Earlier in the season, it appeared that we were really making a conscious effort to run out of what would generally appear to be passing formations. If you take a look at our plan of attack against TCU, we ran right up the middle a great deal, but many of those runs up the middle were from formations where we had three or four wide outs and were spread out. This created quite a few big runs up the middle as the the linebackers and safeties were worried about the receivers and tight ends. Now, I am not suggesting that we simply give up running from power formations all together, but I do think that mixing up the formations we run from is a good idea. Teams have to respect Mett's arm and our wide receivers, so if we were to get about 40-50% of our run plays in passing formations, it would really help to create an imbalance in the other team. The second thing I see is an almost complete lack of utilization of the tight end in the passing game. I have lost count of the number of times I have seen our team in recent years simply ignore a wide open tight end and force a ball into double coverage to a wide out. I thought that might really change this year since we are running an NFL offense, and NFL offenses function with the tight end being a huge part of the passing game. We refuse to do this. It has been brought up before, and Les has acknowledged it before, but nothing seems to change. Go look at the stats for TE catches on NFL teams where Cameron has been the OC. Now again, I am not suggesting that we make the tight end the dominant focus of our passing attack. However, what we seem to do when our Wide outs are covered is check down right away to the RB or FB. The TE hardly gets a look in our offense. If we start burning some defenses over the middle to the TE, they will have to adjust in terms of what WR's they are going to double cover, and consider dropping LB's back in coverage which, if we take my advise above and run from passing formations like we did earlier in the year, will also open up those running lanes. There has been quite a bit of talk here recently about what is wrong with the D, and deservedly so. However, there are also some things, clear things, we could do to really improve our offense. I don't see any reason not to do them. Thoughts?
My 2 complaints on offense is why our running backs continue to try to kick shit to the outside instead of running north and south. Hill more than once and Magee more than once last night both did this and you saw what real linebackers do. And the other is the offensive line. The offensive line has consistently under performed for YEARS. I'm surprised Mettenberger was still standing at the end of that game. Other than that I can't complain about the offense too much because it's come a hell of a long way in 1 season.
Not developing a passing game to the TEs was a huge mistake by Cam Cameron. Otherwise, he did a great job.
Agree with all of this. I have criticized the coaching and coaching staff more after this game than EVER before. This is exactly why. Nice analysis. There is absolutely no adjustment anywhere to anything. It is the same thing all the time.
After OBJ's great KO return, wasn't Dickson open in the middle of the endzone on both 2nd and 4th downs? I think he was, but of course, I will never rewatch that abomination.
I'm glad it's over. I had to turn my damn phone off in the 4th quarter. This morning I blocked 3 gumps. I was really expecting to see more passes to the TE and backs. Actually expected to see more trick plays. Damn that game went from exciting to depressing quick.
Games early on in the season are when you need to work on parts of your game that are weak. I would have purposely game planned for our TEs to catch balls in the OOC games. But that's just me.
That's part of my point though. If you see that they are stuffing you up the middle when you are in power formations, and you know you can run from the spread because we have done it before, then why not mix some of that in? Plus, if we are passing to the TE, and running from the spread both, then you don't have the safeties and LB's crashing into the backfield knocking Mett on his butt all the time. Again, I am not suggesting abandoning the power running game. I think having that is important, not only for game planning but for instilling toughness into both your offense and your defense. However, I do think that mixing things up and running from non-running formations plus involving the TE's at least 20-25% of the time in the passing game would really help open up other things.