Were the Bobcats defeated last night, or were they out coached?

Chase Hendricks, was barely targeted. One of the best receivers in the MAC & maybe the country.
Mr Sieh Bangura, was gaining 3-4 yards almost every carry. Not really being stopped. Except the game plan stopped having him run (or not run enough).

The horrendous kicking game. If the coaches don't want to find a reliable kicker (go to the student body if necessary), go for 2 after each touchdown.

Disappointing as a fan, & probably devastating for the players.

Coach, I think this one (and a big one), is on you!

Sieh did not hit the elusive 17 carry mark. We lose.

This season:

6-0: 17+ carries
0-4: 16 or less


In his last two seasons w/ OU...

11-0: 17+ carries

All 7 losses have come when he has less 16 or less.

Hendricks was being double and sometimes triple teamed. That does mean that someone else should have been wide open. You'd think a good coach could have taken advantage of that fact with play calling. Let's see, who is our offensive coordinator in fact, not name? Hmm. . .

Very interesting and telling stat!

That someone should have been and always should be Mason Williams. We went to the TEs early and didn't even look at them again.

Our line didn't help much either in the pass game. Disruption the entire night.

Smith doesn't throw the ball, Navarro does. He has multiple receivers in the pattern. It's on him to see the double coverage and go to one of our other good receivers (Williams, Harris perhaps?). As good as Navarro can be at times, he has a hole in his game. He locks in on one receiver (often Hendricks) and makes dangerous throws resulting in interceptions or near interceptions. That, coupled with the fact that his accuracy was bad last night made for a performance that was difficult to watch. Where I question Smith is that he didn't feed Bangura nearly enough - the one thing that was consistently working on offense.

What you say is true, but it's also true that a coach noticing the tendencies that you mention, and seeing how WMU is double-teaming Hendricks, can tell his QB to target someone else by calling attenion to the guys who have been open. Heck, he can even devise plays where Hendricks is clearly being used as a decoy with another receiver the intended receiver of that particular play. That's designing plays on the fly, but I've seen it done, and to me coaches who can do that sort of thing are usually exemplarly ones.

This really isn't a new development. I won't put the blame on Scott, or Brian. We know what Parker is and what he does. He has always locked on to one receiver. Owen last season. Chase this season. When that receiver is blanketed, he'll either 1) still throw it 2) tuck it or 3) roll out and hope option 2 / 3 / 4 spring open. But in that order. If he doesn't have time to process all three, he gets into trouble. He will absolutely not take that sack.

I don't think it's a lack of preparedness, or decoys I think it's a lack of just time and ability to diagnose what's happening fast enough. He has 3 seconds to hit his favorite receiver, or scope the entire line and look for a hole. WR2 is far down the list of things he's trying to process.

Maybe they can script some more dummy calls, but likely - they do not - because they don't want to give him so much that he starts second guessing the first two reads, because that is where he excels 80% of the time.

That's a pretty solid synopsis. Such is life with a very mobile QB at the college level. I'm not even sure I want him checking down to a 3rd or 4th option, would rather him utilize his best skill and tuck it and go.