and only come up with 3 points. Ugh. Ln Dn Ds O Form DForm Type Play Player Yards W34 1 10 Shotgun 4-wide Nickel Pass Curl Wooster 11 Great catch by Wooster in traffic on a ball that was a bit high (CA, 2). The line held their blocks very well, particularly Birdsong (+1). Nice first down. W45 1 10 ? ? Pass Flare Harris 11 Nice catch by Harris on a low throw moving to the right (CA, 2). Bob Davie and Mark Jones were telling some stupid food story in the booth and we missed the beginning of the play so I have no idea what formations were run, sorry. F44 1 10 Unbalanced right 4-3 Pass Flare Adams 15 Really weird formation here, with an extra guy to the right - only time I've seen this formation all season. Well designed dump off to Adams (CA, 3) for a big gain to the left. F29 1 10 I Form 4-3 Run Blast Adams 5 This probably seems funny, but this may have been one of the most technically sound running plays the Deacs have run all year. A simple blast play to the right with Nenon pulling from LG. Nenon pancakes his guy (+1), Rinfrette pancakes another with a lead block as the fullback (+1) and everyone else picks up there blocks, too. Perfect. F24 2 5 Ace 3-wide 4-3 Run Off-tackle Adams 5 Another nice running play, Adams makes a nice cut up field off of good kick out blocks by Bailey and Griffin (+1 each) F19 1 10 Shotgun 5-wide Nickel Pass Screen Boldin 2 Screen play to the left may have worked had Adams not missed his first block (CA, 3). I don't keep blocking stats for him, or else he'd get a -1. Interesting to note that this is Boldin's first catch of the game. He'd had two running plays, but no catches, and we only have 5 minutes left in the half. F17 2 8 ? ? Run ? Adams 0 ESPN was busy showing us the replay of the previous down and didn't bother to show anything but the tackle on this play. Who knows what happened. F17 3 8 Shotgun 5-wide Nickel Pass Slant Wooster 6 Every time Wake goes to 5 wide FSU brings 2 blitzers to outnumber the offensive linemen and get automatic pressure. This means that anything other than a quick pass won't work (as indicated by the fumble on the previous drive). Skinner gets of a pass a little behind Wooster over the middle (IN, 2) but it isn't enough to get the first down. F11 4 2 Shotgun 5-wide Nickel Pass Quick out Wooster 0 FSU brings the pressure on 5 wide again and gets their hands up to bat down the pass (PR, 0). Even before the play I said I would have rather put the 3 on the board than go for that one. Oh well. Drive Notes: Turnover on downs, 3-0, 4:00 2Q. The frustration mounts…it's pretty inexcusible for Wake to only have 3 points on the board this late in the half. I still don't agree with going for it on 4th Ln Dn Ds O Form DForm Type Play Player Yards F17 1 10 Ace 3-wide 4-3 Run Off-tackle Adams 4 Good little run by Adams here to the left. Good blocks by several guys, including McMillin, Bailey, and Looney (+1s) F13 2 6 Shotgun 5-wide Nickel Pass Scramble Skinner 11 Skinner makes an excellent choice to scramble here (and gets a nice block from Birdsong +1) but makes a terrible decision not to switch the ball to his outside arm. It was a great effort and I don't fault him for trying to get to the endzone, but you’ve got to have the ball properly protected. Drive Notes: Fumble, 3-0, 0:30 2Q. Missed opportunity after missed opportunity. Pretty abysmal. Ln Dn Ds O Form DForm Type Play Player Yards W24 1 10 Ace 3-wide 4-3 Pass Flare Rinfrette 12 Rinfrette motions into the backfield and then flares out to the right for a big gain (CA, 3). Ball gets out quick so no blocking worries, and this play worked well all night. W36 1 10 Shotgun 4-wide Nickel Run Draw Adams 14 Line opens up a great hole on this draw play up the middle. Particularly good blocks by McMillin, Bailey, and a pulling Nenon (+1). That's what a running play is supposed to look like. W50 1 10 Shotgun 4-wide Nickel Pass Out Brinkman 8 A timing route here and Skinner makes a really nice throw to Brinkman along the right sideline (DO, 3). F42 2 2 Ace tight 4-3 Penalty 12 men FSU 5 Wake rushed to the line after the previous play and FSU wasn't ready for it. Couldn't get the 12th man off the field and Wake gets a free five yards. I like the heads up nature