Final drive vs UK

[18IsTheMan]

Had to hit the sack early in the 4th quarter (doggone night games) and missed the end of the game. Just looked up the drive chart and saw that we basically finished off the game with a 16-play, 68 yard, 9:28 drive, all run plays by Sellers and Fuller, converting two 3rd downs and one 4th down. Pretty impressive.

That inspires a bit of hope.

 

[LonesomeRooster]

We have to figure out the run game. It is what makes the offense work and keeps the defense rested.

 

[18IsTheMan]

We have to figure out the run game. It is what makes the offense work and keeps the defense rested.

UK is 59th nationally against the run, so fairly decent. So maybe that gives a little hope. They were probably pretty dispirited at that point in the game though.

Don't look now, but LSU is 11th nationally against the run. I hope we don't go in trying to force a square peg into a round hole. Just air it out if we need to.

Our run game has struggled, but we have already faced the #1 and #11 run defenses nationally with Missouri and Vandy.

 

[Lurker123]

UK is 59th nationally against the run, so fairly decent. So maybe that gives a little hope. They were probably pretty dispirited at that point in the game though.

Don't look now, but LSU is 11th nationally against the run. I hope we don't go in trying to force a square peg into a round hole. Just air it out if we need to.

Our run game has struggled, but we have already faced the #1 and #11 run defenses nationally with Missouri and Vandy.

The highlighted is the balancing act that falls back to coaching. When to push hard on establishing the run vs when to "abandon" it for more productive plays.

You need to run at least a little to keep defenses honest. Id like to see more designed runs for sellers at this point. But as for forcing the rb's over and over? I lean more towards shifting to a passing or sellers run attack.

 

[18IsTheMan]

The highlighted is the balancing act that falls back to coaching. When to push hard on establishing the run vs when to "abandon" it for more productive plays.

You need to run at least a little to keep defenses honest. Id like to see more designed runs for sellers at this point. But as for forcing the rb's over and over? I lean more towards shifting to a passing or sellers run attack.

Right, you have to coach to your strengths.

I understand he wants the run game to open up the passing game, but we're running so much at the expense of the passing game.

I can't say I know what the proper balance is...which is why I'm not getting paid millions of dollars to figure it out. My gut tells me we have not fully capitalized on Sellers' ability as a passer this season. Or as a runner even.

 

[ThinnyJ]

I don't understand why we don't run more of the option and bootleg.... Sellers is best out of the pocket and given options.

Play calling is a complete mystery.

And why in God's name do we set up in the shotgun when we need 1 yard?!!

So frustrating!

 

[Bubba Fett]

Sorry to be a debby-downer but our offense is atrocious. ATROCIOUS... and it's not the talent level, it's 100% on coaching.

 

[18IsTheMan]

Sorry to be a debby-downer but our offense is atrocious. ATROCIOUS... and it's not the talent level, it's 100% on coaching.

I saw some glimmers of hope vs UK. Faint embers perhaps, but hopefully our coaches can use the bye week well.

They need to ask themselves what gives us our best chances of competing in our final 5 conference games? Does ineffectively running the ball 40 times/game give us our best shot? Forget what you want to do. Forget what an ideal offense should look like. It needs to be them looking what we have and what we can do and what we can't do and simply saying "this gives us our absolute best chance to score points." If it's Sellers throwing it 35 times/game and running it 20, then so be it.

 

[PrestonyteParrot]

Forcing Sellers to stay in the pocket is not playing to our strengths. Sellers rolling with a run/pass option puts Sellers in his most productive mode.
Run it until they stop it just like the short dump pass to the TE and have a strategy/plan for when they do adjust to take advantage of the adjustments. It's called game planning with situation analysis, and our coaches seem to be lacking in this area.

 

[Mr. Belvedere]

Sorry to be a debby-downer but our offense is atrocious. ATROCIOUS... and it's not the talent level, it's 100% on coaching.

Good post.

 

[92Pony]

I saw some glimmers of hope vs UK. Faint embers perhaps, but hopefully our coaches can use the bye week well.

They need to ask themselves what gives us our best chances of competing in our final 5 conference games? Does ineffectively running the ball 40 times/game give us our best shot? Forget what you want to do. Forget what an ideal offense should look like. It needs to be them looking what we have and what we can do and what we can't do and simply saying "this gives us our absolute best chance to score points." If it's Sellers throwing it 35 times/game and running it 20, then so be it.

