2 Yards vs. -2 Yards

[IronJacket7]

During the weekly presser a reporter asked about this briefly. It wasn't discussed in depth because we have an array of other issues. I get it.

However,

We all know JT is capable of doing amazing things with his feet when there is nothing there on a play.

And not only him but other players have tried to make something happen when nothing was there or made the wrong choice of direction to cut outside on a block instead of cutting it up inside. I have seen this several times this year. It may not seem like a big deal but 3rd and 3 is better that 3rd and 7. Getting those minute 2 yard gains instead of trying to make something happen and losing 2 yards is a 4 yard difference.

Point is.... We are struggling in so many facets on offense that it is hard to get anything going. However, my desire would be to see us try to get something even if only a couple yards instead of trying to make something happen and we lose yardage. And I know some will say, "Well if they don't try to make something happen then you won't get any big plays." Well we ain't getting any big plays as it is "trying to make something happen."

Sometimes they are in our backfield before we can even barely catch the pitch. I understand on those occasions there isn't much the player can do. But everyone can make it a focus to get positive yards on each and every chance given. Taking what you can get will eventually break the levy in my opinion and then the big plays will bust open.

Again this is only a minor factor in the overall picture of our offensive woes. But it is a very important factor.

Play within the system and Get what you can get.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

One of the negative aspects to our offense is that many of the plays start out in the east/west direction. There's two problems with this, 1) you're not gaining any yards while your running east/west and 2) it's much easier to attack an east/west ball carrier as he can only cut in one direction. If plays develop as they are designed, we have a numbers advantage to the playside which overcomes these disadvantages. Once we turn the play north/south, in theory, there's a lot of open space to run.

In order for this to work,
a) defenses can not be allowed to cheat more defenders into the play than they normally would. Lately, they are doing precisely that and we are not making them pay for it.
b) Even if they play it honestly, we have to be fast and precise. Timing and spacing has to be spot on.
c) In addition, we simply have to carry out our blocking assignments.
d) guys have to do their job and guys have to have faith in their teammates ability to do their jobs.

We are not doing these things.

a) defenses are not being kept honest because we cannot establish the dive consistently, nor can we capitalize on man coverage in the passing game.
b) with all the newbies, we are not fast, we are not precise, timing and spacing are all over the place
c) we are missing our blocking assignments all over the place, inside and out.
d) nobody trusts anybody to do their jobs, most glaringly the qb has no faith in his offensive teammates.

On top of all that, we have become predictable. So much so, it seems the defense is in our huddle because they seem to know what we are doing on every play.

I'm not an option guru, but these things I have observed. I'm not sure how this can be fixed, either.

 

[deeeznutz]

One thing I noticed against Clemson was JTs pitches seemed to consistently be a little short, keeping the AB really tight in and making it easier for one guy to take the QB and the pitch man. Are the ABs not running proper pitch relationship, do we not have confidence on longer pitches, or is JT simply placing the ball in the wrong spot?

 

[danny daniel]

One thing I noticed against Clemson was JTs pitches seemed to consistently be a little short, keeping the AB really tight in and making it easier for one guy to take the QB and the pitch man. Are the ABs not running proper pitch relationship, do we not have confidence on longer pitches, or is JT simply placing the ball in the wrong spot?

On some plays this seems to be the problem: Prior to snap the DE and OLB are ID as the option keys. DE takes the BB as expected but the MLB (or someone else) quickly shows up to take the QB and the OLB slides outside to take the AB pitch guy , leaving JT to pitch too early or eat the ball, and either is a loss. I think we are seeing both results because our blocking is breaking down on that MLB or too many in the box to block.

It also seems defenses are recognizing playside quicker and getting more people in pursuit quicker as well as defeating blocks better. It may all come back to not enough respect for the BB dive or the pass.

 

[IronJacket7]

“I’ve never called so many third-and-12’s or second-and-16’s or second-and-14’s,” Johnson said.
“The nature of what we do, that’s not something that happens usually. For us, a bad play is two yards going forward. You miss a read, we make two yards, it’s second-and-8, not second-and-15."

