i don't hate our simple run it up the gut runs. very small chance of a TFL or catching a holding call, which are drive killers that i don't see any reason to chance this year with how great our pass offense is. we were real good at it last year and i suspect we'll get better this year too once rivers and cooper are back and our new backs gain more experience navigating the tight spaces (there was one play in first half last game that i thought martinez could have had a nice run had he ran straight up the middle inside 84 but it looked like he tried to run outside the guard and got stuffed).
most of our issues against ball st in first half were cause of how they sold out to stop the run. first drive of second half we got a light box twice (trips wide the first time and 3 WR the second time split 1 & 2) and fletcher gashed them running behind mccoy's outside shoulder. i like what i've seen from mccoy and would wager he'll be fulltime starter going forward at that guard spot. get rivers back and run behind left side with cooper pulling that way too on occasion and i think we'll do well when we venture outside the guards.
i really like how dawson called the first drive of second half:
1. rpo that cam prolly should have handed off to fletch,
2. ran into the light box set up by trips wide, and
3. when box got heavy on 3rd and four we hit brown over the middle for the conversion when he sat down nicely in the open space.
4. next play box was light again and we gashed them when 8/70/78 all did a great job blocking on the left side.
5. then we did the thing that everyone hates - created a heavy box by bringing x in motion to block, but that play temporarily got offtrack cause 8 and cristobal missed their blocks (not cause of the guy X brought into the box) but fletch was possessed at that point and broke tackles for a nice gain
6. finished it with a beauty going empty sending martinez opposite the play side and george walked into end zone on screen
more manipulation of space with formations and motion like that drive would be nice going forward.
arroyo has missed a ton of blocks too. hopefully he improves/gets more consistent as he's such a threat in the passing game you can't take him off the field. riley williams is our best blocking TE when he lines up inline, i dunno if at his size he can do the motion blocks that we're asking arroyo to do but might be worth a shot to give him some reps in that role too. since coach doesn't give a **** about deception might as well run more 2TE sets with riley in there when we're gonna run (i still have hopes that sometime this decade we will do play fake out of heavy 2/3 TE set and hit a TE wide open 20 yards down the field lol)
i believe we're gonna sprinkle in some read option looks with cam too, making the defense account for him on run plays will help. i liked those two back looks we showed versus ball st too (think it was lyle and cjj in first half) flaring cjj out of those formations should lighten up the box if we choose to run.
