I keep hearing the same criticisms of Barnes over and over. So I decided to find some plays that counter the usual, 1) he’s a one read QB who, 2) can’t make quick decisions, and 3) is incapable of finding the open receiver.
There’s a guy on an Oregon fan site who I have linked before. Here’s his breakdown of the game from an Oregon perspective. But even in a bad loss, there are things to be learned which is why every coach on their postgame presser says “we’re going to check the film and figure out what we did right and what we need to work on.”
I especially like that his clips give you the ability to slow the play down to .25 time which is helpful in trying to figure out what the call was and what really happened because trying to view something live is actually the worst perspective for trying to parse what took place. Every receiver automatically becomes open when the ball gets thrown elsewhere because the defense has reacted to the pass before the fan has watched the play end and then looked at the players not involved in the outcome.
Below, I break down the 7 plays from the link, but from a Utah perspective. If you scroll down to the Defense portion, my breakdowns will be my take on the passing plays that Oregon shut down (1-4) and the plays that Utah was successful (5-7). My challenge is for someone to either show me why Barnes is not capable of running the offense based on these 7 plays or to come up with their own clips which show that he is the problem.
1. 2nd drive (or first if you say the Tafuna fumble recovery made it one drive).
Situation: 3rd and 13, Oregon 18.
Formation: 11 personnel (one back, one TE). Strong to the field, Tight 3×1 formation, Matthews with man look to boundary.
Pre-snap: Oregon is showing 2-4-5 look with 2 high safeties.
Oregon rushes 6 against Max protect (Mike, Glover blocking) and overruns the Oblock. 3 receivers v 5 defenders. Barnes first read is left for Vele on slant which is covered. McLain is possible on the flag and Matthews is locked up on the boundary fade. 2 seconds in and there are 2 defenders running over Glover up the gut and two coming from the QB’s right. Barnes slides to his left hoping MClain will come open or Miki can release from his block. We can’t see McLain’s defender but have to assume there is a reason Barnes tucked it.
Synopsis: Barnes took a 3 step drop and was already under pressure. Stepping up into the pocket was not available. The Matthews fade was unavailable due to the rush so the only possible option was McLain and we don’t know how good that was. This failure was not on Barnes.
McCLain was almost certainly open on the play. The Safety was playing with inside leverage and no outside defender.
2. First play after Oregon went up 14-3.
Situation: 1st and 10, own 25.
Formation: 11 personnel, Strong to the field, Tight 3×1 formation, Parks man look to boundary.
Pre-snap: Oregon is showing 4-2-5, 2 high safeties.
Matthews Jet motion to boundary, Glover and line sell run action to boundary, Parks with reverse action to field and Vele running a clear out route. Ball is snapped at 0:10. At 0:11, Mokofisi has already whiffed on his block while Barnes if faking to Glover, forcing Barnes to slide right. Vele appears to have man with no help over the top but that is an assumption. Parks is coming clear underneath with a DB mirroring him. Barnes roll action has allowed Mokofisi to get back on his block.
Synopsis: We can’t know if this play was designed to only be thrown to Parks, thus making the Vele route window dressing. Whether Barnes had to option to throw the deep ball or not, he throws the ball from an awkward angle and Parks gets tackled instantly. There were no routes being run to the boundary so in this two receiver route, you either get rid of it quick or reset your feet to throw the 50/50 ball. Again, I don’t put this failure on Barnes.
Vele was about as open as you can hope for, with his man trailing and to the inside. With Vele about on the hash, there is loads of space to the sideline to work with. A good throw, and there is no chance of interception.
3. Situation: 1st and 10, down 21-3, own 44.
Formation: 11 personnel, Strong to the field, Tight 3×1 formation, Parks to boundary with safety help
Pre-snap: Oregon is showing 4-2-5 with 2 high safeties
Starting at 0:21, backside view. Jackson stays in to block, Corner blitz from boundary, Vele slant, Miki drag, McLain releases vertical, Parks mesh route. 0:23, Barnes hasn’t finished 3 step drop, eyes focused left to see Vele covered on slant, Miki doubled on drag, McLain doubled on vertical and Parks running into double coverage on mesh. Barnes also sees Laumea miss but I can’t tell if he has seen the corner with a free run. 0:24 Jackson has moved to the corner, Barnes has finished his drop and the D Lineman had a free run at him. Barnes moves right, I assume thinking Jackson has moved to the outlet or will be a lead blocker. Jackson gets run over and Barnes is sacked.
