New Plays/Formations vs B12 Competition

[HuskersNow]

I wouldn't mind seeing that funky Pistol Flexbone/Wishbone/Full House formation that Okie State was running last night. Especially with Helu/Burkhead/Robinson in the backfield along with Martinez. If you didn't watch the game last night between OSU and TAMU it looked like this I believe.

O O O X O O O

____O O O

______O

I can't remember if the TE's were split out at WR's or not....VERY INTERESTING formation, and you could do ALOT of misdirection/power running out of that.

Kind of reminds me of a Power T, but only out of the Pistol and the deep back is obviously not lined up with the other backs.

I didn't get to see the whole game, so could you tell me if they had a lot of success running that?

 

[I am I]

WAIT!!!

Who said they would have a hard time thinking Watson would hold back plays and wait 1/4 through the season to bring them out/test them at game speed???

Dude, he does that every year. He does that game to game. Now I'm not saying you need to show your hand in week 1, but it is not surprising to me AT ALL if we would see tons of new plays and formations and sets.

Remember, he dsnt get stupid over night, he knows how to confuse a defense (and his own players). I'm all for a new wrinkle here or there but he always throws out new crap at the wrong time and often times too much of it, which hasn't been run at game speed. Turnovers and penalties can be the result.

I hope we see differnt stuff, but I hope it's man on man blocking, straight ahead running, not too 'scheming', power stuff. Maybe a few misdirections or screens for off balance plays.

 

[Hunter94]

It's been stressed over and over again since we beat SDSU last week - the real season starts now. With our non-conference games out of the way, it's time to focus on the meat of our schedule and see what we're really made of vs Big 12 foes.

Naturally that got me thinking about what we'll see from our offense. Obviously the zone read is our bread 'n butter with Martinez at the helm, and there's no doubt opponents are gonna have a hard enough time slowing that down. But, what else will we see from Watson to make this offense even more dynamic and dangerous?

We've seen one attempt at the wildcat formation so far this season, and it failed miserably when Paul coughed it up vs Idaho. Even so, we definitely had some success when Rex ran it, and I'm thinking we'll at least see that much in a couple B12 games.

One thing we haven't seen yet (and may never see, though it's been talked about before) is Green and Martinez in on the same play. What are the chances of that happening? What other aces do we have up our sleeve now that conference play has arrived?

i would guess we have seen 80% of what is available. you don't become suddenly effective running a bunch of damn gadget plays, you had better make them stop your bread and butter stuff first, if they can't you keep running it, if they do then yes, you have to switch up, but proven execution and familiarity of the plays is what offenses should be able to utilize...i hate gadget plays, they only say we can't run our regular offensive schemes effectively enough to go down the field and score...these gadget plays are often high risk and ineffective, desperation is disguised by the constant use of them, as they seldom work more than once in a game.

 

[Hunter94]

WAIT!!!

Who said they would have a hard time thinking Watson would hold back plays and wait 1/4 through the season to bring them out/test them at game speed???

Dude, he does that every year. He does that game to game. Now I'm not saying you need to show your hand in week 1, but it is not surprising to me AT ALL if we would see tons of new plays and formations and sets.

Remember, he doesn't get stupid over night, he knows how to confuse a defense (and his own players). I'm all for a new wrinkle here or there but he always throws out new crap at the wrong time and often times too much of it, which hasn't been run at game speed. Turnovers and penalties can be the result.

I hope we see different stuff, but I hope it's man on man blocking, straight ahead running, not too 'scheming', power stuff. Maybe a few misdirections or screens for off balance plays.

Watson holding back anything scares the hell out of me.....i often question his play calling in tough games.

 

[Blaze1up]

Wouldn't mind seeing some off-balance power formations with a fullback.

 

[In the Deed the Glory]

Wouldn't mind seeing some off-balance power formations with a fullback.

Yep...this would be nice. Use the damn I backs.

 

[Hunter94]

Wouldn't mind seeing some off-balance power formations with a fullback.

Yep...this would be nice. Use the damn I backs.

for some reason, using a fullback in most any scheme is lost on Watson, he just plain doesn't do it, at least not very often. i can't remember the last time a fullback carried the ball, let alone was involved in a scripted play.

 

[whateveritis1224]

If we do run some type of formation like Okie St. did last night, I think you put Robinson at the back. He's had trouble with the Zone Read this year, and just seems like he'd do better running downhill over sideways in the zone read. I do see us doing more screens, WR and RB (with Burkhead), but overall what we've seen from the offense so far is what we'll see the rest of the year.

 

[Landlord]

Wouldn't mind seeing some off-balance power formations with a fullback.

Yep...this would be nice. Use the damn I backs.

for some reason, using a fullback in most any scheme is lost on Watson, he just plain doesn't do it, at least not very often. i can't remember the last time a fullback carried the ball, let alone was involved in a scripted play.

2007 with Castille, if I remember correctly.

