Offensive Play Discussion - 2020

Lightfighter214 said:
I hate this offense, always have.

Ive constantly complained that he wont adjust his offense.

Reality today is that if AM hits a couple of key passes we probaly win.

AM is also more behind the curve then most want to admit. He has one reciever that consistently gets open, 4-5 times a game snaps are a hot mess, no running game, and his right tackle misses a lot of blocks.

There are qb issues, but the whole offense is a mess.
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Agree with you. And Frost needs to see that his scoring drives are the exceptions in this offense, and stop doubling down on those few and far in-between drives as an argument that his offense can work. Frost needs to understand we are the 80% of drives that result in s#!t.

 
Lightfighter214 said:
I hate this offense, always have.

Ive constantly complained that he wont adjust his offense.

Reality today is that if AM hits a couple of key passes we probaly win.
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What do you hate about it and what would you change?

ndobney said:
This offense is broke listen to what Chip Kelly says about it. Run the option Frost stop being arrogant. 
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So the key is going back to 1995, scheme-wise?

 
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Lightfighter214 said:
Zone run, based on play action. Simplify it for the qb.

If you get one of those great qbs, open it up, give them more choice.
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So you're more in the old school Nebraska "run across this specific gap run game" kind of guy?

 
Lightfighter214 said:
"NU averaged 3.83 yards per pass attempt, sixth-worst in the Big Ten era"
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For everything that has been discussed in this thread, if you want to boil it down to one thing, imo it's a lack of explosiveness.  Most scoring drives are field position & big play dependent.  In addition, it's incredibly difficult to be efficient and consistent when defenses are in the box and smothering your routes.  I was optimistic Manning, Flemming, & Brown would be what the offense needed this season, for a variety of reasons they weren't, & the results speak for themselves.  

 
Undone said:
I have to come back to this comment though.

Here's an example of when play calling bites you: Like when you know the defense has 8 guys crowding the line of scrimmage in between the hashes but you just keep calling inside zones into that mixing bowl over and over without success - that's just one example of what I'd call "bad play calling."

But when your best offensive player (Wan'Dale) gets open downfield, your offensive line pass blocks well, but then your QB overthrows the ball, I don't chalk that up to bad play calling. That's just your QB not executing.

I get an argument in this one that because it was close for the majority of the game you should just go with high percentage plays - like downhill runs by Mills. I get that. But, we haven't been good at that all year in terms of run blocking.
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Genuine question because I'm not sure but how would you rate Mills vision and ability to get the most out of runs? Like from what I can tell it's obviously on the blocking also but he just doesn't seem to be able to find the right lane and if he does he doesn't have the speed or decisiveness to explode through. He has some nice tough runs where he can break tackles or fight for extra yards but it just looks to me like a better back could make more hay even with our current blocking level. Wandale is obviously a special player but when he runs with the same blocking he breaks off bigger plays. 

 
PasstheDamnBallGuy said:
Genuine question because I'm not sure but how would you rate Mills vision and ability to get the most out of runs? Like from what I can tell it's obviously on the blocking also but he just doesn't seem to be able to find the right lane and if he does he doesn't have the speed or decisiveness to explode through. He has some nice tough runs where he can break tackles or fight for extra yards but it just looks to me like a better back could make more hay even with our current blocking level. Wandale is obviously a special player but when he runs with the same blocking he breaks off bigger plays. 
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Totally agree, dude. It seems to be an issue with vision combined with not quite getting his legs churning fast enough to hit the hole hard and break through the first layer.

When I think of body type and running style for what we need, I think more about Ronald Thompkins. Really too bad he's had the knee issues. Wan'Dale will shimmy & juke to find the space but isn't quite big enough to bounce off guys as your more "bread & butter" runner.

