Houston..12-26 yds..Fla St..19-32 yds..14 15 yds BC..WF..13-2yds..Pitt 11-19 yds
Makes you wonder if our coaches watched any film of those games.
But it is not quite that simple. Option football is designed to attack a single defender, making him "wrong" regardless of what he does. Because of the spread formations it is pretty hard to play assignment football (i.e., dive/keep/pitch) as teams did against the Wishbone/Veer teams that set up with a single WR. Unlike the basic speed option and triple option where the flow all goes in one direction, in the spread option game the RB goes 1 way and the QB the other. Coupled with a spread formation this makes it more difficult for other defenders to rally to the ball. If you "stack" your defense to stop that one play to both side side you are likely leaving a HUGE opening somewhere else.
Based on Forrest's comments, it sounds like the UK defense pulled the gameplan from this summer off the shelf and didn't bother to update it to reflect what UofL has been doing during the season.
It's amazing how you look at football. No coach can make a player stronger, quicker, or smarter which is what defense is all about. UK does not have those type players yet. The SEC is big boy football and UK is not yet able to put players on the field no matter what their assignment is to rush the passer, stop the run, and get in position to make plays.
Understand it's not simple as some are making it but on the other side the the OPs right it's not brain surgery and you are way overthinking it as we'll. almost all of the yards Jackson got Saturday were on very simple situations where the DE or outside defender setting the edge dove inside on the fake for the RB and he ran unopposed around the corner. Nothing more, nothing less, that simple period. There is no explanation fathomable for how a coaching staff can let that happen. It blows the mind how basic that is yet how we continued (not only in this game but against Miss ST and UT) to fall for the fake time and again knowing we left the edge every time. Like watching a dog when you act like you throw his bone.
Folks that complain about that MSU game need to go back and watch the film. MSU lined up with Dixon alone in the backfield and had 4 receivers split wide. That took 4 defenders out of the picture. If you packed the box then you would have left receivers uncovered. MSU's front 5 blocked our DL and LBs at the point of attack which was good enough for Dixon to get 5 yds up field before being touched.
How often does uk play against an option QB? You tend to play to your tendencies.
Yeah, probably so. The real issue in defending the spread option is the spread formation itself makes it almost impossible to "help" the contain defender on the end. He must respect the QB run to the outside and, as minimum, must keep the QB moving laterally until help can get there. If the QB gets around him quickly it is almost always a nice gain. And guys with Jackson's speed have a huge advantage on a DE.
All true Wild but my point is the DE is rarely involved in the inside run anyway unless tackling from behind late or behind the line of scrimmage which is rare. Most of the time he is there to herd them back to the middle for the line and linebackers to make the play. And if I'm taking my druthers I'd much more rather give up a rare opportunity for the DE to make a tackle on a RB one or two yards sooner than he would have been tackled anyway by someone else than to lose contain and have the QB go for 20 or more. I know the DE's will not always make that play either but in our case it wasn't even a possibility. Jackson, Hobbs and Prescott rarely had to make anybody miss as we mindlessly left them open field to run as we bit time after time at the fake. Almost impossible to believe what you were watching.