I really feel that we have to temper that with the fact that Ky is pretty bad. LSU will be a test to see if that faint ember was the beginnings of flames, or a last gasp before turning to ash. Hoping against hope for some meaningful changes over the bye week.

 

[LonesomeRooster]

UK is 59th nationally against the run, so fairly decent. So maybe that gives a little hope. They were probably pretty dispirited at that point in the game though.

Don't look now, but LSU is 11th nationally against the run. I hope we don't go in trying to force a square peg into a round hole. Just air it out if we need to.

Our run game has struggled, but we have already faced the #1 and #11 run defenses nationally with Missouri and Vandy.

Check out Dan Casey on X. He has videos of some ingenious ways that other teams are using to run the football that we don't use - or use successfully.

When you run the ball successfully between the tackles it changes everything.

 

[18IsTheMan]

I really feel that we have to temper that with the fact that Ky is pretty bad. LSU will be a test to see if that faint ember was the beginnings of flames, or a last gasp before turning to ash. Hoping against hope for some meaningful changes over the bye week.

For sure. The UK QB is probably the worst QB we'll see all season long. Just got rattled early and then stayed rattled. Made some terrible decisions.

LSU does have some issues, though. Ironically, some of the same issues we have offensively, namely OL and run game: https://www.si.com/college/lsu/foot...s-offense-among-worst-in-america-01k6bajt7gr5

We've certainly played a tougher schedule than them up to this point as they've lost to the only good team they played. Otherwise, they have wins over Clemson and UF, in which they didn't look terribly impressive in either and then 2 creampuffs.

They are stout defensively, though. I certainly don't look for our offense to get on track against LSU's defense in Baton Rouge at night. It'll take a strong defensive showing for us to give us any kind of shot.

 

[sclawman77]

That drive was to finish off game, practice run blocking and giving Fuller more carries.

 

[Bubba Fett]

Check out Dan Casey on X. He has videos of some ingenious ways that other teams are using to run the football that we don't use - or use successfully.

When you run the ball successfully between the tackles it changes everything.

Coach Casey posts some awesome stuff. Running the ball ain't that d@mned hard. You just gotta find ways to get ball carrier some space...

Formations, motions, shifts, counters, cross actions, reverses, speed plays, etc... it does not have to be gimmicks. You start with "what can we do" and "where can we take advantage?" and go from there.

 

[PrestonyteParrot]

Coach Casey posts some awesome stuff. Running the ball ain't that d@mned hard. You just gotta find ways to get ball carrier some space...

Formations, motions, shifts, counters, cross actions, reverses, speed plays, etc... it does not have to be gimmicks. You start with "what can we do" and "where can we take advantage?" and go from there.

As I've said consistently, it comes down to being competitive one-on-one and winning your assignment on each play which gives the success of the play a chance.
Do our guys have that competitiveness and is this objective being coached? Aren't players graded on each play for performance and to provide coaching objectives?

 

[18IsTheMan]

As I've said consistently, it comes down to being competitive one-on-one and winning your assignment on each play which gives the success of the play a chance.
Do our guys have that competitiveness and is this objective being coached? Aren't players graded on each play for performance and to provide coaching objectives?

Our OL performance really doesn't add up. It would make sense if we saw that we had just recruited horribly at the position, but that is not the case. We've recruited OL pretty well. We're not grossly undersized. It would also make sense if there wasn't a single coach on our staff who understood basic OL blocking/schemes/techniques. But I have to assume, even if it's not Teasley, that someone on the staff understands at least the basics. There can't be a great mystery about how it's supposed to be done.

 

[Bubba Fett]

As I've said consistently, it comes down to being competitive one-on-one and winning your assignment on each play which gives the success of the play a chance.
Do our guys have that competitiveness and is this objective being coached? Aren't players graded on each play for performance and to provide coaching objectives?

I'm just in a different place on this. I've seen "fire in the belly" from virtually all our guys on offense. Their effort and competitiveness is there, IMO. What we lack is good systems, and good game plans that have been well taught... what we usually just call "good coaching." I can't even tell you what our offensive system is! It is supposed to be a pro-style tailored to Sellers' dual-threat skills, but it clearly is not what it's supposed to be, at least not in any effectual way.

 

[treyno2722]

That final drive was hand off to Fuller for 2 yards on 1st and 2nd down and then Sellers for the first down.