I am concerned that Schor has had a lot of turnovers ESPECIALLY in opening drives. His interception numbers are way up this year and obviously giving up an early TD when we received the ball first hurts a lot because it's like a free possession you are giving the opposition.

What's going on with that? Is it the opponents' schemes? Are they seeing his tendency to throw a certain pass and they are jumping on those? I would like to see some flea flickers or anything else to keep the defense honest.

I think we all just underestimated how good our WR's were last year.

Ravenal, Domo, Davis....those guys were good. And made everyone else look good.

Not saying Schor is bad or anything, but having stud WR's like that sure helps make a QB look better.

(12-11-2017 11:19 AM)Duke Dawg Wrote:  I think we all just underestimated how good our WR's were last year.

Ravenal, Domo, Davis....those guys were good. And made everyone else look good.

Not saying Schor is bad or anything, but having stud WR's like that sure helps make a QB look better.

Not forcing the ball to your favorite target also helps. Stapleton is pretty dang good, so is Cheatham, so is Archie, so is Hyman. How many INTs have been thrown forcing the ball in coverage to Alls?

(12-11-2017 11:23 AM)JMUSteeler Wrote:  

(12-11-2017 11:19 AM)Duke Dawg Wrote:  I think we all just underestimated how good our WR's were last year.

Ravenal, Domo, Davis....those guys were good. And made everyone else look good.

Not saying Schor is bad or anything, but having stud WR's like that sure helps make a QB look better.

Not forcing the ball to your favorite target also helps. Stapleton is pretty dang good, so is Cheatham, so is Archie, so is Hyman. How many INTs have been thrown forcing the ball in coverage to Alls?

that's just it. I think he forced a lot of balls last year too. Our guys just made the plays.

and it sure seems when Schor is scrambling, no one is open. Last year, our WR's found space. They were just better and more in tune with Schor when the play breaks down.

seems like many times this year, Schor and the WR's aren't on the same page.

The lone turnover we had at the beginning against Weber State was obviously costly. Not only did it set up an easy score, but it provided much needed early confidence for WSU playing on the road.

The previous 2 games against Stony Brook and Elon, the Dukes committed zero turnovers. We need the same against SDSU. 1 lost possession could be the difference in what's brewing to be another close game (as I guess they should be in the semifinals). This works both ways as our opportunistic D hopefully will flip the game with some takes as well.

I've felt all season that while Schor is good, his aim isn't that great, and as others have said, the great WRs last year would go get them, while this year's crop is somewhat more mortal.

(12-11-2017 11:23 AM)JMUSteeler Wrote:  

(12-11-2017 11:19 AM)Duke Dawg Wrote:  I think we all just underestimated how good our WR's were last year.

Ravenal, Domo, Davis....those guys were good. And made everyone else look good.

Not saying Schor is bad or anything, but having stud WR's like that sure helps make a QB look better.

Not forcing the ball to your favorite target also helps. Stapleton is pretty dang good, so is Cheatham, so is Archie, so is Hyman. How many INTs have been thrown forcing the ball in coverage to Alls?

Well that first one last game was to Riley right?

(12-11-2017 11:28 AM)Wear Purple Wrote:  The lone turnover we had at the beginning against Weber State was obviously costly. Not only did it set up an easy score, but it provided much needed early confidence for WSU playing on the road.

The previous 2 games against Stony Brook and Elon, the Dukes committed zero turnovers. We need the same against SDSU. 1 lost possession could be the difference in what's brewing to be another close game (as I guess they should be in the semifinals). This works both ways as our opportunistic D hopefully will flip the game with some takes as well.

Yep. The early pick 6 (essentially) gave WSU some early life, put us in a hole, and made the game much closer than it needed to be. Would love to see an opening drive this weekend that crams the ball down SDSU's throat. But with our depleted OL, not sure how likely that is.

(12-11-2017 11:26 AM)Duke Dawg Wrote:  

(12-11-2017 11:23 AM)JMUSteeler Wrote:  

(12-11-2017 11:19 AM)Duke Dawg Wrote:  I think we all just underestimated how good our WR's were last year.

Ravenal, Domo, Davis....those guys were good. And made everyone else look good.

Not saying Schor is bad or anything, but having stud WR's like that sure helps make a QB look better.

