Agreed, but running out of the spread formation is the key. Lining up with a tight end and a fullback and a running back in the I-formation isn't the answer. PJ got most of his yards taking a handoff out of the shotgun in a spread formation. This forced one or more of their linebackers to have to match up with one or more of our recievers. And, the safeties had to stay at home against the deep pass to the wide outs.Originally posted by JoeFalcon:
When we've been Top 5 nationally in passing, the shotgun handoffs worked because teams were backing off enough to defend the pass and seams developed for talented backs like Pope and Lane to exploit.
When the passing game struggled at times last year without (and occasionally with) Omar, those handoffs became wasted downs as the backs were simply engulfed before they had any opportunity to find a hole or generate monentum. It was almost like a run was called just to get it out of the way, something that killed far too many drives with the 2nd and 3rd and long situations it led to.
Take a look at my post about our offensive philosphy for this season. It includes a statistical look at our offense over the past 5 years:
http://www.ay-ziggy-zoomba.com/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=12333
The trend that I noticed, when looking at that, was that it wasn't our passing game that seemed to make our rushing game click. Instead it was the multiple options on offense, rather than one feature back. From '01-'03 we were balanced passing & rushing with some really good totals on the ground. We did not use to pass to set up the run back then, either, IMO, the difference was that our running plays were all well executed option type plays. In each of those years we had 3 players with 500+ yards on the ground.
That depth and variety made it difficult for the defense to key on who was getting the ball. The real wild card was that the QB could take off on any given play. But Harris didn't run from busted passing plays, no, he ran from our version of the option (hence spread-option offense). Sure we ran some standard speed & triple option type plays, but more notably were the counters. We ran a lot of QB counters where he would fake to the RB, then run the other direction. It was a lot of misdirection, all set up by the running ability of the QB.
Much like Chris Leak in Florida, however, Omar Jacobs was NOT ideally suited to run the spread-option offense. Neither guy can provide that rushing threat that allows the rushing game to tick. Omar's first year as a starter we got away with it by using the pass to set up the run. We still didn't have that diversity in the backfield that had allowed for a real balanced attack the previous years, but we ran enough to keep defenses honest. Last year we couldn't do that however. Once the passing game faltered Lane & Pope struggled mightily. The scheme had changed away from the diverse set of running plays that we had built the run game around.
I'm hoping that with more mobile QBs this year, we will return to those days. It is my opinion that the offense from '01-'03 is much more effective at winning games than what we ran the last 2 years. Judging from the scrimmage the other night we will definitely run more plays from the old playbook than the more recent. I look for the combination of Bullock & Macon to rush for 1200-1500 yards this year, and I fully expect our QBs to chip in 500+ as well. If that happens I think we could return to the offense that we loved a few years ago.
Granted, Turner and Barnes should be able to make more plays with their feet. But, they are going to have to pass effetively enough to make that possible. Othewise, as someone stated earlier, the running plays are going to be just wasted downs.
Sure, Markray skews the # a bit but still.
