Breaking Down Both Interceptions Against Mercer

[placekicker 38]

Great breakdown. After reading both of them, I have to ask the question- Why did we need 7 men to block 4, or 8 men to block 5? Against Mercer? This is an experienced, seasoned offensive line. I know they’re not world beaters just yet, but don’t you think that our front 5 should have been able to hold their own against an FCS d line? Against Ga or the Tide, I get that we may need that many blockers. But, not on Saturday. 
 

just my opinion, but why not run a draw on 3rd and 18? If you’re not gonna make it hard to cover you, then run the draw, punt, and play defense. 

[Didba 5,256]

2 hours ago, placekicker said:

Great breakdown. After reading both of them, I have to ask the question- Why did we need 7 men to block 4, or 8 men to block 5? Against Mercer? This is an experienced, seasoned offensive line. I know they’re not world beaters just yet, but don’t you think that our front 5 should have been able to hold their own against an FCS d line? Against Ga or the Tide, I get that we may need that many blockers. But, not on Saturday. 
 

just my opinion, but why not run a draw on 3rd and 18? If you’re not gonna make it hard to cover you, then run the draw, punt, and play defense. 

A lot of times it’s a guessing game as to how the defense is gonna play certain downs and distances. So Kiesau prob guessed that the defense would blitz on the 3rd and 18, so max protect gets used and a play that should allow TJ to pick where the blitz came from and complete a long pass. 
 

They didn’t blitz and dropped 8 into coverage in tight zone. Good call by those DC. 

[au302 2,669]

Great stuff here. I thought the first call was Kiesau's worst of the night on a night that Kiesau called a good game. Whole drive was a disaster with Trox's hold, etc. Probably should have handed it off and punted. Even still, I think TJ's second option may have been open. Not sure though.

In terms of checking into new plays, I'm pretty sure this offense does have that. In fact I'm pretty sure Harsin has said that's a big thing he looks for in a QB and a big reason TJ won the job. Seeing by this breakdown, it seems as if this play should have been checked out of.

[I_M4_AU 7,772]

It’s interesting to note that TJ was intercepted on consecutive drives on basically that same type of coverage.   The second drive happened after half when, I would assume, TJ had a teaching moment by the coaches on his first interception.

It good to see TJ will be starting for the SDSU game and get some confidence back.

[W.E.D 11,070]

21 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

It’s interesting to note that TJ was intercepted on consecutive drives on basically that same type of coverage.   The second drive happened after half when, I would assume, TJ had a teaching moment by the coaches on his first interception.

It good to see TJ will be starting for the SDSU game and get some confidence back.

Harsin said today that the 2nd INT wasn't a bad decision, so that logic doesn't really fit

[I_M4_AU 7,772]

12 minutes ago, W.E.D said:

Harsin said today that the 2nd INT wasn't a bad decision, so that logic doesn't really fit

What logic?  I was just pointing out TJ had an interception each on two consecutive drives throwing into the same coverage.  I made no assumptions about why the passes were intercepted.

[cole256 17,039]

Feels good to actually be able to talk about a QB again doesn't it?

[W.E.D 11,070]

5 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

What logic?  I was just pointing out TJ had an interception each on two consecutive drives throwing into the same coverage.  I made no assumptions about why the passes were intercepted.

How was the coverage the same?  They were completely different passes.  It's not like he made the same pass on back to back plays & didn't learn or took to coaching during halftime, as you assumed.

The 1st was an in or hook and the Safety stepped in front of the throw.  The 2nd was a wide open post or seem route where the WR beat the DBs, was open, and he under threw the ball badly b/c of bad form...not a bad decision per Harsin.  So no, not a "learning moment he didn't learn from"

[I_M4_AU 7,772]

7 minutes ago, W.E.D said:

How was the coverage the same?  They were completely different passes.  It's not like he made the same pass on back to back plays & didn't learn or took to coaching during halftime, as you assumed.

The 1st was an in or hook and the Safety stepped in front of the throw.  The 2nd was a wide open post or seem route where the WR beat the DBs, was open, and he under threw the ball badly b/c of bad form...not a bad decision per Harsin.  So no, not a "learning moment he didn't learn from"

From the OP the coverages were zone as they only rushed 4 or 5 on each play.  I agree the routes were different, but the execution on both were lacking.  TJ did make some good accurate throws leading up to the INT in that 2nd drive and never did I imply they were on back to back plays just back to back drives.

Why do you think TJ didn’t see the field after the 2nd INT?  

[W.E.D 11,070]

8 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

From the OP the coverages were zone as they only rushed 4 or 5 on each play.  I agree the routes were different, but the execution on both were lacking.  TJ did make some good accurate throws leading up to the INT in that 2nd drive and never did I imply they were on back to back plays just back to back drives.

Why do you think TJ didn’t see the field after the 2nd INT?  

Just b/c two defenses were Zone doesn't mean the interceptions/decisioning were remotely the same.

he didn't see the field b/c it was the middle of the 3rd quarter and time to get the back up passing snaps.

Edited September 5, 2022 by W.E.D

[NWALA Tiger 3,535]

35 minutes ago, W.E.D said:

How was the coverage the same?  They were completely different passes.  It's not like he made the same pass on back to back plays & didn't learn or took to coaching during halftime, as you assumed.

