Creativity in the run game

[cm husker]

You guys have to make it about the last coaches. I get it. Because you definitely don't want to have the hard discussion about a sub .500 staff getting off to a sub .500 start.

[huskerfan92]

 

 

Schematically, NU has one of the most mundane, disorganized offenses that I've ever seen.

 

How the hell could you have ever watched Tim Becks offense and then dare to even think of uttering those words? Haha! Not a chance in hell this offense is the most disorganized offense you've ever seen. Not unless you just started watching Nebraska football after Tim Beck was let go.

 

 

Tim Beck was a better play caller than Langsdorf has been this season. Beck could at least call a game that focused on winning the game. With Langsdorf/Riley I feel like every game they're focusing on a certain pass/run ratio instead of calling plays to win the game. Langsdorf has called maybe two good games this year, and that was against South Alabama and Minnesota. Even against Minnesota he had that drive in the 4th quarter, where we had a big run for a first down then went pass, pass, pass, punt. It's almost as if in these guys' heads they think, "Oh we called a run, need to call a pass now to keep that ratio at 50%". As for the rest of the games, the offense has looked completely out of rhythm.

 

You can't say Beck was that much worse, and I'm willing to bet Beck would have called a game that wouldn't have resulted in more than 14 points against Illinois.

[VectorVictor]

 

Our offensive coordinator should call plays that will work, unless they don't work then he shouldn't have called them.

 

Signed,

Huskerboard.com

 

Our offensive coordinator should call plays that have a high degree of success. Running Newby who is a speed back up the middle a majority of the time, forcing Tommy Armstrong to be Tom Brady, forgetting you have Janovich to use in short yardage situations is not ever going to be successful.

 

Signed,

Logic

 

 

Damn...that's some serious pwnage right there.

 

And between the atrocious play-calling (as has already been pointed out here and elsewhere) and the fact that the OC and Head Coach choose to not sub offensive linemen out (but they allow the DC to sub defensive linemen and other positions...), this is on Riley and Langsdorf, and the sooner they're out of Lincoln, the better.

 

You guys have to make it about the last coaches. I get it. Because you definitely don't want to have the hard discussion about a sub .500 staff getting off to a sub .500 start.

 

Yup. There's a Sunshine Pumping Cartel that is doing all they can to derail any discussion of why this staff needs to be jettisoned, including accusing anti-Riley posters of being pro-Pelini.

 

Considering there is enough talent for this team to have won the B1G West on the 2-Deep, the discussion needs to turn to coaching, including the history of the staff and their propensity for not delivering positive results. Yet, why do we continue to insist that a leopard will change its spots as long as it has a state-of-the-art weight room and a sellout crowd to fall back on? That's really the insane part of the discussion right there.

 

True can keep posting how players didn't execute till his fingers turn blue and fall off. But the bottom line is that the OC chose to not sub Offensive Linemen, kept choosing the wrong players for the wrong plays, and the play selection was uninspired at best.

[GBRedneck]

 

 

Lack of effort. Lack of desire. This season os over. Time for a youth movement.

What is your evidence for the above statement?

 

Teams don't fight as hard as this team has fought to stay in and get back into games during this season if they lack effort and desire.

 

Lack of effort. Lack of desire. This season os over. Time for a youth movement.

What is your evidence for the above statement?

 

Teams don't fight as hard as this team has fought to stay in and get back into games during this season if they lack effort and desire.

we used that excuse for bo for 7 years while everyone ignored how the holes were dug to begin with

 

Watch the games. Thats all you have to do. Watch and think.

 

Its not all players. Its not most players. But footballs an 11 man game. The ultimate team sport. And im having a hard time finding instances where nebraskas playing with 11

 

Watch the minny game. Then watch yesterday. Then tell me im wrong. I dare you.

 

And that all boils down to coaching. What is a coach's job if it isn't to get the players to work together as a team?

[QMany]

[Mavric]

 

Surely someone can spin this the other way.....

[Mavric]

I guess I see where you say the tackle kicks out so in your world that doesn't count as an "outside" run, but in my world, if it's outside the tackle box then it's an outside run.

I'll give that to you as borderline. It's headed to the outside so it's pretty close. But it's a slower-developing play where you have to wait on pulling linemen. And I don't know why if that's going to be our main "outside" play we keep running it with Cross. It looks to me like there might have been some room on a couple of those if Cross doesn't try to run outside the pulling guard.