Not forcing the ball to your favorite target also helps. Stapleton is pretty dang good, so is Cheatham, so is Archie, so is Hyman. How many INTs have been thrown forcing the ball in coverage to Alls?

that's just it. I think he forced a lot of balls last year too. Our guys just made the plays.

and it sure seems when Schor is scrambling, no one is open. Last year, our WR's found space. They were just better and more in tune with Schor when the play breaks down.

seems like many times this year, Schor and the WR's aren't on the same page.

I tried to isolate on our receivers for a few plays. It appeared when Schor would scramble, our receivers would not create separation or change routes. Maybe they were not sure if Schor was going to run and felt they needed to block.
I feel some of Schor's picks can be attributed to our receivers running the wrong route. Just a guess for at least 2 picks.

(12-11-2017 12:41 PM)JMU83 Wrote:  

(12-11-2017 11:26 AM)Duke Dawg Wrote:  

(12-11-2017 11:23 AM)JMUSteeler Wrote:  

(12-11-2017 11:19 AM)Duke Dawg Wrote:  I think we all just underestimated how good our WR's were last year.

Ravenal, Domo, Davis....those guys were good. And made everyone else look good.

Not saying Schor is bad or anything, but having stud WR's like that sure helps make a QB look better.

Not forcing the ball to your favorite target also helps. Stapleton is pretty dang good, so is Cheatham, so is Archie, so is Hyman. How many INTs have been thrown forcing the ball in coverage to Alls?

that's just it. I think he forced a lot of balls last year too. Our guys just made the plays.

and it sure seems when Schor is scrambling, no one is open. Last year, our WR's found space. They were just better and more in tune with Schor when the play breaks down.

seems like many times this year, Schor and the WR's aren't on the same page.

I tried to isolate on our receivers for a few plays. It appeared when Schor would scramble, our receivers would not create separation or change routes. Maybe they were not sure if Schor was going to run and felt they needed to block.
I feel some of Schor's picks can be attributed to our receivers running the wrong route. Just a guess for at least 2 picks.

No question route running is an issue, but in the Elon game for example we were driving on the opening series and through a silly pick into coverage trying to force it to Alls when the underneath route was uncovered. The one this past weekend may have been to Stapleton, the DB came off the slot and undercut the route. I doubt Schor ever saw him, might just be an instance where the DB guessed right or we tipped the play somehow.

One important thing to keep in mind is while Bryan has a dozen or so ints this year I do not recall more than 3 or so actually hurting the Dukes in terms of points given up. Happened against Weber State and against ECU that I can remember. Think there was one or maybe two others but for the most part the D has stepped up and stopped the opposition after the INT.

Brian

(12-11-2017 01:29 PM)ParentofJMUMRDs Wrote:  One important thing to keep in mind is while Bryan has a dozen or so ints this year I do not recall more than 3 or so actually hurting the Dukes in terms of points given up. Happened against Weber State and against ECU that I can remember. Think there was one or maybe two others but for the most part the D has stepped up and stopped the opposition after the INT.

Brian

This is my thought as well. If anything, I think he has generally been overly cautious at our own end of the field. I don't know if that is just a Schor thing or if the coaches have emphasized this or whether it's just my imagination. Makes sense though. It became apparent at some point last season that the D wasn't going to give up many points without the opposition being gifted a short field. So don't give them a short field.

I agree with some of the previous posts, too. Last year's WRs were crazy good at coming down with 50-50 balls. I don't think lack of accuracy is Schor's problem, though. Sometimes, like Friday, a QB just doesn't see a defender until it's too late. He ain't perfect, but I can tell you that just about every week I find myself watching other other team's QB and thinking something like "thank goodness this guy can't throw a decent ball and thank goodness we have Schor on our side."

I'm not sure there's any one thing that consistently gets him. Early on in the season he had a few where the defender was up in his face and he tried to throw it directly over the defender...who would tip it and there just happened to be another defender in the perfect spot. Others were 50/50 balls where it was just slightly misthrown or thrown into coverage and the receiver didn't make a large enough adjustment. Like the last one, there have been a couple where Schor just didn't see the defender. Without going back and watching them all, I'd guess that most are when he's under pressure and is scrambling, forces it early, or forces it into coverage.

I would certainly agree that he's still a great QB and now that he's getting the run game going again he's a HUGE threat. Overall, he doesn't have a big INT problem, it's just a nagging issue that hasn't hurt too much, but every now and then pops back up. Against Weber was the closest it's come to doing fatal damage just because it got them in the game from the very beginning and JMU was playing from behind/even when they should have been ahead most of the game.