Synopsis: Another example of 4 good blocks and one complete breakdown forcing a scramble drill. I can’t read minds but based on the routes, it looks like Barnes is hoping to buy time for Miki or Vele to come open to the sideline. Oregon had seen this on tape many times and the corner blitz took that away. Again, I’m not sure what Barnes was supposed to do unless you think he should have shaken off both tacklers, regained his composure and found Parks when he came open 3 seconds after first contact. While stepping up and to the left takes him away from the receiver flow.
4. Situation: 1st and 10, down 21-3, own 39.
Formation: 12 personnel, under center, Tight 3×1 to the field. Vele Jet motion to boundary flat.
Pre-snap: Oregon showing 4-2-5 with 2 high safeties.
Miki stays in to block for play-action. 2 receiver route against man to boundary, zone to field. King runs slant, Parks vertical against double coverage. Play design forces Barnes to turn his back to the LOS to sell run, finally looks downfield at 0:34. First read is Parks where he sees double. King turns vertical against double coverage leaving Vele on the flat who does nothing to help his QB. Fano gets beat while the other four hold their blocks leaving Barnes nothing but to throw it away.
Synopsis: The blocking was decent, Barnes went through his progressions and didn’t make any mistakes. This one was on the play design. Miki never blocked anyone and Glover stopped at the line and stood next to him, also doing nothing. Having one or both of those two release when they weren’t challenged to give Barnes another option may have allowed him to throw it somewhere before Fano got called for the hold. Again, not on Barnes.
Now to the successful plays. They will be 1 through 3 on the vidoes
5. Situation: 2-10, own 45, down 7-0. Time for the Vaki wheel route that Oregon won’t suspect
Formation: 21 personnel, Strong to field, 2×1 with King inline to boundary, Vele slot Parks wide.
Pre-snap: Oregon showing 4-3-4 against two back look, 2 high safeties
Jackson motions to right leaving Vaki as lone back to boundary. Film tells us that Vaki will either get a carry to the field or run a wheel to the boundary with this look. Oregon has seen this and has #2 Bassa spy Vaki. Parks runs a go against cover 2 with safety over top. Jackson drifts out to flat which #5 recognizes and releases Parks. Vele run 5 yard dig. King runs 7 yard dig. Bassa fights through King to cover Vaki on the wheel. Note: the Vaki wheel worked against SC and Cal because he was matched against the D End. Oregon has put a much faster player on him who is able to keep Vaki in check. Vele and Jackson are open so Barnes throws quickly to Vele for a nice gain to set up 3rd and 3.
Synopsis: This was a well blocked play and there was time to throw a 50/50 ball to either Parks or Vaki. Barnes made the quick decision to throw to his best receiver instead of taking an unnecessary risk. Good decision.
6. Situation: 3rd and 5, down 7-0, Oregon 22.
Formation: 10 personnel, 3×1 wide bunch to field, Parks to boundary
Pre-snap: Oregon showing 4-2-5 with 2 high safeties
Parks runs 5 yard dig route, Glover releases to boundary, Vele runs a 12 yard drag, McLain runs a deep in and Simmons runs a 3 yard out, all against tight man coverage. Oregon rushes 5, Based on alignment, Fano has DE, Bills has DT, Mokofisi has DT and Laumea has DE with Failu helping or picking up the backer. Instead Bills and Failu double team DT, Mokofisi takes on 3 guys and Laumea wanders through the tulips.
Immediate pressure from the field forces Barnes to roll to boundary, eliminating Simmons and McLain’s routes. Glover and Parks both end up in the same area and neither move with their QB to help him out. Vele’s route was an option had Barnes not been under duress and he did an excellent job throwing off-balance with a LB in his face to Glover.
Synopsis: This play was counted as a success but that was all Barnes. The blocking broke down but he was able to buy time and find the one open receiver.
7. Situation: first play of 2nd half, 1-10, down 21-3, own 19.
Formation: 11 personnel, 3×1 to field, Vele to boundary
Pre-snap: Oregon showing 4-2-5 with 2 high safeties
First play of the half, needing a good drive, time for a quick call to get ahead of schedule. Max protect with Miki and Jackson, Veles runs a 7 yard dig, Two receivers to boundary fake routes and settle in to block, never looking at the QB. This is designed to look like a run and is blocked as such which allows the single receiver route to be open.
