Was/Is NU's offense predictable?

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

According to Muschamp (Auburn's DC):

Auburn DC Will Muschamp told his players to stay patient. He told them: "The guy (Zac Taylor) is on a script for the first 15 plays. Just everybody calm down."
That's typical of the West Coast offense, Muschamp said.

"I told the kids going into the game that if we just get through these 12 to 15 plays, we'll be fine. He's going to show all of his motions, all of his shifts, and after that it's over. All these West Coast guys are programmed."

I also read on another forum (aunation.net I believe) Muschamp figured out early on going man-to-man was not going to work (hence our ability to drive the field and score a TD on our 1st possession) so he switched to Zone/Cover-2 and shut down our WR's.

What does everyone think about Caly's scripted plays to start the game? Me personally I've never been a fan of the idea. I'd rather the play calling be spontanenous based on the situation and not based on how a team defends a certain area of the field.

 

[FriscoTXHusker]

We seemed to be very effective coming out of the starting gate.

I'm more concerned about why we can't seem to get anything going in the 2nd half. It's been a problem all season long. At one point BC even said he thought he'd figured it out. Doesn't seem to be the case. But, I guess I'm getting off topic.

It might be beneficial for the kids to know ahead of time what they're doing until they can get somewhat settled into the game and see what the defense is up to.

 

[MadcatNU]

What does everyone think about Caly's scripted plays to start the game? Me personally I've never been a fan of the idea. I'd rather the play calling be spontanenous based on the situation and not based on how a team defends a certain area of the field.

i don't think it's right or wrong to script plays. Seems like there is advantages and disadvantages either way.

Seeing that the scripted plays have done pretty well, i don't see any reason why BC should stop with them. This year the problem has been after the script, which is a strange opposite of what the problem was last year?

I also read on another forum (aunation.net I believe) Muschamp figured out early on going man-to-man was not going to work (hence our ability to drive the field and score a TD on our 1st possession) so he switched to Zone/Cover-2 and shut down our WR's.

That's a problem of not reading the defensive shifts. Scripting or not scripting doesn't matter if you can't read the defense.

 

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

So do you guys think Caly should script plays for both halves then?

 

[cmb23]

I think that the offense has been more predictable once the 'script' ends!!! How many times have we come out of the gate (first/second posessions of the game) and put together good-looking drives, mix pass/run, and end up with a score? It at least seems like more often than not.

Then as they come off the script and 'calling' plays...it gets easier for the defense to shut down plays and drives. Just my opinion. Of course maybe not all of the players are sharp enough to know all of the plays inside and out, so beyond the scripted plays in practice, they are going to be somewhat limited in what can be called on the fly.

 

[FriscoTXHusker]

I think that the offense has been more predictable once the 'script' ends!!! How many times have we come out of the gate (first/second posessions of the game) and put together good-looking drives, mix pass/run, and end up with a score? It at least seems like more often than not.

This would also seem to fit Mushcamp's comment to his kids, i.e., don't panic if they (NU) roll on the first 12/15 plays .... they'll have to settle into their routine and we'll do better then.

 

[MadcatNU]

So do you guys think Caly should script plays for both halves then?

Most coaches call plays based on how the game is going, the idea of scripting is just to establish a few things from the begining and maybe settle the players into the game. i'm awfully skeptical that anyone could predict that deep into a game, and to my knowledge no one does this. i think this would be micro managing too much, but others might feel different.

 

[FriscoTXHusker]

So do you guys think Caly should script plays for both halves then?

Most coaches call plays based on how the game is going, the idea of scripting is just to establish a few things from the begining and maybe settle the players into the game. i'm awfully skeptical that anyone could predict that deep into a game, and to my knowledge no one does this. i think this would be micro managing too much, but others might feel different.

I assume the scripted series is also practiced so one couldn't implement more than a couple; i.e., the openner and one for the end of a game where the team is behind for example.

 

[MadcatNU]

So do you guys think Caly should script plays for both halves then?

Most coaches call plays based on how the game is going, the idea of scripting is just to establish a few things from the begining and maybe settle the players into the game. i'm awfully skeptical that anyone could predict that deep into a game, and to my knowledge no one does this. i think this would be micro managing too much, but others might feel different.