of this. F37 1 10 I tight 4-3 Run Fumble Skinner 0 Hard to tell whether it was Bailey's fault or Riley's here, although it seems Bailey may have been trying to get out of his stance too quickly, either way I'm pretty sure Wake has now fumbled a snap in each game, which is a very easy way to waste opportunities. F37 2 10 I tight 4-3 Pass Play action Parker 11 This may have been the play that was meant to be run on first down, and off the play action Adams made a very nice cut block. Skinner's pass was great and Parker ran a good route over the middle (CA, 3). F15 1 10 Ace 3-wide 4-3 Run Counter Adams 3 This play was slow developing around the right side, and would have been a loss were it not for a good block from Rinfrette who had come in motion (+1). F12 2 7 Ace 3-wide 4-3 Pass Flag Wooster 0 Almost a touchdown here, but Skinner's pass had just a little bit too much on it. Would have taken a miraculous diving catch from Wooster (IN, 1). F12 3 7 Shotgun 4-wide Nickel Pass Drag Boldin 0 This was not a smart pass by Skinner, who was facing a bit of pressure but shouldn't have made the throw he did - easily could have been intercepted (BR, 0). Protection wasn't great either, although the pressure came because Adams was left to block 2 defenders and that just wasn't going to happen. He did a fairly good job slowing both of them down, actually. Drive Notes: Field Goal, 6-0, 10:00 3Q. All things considered a pretty good drive, but it once again would have been nice to capitalize with a touchdown. Still, the best drive of the night so far. Ln Dn Ds O Form DForm Type Play Player Yards W16 1 10 Ace 3-wide 4-3 Run Counter Adams 3 Not a bad run play, but I feel like Adams should have hit the hole quicker instead of trying to break it outside a little bit more. Birdsong probably should have made another block on a linebacker, but it wasn't too egregious. W19 2 7 Ace 3-wide 4-3 Pass Drag Parker 31+15 Skinner did a great job stepping up in a somewhat collapsing pocket and dumping the ball off to Parker for another big gain (CA, 3). F33 1 10 Shotgun 4-wide 4-3 Pass Flare Adams 0 There appeared to be some miscommunication between Adams and Skinner here, because Adams definitely wasn't expecting a pass. I don't think Skinner should have made the pass, he had plenty of time and Adams wasn't open (BR, 1). F33 2 10 Shotgun 4-wide Nickel Pass Cross Boldin 2 FSU brought both linebackers on a blitz, and Skinner realized it and dumped it off to Boldin for a few yards. About all he could have done with it (CA, 3). F31 3 8 Shotgun 4-wide Nickel Pass Rollout M. Williams 0 A designed rollout to the right gives Skinner plenty of time, but his throw wasn't accurate (IN, 1). I think Williams was open, so a better throw could have been a big gain. Drive Notes: Field Goal, 9-3, 4:30 3Q. Good to answer FSU's field goal, and not a terrible drive. Ln Dn Ds O Form DForm Type Play Player Yards W35 1 10 Shotgun tight 4-3 Pass Reverse Pass Boldin/Brinkman 0 Lobo reaches into his bag of tricks for this WR pass. It set up fairly well but Boldin's throw wasn't on target. I suppose that's forgiveable (IN, 0). W35 2 10 Shotgun tight 4-3 Run Option Skinner 0 Back to the WR motion option, which is usually a play I like. FSU stayed home and had an extra defender in the area, which basically meant there was no read that would have been successful. Good defense. W35 3 10 Shotgun 4-wide Nickel Penalty Facemask FSU +15 Pocket protection broke down on this play thanks to McMilling and Griffin (-1). Got lucky with a facemask call which probably should have been a no-call. We'll take it. W50 1 10 Ace 3-wide 4-3 Penalty Offsides FSU +5 FSU finally got caught trying to jump the snap for a 5 yard penalty F45 1 5 Ace tight 4-3 Pass Play Action Wooster 0 Really bad pass by Skinner here - I think Wooster was open but the pass was about 5 yards behind him (IN, 0). Nice blitz pickup by Pendergrass. F45 2 5 I Form 4-3 Penalty PI FSU +15 Another play action play here - FSU called for grabbing the jersey of Boldin - no stats. F30 1 10 Ace 3-wide 4-3 Run Dive Pendergrass -4 Run up the middle gets broken up by a well timed FSU blitz. Bailey wasn't able to pick it up fast enough and the play broke down (-1) F34 2 