If you are looking for the reason they lost

[Milo65]

Our o line is terrible, this is compounded by our offense which is a power run style pro set. Pretty tough to move the ball in a power running game style when your o line is terrible. Not running the offense to fit your personnel, instead implementing the offense before you have all the pieces. 6 wins, it was a good year, I believe this team is on the verge to being great. Lots of sophomores contributing now and some good talent coming in.

 

[Jax Husky]

They are made the weaker by the coaching. If you have a weak OL, you compensate. Rich Rodreqiuz invented the spread when he had an OL that was was weak. It become one of the most successful offense schemes of its time.

Diaco is not RichRod, but at the very least, he needs to stop playing to his weaknesses.

Where do you come up with this stuff? Please show me where Rich Rod invented the spread at Glenville State because of a poor OL. Because what I've read says he toyed with it, but it really came to fruition because of Shaun King's abilities at Tulane. Not because their OL sucked.

I am also waiting for you to name all the OL worse than ours that run awesome passing attacks. You mentioned that earlier, but didn't back it up.

 

[Jimdish255]

I don't agree.

No offensive line can get a running game going against eight sometimes nine in the box.

The problem is the offensive scheme,

It's both.

 

[huskysupporter]

I don't agree.

No offensive line can get a running game going against eight sometimes nine in the box.

The problem is the offensive scheme,

Did you watch the o line the whole game? If you did you would see that they were getting beat one on one.

 

[pnow15]

They were dominated because of predictability. Mix it up and open the game up and they would be fine.

San Fran with Montana(I know) and Rice(I know) had a play where Rice went into motion and Montana would lead him with a pass before he reached the line of scrimmage. S0, defenses had to deal with Rice already on the edge and moving fast. A lot of the play was happening before the ball was snapped. When you have a questionable offensive line, you have to design your offense around your talent. Diaco has an offense scheme and then tries to plug in inadequate players. He needs to figure out his talent level and then go from there.
Example, UConn ran three sweeps with Mariner being the motion guy. Mariner has never shown me the ability to plant his foot and make a quick cut up field. Mariner basically just ran himself out of bounds. I would have liked to see Thomas run that play instead because he has shown the ability to make the quick cut. A play that went for a yard or two with Mariner could have gone for six or more yards with with Thomas.

 

[Jax Husky]

San Fran with Montana(I know) and Rice(I know) had a play where Rice went into motion and Montana would lead him with a pass before he reached the line of scrimmage. S0, defenses had to deal with Rice already on the edge and moving fast. A lot of the play was happening before the ball was snapped. When you have a questionable offensive line, you have to design your offense around your talent. Diaco has an offense scheme and then tries to plug in inadequate players. He needs to figure out his talent level and then go from there.

I disagree. You form an identity and recruit players that fit that. We will get there. You don't see successful coaches changing their offensive philosophy often. The comparisons to a Bill Walsh developed offense arent really fair either.

 

[Nostical]

Just wait until Nostical gets back in here.

I'm just back from the game. Here are my observations. While the game was hard fought and Bryant Shirreffs was a warrior, I'm afraid this loss was squarely on our unimaginative offensive game plan. Although it's after Christmas, we played like it was still NO-vember. No screen, no quick slant, no flip reverse, no halfback pass, no flea flicker. Don't tell me the O-Line isn't good enough. If it's not (and it's not) you have to improvise. My wife's not a great cook. We eat out a lot.
As good as our D played, and they did (despite playing a soft zone which had visions of the Cincy game in my head, and missing some tackles that would have helped) they needed a better game from their offensive brothers.

But even with all of that we still had a chance, and thus it qualifies as a Nostical win. So we had a 9~4 season with lots of hope for next season. Bottom line, we have great kids, talented players, but an offensive scheme that simply can't adapt. I can't believe after watching all that tape on Marshall we came out with that pedestrian game plan.

The good news is that every player loved the Bowl experience (especially the swag) and wants to come back to one next year--in a big way. They are completely motivated for next year. Let's hope the coaches are as well.

 

[pnow15]

I disagree. You form an identity and recruit players that fit that. We will get there. You don't see successful coaches changing their offensive philosophy often. The comparisons to a Bill Walsh developed offense arent really fair either.

