It's easy to see our offense has struggled and is wildly inconsistent at this point. In looking at our stats, it sheds a light on some of those issues, other than the obvious ones regarding the playclock, a lack of rhythm, etc. One of the big issues with our offense is Ertz's abysmal completion percentage. It currently sits at 48.2% on 41-85 passing. But if you look closer at the stats, you see that his yards per completion tells some of that story. He has thrown for 584 yards, which means he is averaging 14.24 yards per completion. That is extremely high. Compare those numbers to our opponents, who have been a mixed bag of styles, quality, etc. They have completed 57-100 passes for 618 yards. That's only 10.8 yards per completion, which is much more in line with normal offenses.
Those numbers show that we are simply ignoring the short passing game far too often and are going deep way too much. We have become a high-risk, high-reward passing game instead of moving the ball with shorter, higher completion percentage passes. The fact that Ertz is only completing 48.2% of his passes compared to 57% by our opponents, which included two awful teams, shows how bad he has been completing passes. But when you look at the stars closer, you see that part of that is due to us ignoring the short passing game and going for the home run far too much.
In Waters and Lockett's senior seasons, Jake averaged 13.36 yards per completion...and that was with arguably our best deep threat/big play receiver ever. Klein's senior year with big-play receivers Harper, Lockett, and Thompson averaged out to 13.40 yards per completion. Those were both big-play offenses that averaged nearly a yard less per completion. That tells you something. In looking at our opponents yards per completion in recent years, they have been 10.8, 12.8, 10.9, 10.3, and 10.9. You can say..."well, opposing offenses are just taking what we give them." Which is true. So why don't we start doing that now? Clearly, the deep ball has not made us an offensive juggernaut.
We could greatly help ourselves on offense by getting back to some quick hitters and getting into more of a rhythm with the short passing game and not going deep so much. Don't abandon the long passes completely, but instead go back to using them on play-action after the running game and short passes have set the defense up for a long pass.
Those numbers show that we are simply ignoring the short passing game far too often and are going deep way too much. We have become a high-risk, high-reward passing game instead of moving the ball with shorter, higher completion percentage passes. The fact that Ertz is only completing 48.2% of his passes compared to 57% by our opponents, which included two awful teams, shows how bad he has been completing passes. But when you look at the stars closer, you see that part of that is due to us ignoring the short passing game and going for the home run far too much.
In Waters and Lockett's senior seasons, Jake averaged 13.36 yards per completion...and that was with arguably our best deep threat/big play receiver ever. Klein's senior year with big-play receivers Harper, Lockett, and Thompson averaged out to 13.40 yards per completion. Those were both big-play offenses that averaged nearly a yard less per completion. That tells you something. In looking at our opponents yards per completion in recent years, they have been 10.8, 12.8, 10.9, 10.3, and 10.9. You can say..."well, opposing offenses are just taking what we give them." Which is true. So why don't we start doing that now? Clearly, the deep ball has not made us an offensive juggernaut.
We could greatly help ourselves on offense by getting back to some quick hitters and getting into more of a rhythm with the short passing game and not going deep so much. Don't abandon the long passes completely, but instead go back to using them on play-action after the running game and short passes have set the defense up for a long pass.
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