14 I 3-wide 4-3 Run End around Boldin 0 FSU stayed home and Boldin had no where to go as he got the handoff around to the left. Pretty terrible effort on a cut block by Harris from FB (-1). F34 3 14 Shotgun tight 4-3 Pass Scramble Skinner 3 Birdsong got absolutely schooled outside on the left and Skinner should have been sacked (-1). Skinner did well to escape and get a few yards. Drive Notes: Missed Field goal, 9-3, 15:00 4Q. Missed field goal number two, and at this point in the game it was a scary thing to be missing these field goals. Not good. Ln Dn Ds O Form DForm Type Play Player Yards W38 1 10 Ace 3-wide 4-3 Penalty Holding Bailey -10 Replay makes it look like this holding call on Bailey was a pretty terrible call. By the time he did anything that looked remotely illegal Pendergrass was already 15 yards up field. Would have been a 30 yard gain and a great draw play up the middle. W28 1 20 Shotgun 4-wide Nickel Pass Flare Pendergrass 2 Eh. Nothing to say about this one. W30 2 18 Ace tight 4-3 Pass Play action Brinkman "0, -5" Double play action, first to Adams up the middle then to Boldin on the end around. It was effective and Brinkman was wide open down field, but Skinner once again failed to make an accurate throw (IN, 0). Brinkman gets the bonehead award to subsequently kicking the ball through the endzone, costing Wake 15 yards. W25 3 33 I Form 4-3 Run Dive Adams 9 It wasn't likely Wake would pick up a first down, so I like the idea of picking up a chunk on the ground and getting field position. Nice run. Drive Notes: Punt, 9-3, 10:00 4Q Ln Dn Ds O Form DForm Type Play Player Yards W37 1 10 Ace 3-wide 4-3 Run ? Adams 0 Can I give the whole o line a minus on this one? I don't think anyone made a good block - there were 5 FSU guys in the backfield around the ball. I'm not even sure how Adams got back to the line of scrimmage. I'm doing it. Minus 1 for all. W37 2 10 I Form 4-3 Pass Play action Harris 6 Nice play action play to Harris flaring out of the backfield (CA, 3). W43 3 4 Ace 3-wide Nickel Run Dive Adams 1 Tough play call here - I'm surprised it was a running play. There wasn't really any penetration, but there was no push and no hole. Tough. Drive Notes: Punt, 9-3, 4:30 4Q Ln Dn Ds O Form DForm Type Play Player Yards F22 1 10 I Form 4-4 Run Dive Adams 2 Hard to get any yards no matter what you do when the opponent has nine guys in the box. Seriously. 9 defenders between the tackles and within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage. I guess that's what happens when you have the lead late and will obviously run, but dang. F21 2 9 Ace 3-wide 4-3 Pass Scramble Skinner 5 Skinner did well not to try and force a pass here. Slid to stay safe and stay in bounds. Good. F15 3 3 Ace 3-wide 4-3 Pass Out Boldin 0 Skinner's pass once again pretty much uncatchable (IN, 1). Good protection. Drive Notes: Missed field goal, 9-3, 2:45 4Q. Pretty low point in the game right here. Chance to seal it dissapears wide left. Ln Dn Ds O Form DForm Type Play Player Yards F11 1 10 Ace 3-wide 4-4 Run Counter Pendergrass -3 Again FSU brought nine guys. Can't block 'em all, although a better block from Belton might have gotten them back to the line of scrimmage (-1). After this play FSU calls a timeout and as ESPN sends it back to the studio for an update, Bob Davie calls it ""an incredulous night."" I'm not an English major, so correct me if I'm wrong, however I'm pretty sure a night can't be incredulous. You can be incredulous about the night, but I don't think the night itself can be ""incredulous."" Apologies for the digression, I just couldn't help it. F14 2 13 I Form 4-3 Run Counter Pendergrass -1 Counter play gets blown up when Belton doesn't hold his block (-1). F15 3 14 I Form 4-4 Run Dive Pendergrass 0 Rinfrette misses the block from FB this time (-1). Bring on Swank. Drive Notes: Field Goal, 12-3, 2:00 4Q. I was very confident Swank wouldn't missa nother one, and I'm glad I was. Good kick, way to seal the game. It was interesting! Ln Dn Ds O Form DForm Type Play Player Yards F22 1 10 Victory - Kneel Kneel Kneel -2 - F24 2 12 Victory - Kneel Kneel Kneel -1 - F25 3 13 Victory - Kneel Kneel Kneel -1 - Drive Notes: End of game, 12-3 Final.
