Running game and OL

supacane

Senior
Premium
Joined
Feb 13, 2013
Messages
13,455
Lets clock this now. Our OL doesn't suck or any of that, yes some of our players need to play less but we have dudes.

What we are seeing is exactly what we were complaining about up until we lost to UL and SMU last season. Runs up the A gap. No creativity, nothing. You can literally dig up mine and many other's posts from last season. I was clocking it when we were undefeated. If the opponent knows whats coming and tee off, it doesn't matter if you have good and better players. That's what happened in the 2 losses, games we shouldn't have lost.

Also its freaking clear Mark Fletcher needs to be going down hill. Where he broke play off records running mainly from the pistol.

Its the same dumb philosophy they tried to force down our throats and gaslight us when we were complaining, 90% A gap runs...from the shotgun. Dawson...whom i actually like got smart mouth and testy.

Lets clock this right now and not be gaslit.

Btw im not saying we should abandon running up the A gap. That would be as dumb as running up in there 90% of the time from the shotgun.

Mix it up and diversify
 
To me it felt like Stanford was very focused on stopping our running game. It seemed like we only ran the ball to keep them honest.
They did, but we were using that as an excuse last season. Every team wants to stop the run game then rush the passer. Making it easier by doing exactly what they expect is what the problem is.
 
Loser Wow GIF by HYRPWR


The win washing was real last year, and I get what you’re saying but gonna wait before I think it’s an issue. Overall last night was a much better look. it already look better in terms of the pass game and we ran the O at an infinitely better pace last night. If we’re still slamming the ball up the A gap with limited success after CMU, we can clutch our pearls.
 
Loser Wow GIF by HYRPWR


The win washing was real last year, and I get what you’re saying but gonna wait before I think it’s an issue. Overall last night was a much better look. it already look better in terms of the pass game and we ran the O at an infinitely better pace last night. If we’re still slamming the ball up the A gap with limited success after CMU, we can clutch our pearls.
Well it may affect us less because being unable to run the ball was such an issue last season because we just didn't have the explosive pass game....we do now.

But i was trying to be specific to the OL and the running game because people seem to be dumping it all on the new OL, when we saw our experienced OL with 3 NFL draft picks struggle similarly until they decided to mix it up. Also not worried about CIS posters, i can dig up all my post last season where i pointed out our OL didnt suck at run blocking, except they are run the same play over and over and defenses know whats coming. @DMoney even kept posting about how much we led the nation in run between the tackles, which seemed to not be for gaining yards, but to not lose any.
 
Our running game is built to win real games against real opponents. We saw that last year in the playoffs and against Notre Dame.

There is a ton of room to improve. But philosophically, we need to get used to it because our coaches (rightfully) believe it is a system that wins big-boy football games
 
Our running game is built to win real games against real opponents. We saw that last year in the playoffs and against Notre Dame.

There is a ton of room to improve. But philosophically, we need to get used to it because our coaches (rightfully) believe it is a system that wins big-boy football games
Is the philosophy that they may get less average yards only running up the middle, but also way less negative plays (which could kill a drive)?

That's the only thing that kind of makes sense to me.
 
Our running game is built to win real games against real opponents. We saw that last year in the playoffs and against Notre Dame.

There is a ton of room to improve. But philosophically, we need to get used to it because our coaches (rightfully) believe it is a system that wins big-boy football games
This is the win washing. IMO we only made the playoffs because we went away from the A gap predictability and let it rip or whatever the slogan was. To this couch observer, it seemed that the added threat of diversity that teams had to respect softened the middle.
 
Our running game is built to win real games against real opponents. We saw that last year in the playoffs and against Notre Dame.

There is a ton of room to improve. But philosophically, we need to get used to it because our coaches (rightfully) believe it is a system that wins big-boy football games
No one is saying abandon our style of running. You kept going on and on about how we led the nation in runs between the tackles. Because that was their philosophy. Then we lost 2 games, then all of a sudden they had different run plays and formations to run from and Fletcher looked like Prime Derrick Henry.
 
Lets clock this now. Our OL doesn't suck or any of that, yes some of our players need to play less but we have dudes.

What we are seeing is exactly what we were complaining about up until we lost to UL and SMU last season. Runs up the A gap. No creativity, nothing. You can literally dig up mine and many other's posts from last season. I was clocking it when we were undefeated. If the opponent knows whats coming and tee off, it doesn't matter if you have good and better players. That's what happened in the 2 losses, games we shouldn't have lost.

Also its freaking clear Mark Fletcher needs to be going down hill. Where he broke play off records running mainly from the pistol.

Its the same dumb philosophy they tried to force down our throats and gaslight us when we were complaining, 90% A gap runs...from the shotgun. Dawson...whom i actually like got smart mouth and testy.

Lets clock this right now and not be gaslit.

Btw im not saying we should abandon running up the A gap. That would be as dumb as running up in there 90% of the time from the shotgun.

Mix it up and diversify
I agree with you on pistol. I don’t agree on less A gap runs (that’s not saying I want more A gap runs though) because I think it causes teams to stack the box which creates one on ones and mismatches on the outside. Just my opinion, not attacking you.
 
Our running game is built to win real games against real opponents. We saw that last year in the playoffs and against Notre Dame.

There is a ton of room to improve. But philosophically, we need to get used to it because our coaches (rightfully) believe it is a system that wins big-boy football games
We have a different middle 3 now.

They're not generating nearly as much push as the last 3 years guards/centers did.

I fear the reliance on developed recruits instead of seasoned portal additions might come back to bite us against serious competition. (At many other positions too)

Mallory, the slowest RB on the team, had the most success by running outside.
 
I agree with you on pistol. I don’t agree on less A gap runs (that’s not saying I want more A gap runs though) because I think it causes teams to stack the box which creates one on ones and mismatches on the outside. Just my opinion, not attacking you.
I dont feel attacked and regardless its what social media is for. To attack people you dont know 🤣🤣🤣🤣.

But for real i just wanted to clock this now because people have amnesia for last season and only remember the parts when we started rolling and into the playoffs. But i remember the whole thing.

And some fans are going in on players for the lack of running game this game.

I dont need them to abandon the A gap runs. Some of our big runs came from it but that came from us mixing up the plays and the formations when our backs were against the wall.
 
When we went on our playoff run, we used pistol a lot more.

I think we will be fine, but I’m not sure our starting 5 is our best 5 from what I saw last night.

That said, someone like SJ could change the narrative significantly if we used him as a pulling guard.

I’m also curious, with us utilizing lot of duo/inside zone, wouldn’t that put a premium on the OG positions over RT position?

I know Dawsons scheme utilizes inside zone as its base run scheme, but man I think with our wr weapons and their willingness to block, outside zones could be nice.
 
Our running game is built to win real games against real opponents. We saw that last year in the playoffs and against Notre Dame.

There is a ton of room to improve. But philosophically, we need to get used to it because our coaches (rightfully) believe it is a system that wins big-boy football games
It would help if they blocked like big boys against 2nd rate ACC teams like Stanford D $$$…. C’mon no sunshine pumping please
 
Back
Top