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Do you think that Brandon should open up the offense? They need a lot more scoring if they are going to beat CMU. To me they had a lot more passing Omar's first year starting and a lot less running. And they had better backs with Pope and Lane back in 2004-2005 season now they have just flip flopped the whole offense. I think that Brandon is worried that his quarterbacks would make too many turnovers. I think he should have gave the offense practice openning it up more against Ohio State, because what did they have to lose. The game was over after the first quarter because they held back the offense and just ran all the time. If you make mistakes you make mistakes.

If opening up the offense means not running the ball as much with bullock, then i say no. I think that we need to get AT to throw the ball better over the middle of the field before "open" it up. I think that if AT can make his throws then we will be alright. The running game is, outside of NIU and garret wolfe, the best in the conference, so why get away from it. Like i said, if AT can make some throws over the middle and maybe one or 2 over the top to CP, we will be fine. This team is not suited to open it up like we have teh past few years however

Opening up the offense is not the problem, IMO. The two things this offense needs are better QB play and more creative playcalling.

This past game I thought we saw some improved playcalling, although I actually think we don't run the ball enough with our tailbacks. Bullock looks like he could be as good of a back as Pope was, and he deserves to get 20-25 carries a game.

The biggest problem with the offense is Turner is NOT comfortable making reads and throwing the ball. Saturday he was consistently very late with his reads and was waiting for receivers to complete their routes and be open before he would throw the ball. Many times he showed indecisiveness when he had time in the pocket. Conventional wisdom is that you need to throw the ball before your guy comes open, but Turner doesn't seem to see these things early enough to do that...he's often waiting until after they're open to throw, and by then he's too late. His tenativeness seems to cost him zip & accuracy on his passes as well.

Turner is still only a RS sophomore, and certainly has not yet reached his potential. I really think it's his poor play, not us holding back the offense that is keeping us from putting up the big numbers we have seen in year's past. One thing that we all need to remember is that we have been VERY blessed by having some of the best QB play in the country for the past 4 years. Turner has potential, but he is still not the same player that J5 & Omar were the past 4 years.

In actuality I think the offensive scheme we're running is closer to what we ran in J5's senior year than Omar's scheme, and I'm not complaining one bit, about that. Rushing is the key to victory, and I really believe that with better, more efficient QB play we would be applauding this revamped scheme. I do think we sometimes have stretches where we run the same play too often, and I think we run our QBs a little too much (when we could be running our RB), but I don't think "Opening it up" is the answer to our problems.

We need catchable passes to be caught. Everybody was guilty of "the drops" against Eastern. Almost every player the ball was thrown to dropped at least one wide open pass. It's tough to do much when your targets are dropping passes all over the place. AT may not be the next Micheal Vick or anything like that, he may carry the ball like it's on a platter when he's running, but he's better than his stats indicate so far this year. That being said, I like our chances to win the rest of our games. We need to keep playing hard and eliminating mistakes.

And let's get it started Thursday in Mt.Pleasant!

Thank you for your opinions! I'm not trying to sound like i'm complaining I'm just wondering if you think that the offense is could do better than what it is doing. I do think this year that the running game is great this year. I just though that maybe they should try a few more deep passes a game. I have noticed though that the offense has seemed to open up more and more each game

I like what I have seen with the offense, and from post-game quotes it sounds like Bullock will be getting more touchs.

What I really liked was the aggresiveness of the D, especially in the 4th qtr. I think we would be much better off starting out aggressive on the D, and getting after lefevour. Keep him from feeling comfortable in the pocket, and prevent him from running.

falconfan1999 wrote:We need catchable passes to be caught. Everybody was guilty of "the drops" against Eastern. Almost every player the ball was thrown to dropped at least one wide open pass. It's tough to do much when your targets are dropping passes all over the place. AT may not be the next Micheal Vick or anything like that, he may carry the ball like it's on a platter when he's running, but he's better than his stats indicate so far this year. That being said, I like our chances to win the rest of our games. We need to keep playing hard and eliminating mistakes.