So first of all, it was enough for the win. Considering the magnitude of the game, I don't think any of us are going to complain about the play in a game against FSU as long as we win. Nonetheless, it's worth noting just how much the team struggled.
Take a look at Wake's starting drive positions and the results of those drives:Drive Start Drive Result Wake 19 Punt FSU 45 Field Goal FSU 27 Missed FG Wake 27 Punt Wake 45 Fumble Wake 34 Turnover on Downs FSU 17 Fumble Wake 24 Field Goal Wake 16 Field Goal Wake 35 Missed FG Wake 38 Punt Wake 37 Punt FSU 22 Missed FG FSU 11 Field Goal FSU 22 Final Avg. Start Avg. Points Wake 49 0.8
Wake basically started on the 50 all night long, and yet they didn't even score 1 point per drive. Five times the Deacs were inside FSU's 30 to start a drive. They started in field goal position!!! And what came of those five drives? One field goal. That's it. One field goal. As an offense, I really don't believe it can get much worse than that.
How about Skinner? Not his best outing either:QB DO CA IN BR TA BA PR Skinner 2 12 7 3 1 1 2 2 game total 4 41 14 4 4 1 4
I'll update this with Baylor stats eventually, too, but compared to last game Skinner didn't have nearly as good a game. He threw as many poor passes in this game as he did against Ole Miss, while throwing a lot less passes. He was relatively close to really only throwing about 50% good throws. Rough.
The receivers didn't have as much to work with, so I can't really complain about their numbers, but here they are (0's are uncatchable, 3's are easy catches, things in between, are, well, in between):Player 0 1 2 3 Adams - 0/1 - 1/1 Boldin 1 0/1 - 2/2 Brinkman 3 0/1 - 2/2 Brown - - - 1/1 Harris - 1/1 1/1 Parker - - - 1/1 Rinfrette - - - 1/1 M. Williams - 0/1 1/1 2/2 Wooster 2 0/2 2/2 -
Not a lot to say about that.
Offensive line? Actually made some decent plays tonight, albeit not too many good opportunities. When FSU started stacking the box like crazy in the fourth quarter there wasn't much they could do. A couple of penalties really hurt the running game as well. It's hard to say definitively that they're making progress, but my subjective opinion is that they are. I think they'll have a productive week against Navy.Player + - T Birdsong 2 3 -1 Nenon 3 2 1 Bailey 2 4 -2 McMillin 2 2 0 Griffin 1 4 -3 Wooster - 2 -2 Rinfrette 3 1 2 Belton 1 3 -2 Looney 1 - 1 Harris - 1 -1
And that's that for the offense. Clearly, a sub par performance, and I think the most siginficant thing to take away is the team's complete inability to put points on the board, particularly considering the field position they were given. I grant that FSU played a good defensive game, and I'm not saying Wake should have hung 40 on them, but nonetheless I think more could have easily been accomplished. Fewer penalties, better passes, and turnover avoidance all would have made a huge difference.
Oh, and making fied goals. That helps too.
Still, Swank did well enough to get the job done, so I won't give him too hard a time.
You know the saying "doing more with less?" I've said to several people this week that I don't think Wake could have done less with more. I think the analysis bears that out. Hopefully we're in for a better week this time around.