 
PasstheDamnBallGuy said:
Genuine question because I'm not sure but how would you rate Mills vision and ability to get the most out of runs? Like from what I can tell it's obviously on the blocking also but he just doesn't seem to be able to find the right lane and if he does he doesn't have the speed or decisiveness to explode through. He has some nice tough runs where he can break tackles or fight for extra yards but it just looks to me like a better back could make more hay even with our current blocking level. Wandale is obviously a special player but when he runs with the same blocking he breaks off bigger plays. 
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I've been surprised Frost didn't utilize the pistol formation more with Mills much the way Baltimore utilizes Ingram.  Which is also more in line with how he was utilized at Tech and at JUCO.  To me, he's a much more natural fit running those Veer type concepts versus the IZ, OZ, Inverted Veer Concepts NU has run w/him.  Mills had some moments, but I can't ever recall watching him run outside zone effectively, and there are far more times than not he fails to make effective cuts on inside zone.  

 
Undone said:
Totally agree, dude. It seems to be an issue with vision combined with not quite getting his legs churning fast enough to hit the hole hard and break through the first layer.

When I think of body type and running style for what we need, I think more about Ronald Thompkins. Really too bad he's had the knee issues. Wan'Dale will shimmy & juke to find the space but isn't quite big enough to bounce off guys as your more "bread & butter" runner.
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Yeah it sux none of those younger players can seem to stay healthy this year because it would be nice to see what they have. I think Wandale could be a feature back and this offense would probably look a lot better but it's a waste of a weapon and I'm not sure he could take a whole season of that. I think that's the same issue with the QB run game. It works extremely well but Martinez is already pretty banged up and we know what it looks like when he is out. 

 
floridacorn said:
I've been surprised Frost didn't utilize the pistol formation more with Mills much the way Baltimore utilizes Ingram.  Which is also more in line with how he was utilized at Tech and at JUCO.  To me, he's a much more natural fit running those Veer type concepts versus the IZ, OZ, Inverted Veer Concepts NU has run w/him.  Mills had some moments, but I can't ever recall watching him run outside zone effectively, and there are far more times than not he fails to make effective cuts on inside zone.  
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Yeah I remember even last year hearing Benning talk about that on their morning show. I don't listen super frequently so it may have happened and I missed it but they talked about having Ahman on to talk about it since it was a similar transition for him. I just don't know what the trade off is in going away from long term plans and playing systems you don't know as well vs getting reps for your team going forward in the style you want to run. And then it becomes how all the other pieces fit in and if you can teach the rest of the team that system in an offseason. 

 
Lightfighter214 said:
That would involve changing his offense, not sure his ego would allow that
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PasstheDamnBallGuy said:
Yeah I remember even last year hearing Benning talk about that on their morning show. I don't listen super frequently so it may have happened and I missed it but they talked about having Ahman on to talk about it since it was a similar transition for him. I just don't know what the trade off is in going away from long term plans and playing systems you don't know as well vs getting reps for your team going forward in the style you want to run. And then it becomes how all the other pieces fit in and if you can teach the rest of the team that system in an offseason. 
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This is the part that confuses me, because they ran plays out of the pistol at UCF, & I've seen them in the pistol formation at NU.  It's not a blocking issue either, because these veer concepts are blocked with IZ, power, or duo schemes, which NU runs.  The only difference is that instead of attack both sides of the LOS, you are attacking 1, but that side isn't tipped pre-snap.  

IMO, this stuff all goes together.  I run a similar offense, our back starts every play in the pistol, then will shift to the left or right if we aren't running veer.  I've seen Frost do this at NU, he just never runs veer that I can recall.  

It's a moot point now because Mills is gone & we don't have another back like him, but I really think they missed the boat on maximizing the personnel they had with him as the primary back.  And, for a team that's struggled at the QB position, those reads on play action from the pistol are much simpler, again, you're reading 1 side of the field behind the LB's off play action.  

I know it's easier to judge others & I don't know what they see in practice, maybe they don't see an O-line capable of moving the LOS, but to the original point, I can say with confidence Mills was a power back that was limited running East/West, & I'm frustrated they didn't try to utilize him better as a North/South runner, primarily because there is a natural answer for this in their offense.

 
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