Air it out, baby!

Anyone else about Satterfield’s strategy going into this game? Rutgers is better against the pass than they are the run. I think we handle them fairly easily if we call the right game, but…we’ve heard Satterfield talk about how important running the ball is so the opponent is tired in the 4th quarter…but we saw the opposite against Illinois.

To start the 2nd half, 10 of his 13 play calls were passes. Resulting in a 3 & out. A 4 play drive that ended in a punt. & a 5 play drive that resulted in 7. Then came the 10 play drive where he DID give the ball to the backs on 5/9 plays for 20 yards rushing, leading to the missed FG.

Then he finished it out in OT with 5 pass plays, where Illinois recorded half of their sacks for the game (3 of 6).

Perhaps if we’d done what Satt claimed he wanted to, our o-line isn’t tired and beaten down to the point of 3rd & 42 in OT. They had to pass block & allow Illinois’ D to bring the hit to them on 18 of the 24 plays in the 2nd half and OT. Illinois had only felt our o-line deliver the hit 6 times the entire 2nd half (compared to 35 times in the first half). It’s no wonder why Illinois’ pass rush looked so fresh in OT.

I know you all will bash me and tell me to move on, yada yada. I can move on from the loss to Illinois, they’re a tough, well-coached football team. What is hard to move on from is our self-described, “dumbest guy in the room” OC.

To me he’s a “what if” play caller rather than an “if, what” play-caller. “What if” we throw it deep here?” “What if, rather than lining up in I, we run outta shotgun instead?” “What if we hand it to HH so he can throw it back to Dylan and he can throw it again?! TWO passes in one play!”
I want an “if, what” play-caller. “IF the defense is giving us this, WHAT plays do we have to successfully attack that.”
This probably comes from the PTSD watching HH play a pro-style system last year, but is anyone else uneasy now when we’re facing real opponents?