Do we lack a home run threat?

We don't hang with Michigan State and Minnesota without the threat of the big play. Without putting it on film they won't game plan for it, and then the dink and dunk passing and the running game will be much tougher to execute. Bill Walsh says the big play is paramount in this style of offense. It is one of the founding beliefs.

Can we do it? Nobody knows right now as we haven't shown it, but to say you don't need it to be successful long term shows a lack of understanding of the principles of offensive football and specifically a pro style offense.

 
ColoradoHusk said:
Can't argue with what you are saying, Knapplc
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Man, if everyone thought this, my life would be so much easier!

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In the Deed the Glory said:
We don't hang with Michigan State and Minnesota without the threat of the big play. Without putting it on film they won't game plan for it, and then the dink and dunk passing and the running game will be much tougher to execute. Bill Walsh says the big play is paramount in this style of offense. It is one of the founding beliefs.

Can we do it? Nobody knows right now as we haven't shown it, but to say you don't need it to be successful long term shows a lack of understanding of the principles of offensive football and specifically a pro style offense.
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We know Tommy is capable of going deep with some accuracy, but I wouldn't have him back as a pocket passer for any length of time....haven't seen anything to suggest that hanging around the pocket against a good defense would be anything but a disaster.

 
Hayseed said:
In the Deed the Glory said:
We don't hang with Michigan State and Minnesota without the threat of the big play. Without putting it on film they won't game plan for it, and then the dink and dunk passing and the running game will be much tougher to execute. Bill Walsh says the big play is paramount in this style of offense. It is one of the founding beliefs.Can we do it? Nobody knows right now as we haven't shown it, but to say you don't need it to be successful long term shows a lack of understanding of the principles of offensive football and specifically a pro style offense.
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We know Tommy is capable of going deep with some accuracy, but I wouldn't have him back as a pocket passer for any length of time....haven't seen anything to suggest that hanging around the pocket against a good defense would be anything but a disaster.
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Big play doesn't mean deep pass exclusively...

 
In the Deed the Glory said:
Hayseed said:
In the Deed the Glory said:
We don't hang with Michigan State and Minnesota without the threat of the big play. Without putting it on film they won't game plan for it, and then the dink and dunk passing and the running game will be much tougher to execute. Bill Walsh says the big play is paramount in this style of offense. It is one of the founding beliefs.Can we do it? Nobody knows right now as we haven't shown it, but to say you don't need it to be successful long term shows a lack of understanding of the principles of offensive football and specifically a pro style offense.
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We know Tommy is capable of going deep with some accuracy, but I wouldn't have him back as a pocket passer for any length of time....haven't seen anything to suggest that hanging around the pocket against a good defense would be anything but a disaster.
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Big play doesn't mean deep pass exclusively...
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Yeah, I watched a lot of NFL highlights today. Most of the big plays seemed to be 8-12 yard passes that ended up going for 20+. I think we'll see more of that once Reilly gets more reps and DPE is available again.
 
In the Deed the Glory said:
Hayseed said:
In the Deed the Glory said:
We don't hang with Michigan State and Minnesota without the threat of the big play. Without putting it on film they won't game plan for it, and then the dink and dunk passing and the running game will be much tougher to execute. Bill Walsh says the big play is paramount in this style of offense. It is one of the founding beliefs.Can we do it? Nobody knows right now as we haven't shown it, but to say you don't need it to be successful long term shows a lack of understanding of the principles of offensive football and specifically a pro style offense.
Click to expand...
We know Tommy is capable of going deep with some accuracy, but I wouldn't have him back as a pocket passer for any length of time....haven't seen anything to suggest that hanging around the pocket against a good defense would be anything but a disaster.
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Big play doesn't mean deep pass exclusively...
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No, but I think that's what they're referring to. Calling short passes and running sideways usually isn't conducive to breaking the big one against good teams. The dink and dunk we're doing is what teams used to do to us back in the good ol' days.....they'd run up a bunch of yards but never score. Big play refers to throwing for big chunks of yards or breaking long runs, at least to me. Whatever announcer started this doesn't believe we have the arm or the backs to do either.

