Overreaction

[Notre Dame Joe]

I'm posting this article because I feel it's pretty similar to what I'm currently seeing on this message board. Sam McKewon writes that the spread offense is beginning to fade:

 

link

 

While the spread thrived this year at Oregon and Auburn, a sloppily-played national championship game proved that timing problems aren't merely left to the WCO. The Tigers' defense, not its offense, secured the national title for War Eagle. And one excellent defensive tackle – Auburn's Nick Fairley – blew up Oregon's offense much like Ndamukong Suh shamed Texas in the 2009 Big 12 Championship.

 

Despite the fact that teams with spread option offenses have won four of the last five national championships, McKewon apparently doesn't think they're that effective. He says they are systematically unsound because they lack the ability to score points in the red zone, even though Oklahoma State's passing spread offense led the nation in red zone scoring this year (link), and even though EVERY offense has a harder time moving the ball in the red zone than on any other part of the field.

 

He indicts Auburn's and Oregon's offenses' performances in the national championship game. Last I checked, Auburn went undefeated in the SEC (pretty tough road...) with their spread offense, and Oregon played them to the final seconds, losing a nail-biter 22-19. By the way people talked about that game, you'd think the score was 3-0. I mean, 22-19 is a pretty normal score for the national championship game. Did Nebraska lose to Florida State 18-16 in 1993's national championship game because Tom Osborne's offense was fundamentally unsound, or was it maybe just a matter of they were a hair short of being the best team in the country?

 

I know Nebraska finished the season in a slump. But people are questioning whether Bo Pelini is really good head coaching material when his start has been roughly equal to Osborne's first three years, and Osborne inherited a national championship contender while Pelini inherited a pushover.

 

I'll be the first to say that as of right now, I don't think Watson is a good fit for the spread option offense we're trying to run. At the same time, he knows infinitely more about football than I do, and next year's offense isn't going to be the lousy doormat we saw in the Holiday bowl. All of our coaches (Watson included) are smarter than that, and they've got an entire offseason to try to work out the kinks.

 

2011 Nebraska has a tough schedule, and they have some problems they need to fix. But they return three all-conference players on defense along with plenty of talent to fill out the rest of the Blackshirts. Nebraska returns a starter at QB who as a freshman was a borderline Heisman candidate before he got hurt, they return RB Rex Burkhead, Kyler Reed at TE, and they should have better depth on the offensive line.

 

 

What I found amusing about the national championship game coverage was that everyone said Oregon couldn block Fairley, when he was designated as unblocked in the zone read.

 

I predict Nebraska will need to watch out for being one-dimensional in your new conference. About 8 teams in conference will be unable to keep up with a fast QB like Martinez. Bo could be beating the Purdues by 20 with little planning. But you will need more breadth in the CCG and the bowl game.

[zoogs]

Hercules, I somewhat feel we are mostly in agreement but caught up in some terminology. Well, if not - I'll agree to disagree for now!

 

I just wanted to chime in re: Fairley. I thought that was fairly () hilarious, the commentators. Noticed the same thing. It's a damn zone read, Herbie...(at least, I think it was Herbie)