I assume the scripted series is also practiced so one couldn't implement more than a couple; i.e., the openner and one for the end of a game where the team is behind for example.

Yeah, you are probably right. Would be very time consuming for the staff to create several package scripts week to week, and wouldn't be a very efficient use of time to practice several of these sets where many may not even end up being used. Probably better to practice all the plays and then run them as the game unfolds.

 

[NU fan in Denver]

So do you guys think Caly should script plays for both halves then?

Most coaches call plays based on how the game is going, the idea of scripting is just to establish a few things from the begining and maybe settle the players into the game. i'm awfully skeptical that anyone could predict that deep into a game, and to my knowledge no one does this. i think this would be micro managing too much, but others might feel different.

I assume the scripted series is also practiced so one couldn't implement more than a couple; i.e., the openner and one for the end of a game where the team is behind for example.

Yeah, you are probably right. Would be very time consuming for the staff to create several package scripts week to week, and wouldn't be a very efficient use of time to practice several of these sets where many may not even end up being used. Probably better to practice all the plays and then run them as the game unfolds.

The scripting of plays also gives the coaches an idea of how the D is going to react to specific plays, alignments, formations, and motions. It gives the coaches something to work off of later on in the game. The problem is that the D makes adjustments too.

I don't know about anyone else, but there were several occasions this season that I could see what play was going to be ran based off of the formation. Anybody else catch on to the O?

 

[cmb23]

I don't know about anyone else, but there were several occasions this season that I could see what play was going to be ran based off of the formation. Anybody else catch on to the O?

I'm pretty sure that 90% of coaches, defenders, fans and blind/deaf mutes knew what was coming based off of the formation in 1999...2000... Crouch, option keeper right. It won him a Heisman.

Same thing could be said about knowing what was coming at you in 93-96. We could have put the play up on the bigscreens to show the Defense who was going where.

Difference is, that we had the horses that there wasn't anything anyone could do about it.

 

[FriscoTXHusker]

I don't know about anyone else, but there were several occasions this season that I could see what play was going to be ran based off of the formation. Anybody else catch on to the O?

I'm pretty sure that 90% of coaches, defenders, fans and blind/deaf mutes knew what was coming based off of the formation in 1999...2000... Crouch, option keeper right. It won him a Heisman.

Same thing could be said about knowing what was coming at you in 93-96. We could have put the play up on the bigscreens to show the Defense who was going where.

Difference is, that we had the horses that there wasn't anything anyone could do about it.

:yeah

That's what I want! Our O-line to the point where everyone knows what's comin' so either get out of the way or prepare to die.

 

[Blackshirt316]

The problem isn't that the first 15 plays are scripted, the problem is that those 15 plays pretty much show the defense all our packages that we are going to use in that game so when they adjust at halftime they are able to stop everything we could do previously because we simply aren't coming up with anything new.

The best way to fix the problem is to show them the packages we want them to see in the first half and than have a second set of packages that are designed to counter their adjustments in the 3rd quarter. Than by the fourth quarter we should be using a combination of the two package groups depending on what their defense is showing us in the situation given.

IE: We showed Auburn our packages in the first half that were designed to exploit their man to man coverage but we didn't have any packages ready for the 2nd half to counter their switch to zone coverage. And since it is pretty obvious that if you show a team that you are going to be physical against the man coverage and use the sideline they are going to move to the zone in an attempt to counter so those new packages should have been in place. Expecially considering we had an entire month to prepare.

 

[chamrocck]

So do you guys think Caly should script plays for both halves then?

I have thought about this before and maybe he should do this. We have had great drives to start games and have fallen flat in second half often. The Auburn coach knew what he was talking about. I am really concerned about our second halves and not adjusting. This has got to change. How cool would it be to see us roll a ranked opponent in the second half? We do not have the signature mark of a championship team that will roll opponents in the second half. The team that has it today is USC. The Rose Bowl telecast was all over Carroll and how great his in-game adjustments and second half adjustments are...cannot really argue as they rolled Michigan in second half and do this quite a lot. USC is so good at this that they often absorb an opponent's best shot early in the game, adjust, and then just crush their opponent in the second half. You expect them to do this every game (that is why the UCLA game was so surprising to me).

 

[pigsonthewing]

Of course our offense is predictable. We are either gonna run it, or we are gonna pass it. :sarcasm