Nice piece, Jared!
Focusing on the identity aspect of the offense is very much on point. I had posted last week that losing Porter before the season started was a big deal: my guess is that Bajakian was planning on using a power run game and had two decent wide receivers in Robinson and Kirtz to use with Johnson, who throws a beautiful deep ball, when defenses stacked the run. The pass blocking was clearly suspect, and this would have been a decent approach given the personnel available. Against MSU, the Spartans stacked the box and Johnson had a good game, but Tyus as a power back (remember that he started and was used in the Wildcat) was clearly not ready to take Porter’s roll. Duke’s coaches saw the MSU video, realized they could contain the NU run game with their down four and alternate blitz and cover with their back seven to completely overwhelm the NU line and fluster Johnson. Marty came in and thwarted that by his scrambling ability; since Duke’s personnel is not too strong, his go for broke approach worked until injury. Hilinski took over, and his lack of mobility sent the Cats back to a power run / possession pass design with a not very good O line and no real power back. It was doing badly and got worse with the injuries to Kirtz and then Robinson. What Marty brings is the requirement the defenses account for him running, which opens passing opportunities the similarly to whom a successful power run game would. The clear downside of Marty is his suicide vest approach to passing. If he gets lucky and the defense botches the gifts he gives them, the offense moves.. At least with Marty, the Cats’ offense has a chance, albeit a slim one. I think the last four games will at least show a coherent offense, and with some luck, the Cats could pull at least one lucky upset.