 

[alagold]

These guys are now playing us like I would.
First-- play 1 on 1 with WRs which frees safeties to roam.Dare us to beat them in air.With limited speed and skills , average passing ability and weak pass blocking scheme ,we are stuck.
next--stuff the bback -by any means.
Bring up LBs up close and come thru empty gap depending on DEF call.Bring it every down esp on first. Once we are 2 and 8/9 ,things get hairy for us.
until we burn folks enough,expect to see that for YEARS.

.

 

[IronJacket7]

until we burn folks enough,expect to see that for YEARS.

.

This is nothing new. We've been seeing it for years. We are not executing. You know.... Plus Injuries, Inexperience, etc....

Go back and watch games from last year. All the teams we played did the SAME STUFF on defense. The only difference is we EXECUTED last year.

 

[JorgeJonas]

These guys are now playing us like I would.
First-- play 1 on 1 with WRs which frees safeties to roam.Dare us to beat them in air.With limited speed and skills , average passing ability and weak pass blocking scheme ,we are stuck.
next--stuff the bback -by any means.
Bring up LBs up close and come thru empty gap depending on DEF call.Bring it every down esp on first. Once we are 2 and 8/9 ,things get hairy for us.
until we burn folks enough,expect to see that for YEARS.

.

Years, you say? Sure, Sparky.

 

[tech_wreck47]

Something I have notice the most is our guys dancing around on the outside way to much, or trying to get the corner and turn up filed when the WR is blocking to the outside. They need to learn how to run off of their blockers hip, and turn up as soon as they get a seam, and stop trying to stretch it out when the d is already stretching it out. Snoddy does a pretty good job of doing that, and in the limited time I got to see Qua he was doing it pretty good as well.

 

[takethepoints]

We are not doing these things.

a) defenses are not being kept honest because we cannot establish the dive consistently,

I'm not an option guru, but these things I have observed. I'm not sure how this can be fixed, either.

Great post and this, imho, is the central problem it identifies. If we can just get somebody to deliver 4 ypc on the dive consistently, we will win. The big three haven't done it (though I'd like to see Allen get 10 snaps soon). If they can't deliver Quaide is next up. No redshirt for you!

 

[Boomergump]

One thing I noticed against Clemson was JTs pitches seemed to consistently be a little short, keeping the AB really tight in and making it easier for one guy to take the QB and the pitch man. Are the ABs not running proper pitch relationship, do we not have confidence on longer pitches, or is JT simply placing the ball in the wrong spot?

I think this is as much not forcing commits as it is anything. We are allowing the pitch key to "slow play" us some. We need to force him to turn his shoulders by attacking the gap inside the pitch key, even if it only means a 3 yard gain.

 

[Boomergump]

These guys are now playing us like I would.
First-- play 1 on 1 with WRs which frees safeties to roam.Dare us to beat them in air.With limited speed and skills , average passing ability and weak pass blocking scheme ,we are stuck.
next--stuff the bback -by any means.
Bring up LBs up close and come thru empty gap depending on DEF call.Bring it every down esp on first. Once we are 2 and 8/9 ,things get hairy for us.
until we burn folks enough,expect to see that for YEARS.

.

I think we have seen it for years. Our ability to make people pay has varied over those years. Even in the Climpsum tape, if you watch, you will see them back off after we burned them deep on Lynch's TD catch. It happens. We just need to do it consistently.

 

[presjacket]

I think this is as much not forcing commits as it is anything. We are allowing the pitch key to "slow play" us some. We need to force him to turn his shoulders by attacking the gap inside the pitch key, even if it only means a 3 yard gain.

There were a couple times that I thought a fake pitch was in order against Clemson. They were so fast they could get from the QB to the AB as fast as the pitch would.

 

[GTonTop88]

During the weekly presser a reporter asked about this briefly. It wasn't discussed in depth because we have an array of other issues. I get it.

However,

We all know JT is capable of doing amazing things with his feet when there is nothing there on a play.

And not only him but other players have tried to make something happen when nothing was there or made the wrong choice of direction to cut outside on a block instead of cutting it up inside. I have seen this several times this year. It may not seem like a big deal but 3rd and 3 is better that 3rd and 7. Getting those minute 2 yard gains instead of trying to make something happen and losing 2 yards is a 4 yard difference.

