While I know there have been articles and criticisms of the downfield passing game ad nauseam, some things I recalled from earlier in the year ironically stemmed back to Tom Herman's time here (including his observations and adjustments), which were brought up earlier in the season, but not seemingly worked on.
When during the Spring Game, we heard the announcers talking about how the coaches had said that the felt the offense improved at playing faster and with tempo and that the coaches had instructed J.T. to simply throw the ball where it's supposed to go even if the WR wasn't where he was supposed to be and they'll live with the results.
This year we've all noticed the same critiques of the passing game thus far; J.T. hold the ball too long and/or is late on throws; J.T. lacks arm strength; WRs aren't getting separation; Pass protection is spotty.
Now the more I thought about it, the more I realized that these same criticisms were around in 2014 and Tom Herman was taking some heat then until he made some adjustments that would see J.T. Barrett later breaking Drew Brees TD record.
From the article:
"I think J.T. plays the game well when we're in that (up) tempo," Ohio State offensive coordinator Tom Herman said after Ohio State's 50-28 win over Cincinnati on Saturday night. "Not to play amateur psychologist, but I think he is sometimes a bit of an over-thinker. So when you keep calling plays and let him run it, I think he does a good job because he doesn't over-think too many things."
One thing Herman knew Barrett needed to change was his depth in the pocket. At just 6-foot-1, Barrett, according to Herman, during the first three games of his college career had been moving too far up in the pocket while trying to get ready to put some power behind his throws.
"He's not the tallest guy in the world," Herman said. "He was hitching too far up in the pocket and getting blinded at times."
The solution? Stay deeper in the pocket, back farther from those tall linemen, and allow himself a chance to see his throwing lanes.
The result?
"Vast improvement," Herman said.
The second was making a decision and letting it go. Barrett's indecisiveness on when to throw it or escape the pocket helped lead to some of the seven sacks in the Virginia Tech loss. And he may have missed some throws when waiting too long to hit receivers in stride.
Saturday night, he was sacked just once on a blindside hit when he had no chance. And while completing 26 of 36 passes for 330 yards and four touchdowns, with no interceptions, Barrett saw what he should do and did it.
"Trust what you see and pull the trigger," Herman said. "It's better to be early than late."
For Barrett, that's all part of the ever-increasing confidence in what he's doing.
"Pulling the trigger is the one thing Coach Herman talks about," Barrett said. "It's playing my game and not having that worry in the back of my mind."
So we've seen that when Tom Herman maximized the tempo and J.T.'s pocket depth, he became "The Distributor" who was surgically carving up teams during his 2014 campaign.
Since Tom Herman has been gone, we've seen a lack in tempo (even though we've seen J.T. literally begging for tempo on the field), we've seen J.T. get too far up in the pocket which has caused a number of his passes to be knocked down and him to miss guys, and we've seen this hesitation instead of simply pulling the trigger. Tim Beck still hasn't seemed to figure this out which seems to have lead to this "regression" or rather simply J.T. not being put in the best position to succeed.
I'd also note the lack of 12 personnel (2 TEs) which was also a staple of the championship run and I'd like to believe Baugh and Alexander could be excellent weapons (and blockers) in this formation as well.
Thoughts?
