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WTF Happened To Our Running Game?

I think we ahve to give some credit to Lashlee and King. If we go back and watch the film I would bet that opposing defenses are keeping the 8th man in the box to take away the run. As such, Lashlee calls some running plays just to keep a defense honest and not be Mike Leach. Now, with an 8th man in the box we are forcing teams to play man to man in the secondary and King as torching teams. Our receivers may not look ro play like DK Metcalf, but they can get behind most cornerbacks. NCSU decided to live with that trade off and King and Lashlee killed them.

If you see a defense move its safety back and play with 7 in the box and we still can't run, then we are in major trouble. Or if a team has good enough corners to play man and keep a safety in the box, we are in major trouble because we aren't winning many 1-on-1 bat. This is precisely what happened in the Clemson game and our receivers inability to win contested passes killed us. But against the vast majority of teams, taking away our run game means King and Lashlee will do their thing thru the air.
 
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We primarily run inside zone with 3 center types who arent powerful and get no push at point of attack. Clark is liable to get a penalty and throw hands up even tho we all see it, Gaynor is dam near dribbling the ball to king now and his first steps are backwards half the time and Scaife is just mailing it in at this point with zero ***** given, people gave him benefit of doubt since UAB game but we see it every game now, at this point his favoritism has to wear off, he looks like crap, its his play he puts on film..

Also teams are MUCH better at defending inside zone compared to even 3 years ago.. I think we have seen odd front dam near every game, Diaz might still be surprised tho.. Lol.. Just running Tempo as fast as possible and IZ not gonna bust plays as much anymore, its more likely a wasted play.. Call something else, vary the run game. I dont know if its Lashlee stuck in 2010 or he just saying these guys ******* suck and i cant chance running anything else.. Its complicated obviously.
 
There are issues, but teams still choose to take away our running game. That means something.

And it doesn't get discussed much, but we were one of the absolute worst running teams in the country last year (even though we had an NFL back), Look at this comparison:

2019- 106.7 ypg
2020- 172.3 ypg

2019- 3.5 ypc
2020- 4.4 ypc

2019- 44.95% rush play percentage
2020- 51.89% rush play percentage
 
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The OL isn’t that good in the run game. You have to start there.

UAB we ran fairly successfully on.
Lville we didn’t. We had some explosive runs. But our down to down efficiency was horrible.
FSU we were efficient down to down.
The rest of the teams we really haven’t been.

So I’m not sure where the idea that we once had a great running game this season is coming from? From Game 2 on there have been serious efficiency issues.

Teams have also followed the Clemson model. You heard the announcers in the NC State game talking about their discussion with the NC State Coach. He said the game plan was to overload the box, blitz, and dare King to beat them on the outside. That’s been the game plan of every team since Clemson.

Essentially you have an OL that isn’t particularly good down to down. But due to scheme and RB talent, we were able to counter-balance that somewhat with explosive plays. Then teams started selling out to stack the box, which took away the explosive runs. So now you have an inefficient running game combined with a lack of explosive plays.
 
Our interior OL is crap. I wouldn’t mind seeing guys like Rivers, Reed, and Traore get more snaps. Maybe try Clark or Reed at C? I’m still trying to figure out why Traore was benched for Clark after game 1.
 
Zombie-Cane said:
There is a difference between run blocking and pass blocking. Pass, we aren't bad, run, gets no push.
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We are a finesse OL trying to play power ball in the run game. Lashlee doesn't go away from it because he always seem to have some great play-action plays to run off the inside zone. I was happy to see us employ a few toss sweeps last week and would like to see more of those with Chaney and Knighton.
 
All the input so far is quite valid-- especially about Veneble's strategies being used by our competition....

However that would bring up a glaringly bad follow up point-- that Lashlee is not capable of adjusting his offensive scheme in response?

We gonna keep running up the middle 20 times a game for no gain?

Put the rock in DK's hands to run it??

You know what happens to QB's who are scrambling for yards all game long?

They eventually get hurt...

DK is one ankle-twist tackle or side-swipe to the knees and he is done for the season....

Then Canes nation will see some real misery...

....N'Kosi "i only throw to opposing CB's" Perry....
 
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We never had a running game this year. Even pre-Clemson, all our running success came on a few big plays.

Seeing the ball ran 40 times a game, and high yardage tricked people into thinking it was effective.

It hasn't been.

Harris shouldn't be starting either. Chaney is already more effective.

We saw Lashlee mix up the run game against NC ST and it can work when its not inside zone over and over again.

Regardless, we should be a 75% pass - 25% run offense and half those runs should be King keeping it.
 
here's why:

1) scaife, gainor clarke. at their best they are adequate, but most of the time they are mediocre
2) defenses have been scheming to take away our running game first and foremost
3) add up the two above and you have issues in the running game

all that being said, we are better than last year, although that is in part due to the running effectiveness of our QB. we have better coaching on the OL, and a better OC, but we still are not as good as we need to be or should be, given the overall quality of the RB's
 
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kyle_schick said:
We never had a running game this year. Even pre-Clemson, all our running success came on a few big plays.

Seeing the ball ran 40 times a game, and high yardage tricked people into thinking it was effective.

It hasn't been.

Harris shouldn't be starting either. Chaney is already more effective.

We saw Lashlee mix up the run game against NC ST and it can work when its not inside zone over and over again.

Regardless, we should be a 75% pass - 25% run offense and half those runs should be King keeping it.
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QFT! In NCST game it was apparent early on that we should just go pass majority of time and any time we ran the ball we essentially let NCST off the hook.. Lashlee seems to lean run more times than not but the game has changed.. Spread to pass has been the way and if its not there the checkdown picks up more yards than running anyways.. King doesnt put ball in harms way alot either, we need to go more pass when we get the opportunity
 
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Us Against The World said:
Brent Venables laid the foundation on shutting us down and teams are carrying it out?
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Well we dropped Pitts season high on them (31) and 44 on NC St, so I don't know about Venables showing teams the blueprint about shutting down the offense. I suspect the "blueprint" is just the same one Pitt used in 2017. Force the QB to beat you, assume your DBs can body the WRs. Well King, Harley, and Mallory are kinda ruining those plans.

It's not fatal to the season if we don't have an OL good at run blocking as long as they are good at pass blocking. Especially true because we have been playing bad pass defenses. That just means that Lashlee will need more Air Raid concepts (which, fortunately he is extremely familiar with). Rushing yards are rushing yards whether the QB is running or the RB. You don't get any extra downs or bonus points if a RB runs for five yards instead of the QB. If Miami spreads out the defense and the pass blocking opens up huge running lanes for King and he runs for 100+yards, then the ground game is good enough to win games.
 
Teams are crashing hard on the run after early success. Thank god for the receivers stepping up. We might see teams start to back off again. Don’t be surprised if the run game picks back up
 
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