Point is.... We are struggling in so many facets on offense that it is hard to get anything going. However, my desire would be to see us try to get something even if only a couple yards instead of trying to make something happen and we lose yardage. And I know some will say, "Well if they don't try to make something happen then you won't get any big plays." Well we ain't getting any big plays as it is "trying to make something happen."

Sometimes they are in our backfield before we can even barely catch the pitch. I understand on those occasions there isn't much the player can do. But everyone can make it a focus to get positive yards on each and every chance given. Taking what you can get will eventually break the levy in my opinion and then the big plays will bust open.

Again this is only a minor factor in the overall picture of our offensive woes. But it is a very important factor.

Play within the system and Get what you can get.

This is just a random idea but since we are scarce at AB, I wonder if lining up in the eye or wishbone with Skov at fullback, MM at TB and rotating the HB with MLD and others would be more effective? We would have a proven blocker in Skov leading the way for some explosive players without the high possibility of a negative play. The outside would be a little easier to get to because they wouldn't be able to key on our motion and we would have an extra blocker. We would have lead dives something we don't have now. I love our offense and our coach but our offense gives us little room for error (which there is a lot of right now) against good defenses. I just think it would be something simple we could make work for getting positive yardage.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

My summary for a Northwestern alum (wounded this last weekend) was that you can't be a good running team with all new backs and WRs blocking. Maybe I'm too simple, but if you are a running team, you need seasoned and faster than the D runners.

That problem isn't going to be fixed this weekend, but a W this weekend and no more injuries against FSU may give us enough seasoning to eke out wins against VT and UVa. We'll have to be a lot better against Miami than we are now to have a chance.

 

[IronJacket7]

This is just a random idea but since we are scarce at AB, I wonder if lining up in the eye or wishbone with Skov at fullback, MM at TB and rotating the HB with MLD and others would be more effective? We would have a proven blocker in Skov leading the way for some explosive players without the high possibility of a negative play. The outside would be a little easier to get to because they wouldn't be able to key on our motion and we would have an extra blocker. We would have lead dives something we don't have now. I love our offense and our coach but our offense gives us little room for error (which there is a lot of right now) against good defenses. I just think it would be something simple we could make work for getting positive yardage.

Well we can do that from one play actually without even switching formations (ie wishbone).

I don't know that CPJ has ever done this play although I'm sure he has. A wing back dive which is more or less a zone dive like what we currently do with the BB except the AB is the ball carrier and the BB becomes a blocker.

However, I don't really think you are gonna get much more production from this than you would Midline. Problem is the interior blocking has been atrocious. So I really don't think its going to matter what we run until we can blow the DL off the ball a least a half or full step. If they are winning the leverage battle it really limits what you do no matter the offensive play or scheme.

 

[GTonTop88]

Well we can do that from one play actually without even switching formations (ie wishbone).

I don't know that CPJ has ever done this play although I'm sure he has. A wing back dive which is more or less a zone dive like what we currently do with the BB except the AB is the ball carrier and the BB becomes a blocker.

However, I don't really think you are gonna get much more production from this than you would Midline. Problem is the interior blocking has been atrocious. So I really don't think its going to matter what we run until we can blow the DL off the ball a least a half or full step. If they are winning the leverage battle it really limits what you do no matter the offensive play or scheme.

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I also thought about running the standard triple option except the pitch man blocks down as opposed to swinging out for the pitch like a QB sweep.

 

[awbuzz]

Didn't we run something similar to that a couple of years back during a bowl game or towards the end of the season?

 

[Boomergump]

Maybe that load option would have been a good call last Saturday? Get that BB out leading the play for an extra blocker.

 

[stingyoa$$]

This is nothing new. We've been seeing it for years. We are not executing. You know.... Plus Injuries, Inexperience, etc....

Go back and watch games from last year. All the teams we played did the SAME STUFF on defense. The only difference is we EXECUTED last year.

We had better players last year that people brushed off as "the system" that made us so successful. The players made the system look good IMO. This year is proof that this system can be great no matter who is playing in it. You still need athletes and "balls"to play football in the TO. We are lacking at least 1 and maybe both of those qualities this year.