He is also getting killed back there, be it because the line is worse or WRs not getting open

A few points to consider:

The offensive line is not providing Schor with sufficient protection. He was hit a lot and he was rushed a lot. My concern is that he took so many hits that he will not be his best this weekend.
The receivers dropped a lot of balls. When Schor delivered them, the WRs dropped them at least 3 or 4 different times. Several times this happened on 3rd down.
There were a lot of unnecessary penalties, on both the offense and defense.
These issues are all fixable.

On a positive note, the run game was much better against Weber.

I think some of that may be Schor trying to force the issue. He's made a lot of mistakes where he is trying to make something out of nothing. It's true that the INT's haven't hurt us yet, with "yet" being the key word. These next two rounds are no joke and we cannot afford for Schor to throw INT's like against Weber State. If not for that gimme TD they got, they would have gotten little to nothing done on offense that first half.
I'm not as concerned about the INT's as I am something else.... the sacks. I completely understand the O line hasn't been as good lately and sacks are going to happen. I am referring to the ones where he needs to throw the ball away and instead holds the ball too long. If he would just throw the ball away, he'd be giving the offense a much better chance of achieving a first down. Losing 10 yards on a sack is not helping things. This hasn't been a season long issue, so I'm just concerned about how he's been playing these last two weeks.

(12-11-2017 12:39 PM)91Alum Wrote:  

(12-11-2017 11:28 AM)Wear Purple Wrote:  The lone turnover we had at the beginning against Weber State was obviously costly. Not only did it set up an easy score, but it provided much needed early confidence for WSU playing on the road.

The previous 2 games against Stony Brook and Elon, the Dukes committed zero turnovers. We need the same against SDSU. 1 lost possession could be the difference in what's brewing to be another close game (as I guess they should be in the semifinals). This works both ways as our opportunistic D hopefully will flip the game with some takes as well.

Yep. The early pick 6 (essentially) gave WSU some early life, put us in a hole, and made the game much closer than it needed to be. Would love to see an opening drive this weekend that crams the ball down SDSU's throat. But with our depleted OL, not sure how likely that is.

The one thing that does give me faith is that we played with a heavily depleted o-line in Fargo last year. Losing Kirsch and starting a freshman in an environment like that was beyond impressive. Not sure if our RB's this year can make the same kind of plays with a weaker line. Really hoping to see Marshall step up again and play his best game.

MM awesome game last week... still want to see some OBESE time

(12-11-2017 10:10 PM)JMad03 Wrote:  I'm not as concerned about the INT's as I am something else.... the sacks. I completely understand the O line hasn't been as good lately and sacks are going to happen. I am referring to the ones where he needs to throw the ball away and instead holds the ball too long. If he would just throw the ball away, he'd be giving the offense a much better chance of achieving a first down. Losing 10 yards on a sack is not helping things. This hasn't been a season long issue, so I'm just concerned about how he's been playing these last two weeks.

Actually, it has been a season long issue IMO. The difference is that in the past few games JMU has faced better pass rushers from whom he cannot escape. Some of the weaker teams IMO gave him false confidence. I like the designed runs from Schor to keep some of the LBs and DEs on their heels, knowing overpursuing on the rush could result in huge gains from Schor on the ground.

But yes, please throw the ball away under duress!

(12-11-2017 10:44 PM)Anders Wrote:  

(12-11-2017 12:39 PM)91Alum Wrote:  

(12-11-2017 11:28 AM)Wear Purple Wrote:  The lone turnover we had at the beginning against Weber State was obviously costly. Not only did it set up an easy score, but it provided much needed early confidence for WSU playing on the road.

The previous 2 games against Stony Brook and Elon, the Dukes committed zero turnovers. We need the same against SDSU. 1 lost possession could be the difference in what's brewing to be another close game (as I guess they should be in the semifinals). This works both ways as our opportunistic D hopefully will flip the game with some takes as well.

Yep. The early pick 6 (essentially) gave WSU some early life, put us in a hole, and made the game much closer than it needed to be. Would love to see an opening drive this weekend that crams the ball down SDSU's throat. But with our depleted OL, not sure how likely that is.

The one thing that does give me faith is that we played with a heavily depleted o-line in Fargo last year. Losing Kirsch and starting a freshman in an environment like that was beyond impressive. Not sure if our RB's this year can make the same kind of plays with a weaker line. Really hoping to see Marshall step up again and play his best game.

Agreed - if we can start a freshman in the Fargodome and win I think we can start one at the friendly confines of Bridgeforth.