Synopsis: Nice design. Barnes was able to sell the run and get the LB’s to bite and Vele ran his defender off to get a nice cushion. Togiai could have been called for ineligible man downfield. And Barnes confidently delivered the ball to the only receiver available
the fact he is a walk-on, was considered 3rd string, can barely beat out Nate Johnson mostly do to being in the program more. and his total stats are awful.
Johnson sucks! He is one dimensional, cut out his running ability and the play is dead. He also can’t throw past his own nose.
This is definitely a non biased take.
Did Barnes only run 7 plays all game? If not, this doesn’t tell us much other than it isn’t 100% on Barnes, which of course is true.
Great synopsis 2008. Bottom line is we don’t have the talent. Oregon out schemed us and had better players. Barnes has enough tape to see his tendencies and he is average at best. Receivers are average.
Nix picked our defense apart. Quick throws and a strong run game keep us guessing and nullified our pass rush. They out schemed our defense. Proof a great QB can make a big difference.
You’re not wrong, but it’s not that simple. Oregon is good.
If you stack the box, they can throw over the top of you. If you drop 2 safeties, they can run up the middle. If you clog the middle, they can run/throw it outside.
And we haven’t even mentioned Nix running the ball.
Oregon is damn good. And to beat a damn good team, your offense has to be able to chew up clock and/or score.
Once your offense can’t do that, your defense is screwed.
This game was 100% lost because on offense, the second Jackson got hurt, we could not do anything.
We averaged 38 points a game last year. If we scored that we win the game. 
Oregon called off the dogs on Saturday. They were doing whatever they wanted to us.
There were a couple of times that our rush was a fraction of a second from getting home to Nix (for example, play 4 of successful Oregon pass plays from the link). A separate observation is that we are known for playing press-man with our corners, but I am not seeing that as much as in the past. The fact that the rush is almost, but not quite getting there indicates we should have been playing more press-man and been more aggressive with the bump to disrupt timing. Also in play 4 of the successful Oregon pass plays, you will see that there was no bump on the receiver who caught the ball, but he was allowed to release and run his route freely.
As I watched Oregon attack us it felt like they started with a script. So many times Nix threw quickly to a spot without a read. I think they studied our DB tendencies to identify quick open spots and simply expected them to be there. A negative of man coverage is in the initial seconds the DB defends both long and short routes leaving a loose moment that a receiver is open if the play is quick enough. It can catch a defense off guard that is accustomed to having a QB read and react to a real time opening. I think we need to react to that with play by play changes in coverage to force the QB to read keys before letting the ball fly. A lesson for the offense may be looking to have some similar plays for Barnes that are quick, assuming we can identify tendencies as well. However, the most important part was Oregon was very good at executing the script.
Yeah, our defense tends to be susceptible to quick decisions and crisp execution. We tend to play sound but rely on some mistake by our opponent, which usually happens, or for our pressure to get home. UO schemed this up perfectly and had faith in their talent to break short to mid range stuff for more.
It was similar in effect to what we did to Bama in the sugar bowl in terms of the tempo and speed of attack, but we were going a little deeper.
In almost every Utah game where our D has struggled it has been because our rush didn’t get enough pressure. Nix was exceptionally good at getting the ball out quickly and accurately before we had a chance to get home. UO’s defense did the opposite to Barnes. In the SC game, our rush got home faster, and CW held the ball longer in general. There were enough mistakes and enough pressures to keep us in the game and on top. UO is much more set up to beat us than USC is more by scheme than talent. At the end of the day, if both our team and the other team is really well coached, it comes down to talent and or luck/probability and such. Utah is GREAT at finding and exploiting weakness, even on good teams, but when there is nothing that we can target well schematically, it comes down to talent, and we are still very banged up, and Oregon is really good.
Yeah, stats are always pretty telling.
BB: 56% completion rate, 4 TD to 5 Int, 44.2 QBR (100th best in CFB)
OnlyU himself said BB is limited. The stats suggest he is not a P5 QB. Appreciate his grit and how the team rallies around him. We’ll scrap together 8-9 wins this year and make a bowl and he deserves some credit for that, BUT this isn’t the goal.
Whit has to upgrade the QB position. He’s had years to do it during Cam’s tenure. QB is the moon to him, but he did grow in getting and unleashing Huntley and Rising who both transformed the program. To take the next step, we need more of this and less misses at QB.
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