Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Jags as OC: Game 1, Temple 1997


As a first-time Head Coach, Jags has a clean slate. I can’t look at a body of work and suggest how it will translate to BC. But we can glean some information about how his offense will run from his previous stint at BC. This time around he won’t be calling plays (that Logan’s call) but you can infer some tendencies and styles from what Jags did. Let’s take a look at his first game a 28-21 loss to Temple in Philadelphia.

Stat line

First downs 25
Rushed-yards 40-149
Passing yards 277
Sacked-yards lost 5-42
Return yards 10
Passes 25-41-2
Punts 4-32.0
Fumbles-lost 2-0
Penalties-yards 10-86
Time of possession 33:48


Pretty impressive for his first time out. I don’t have the actual drive charts (if anyone knows where I can find them, please email me) but I do remember the game. I was there with a few thousand others.


BC lost but not because of the offensive play calling. The special teams and late defense were shaky (sound familiar?) and this was one of Temple’s less shitty better teams.


So what can we tell about the game? Jags had a good mix of run and pass (40 rushes, 41 passes). Both were very productive and netted more than 400 total yards. He also was aggressive. We had two long scoring passes (26 and 30 yards), both to Anthony DiCosmo. MattHass also mixed it up, completing passes to nine different players including a balance of WRs, TEs and RBs.

So why did we lose? The offense did not stall in the red zone, like Bible teams tended to do. However, Matt Hasselbeck threw two drive killing picks. And the defense (not coached by Spaz) allowed too many big plays.

I was working for the student radio station at the time and we used to fly on the team charter. The flight home was deadly silent. I remember seriously questioning if TOB was the right guy at the time, partially because we lost to Temple and partially because he was so unmoved. I was worried about the big plays, but don’t remember being concerned or even disappointed in the offense that day. As we stroll back down Memory Lane, we’ll see that Jags had his ups and downs, but the Temple game was a good start (for him).

3 comments:

eaglesfan09 said...

What were the main differences between the offense that Jags used as OC when he was at BC previously and the offense that we saw Bible run?

ATL_eagle said...

Not entirely different...I would say the differences were more in execution and play calling. Jags offense ran better and through downfield more aggresively. You'll get a feel for Jags as I get into more games.

flutie22phelan20 said...

Awesome, awesome idea to do this sorta breakdown.

Bad, bad memory of that Temple game.