Burnt Orange Nation Breaks Down the Play McCoy Was Injured On
After three days of nonsensical chatter about this or that various injustice surrounding the BCS National Championship game, BON has begun to cut through the clutter. With the first post in a multi-part series examining exactly what happened on the field Thursday night, GhostOfBigRoy goes step-by-step through the play that resulted in the Longhorn QB getting knocked out of the game.
about 2 years ago
kleph
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A great analysis.
And it clearly shows that McCoy should never have even been running this play. He has not feel for the play and if he had excuted it the way the play was designed he may not have been hit form the side and Texas might have scored. Plus Colt obviously does not know how to position his body for this type of hit from a defender.
However, what the analysis really shows is poor coaching all the way around. Calling a play Colt didn’t feel comfortable running and putting your QB in a potential injury situation that early in the game when you clearly had momentum.
As I said…great break down of this play.
I hate the NCAA more than UT & AU combined. At least with UT & AU you got a fighting chance.
i am very much looking forward to the rest of this series
Roll 'Bama Roll: The Champagne of 'Bama Blogs.
They're obviously Knowlegeble
and spend a lot of time compiling. GoBR is a great asset to BON>
'Mark Ingram' is the Heisman Winner!
Kudos to Burnt Orange Nation
GoBR nailed the analysis: a bad play call, poorly executed, making McCoy vulnerable to a very physical defense. BON makes it perfectly clear that the injury to McCoy had less to do with the football gods and more to do with execution and performance on the field.
by M. Johnson Defender on Jan 10, 2010 11:17 PM CST reply actions
because this is one of the most frustrating things about the ...
misguided focus on mccoy’s injury as the “cause” for the longhorn’s loss… it has obscured inquiry into the details of the game itself. once you say losing him is the reason for the loss the question as to what happened stops as well. but there are a hell of a lot of questions for both sides that need to be answered:
gilbert certainly had an atrocious time up to till halftime but why? what broke down in the longhorn offense. and, more importantly, what worked after the intermission? and how was alabama able to victimize the defense with the running game after our passing attack stalled completely?
one of the reasons texas is such a formidable foe is they don’t let setbacks – even major ones like losing their starting quarterback – stop them in their tracks. it was clear after halftime that the coaches had scrambled to find solutions and started to apply them in their gameplan. muschamp saw that mcelwain was exploiting something in his defense and you better believe it wasn’t there come the third quarter.
i, for one, would like to know what those answers were and how we can stop them if we ever face them again.
Roll 'Bama Roll: The Champagne of 'Bama Blogs.
I have to admit
that was one superior piece of analysis. Nothing fancy, but objective and extremely well illustrated. I had not known the pitch was so open. Given the speed of the Tide D, I doubt it would have been a TD, but no doubt it would have been a positive gain. McCoy should have been coached better and should never have taken the physical risk of heading inside on that play when there were clearly no openings. Even if he had taken a loss, a hit from a CB wouldn’t have the injury potential of a hit from a DT.
You can and should coach with the knowledge that the plays you call and run can result in a greater or lesser injury. The injury was a bit of a fluke, but if you call plays which result in your QB getting hit by a DT, you are going to get your QB injured sooner or later. The fact that it happened sooner might have been a fluke, or it might have said something about McCoy.
"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog." - Bear Bryant
I disagree about the pitch...
I posted this over there as well, but if you look at the fourth frame, it appears as though McCoy had already begun to tuck the ball and turn upfield. It appears to me that Jackson had the necessary depth to take the pitch away, which is typically the CB’s job.
I agree
and re-reading my post, I meant to say the pitch option was open, there being only 1 defender to 2 offensive options. Jackson was properly taking away the pitch man, and McCoy could have gained a few yards, most likely, before being brought down at an angle by a LB or safety, rather than head on by a DT. Just a bad, bad decision by McCoy, with rather predictable results.
"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog." - Bear Bryant
I liked this part of your response there:
…“3) I honestly posted on another pre-game blog that Colt McCoy wouldn’t make it out of the first quarter if Texas insisted on going empty and/or running Colt on the edges. Bama’s defense has knocked QBs around like rag dolls all season, causing more than a couple to sit or have their very worst day (See: Ryan Mallet, Jevan Snead, Jordan Jefferson, Tyrod Taylor, Tim Tebow). If you watched the SEC championship game and saw the vicious shots Tebow absorbed, you’d realize that he was only able to stay in the game because of his linebacker body. Considering Colt’s frame, this was predictable (in other words, I ain’t claiming genius as it was easy to foresee). Too many fast, hungry, and mean SOBs on that defense.”
Beat Auburn? CHECK. 12-0 regular season? CHECK. Beat the #1 Gators for the SECCG? CHECK. Ingram wins the Heisman? CHECK. Tide defeats the Longhorns for the BCS Championship? CHECK!
Good Point
Jackson was in good position to take out the pitch man if McCoy made an early pitch. The proper play was for McCoy to run right at Jackson to make him fully commit to one or the other. A fake pitch would probably have netted him 3 or 4 yards.
There has been a lot of really good analysis of this play and some good comments as well. My favorite, I think, is that the play demonstrates one big reason why NFL teams don’t run QB options.
by M. Johnson Defender on Jan 11, 2010 3:34 PM CST up reply actions


















