Upon Further Review
September 07, 2008 04:59 PM | General
September 7, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – A disappointed Bill Stewart said on Sunday that first down was the key to third down on both sides of the football after watching the tape of his team’s 24-3 loss at East Carolina Saturday.
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| West Virginia was close to getting to East Carolina quarterback Patrick Pinkney several times.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
“You’ve got to make hay on first down,” Stewart said. “We’ve given up too much yardage and not gotten enough ourselves.”
Stewart said having second and short opportunities on defense and second and long chances on offense are putting too much pressure on the Mountaineers.
“We’re not getting them off schedule on first down and when we’re not getting them off schedule on first - or have a decent play ourselves offensively it seems like you’re fighting the clock and fighting the chains,” Stewart explained. “The key to third down is first down. You’ve got to keep people off schedule. I think we’re not disguising well enough on defense. I think we’ve got too many guys just lining up and letting the quarterback audible and call the protections. And when you blitz you’ve got to get there.”
Once again on Saturday there was a wide disparity in the number of offensive plays by each team. East Carolina managed to run 17 more plays than West Virginia.
“We’ve got to control the ball,” Stewart said. “When it’s third and five and you make a nice read and then have a drop … that keeps the chains the moving. We have to stay on the field offensively and make drives and defensively we have to get them off the field.”
Stewart said there were two third-down plays that stood out on Saturday.
“It’s third and 14 and they throw a little a little swing pass out there and the guy could have come up and made the play and he misses an open field tackle and he gets the first down,” Stewart said. “I saw a third and about six and two guys – our outside backer and the corner – a guy juked them to the inside and went around them. You can’t let stuff like that happen. You’ve got to maintain leverage.”
Stewart was most disappointed with his team’s inability to get the Pirates down in the open field.
“The only way I know how to do it is to do some old fashioned open field tackling drills this week,” Stewart said. “Try and separate from the blocker, shed him or throw him to the ground, and make a tackle. On one of our offensive plays the nose guard from East Carolina got knocked down when we were in the red zone and we were going in to score. There were 10 guys in on the tackle. Ten. That is impressive. Our offensive staff said, ‘Look at those guys run to the ball.’”
Stewart said his team will have a light workout today with lifting, running and some film review and will take Monday off. The team will have full-contact practices Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday doing a lot of fundamental work.
Briefly:
“It’s never as good and never as bad. It is what it is,” Stewart said. “We’re a .500 football team. We need to get better and we need to execute better on third downs.”
“When it’s man coverage you can’t peak in the backfield,” Stewart said. “You peak in the backfield and the guy gets behind you. I can’t understand. That’s why they are kids and that’s why you have to re-teach them and train them.”
“They had a couple of 300 pounders that knocked our guards around a little bit. We’ve got to get down, play low, play hard and keep them out of there,” Stewart said of Pat White’s three sacks. “Coverage had something to do with it. That front four was pretty darn good. They’ve been in the making for four years.”
“We ran the zone not too bad a few times,” Stewart said. “What I want to get back to is that belly option. Pat can read it, pull it or pitch it. We need to do more of that.
“We’ve got to put the defense to where they are just not pinning their ears back but have to play assignment football. That’s what we need to do,” Stewart said.
“We’re calling every play like it’s a crucial play in the game. Just play and we’ll make plays. Defensively they will get better,” Stewart said. “They’ll start knocking the ball loose and stopping them to where it’s fourth and two instead of third and short.”