The 1st was an in or hook and the Safety stepped in front of the throw.  The 2nd was a wide open post or seem route where the WR beat the DBs, was open, and he under threw the ball badly b/c of bad form...not a bad decision per Harsin.  So no, not a "learning moment he didn't learn from"

Splitting hairs, whether it's a bad decision or bad throw, end result is the same

[I_M4_AU 7,772]

12 minutes ago, W.E.D said:

Just b/c two defenses were Zone doesn't mean the interceptions/decisioning were remotely the same.

he didn't see the field b/c it was the middle of the 3rd quarter and time to get the back up passing snaps.

OK, I don’t necessarily agree, but…..

If I were a QB, I wouldn’t want the last pass I threw in a game to be an INT and feel good about it.  That was Harsin’s decision so hopefully it will work out for TJ.  We need him the rest of the way.

[Hank2020 3,195]

12 minutes ago, NWALA Tiger said:

Splitting hairs, whether it's a bad decision or bad throw, end result is the same

Seemed to have made a big difference to Harsin or he probably would not bring it up.

[DAG 33,955]

T.J. Already discussed the play and how they worked on those plays specifically for those type of zones. Also as @W.E.D initially stated in the gamethread (Rightfully) at the juncture of the game, it was their plan to play RA for the rest of the game per our OC. It is a learning experience. I highly doubt the coaches go into situations with the mindset of "Let's make this as hard for our players as possible."

[e808 3,020]

16 minutes ago, NWALA Tiger said:

Splitting hairs, whether it's a bad decision or bad throw, end result is the same

Exactly, a turnover is a turnover. It will cause u to lose games. It’s being downplayed because it was against Mercer. Turnovers on the special teams yesterday is the main reason LSU lost yesterday. It’s eyebrow raising when it’s against a lesser opponent. Things won’t come as easy starting with week 3 . Let’s see how this plays out 

[Gowebb11 9,309]

Never in the history of CFB has an interception in a season opener blowout win vs an FCS team been so heavily critiqued and debated. It’s like the Zapruder tapes from the JFK assassination. 😅😅😅Freaking hilarious. 

[Hank2020 3,195]

2 minutes ago, Gowebb11 said:

Never in the history of CFB has an interception in a season opener blowout win vs an FCS team been so heavily critiqued and debated. It’s like the Zapruder tapes from the JFK assassination. 😅😅😅Freaking hilarious. 

True

[NWALA Tiger 3,535]

1 hour ago, Hank2020 said:

Seemed to have made a big difference to Harsin or he probably would not bring it up.

Coach speak. Doesn't want to lose TJ mentally. I'm not buying it was a coincidence that TJ didn't go back in after the 2nd pick. I want TJ to succeed, but u have to call it what it is

[NWALA Tiger 3,535]

45 minutes ago, Gowebb11 said:

Never in the history of CFB has an interception in a season opener blowout win vs an FCS team been so heavily critiqued and debated. It’s like the Zapruder tapes from the JFK assassination. 😅😅😅Freaking hilarious. 

It's what we do.

[cole256 17,039]

1 hour ago, NWALA Tiger said:

Splitting hairs, whether it's a bad decision or bad throw, end result is the same

Gotta disagree there. It matters why it happened. Why it happened tells you the probability on will it happen again....or at least how frequently it may happen again I should say

[cole256 17,039]

1 hour ago, Gowebb11 said:

Never in the history of CFB has an interception in a season opener blowout win vs an FCS team been so heavily critiqued and debated. It’s like the Zapruder tapes from the JFK assassination. 😅😅😅Freaking hilarious. 

Thank You

[e808 3,020]

1 hour ago, Gowebb11 said:

Never in the history of CFB has an interception in a season opener blowout win vs an FCS team been so heavily critiqued and debated. It’s like the Zapruder tapes from the JFK assassination. 😅😅😅Freaking hilarious. 

U mean interceptions. If u did a history search it’s probably rare that happens against an FCS school. I believe someone did a search and Jeremy Johnson was the last person to do that as quarterback for Auburn. IJS.

[cole256 17,039]

Jeremy Johnson also probably threw 3td's and people are pumping the ints up how people pumped up the losing 5 games up at the end of the year too. 

Yeah ints are bad but we've had a QB who was scared or ineffective of making throws for years. We've seen a QB play bad against a suck team and still be so so. We've seen suck QB do awesome against a suck team and then horrible against a real team as well. Nothing new

[JuscAUse! 1,387]

5 hours ago, Didba said:

A lot of times it’s a guessing game as to how the defense is gonna play certain downs and distances. So Kiesau prob guessed that the defense would blitz on the 3rd and 18, so max protect gets used and a play that should allow TJ to pick where the blitz came from and complete a long pass. 
 

They didn’t blitz and dropped 8 into coverage in tight zone. Good call by those DC. 

That's what I tried to say earlier. You said it much better.

[NWALA Tiger 3,535]

1 hour ago, cole256 said:

Gotta disagree there. It matters why it happened. Why it happened tells you the probability on will it happen again....or at least how frequently it may happen again I should 

Fair point