 
In the Deed the Glory said:
Hayseed said:
In the Deed the Glory said:
We don't hang with Michigan State and Minnesota without the threat of the big play. Without putting it on film they won't game plan for it, and then the dink and dunk passing and the running game will be much tougher to execute. Bill Walsh says the big play is paramount in this style of offense. It is one of the founding beliefs.Can we do it? Nobody knows right now as we haven't shown it, but to say you don't need it to be successful long term shows a lack of understanding of the principles of offensive football and specifically a pro style offense.
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We know Tommy is capable of going deep with some accuracy, but I wouldn't have him back as a pocket passer for any length of time....haven't seen anything to suggest that hanging around the pocket against a good defense would be anything but a disaster.
Click to expand...
Big play doesn't mean deep pass exclusively...
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So what are we doing wrong to not get the big plays? It seems like our backs are getting as much as possible out of their runs. Is it a lack of talent? Not speedy enough receivers? Poor blocking downfield? Are we not running potential big plays due to lack of talent? Are we not executing well enough to turn called plays into big plays? Inaccuracy at QB? Bad blocking? In Walsh's vision how do they produce big plays? With Osborne's O we would usually spring a long run if we didn't miss blocks. With the spread I think the idea is to get one guy to miss a tackle in space and big plays will result. I don't know enough about what Riley is doing but I like what I see so far.
 
How can anyone legitimately complain about last night. We had great offensive drives that ate away at their defense. We need drives like that in every game! It's crazy to think otherwise

 
ColoradoHusk said:
If there is no threat for the big play, defenses won't have to play as deep and they can shrink the space the offense has to operate. It's not complicated.
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If the defense comes down and shrinks the field, that's when you go over the top. The reason we had so many big plays last year is because the defense had 8-9 guys in the box to stop Ameer, leaving one-on-one coverage on the receivers. All you needed was one of those receivers to beat his man, or for Ameer to get through the first level (which when he did, there was usually no one in front of him) and there is your big play.

 
I would rather have an offense that wears you down and isnt reliant on the homerun ball to get points.

That being said, with how our offense works, i think it allows for us to set up for the homerun ball and you will probably start to see that. Dink and dunk until the defense cheats up and then throw it over the top or break a long run.

Newby isnt a homerun guy. He will get you solid yards but not fast enough(neither was AA) but also not shifty enough(AA was very shifty).

DPE is our home run threat and he will break a couple if we keep doing those jet sweeps when he gets back.

 
Minnesota_husker said:
I would rather have an offense that wears you down and isnt reliant on the homerun ball to get points.

That being said, with how our offense works, i think it allows for us to set up for the homerun ball and you will probably start to see that. Dink and dunk until the defense cheats up and then throw it over the top or break a long run.

Newby isnt a homerun guy. He will get you solid yards but not fast enough(neither was AA) but also not shifty enough(AA was very shifty).

DPE is our home run threat and he will break a couple if we keep doing those jet sweeps when he gets back.
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These are pretty much my thoughts.

If we keep having this amount of success the way we are, the home runs will come. Defenses will have to adjust to try to stop what we are doing. I think people will realize that BYU is better than what people thought when we played them. They will definitely watch what we did against USA and think about it. But, they won't really take us serious until we do it against a more respected defense. Miami gave up 20 points to FAU so not sure if their defense is that respected but at least it's a big name school with decent talent.

I believe we have a coaching staff that knows how to play call if and when the defense adjusts to stop what we are doing.

If that never happens, I'm perfectly fine with this.

We're averaging 500 yards a game and 6.6 yards a play.

fwiw.
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Fans will always want big plays, end of story. What fans don't want, is living and dying by it, which is exactly what we've done the last few years. Our offense put up some pretty big numbers that really weren't skewed at all by "a big play" on Saturday. I think we would have taken more shots down field and looked more for that big play had there been a need. If our offense can string together consistent drives like we did Saturday against the good teams, I am more than okay with that. South Alabama was TIRED by the end of that game. You wear a team down like that, it creates even more opportunities for the big play (which again, we didn't need Saturday).

After the BYU game, Riley realized the need to work on our running game. We can not run the ball like we did against BYU and beat good teams majority of the time. This game was focused on running the ball more than anything, offensively. Your chances of a home run threat go way down when you are that dedicated to running the ball. Seems to me there's a far greater chance of taking it to the house when you are slinging it around, than when you're pounding the rock.

 
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