UNC thoughts?

Okay, UNC thoughts. I’ll focus more on smaller stuff you might not have noticed in the midst of all the major malfunctions.

Steps Forward in the Passing Game

There is plenty of blame to go around, but I think Grant Wells (#6) is getting more dumped on him than is fair. The pick was a bad, under-duress situation, and missing the deep ball was bad, but some of the other stuff isn’t quite fair. I see complaints about him not seeing open guys, but the plays in question can be like this:

On another venue, someone went off on Wells for missing an open Connor Blumrick (#4) on this particular play. I’ve paused the clip where Wells stops his drop and I’ve arrowed Blumrick. This is the moment where Wells decides who he’s throwing to. At this point, the zone is soft below the line-to-gain. Meanwhile the deep receivers are bracketed. You can see this at the top of the screen, but the camera work prevents you from seeing that the safety to Blumrick’s side drifted to the sideline early, while you can barely see the cornerback tagging along with the Hokie TE. Instead of forcing one to Blumrick, Wells takes what the defense gives him, which is how it’s drawn up. And with a rusher coming free at him, taking the short throw makes double the sense. It’s not an ideal result, but I’d blame the call before I blamed the quarterback.

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