If your Notre Dame or Alabama and have the pick of the players, you can do that. Often you don't have your pick but you get a couple of guys you can work effectively. So, you have to max out on that talent.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Shirreffs has good mobility, is tough as any QB we've had and appears to be a decent leader. That said, he'll never be compared to Aaron Rodgers.
a Marshall DL
Yes, I imagine there are some QB's who could be more effective with our offensive line in front of them but nobody on our roster fits that bill.

I want to add that it was quite disappointing when Rutherford was blown up (by one of Marshall's DTs) early in the game but I am very confident that there are posters on this board who already believe that he and Peart can somehow step in next season as starting OT's and perform at a high level. It would be great if that could happen but realistically it will take some time for each of them and that it will take time is not an indictment on our coaching staff.

 

[mauconnfan]

Of course you don't because you believe the players are all the same - and somehow you can do creative things on offense when there is a jailbreak everytime you snap the ball.

The last drive they rushed five and there was instant pressure on BS as soon as he caught the snap.

No really instant pressure on the QB that last drive? Wow that's amazing. Imagine a defense selling out on an offense that has compiled 160 yards all game and needs to go 75 yards in 1:45 with NO timeouts? What a defensive genius on the other side, this has to be the OLine's fault huh?

You're right whaler "you can't make this place up sometimes". OWOW

 

[Jax Husky]

I'm just back from the game. Here are my observations. While the game was hard fought and Bryant Shirreffs was a warrior, I'm afraid this loss was squarely on our unimaginative offensive game plan. Although it's after Christmas, we played like it was still NO-vember. No screen, no quick slant, no flip reverse, no halfback pass, no flea flicker. Don't tell me the O-Line isn't good enough. If it's not (and it's not) you have to improvise. My wife's not a great cook. We eat out a lot.
As good as our D played, and they did (despite playing a soft zone which had visions of the Cincy game in my head, and missing some tackles that would have helped) they needed a better game from their offensive brothers.

But even with all of that we still had a chance, and thus it qualifies as a Nostical win. So we had a 9~4 season with lots of hope for next season. Bottom line, we have great kids, talented players, but an offensive scheme that simply can't adapt. I can't believe after watching all that tape on Marshall we came out with that pedestrian game plan.

The good news is that every player loved the Bowl experience (especially the swag) and wants to come back to one next year--in a big way. They are completely motivated for next year. Let's hope the coaches are as well.

We ran multiple screens. Multiple slants. The sweep was a constant part of the offense. Flea flickers and halfback passes do not = imaginative offense.


I think if you have the will power to watch the replay on tv, you'll see just how pathetically the OL was getting their butts kicked. It crippled our ability to do anything.

 

[ZOOCONN]

Example, UConn ran three sweeps with Mariner being the motion guy. Mariner has never shown me the ability to plant his foot and make a quick cut up field. Mariner basically just ran himself out of bounds. I would have liked to see Thomas run that play instead because he has shown the ability to make the quick cut. A play that went for a yard or two with Mariner could have gone for six or more yards with with Thomas.

Thisssssss for the love of God get your second most explosive player on offense involved somebow....

 

[freescooter]

The scheme was awful. But we also lack team speed in a big way. I first noticed it against USF but it has been obvious all year. Even our fast guys get caught from behind and it's a problem for our dline and linebackers too. It was clearly one today.

 

[whaler11]

No really instant pressure on the QB that last drive? Wow that's amazing. Imagine a defense selling out on an offense that has compiled 160 yards all game and needs to go 75 yards in 1:45 with NO timeouts? What a defensive genius on the other side, this has to be the OLine's fault huh?

You're right whaler "you can't make this place up sometimes". OWOW

You should stick to bashing Brimah. it actually makes more sense than your contributions in this thread so far.

 

[pnow15]

We ran multiple screens. Multiple slants. The sweep was a constant part of the offense. Flea flickers and halfback passes do not = imaginative offense.


I think if you have the will power to watch the replay on tv, you'll see just how pathetically the OL was getting their butts kicked. It crippled our ability to do anything.

Which is why you do clever things even before the ball is snapped.

 

[Jimdish255]

I don t know about that. Your concept is right, but what you described doesn't work with an OL that is just this physically outmatched. They get blown off the line constantly, and play straight up with no leverage.

