Let me first say Alabama has a GREAT Defense. But at the same time I can't figure out what Mark Stoops or Eddie Gran is trying to do with our running backs. You aren't going to run up the middle on Alabama so why do we waste the downs. We run Boom who bless his heart he jukes around by that time any hole that was there was gone. Next we try JoJo bad ankles and all up the middle to no avail. Did we try any screen passes to the flats to our running backs?? Any pitches out there where if the first defender misses you always get positive yards?? Then when that didn't work we gave Snell some worthless runs to run the first half clock out. Do we have any specific running plays for our QB or are we to scared he might get hurt and don't trust his backup?? So by the second half we have no changes made again as we still try to run off tackle with little success. We run the WILDCAT where everyone knows JOJo is going to run with it. Alabama put 8 defenders in the box and the rest is history. What I am trying to say is we are Vanilla. No screens,no reverses,and no sweeps. We don't do anything different and the other teams know this.
Are we using our Running Backs Correctly
- Thread starter etowncatfan
- Start date
I thought the offensive game plan was quite vanilla myself last night. Was a great play call to Conrad that darn near put us up 10-0 but we didn't do enough of that. Most of the pass plays seemed to have SJ in a drop back mode instead of a rollout which I think would have made him more effective than he was. We weren't beating bama last night regardless but I would have liked to have seen a more aggressive game plan.
If running up the middle is hard against Alabama, running wide is harder. They have the speed to stop the sweeps. Bottom line, nobody is going to have much success running on Alabama. the B&B boys got off some nice runs but not nearly enough of them.
FWIW, UK's 122 rush yards against AL was the highest number they've given up by a good margin this season. But why we tried 172-175# King to do such escapes me. Now if he was invisible....
His offense strategy is to stay on field as long as possible so the defense can rest.
I would agree with you on the screens, But running outside sweeps is much harder against a good speedy defense. Factor in the fact that our tackles are the weak positions on the offensive line, there is no way in hell Landon Young could have gotten outside of his D end, would have resulted in big losses IMO. Plus I thought we ran the ball quite effectively at times considering the opponent.
Problem with throwing the callball last night was Alabama got great pressure (they do every night and have the best front four in NCAA football) with just the four down lineman. So if you do have to drop back, you keep a back in. (Why jojo was on field a lot he is our best blocking back). Now you are playing in the secondary with at most four receivers to seven dbs. That isn't going to work normally, esp when those seven athletes are bigger, faster, stronger, more good given talent than the four you send out, with qb under pressure is going to end bad every time. At least running, we controlled the clock, played to our strengths, -'d with a guy like boom can break one at any time.
122 yds rushing?? Had 99 yds -27 yds for loss = a net of 77 on 36 rushes for A 2.2 ypc avg.....
I wouldn't say we tried running it up the middle. We tried the read option, and Johnson handed it off too often. We were limited and couldn't do much of anything. There wasn't much to take away from this game.
My complaints with the running game at Bama were the lack of Snell and formations that were too tight. Snell needs to play and play a lot. Failing to use him early and often is a mistake every time. As for formations, UK lined up in formations that were too tight in relation to the ball. On many plays, even the WR's were tight. This team needs to spread out and thin out the box. Alabama was able to run blitz into those tight formations and there was nowhere to go. If you spread them out, that's much tougher to do.
Snell should have played earlier and more,with Boom possibly lined up at slot ,with utilizing him on a jet sweep or faking and handing off to Snell . Some misdirection ,which we never do ,might have slowed the Ala d-line some,to allow more creases. Stoops doesn't run anything other than vanilla,evidently to protect his defense,but with no misdirection or imaginative play calling,very predictable and easy to defend!
I was busy and couldn't watch very much of the game. However, I did see Bama on multiple plays peel a RB out into the flat so that he was one-on-one with our LB and just toss a nice, soft pass over there that resulted in 8-10 yards almost every play. I understand we don't have Bama's talent but that seems like a decent play against most opponents - get the ball out into space, fairly quickly so no sack, and let the RB beat the LB for yardage. Just doesn't seem like we run that much at all and I'm not really sure why.
Since I couldn't watch it, did we run any traps or misdirection while we were running up the middle or did we just run straight at the A gap? With an aggressive (and better) D like Bama's, seems like using their own aggressiveness against them would pay dividends. I'm not a student of OL play but it doesn't appear that we run much that requires pulling or trapping and I see many, many other teams do so.
Since I couldn't watch it, did we run any traps or misdirection while we were running up the middle or did we just run straight at the A gap? With an aggressive (and better) D like Bama's, seems like using their own aggressiveness against them would pay dividends. I'm not a student of OL play but it doesn't appear that we run much that requires pulling or trapping and I see many, many other teams do so.
I agree that against athletic teams it's not always easy to get outside and sometimes you can be effective hitting holes inside IF you them quicker. Booms hunt and peck style won't work in that case and Snell was much more effective to do the inside work.
That said the one big disappointment I have this year is the lack of ability, creativity to get the ball in playmakers hands more. Again I know it's not that easy but I feel like guys like Johnson, Timmons, Badet and our RB's could be used more to get the ball in their hands which short passes and let them create. To do this you have pick up the tempo and use motion to create some fluidity in what you do. Hard to do from stationary sets that let the defense line up easily.
And I love the idea of misdirection in any offense especially with the over aggressive defenses today. We do very little if any of that and that seems to always give you a chance to make a play and get guys in space.
And please roll out Stephen more if for nothing else to get him more comfortable and moving. He needs energy in what he does movement creates that.
That said the one big disappointment I have this year is the lack of ability, creativity to get the ball in playmakers hands more. Again I know it's not that easy but I feel like guys like Johnson, Timmons, Badet and our RB's could be used more to get the ball in their hands which short passes and let them create. To do this you have pick up the tempo and use motion to create some fluidity in what you do. Hard to do from stationary sets that let the defense line up easily.
And I love the idea of misdirection in any offense especially with the over aggressive defenses today. We do very little if any of that and that seems to always give you a chance to make a play and get guys in space.
And please roll out Stephen more if for nothing else to get him more comfortable and moving. He needs energy in what he does movement creates that.
Grand did the right thing by running right at them. To muck speed to try and run outside.you freaking idiots!!
Agreed, I saw promise yet again in our inside running game. We will run the ball well this season. We can hang our hat mostly on Boom and Benny as we go along in the season.
In addition, I'm sure S. Johnson will continue to improve his passing as we go along. I think our offense is going to be very good and will win us some games.
^This, I think Benny should get the majority of the carries and have Boom be a change of pace/home run hitter. Boom can still get his carries, but Benny needs to be in there earlier wearing the defense down. Then when Boom comes in, he has fresh legs vs a tired defense. I figured the staff would have been doing this by now, but hey what do I know.
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