Shepard isn't the issue. That's silly. How many drops has he had all year, 3? The one in the endzone was slightly overthrown. The lack of getting him involved is the real issue, or using him improperly (he should never have negative plays). And we're not holding back anything. You play to win the game. (I heard that somewhere) We're just not very good offensively either on the O-line or at QB. Can't open up the playbook if you either A) don't trust your QB and/or B) you can't pass protect well enough to have plays develop down field
Not saying Shep is the issue but like I have said all season and last is that we are averaging about 2-3 drops a game this season. Shep has had 3-4 drops in 3 games and I am not counting the one in the flat that he batted twice. Drops have to get fixed because 25+ drops a season is not going to help the offense. We had like 20+ drops last year. Simply put they are drive killers. Shep is only one of the WRs and he is still learning the position and I know he will get it corrected. The simple fact is that Shep needs to produce as a WR to get all the touches that staff and fans want.
This is what I am hoping for. RS made the comment last week, in his defense of JJ, that the team has been working on a lot of things that they have yet to show. Depending on how the WVU game is going, I think this would be the prime opportunity to utilize the offense to its potential. Last year many of us were saying that they were holding back in the first few games, which turned out to never change. I hope that GC and Miles find the confidence in JJ to actually use more than the 6-7 plays that we keep going to now. If not this team is going to have to rely on the D to win the majority of our tough schedule. Which can be done, it will just be tough if we can't find a way to score some points. The team struggling in the red zone has got to stop. We left no less than 11 pts on the field against Miss St. Between having to go for 5 FG's and Blues fumble, we were pretty ineffective, at moving the ball when in scoring positions. Don't get me wrong winning 29-7 is impressive, but we will struggle against the likes of Bama, UF, and Ark if we are going to try to win with FG's. GC and Miles need to let JJ loose and let him throw some once we get into scoring position. Continuing to try and jam it down our opponents throats, with the run, is only going to be so effective. I think that we will see a bit more of an open offense against WVU, with some down the field passes. JJ is ok in the 15-25 yrd range and we need to utilize this part of the offense more. Practice makes perfect, and if they don't allow him to practice, meaning take these shots, then our passing game will continue to struggle.