Other mid-level teams figure it out from concept to technique to assignments. It's a package that the coaches are accountable for going into year 3. They need to figure it out because other teams apparently are able to. We supposedly have great strength and nutrition so there can't be any excuses for poor blocking going into year 3.

Almost no successful coaches recommend hiring a young D coordinater and hoping he learns to manage a game and run an offense in a year or two at this level. They understand the challenges and that it takes a few years for some, and others maybe never get it right. For all the good steps forward we could hit a hard ceiling if that learning curve isn't accelerated by next year.

Nice guys or not the staff needs to figure out how to put points on the board for us to be successful. Throwing stuff against the wall out of desperation indicates we're not progressing with our base offense as we should be and we've seen that in multiple games. That's either an indictment of talent or coaching, or a mismatch between scheme and personnel or all three. Our current offense needs to control time of posession and minimize turnovers and we only do the latter. Higher risk or faster tempo are your other choices. Either way it involves coaching up our existing players and putting them in situations that maximize their upside. That's what coaching is at it's essence.

 

[Jimdish255]

The OL had been my number one concern since the pre-season (like many here). But despite the common wisdom that we keep getting physically beat we miss too many assignments, are late or not committed to the blocking choice out of indecision concerning responsibility on the play. Would love to see a progression to the next guy and the next guy even if a block is missed but it keeps looking like assignment first and technique second rather than physical strength when I watch the replays.

 

[Jax Husky]

The OL had been my number one concern since the pre-season (like many here). But despite the common wisdom that we keep getting physically beat we miss too many assignments, are late or not committed to the blocking choice out of indecision concerning responsibility on the play. Would love to see a progression to the next guy and the next guy even if a block is missed but it keeps looking like assignment first and technique second rather than physical strength when I watch the replays.

Now I agree with this. It isn't just that our OL gets beat, there are constant breakdown in assignment, false starts, and delays.

 

[CTBasketball]

BS was under pressure even when they rushed 4. Huge holes open up on the run game and that results in TFL. We can't open the playbook up if the defense is in the backfield right after the snap.

 

[mauconnfan]

You should stick to bashing Brimah. it actually makes more sense than your contributions in this thread so far.

My hope is someday to as brilliant as you so because you are amazing for sure!

Thinking a Pop Warner team really needs an assistant for the OLine and you should be all over that.

 

[huskymedic]

Almost no successful coaches recommend hiring a young D coordinater and hoping he learns to manage a game and run an offense in a year or two at this level.

Where did you find that info - annecdotal or actual article?

Would seem to me that at least part of the equation is the experience/length of leash of the OC?

 

[whaler11]

My hope is someday to as brilliant as you so because you are amazing for sure!

Thinking a Pop Warner team really needs an assistant for the OLine and you should be all over that.

Attacking me because you think the recipe for a line that can't block is to give them more complicated situations to block for makes a lot of sense.

It's fairly simple around here. When you agree with Pal you are wrong much more often than you are right.

He's the best sounding board in the world. Bounce an idea - if he tells you it's wrong you can rest easy.

 

[mauconnfan]

Attacking me because you think the recipe for a line that can't block is to give them more complicated situations to block for makes a lot of sense.

It's fairly simple around here. When you agree with Pal you are wrong much more often than you are right.

He's the best sounding board in the world. Bounce an idea - if he tells you it's wrong you can rest easy.

Wait who attacked who first?
You should stick to bashing Brimah. it actually makes more sense than your contributions in this thread so far.


If you can't handle it then don't read it - you ignoring me would be a pleasure whaler. Actually Pal is right here from what I can see and it's okay to agree with others besides you despite your wealth of knowledge.

 

[Nostical]

Flea flickers and halfback passes do not = imaginative offense.

They don't?
Don't blame this loss on our O-Line. And the idea we don't have enough speed is laughable.
We lost because our deficiencies were not accounted for in our game plan. It's as simple as that.

 

[whaler11]

Wait who attacked who first?
You should stick to bashing Brimah. it actually makes more sense than your contributions in this thread so far.


If you can't handle it then don't read it - you ignoring me would be a pleasure whaler. Actually Pal is right here from what I can see and it's okay to agree with others besides you despite your wealth of knowledge.

Yawn - I pointed out what you are posting lately is assinine. You are the one sarcastically attacking people for disagreeing with you. Ironic isn't it.