Hats off to Courtney Messingham

[klamath632]

I complimented Mess a few times in the gameday thread. After starting out the game in a base defense, Baylor stunted their linebackers up as rush ends to try and bring pressure on Jantz. Mess reacted by sending short crossing routes into the vacated middle of the field and we got good yardage on it.

In the second half, Baylor adjusted by sitting two linebackers five yards deep, covering our guards. Mess reacted with slot receivers and tight ends running short and medium out patterns, which also worked really well.

He also ran the ball just often enough to keep the defense honest.

It also helps that the o-line was able to protect the QB. That hasn't happened much since we began conference play. The same gameplan and adjustments against TTU would probably have us cursing his name again this week.

[clonedude]

I don't think the playcalling last night was really any different last night than prevoiusly. Baylor was stacking the line forcing us to beat them through the air and limiting our running game. We averaged 3.8 ypc last night, and had difficulty picking up some short yardage situations - not unlike all of our previous games. The offense finally EXECUTED the passing game and we were able to move the ball, control the clock and score points. We averaged 7.1 yards per pass attempt last night, our second best figure in conference play (the best was 9.0 ypa against TCU - all other conf. games are <6).

BINGO! I didn't notice any difference in playcalling at all last night. It just makes a HUGE difference when you can actually complete a pass or two to open it up a bit.

[tyler24]

Yeah I have thought Mess was taking too much blame on these losses. He has been giving pretty good play calls we just don't execute. Our guys just aren't making big plays, instead we catch the ball and settle for a catch and just fall. Our receivers have to learn to stay on their feet. Our running backs need to find holes, but our O-line needs to open them up. I will criticize one play call last night. If we are going to put West in the backfield we need to have some plays where we hand it off to other players so it isn't obvious when a receiver comes in the backfield he isn't getting the ball. Overall, I was happy with the playcalling and execution last night.

[Wesley]

The funny thing is, I can't really point to how Mess really called a different game last night than any other game?

It just shows you how big a difference it makes when you have a QB that can throw the ball, not make many mistakes, you can run the ball a little bit, and you're going up against the worst defense in the country.

Jantz basically made one bad throw and he got intercepted for it. Outside of that, he played how you should expect your QB to play. There was one other throw that probably should have been intercepted, but that was only because our WR ran into the official.... it wasn't really a bad throw.

Now the question is, can Jantz keep this up? Let's hope so. If he can play like that the rest of the season, I see us beating KU, Texas, and possibly even WV.

He also threw one high ball. Throwing so many balls at chest level helped people like Jarvis.

[GMan]

Mess didn't do anything different last night. Execution and a bad defense makes any play caller look smart.