You mean except for the 4 crossing routes we ran on 3rd downs that were each like 2 yards short of the first down? No, we ran them plenty. But we just ran them poorly.
You really can't dissect a clusterduck like that performance by singling out certain aspects. The whole thing was god awful. A few points:
1. McCombs is a 10-15 touch guy at this point. Can't create yards but does a DAMN GOOD job of finding gaps and bursting through. However, he reallllllly slows down after a few hits/carries. Just like todman as a freshman. Not a knock, but he needs to get in the weight room and get stronger.
2. To the above point, we need... let me reiterate NEED either JJL or Shoemate to bang 10-20 carries a game and wear out/slow down the defensive front. This will make McCombs more effective, slow down the pass rush, and will eliminate the Barry Sanders-esque problem with McCombs(that is, its either 2nd and 1 or 2nd and 12. He rarely has a tough 3/4 yard gain through traffic. Shoemate, for all his faults, can be that guy.
3. When Nebrich starts next week, we need to get him on the move. Whetehr that is some zone-read option stuff, some play-action rollout stuff, some sprint-out passes, whatever. But we need to give him some easy reads(see: half the field), where he has a run-throw option and if worse comes to worse, he can chuck it out of bounds.
4. Coaching: This is a young team on offense especially. Coach Deleone, regardless of what he does, has to be quick and decisive. SOOO many times against Vandy we were hiking the ball with 1-3 seconds on the playclock, it really puts pressure on young players(see: Qbs) to manage that. That is what is brilliant about the Oregons of the world. quicker paces force defenses to be vanilla, to show their hand, and takes that element of delay of game penalties off the table. Get the play, run the play.
What do you guys think of those 4 points?