And let's get it started Thursday in Mt.Pleasant!

Agreed 100% I think Turner has really struggled so far this year, but it is not all his fault. This is a team game, and his receivers have clearly not been holding up their end of the bargain. I can think of at least one key drop for all of our receivers outside of perhaps Freddie Barnes, this year.

The passing game is youg, and they don't have any synch...it takes time to build passing chemistry. The run game is simple; open holes, run through holes.

hammb wrote:
Agreed 100% I think Turner has really struggled so far this year, but it is not all his fault. This is a team game, and his receivers have clearly not been holding up their end of the bargain.

Bingo, on both counts. That's not to call out any of our players in particular, but we do have a depth issue at receiver.

I see Brandon and Stud calling plays within the abilities of this team.

I agree with Hammb for the most part. We need to get Bullock the ball more. He only had what 16 carries Saturday? But averaged over 6 yards per. He should be getting 20-25 touches, do will still run a screen pass?

And it happened a lot Saturday where Turner had plenty time in the pocket but was dancing around like he couldn't figure out what to do. He needs more confidence in his reads. I think Omar would know before the snap which guy was probably gonna be open based on the coverage/routes. Like hammb said, Turner seems to be waiting for them to run thier routes and then looking all over the field to see who is open. Be decisive, make the quick throw, move the ball down the field.

I said that we should open up the offense, but as long as it doesn't hurt us. Currently, the little bit that we have opened up has gotten us through the games. However, like what others have said, we need to have plays that can get us down the field quickly and "easily" to score points. But unfortunately, that all starts with leadership, which none have apparantly stepped up yet. But as long as we continue winning games, I'll be happy with how things are ran.

I think we are calling game plans that we can execute effectively. I think it is safe to say that if the Coaches thought the offense could be opened up more, they would open it up more.

Warthog wrote:And it happened a lot Saturday where Turner had plenty time in the pocket but was dancing around like he couldn't figure out what to do. He needs more confidence in his reads. I think Omar would know before the snap which guy was probably gonna be open based on the coverage/routes. Like hammb said, Turner seems to be waiting for them to run thier routes and then looking all over the field to see who is open. Be decisive, make the quick throw, move the ball down the field.

There was nobody open downfield, which is why he danced around in the pocket. Omar knew he had Magner, Sharon and Sanders (and Hawkins) out there to get open.

What about mixing up the running game with Winovich a couple carries. A couple times a game, hand it to Winovich when the D-line is expecting Bullock and really pound it up the middle.

Deep passes and deep threats are pretty and fun and Omar did them well, but. . .

What we need in the big games we have coming up is DEFENSE. What our defense doesn't need is "basketball on grass"- i.e. our defense needs time to rest and be as fresh as possible.

Everyone has noticed an improvement in our defense this year. Schad even pointed out that the D looked very energized during the EMU win. With longer, sustained drives- even if they don't result in points, they are resulting in better field position and a better energized Defense.

I heard some ESPN talking heads noting that Denver's Mike Shanahan scripts out his offensive playcalls on each possesion based on the score and how much time his defense needs to rest. I don't quite think we need to take it that far, but by avoiding 3 and outs and even avoiding quick strike plays on a regular basis we are giving our defense a better chance to do their job.

Maybe that was the problem in '05 with our defense. They didn't get much time for a rest on the sidelines and looked tired a lot of times and nothing good can happen with a tired defense.

oaklane2 wrote:What about mixing up the running game with Winovich a couple carries. A couple times a game, hand it to Winovich when the D-line is expecting Bullock and really pound it up the middle.

Exactly! Pete Winovich needs to touch the ball more often! He works hard, reward him! I wish Sean O'Drobinak was 100% right now. I like what he can do. I'd also like to see Freddie Barnes line up as a slot more often, hit him with some slants or some deep posts. Freddie's athletic ability alone dictates that he get more touches!

With Bullock, he can make people miss, or run them over. He doesn't seem to mind the hits.

We're progressing, but I think we're capable of much more! I'm excited to see the next step!