This has been an outstanding thread to read. I hope it is indicative of the typical quality one finds here. I have a few comments although I haven't bothered to reply directly to any individual.
First of all. I am not as down on the OL as many around here. I don't think they have been dominant this season, but rather pretty good, when they are not false starting all over the field. There are some things you need to consider when forming your opinion about their play. The first is the wideness of their splits. To run this offense, splits are a necessity to create the gaps for the dive and spread the defense out to gain numbers advantages. Now, knowing that, count heads along the LOS and see what the defense is doing in terms of numbers. Quite often, they will have as many as 6 peeking into the backfield. Our standard alignment has 5 guys up front. With 5 guys up front and wide splits to boot, exactly what do you expect our guys to be able to get done? The biggest problem we have had along the line has been the inability to make teams pay for playing this way by consistently finding the check downs etc in the passing game and blocking better on the edge for the toss sweeps. Yes, we CAN block better too, but there is only so much you can ask 5 guys standing that far from each other to do. In addition to that, some teams we have played this year have done a way better job of timing our snap counts and slanting quickly to avoid our cuts on the backside. That is NOT the OL's fault. They can't leave early or it is a false start. Defenders are allowed to shift and move early as long as they don't get into the neutral zone. We simply must do a better job with varied counts to neutralize this problem. Our guys have missed some assignments this year. It is no secret. However, when watching a game, or film for that matter, an OL can look like he missed one when he has really done his assignment correctly. Our guys are frequently asked to let a pitch key go by while targeting a player at the second level. This is by design, as that player is being optioned off. Many times, a playside AB missing his block makes an OL look at fault because instead of having a single pitch key, the QB is now staring at 2 guys and he gets swallowed up by a guy that the OL just intentionally let go.
If you noticed, in the Climpsum game, as soon as we hit a few of those wheel passes into the flat, the run dynamic started to change. However, that pass was there all day and we simply didn't do a good enough job of seeing it or hitting it. We overthrew a couple and didn't even see a couple that were all alone. It boggles the mind how many yards and points were left on the table in this regard. For those of you who think we need to pass more or go to a different style offense such as shot gun etc, I caution you to be careful what you wish for. If we can't hit the wide open throws that are staring us in the face in this offense, what makes you think the light will suddenly come on passing 50% of the time? Surely we will improve at it, but look down the roster. Who is going to be running these routes for us when safeties are no longer lined up only 7 yards deep crashing in run support and the LBs are now rolling into the flats? Sure the narrower splits may buy us a little time in the pocket, but we don't have the WR crew to get it done in a conventional way right now. If we run that offense, teams aren't going to play against us the same way they are now. What we need to do is continue running OUR OFFENSE and simply get better at finding and hitting the wide open guys that we get in play action routinely. Teams are daring us to beat them that way. We just haven't been able to do it. We are able to hurt them a little now and then, but we aren't able to beat them. It is too bad that we screwed the pooch on that first KO, because I would loved to have seen some throws off play action early against the tiggers. It may have changed some things dramatically.
I am not sure Vad would be any better in the diamond. Right now he is pretty tentative and not making good decisions out of any formation. He has been very skittish in the pocket and is not seeing the field. Defenses are bringing the kind of pressure they are, knowing this very fact. His mental process is slow right now and they are speeding him up by crashing the line. Wouldn't you? CPJ is right, the edge wasn't as clean as you would like it much of the time against Clemson, but you know what, there were yards to get with a decisive cut upfield off the DE by Vad repeatedly that he didn't take, choosing instead to string plays out into oblivion on an overpopulated edge. Sure he may have gotten only 3 or 4 yards had he done that, but those yards were there none the less. 3 is a whole lot better than -3. He needs to get better at that. I guarantee you Ricky Dobbs gets a whole lot more yards with his feet Thursday than Vad did. Nesbitt was good at diving forward for 3 when the picture was bad. Right now Vad doesn't see some of the traps he is running into.
