Offense, Best since 2008

Okay, I think I've figured out how to post a twitter link.

Still a lot of football to be played, but I think we are starting to realize just how good this offense really is. Keep in mind the 08 offense had Colt, Ship and Kwon, and really not much else. This year we have so many weapons including an offensive line that might be the best weapon we have.

 

Certainly best OL in decade. This year might be best offense since ‘05.

 

Too bad that the 08 defense is light years better than we are right now.

We lose about 3 guys on defense so next year our defense might be as good as our offense. Jones, Roach and McCulloch are all playing great for us, but should be replaceable. I'm honestly now of the opinion we should switch to a 4-2-5 defense. It is a better fit for our dline talent and would allow us to blitz a lot less.

Basically move Coburn to a 3i, Slide Graham down to a 3i, keep Roach as a SDE, and move McCulloch to WDE Then use Adeoye and Ossai as our backers with Mitchell as the 3rd backer along with Bimage. Or move Bimage to WDE and use McCulloch and Ossai as the backers with Adeoye and Mitchell backing them up.

Either way, we need more of a pass rush out of the dline.

 

Chris Obi-Wan was an effective runner and a good dump-off passing option, as that team lacked a true TE. I think he wound up with close to 1,000 all-purpose yards that year.

 

He was but he was no Ingram.

 

What made our 2008 offense so dangerous (beyond Colt to Quan/Shipley) was how efficient every other role player took their jobs. When Irby went down and Greg Davis was forced to switch things up from an 11-set to more 10-sets, every other skill position player was called into duty. I'm fairly certain Colt pulled everyone aside before the OU game and laid out some pretty clear expectations about ball control and responsibilities.

Our RBs averaged 4.3, 5.0, 4.4, 4.4, and 5.2 ypc, with the top three of those guys sharing the reps nearly equally. Whitaker might have been improving as the season went along, too, if it wasn't for the damn injuries that always struck him down. The production that we saw then is being matched solely by Ingram and Johnson, but if Young got a little healthier and out of the dog house, we could even outperform our numbers from that year.

The head cases who ended up getting kicked off the team (McGee, Williams, and Collins) emerged as actual threats to opponents, and were reliable dump-off options when Cosby and Shipley were covered. Or deep threats, as Malcolm proved against Tech when everyone else was getting annihilated in the backfield. Kirkendoll even started showing flashes of what made him a team leader in 2010, as if that's saying much.

The thing that makes the 2019 version of the team eerily similar is how we use the WR sets with the slot guys. There's a bit of overlap with the 2009 team in this regard as well. When someone like Quan (Duvernay) or Dan Buckner (Eagles) moves over inside the X or Z man, it forces the defense to pick their poison. We started beating the crap out of everyone by just moving our slot position players around. Having an all-conference kind of QB doesn't hurt either.

 

Great post @Horns11

 

I was thinking the same thing about the defense Bill. I wonder if Orlando would be willing to play 4. I really like seeing our DTs bull rush, pushing the interior OL into the pocket.

Top DTs have to like watching our guys, right?