 

The plays I put in there from the 3rd quarter was just my mistake. I didn't see that when I made those GIFs. It'd be funny if we sat here and changed the argument to "why the hell did Langsdorf continue to run outside in the second half!?" considering the entire argument started with people on this board saying we needed to get creative and run outside more often instead of just running it straight down the middle.

I realize it was just a mistake. And that's fine, it happens.

 

You're the one who brought up indicting Langsdorf if he continued to to run those plays in the second half. So I guess you can laugh at yourself if you think it's funny.

 

The point is that leaves you four out of the 21 plays in the first half that you looked at were what you would call "outside" plays. I don't think that's a lot. Especially when they're all basically the same play and none of them were to our fastest back. So I stand by my assertion that we are pretty un-imaginative when it comes to the running game.

[Waterloohusker26]

It would help the running game a lot if the coaches decided to put actual running backs out there. Sorry, but neither Newby or Cross are good running backs and I'm not sure why the coaches can't see this yet eight games into the season.

And who do you recommend putting in there. Hard to run anywhere when there isn't any holes

[Waterloohusker26]

 

i thought we were going to play to our strengths while recruiting guys to fit Riley's system?......like most coaches, he can't do that, he falls back to what he wants, not what he is likely to have success with....

This. Unfortunately coaches often say this, but don't ever actually mean it.

 

 

Ok tell me what the strengths are for this offense? It's definitely not run blocking

[Mavric]

Here's another observation:

 

It seems to me like the more crucial the situation, the more conservative Langsdorf gets with his play-calling. Last week against Minnesota I thought was his best game from a play-calling standpoint. We had a nice mix of running plays with good play-action passes off them that got TA a lot of easy throws. But we were winning that game pretty big.

 

Early in the year against South Alabama and Southern Miss - both of which we were winning easily for most of the game - we saw all kinds of things. There were several jet sweeps. There were reverses. There were a couple plays where we got the ball to Jamal Turner for him to throw it.

 

But we get to games like Saturday and all that is all but non-existant. One Jet Sweep to DPE. Remember how that was supposed to be such a dynamic play in this offense? We had some good success even running it with Reilly and Moore early in the year but it just disappears when the games are close. No reverses to try to catch them off guard. Not even any option plays that have worked great. Just basic hand it off and run it into the line.

 

All those are things we've already seen this year. But only when things are going well and we really don't need them.

 

No creativity when we need it the most.

[GBRedneck]

Here's another observation:

 

It seems to me like the more crucial the situation, the more conservative Langsdorf gets with his play-calling. Last week against Minnesota I thought was his best game from a play-calling standpoint. We had a nice mix of running plays with good play-action passes off them that got TA a lot of easy throws. But we were winning that game pretty big.

 

Early in the year against South Alabama and Southern Miss - both of which we were winning easily for most of the game - we saw all kinds of things. There were several jet sweeps. There were reverses. There were a couple plays where we got the ball to Jamal Turner for him to throw it.

 

But we get to games like Saturday and all that is all but non-existant. One Jet Sweep to DPE. Remember how that was supposed to be such a dynamic play in this offense? We had some good success even running it with Reilly and Moore early in the year but it just disappears when the games are close. No reverses to try to catch them off guard. Not even any option plays that have worked great. Just basic hand it off and run it into the line.

 

All those are things we've already seen this year. But only when things are going well and we really don't need them.

 

No creativity when we need it the most.

Good observation. You nailed it. Langsdorf crawls in a shell when things get tight.

[Mavric]

 

Severe notes that the Pick 6 was one of the pass plays in this group...

[Mavric]

Another note on the running game:

 

This will be the first year since 2009 that we finish out of the Top 20 in the country in rushing. Twice in that span we were in the Top 10. We're currently 50th.

 

People have been complaining about how bad our OL for years. But all we did was crank out yards.

 

We have two starters back from last year's #19 rush offense and we lost one starter that many liked to mock. So it doesn't seem like we've had a large talent down-grade.

[cornographic]

WhereTF is Wilbon?

[StPaulHusker]

Another note on the running game:

 

This will be the first year since 2009 that we finish out of the Top 20 in the country in rushing. Twice in that span we were in the Top 10. We're currently 50th.

 

People have been complaining about how bad our OL for years. But all we did was crank out yards.

 

We have two starters back from last year's #19 rush offense and we lost one starter that many liked to mock. So it doesn't seem like we've had a large talent down-grade.

The last 3 RB's are currently in the NFL. Not one on the roster today fills that role. I think there is a significant talent downgrade.