 

[Hunter94]

Wouldn't mind seeing some off-balance power formations with a fullback.

Yep...this would be nice. Use the damn I backs.

for some reason, using a fullback in most any scheme is lost on Watson, he just plain doesn't do it, at least not very often. i can't remember the last time a fullback carried the ball, let alone was involved in a scripted play.

2007 with Castille, if I remember correctly.

exactly.......thanks.

 

[Blackshirt316]

We haven't even seen more than 20% of the playbook yet.

Double QB, Double HB, Joker set, Double Wing, McNeill in the backfield, Wishbone... there is a LOT of stuff we haven't seen this team need to show yet.

 

[huskerinacaveman]

They are not holding anything back, they are using what they have schemed for in practice, obviously some trick plays have not been used but that does not count. Second throwing down field is not being held back, its not being used because the quarterback cannot throw the ball in the right spot or far enough or with enough arch to complete them.

I agree. I dont think there has been much holding back, I just think we have been so Vanilla because that is what Zenitram can handle. If you presume that we have used the zone read so much as to perfect it at game speed, you would need to presume that the same thing needs to be done with downfield passing. I just dont think we have much of a threat to go deep and that is why it has not been used. If we havent used it in the ooc or even practiced it in a game, then why would waiting till a 1/4 of the way into the season do any good, especially agianst significantly more difficult competition. This idea that we are all of a sudden going to break out offensive philosophies that havent been practiced in a game untill now is just asinine.

Aside from trick plays, what we have seen so far is what we are going to get the rest of the season. Zone read, power running, with short to medium range passes setup off of play action. That is our offense. It prevents Zenitram from getting into situations where he can make mistakes and cost us a game. Zenitram will keep defenses on their toes with his ability to run and scramble. Dont look for an expanded down the field passing attack untill next year or the year after once he becomes more comfortable and improves his passing.

Exactly, otherwise, you'd play with a new playbook every week, and its just that easy. SO SO Easy. The only thing I'd expect to see is a bit of Wildcat like the holiday bowl.

 

[Hunter94]

We haven't even seen more than 20% of the playbook yet.

Double QB, Double HB, Joker set, Double Wing, McNeil in the backfield, Wishbone... there is a LOT of stuff we haven't seen this team need to show yet.

wow, i would have to say that is way off..20% after 4 games?? most of the rest of the "sets" you speak of are gimmick plays, they eventually may make up 20% of our scripted plays, 70-80% has already been revealed, you win games on your bread and butter schemes until the opposing defense stops you, then you head for the bag of tricks.

 

[74Hunter]

We haven't even seen more than 20% of the playbook yet.

Double QB, Double HB, Joker set, Double Wing, McNeil in the backfield, Wishbone... there is a LOT of stuff we haven't seen this team need to show yet.

wow, i would have to say that is way off..20% after 4 games?? most of the rest of the "sets" you speak of are gimmick plays, they eventually may make up 20% of our scripted plays, 70-80% has already been revealed, you win games on your bread and butter schemes until the opposing defense stops you, then you head for the bag of tricks.

This. We hear this crap every year about Watson's offense "holding out" plays. Yet, as the season progresses, we never really see anything new from his playcalling (with the exception of the Holiday Bowl). Now, there might be a heck of alot more out there that he has, but I'd bet that with the exception of a few plays sprinkled here or there, we have pretty much seen all they are feel comfortable using this year. I think that this talk of double HB/QB/Joker, whatever, is a pipe dream.

 

[bshirt]

They are not holding anything back, they are using what they have schemed for in practice, obviously some trick plays have not been used but that does not count. Second throwing down field is not being held back, its not being used because the quarterback cannot throw the ball in the right spot or far enough or with enough arch to complete them.

I agree. I dont think there has been much holding back, I just think we have been so Vanilla because that is what Zenitram can handle. If you presume that we have used the zone read so much as to perfect it at game speed, you would need to presume that the same thing needs to be done with downfield passing. I just dont think we have much of a threat to go deep and that is why it has not been used. If we havent used it in the ooc or even practiced it in a game, then why would waiting till a 1/4 of the way into the season do any good, especially agianst significantly more difficult competition. This idea that we are all of a sudden going to break out offensive philosophies that havent been practiced in a game untill now is just asinine.

Aside from trick plays, what we have seen so far is what we are going to get the rest of the season. Zone read, power running, with short to medium range passes setup off of play action. That is our offense. It prevents Zenitram from getting into situations where he can make mistakes and cost us a game. Zenitram will keep defenses on their toes with his ability to run and scramble. Dont look for an expanded down the field passing attack untill next year or the year after once he becomes more comfortable and improves his passing.

I agree with ya and I think we'd be almost unstoppable "IF" we had anything close to a real power running game. But we don't and it's not even close.

So to open up the zone read we need Tmart to throw the ball well. It's a lot to put on a freshman qb (who wasn't recruited to be a pocket passer).....but it's the only way.