Will Martinez be fully healed for the washington game and have his speed back?

[Hujan]

Screen is a Callahan specialty I used to think would never be missed here. I wonder how screens just fit into this current offensive identity. From OC to OL to QB, and then to the playmakers on the field. I don't know about Helu in the passing game, but Rex has definitely shown some good stuff there. This offense can't get enough of Roy and Rex. If Martinez is anything less than capable of providing his big-play threat, I say go with Green, which will result in a LOT of Roy and Rex, and hopefully some more under center stuff that we've been missing, as well as more playaction and different kinds of passes.

With all this time to prepare, I am leaning towards being on the 'Get behind Cody and give him a shot' bandwagon, while Taylor can recuperate and recover behind the scenes and away from the spotlight. If he gets healthy in time, let's see some TaylorCat thrown into a gameplan we built otherwise around Cody.

Honestly, it seems like our players (specifically Martinez) and our coaches (specifically Watson) became addicted to the big play. All or nothing. As if a play wasn't worth running unless we could get +20 yards with it.

The only offensive identity I'd like to see is that we put an emphasis on gaining positive yards on first down. IMO, this is critical. If you get, say, 5 or 6 yards on first down, you have two choices for second down: Either a shorter play to pick up the rest, or a longer play to stretch the field. If you gain significant positive yards on first down, then try for a longer play on second down and fail, then you are still in 3rd and manageable. Going into 3rd down with the option of either running or passing dramatically increases the chances of converting.

I think we found ourselves in way too many third-and-longs this year. Part of that was due to way too many conduct penalties on the line (looking at you, Cotton). Part of it was due to Martinez passing over what could have been a 3- or 4-yard gain, running around in the backfield, and ending up with a 5-yard loss. But part of it was Watson's obsession with lateral running plays. How many times did we see Roy get tackled in the backfield for a loss as he tried to get to the corner. Many, many times. How many times did we see Rex get stuffed at the line for a loss when running between the tackles? I can think of only one for sure, but I'm sure there are some others.

The problem is that so much of our playbook---the zone-reads, the lateral running, etc.---takes so long to develop that it is a gamble. If it works, the play goes for big yardage, but they are not high percentage plays and if they fail, they can stall drives.

Martinez is the king of the big play. If he isn't dropped for a loss and doesn't throw a pick or an incompletion, his plays would almost always go for 20 or more yards. Think about it. Do you remember a time when Martinez had positive yardage on a throw or run that didn't go for at least 15-20 yards? I am having a hard time remembering one.

What Green gives you is the slow, grind-it-out type of offense. With Green in the pocket, we put a bigger emphasis on getting smaller chucks and seem pleased to get any kind of positive yards. This style is probably mind-numbing and makes for poor highlight films, but is a helluva lot more reliable and consistent.

Interestingly, these two contrasts also apply to Rex and Roy. Roy is the big-play back. If he isn't busting a run for 70 yards, he is probably getting dropped for a loss. I can't remember Burkhead busting a long TD run and I doubt if he has a TD run over 50 yards this season, whereas Helu has at least 6 or 7 that I can remember.

My point here is that Martinez/Helu might be our most explosive, sensational combo, but Green/Rex give us stability and more consistent effectiveness, IMO.

 

[zoogs]

Honestly, it seems like our players (specifically Martinez) and our coaches (specifically Watson) became addicted to the big play. All or nothing. As if a play wasn't worth running unless we could get +20 yards with it.

This really goes to Bo being enamored with the big play ability of Martinez. People talk about Taylor as if he can make all kinds of plays available to the offense when that just isn't the case. Taylor being the starter means we were gambling completely on his big play explosion being worth it (it often was, to be fair), and especially worth the cold spells he would go through and all the learning lumps he would take, as both a freshman and simply as a raw prospect.

I agree completely on first down, you should be getting into better situations for 2nd and 3rd down. Even 3-4 yards, consistently, is solid. Zac Lee can do that on the zone read, but he's too slow and not explosive enough for most people here. I disagree on Roy being a big play back though. He'll average solid yards otherwise and it's the recent memory of some awful ZR plays that is giving him this bad rap, IMO. Burkhead is just a beast that will claw something out of nothing quite a lot. Also disagree on the zone read being a lateral run (there are two options) or especially slow to develop. It's not a stretch play here or anything. Whoever gets the ball in the ZR should have some open space to make at least a little hay out of. If not, it is often a poor read.

I will take that grind-it-out, gain yards consistently kind of offense that makes use of our playmakers. I don't much care how fast or slow our quarterback is. But this was not the line of saying of most fans in August, who were just tickled about Taylor starting in spite of the warning signs, and the many people who said stuff along the lines of "Taylor will give you some highlight reel plays, and then he will give you a lot of cold spells." Well, guess what! nonetheless, a two-loss regular season is about what I would have hoped for regardless. I just feel like things could have gone differently very specifically in the CCG, and we could have pulled it out. We were up 17-0, for goodness sake.

If Watson really was the driving force behind propelling Taylor up the charts and sticking to Taylor this entire time, then that is on him.