It's all good and fine to want to run the football, but do we have to make it so ******* obvious? When you have 4 TEs in the game, or 3 TEs and a FB, everyone in the stadium knows we're gonna run it. That said, why do we keep doing that? I'm tired of seeing a run of 2 yards on 1st down followed by a run of 3. We've consistently been in 3rd and 5 or longer the past two weeks. It puts the entire offense in a position to fail. I don't label the 2nd to last drive's failure to score as a fault by Ash. I blame Harsin for dicking around on first and second down. Yeah, Ash should've been ready to catch the snap. It might've been 3rd down anyway. I just hate that in the most critical part of the game, we decide to tell the defense exactly what plays we are going to run. There is no excuse for not scoring a touchdown when you start that close to your opponents' end zone. Here's an idea: If you want to run the ball, spread the defense out by going 3-wide. It keeps them out of the box if the respect the pass. With the box open, there's more room for our talented backs to run to. If they load the box to stop the run, throw it. What a damn concept. You can take your gadget plays and shov'em up where the sun doesn't shine if you can't can't handle that concept. That's the same concept that allowed OSU and WVU to run all over us.
Each of the last two weeks we have faced passing team that appear to have better running backs than our national top recruits. We run for two or three yards they run for 11 (or more). Harsin should try to copy the competition or maybe our top national recruits are not that good?
Our RB's would do a lot better if they were playing against our defense. That's the biggest difference.
Last week it paid off that we forced the run. This week it didn't. WV gets a lot of credit for that, but they were determined that we were not going to grind out the clock. I think Harsin was probably a little too stubborn tonight on that strategy. At some point, you just have to accept that it's a track meet and go with it.
Yep, Harsin thought he would wear out the defense, then gash them late in the game like he did last week. It didn't work tonight. I hate second and eight.
If you're using first down to get two yards and burn 30 seconds of game clock, that's a bad strategy. You can't waste downs like that. I would have loved some more play action on first down instead of Bergeron for 2 yards (he had 17 carries for less than 3 ypc). Fourth quarter, we've got our foot on their throat... defense just turned it over deep inside WV territory. Get 7 there and we're in pretty good shape. What do we do? Bergeron up the middle twice, then the disastrous fumbled snap. Damn. That's NOT the time to "wear them down" or "control the time of possession," or whatever. You've got to score there. Get it into the hands of a playmaker, or go play action and try to get somebody the ball in the open field.
To the OP... yeah. I hated those jumbo looks at midfield. You've got a team with DJ, Daje, Marquise, J. Grey, Shipley... and you're going to pull all those guys off the field for 3 tight ends and Bergeron? WTF?
Hornsforever93 you are totally correct Harsin gets way too much dinero for his trick plays and wild horn formation that we see every freaking game some one after another omg anytime u see Gray in the wild horn formation u know he is going up the middle hell any junior high or pop Warner coach could defend that. Need to mix up the play calling and quit running up the dam middle because our center Esponosa is not a good blocker and most of our RB's only get a yard a two. Harsin quit being so predictable and mix up your play calling, last night during the game I thought it was our genius Greg Davis calling plays for us again.
Our running game is not that good, especially when the other team knows it's coming. We averaged 3.5 yards per carry. Why not throw the ball, and throw it again until their defense gets out of the 8 in the box?
Amazing that Mack has totally tried to re-vamp our DNA based on an injury to the quarterback that resulted in one loss to an SEC (BAMA) team. This probably resulted in the the loss of at least one game. And please do not let me hear the words "we're a young team" ever again!
Offensive rhythm disappeared mid first quarter; reappeared mid second quarter through the third quarter; and then was gone. Every yard gained in the 4th quarter was individual effort; not the result of a planned offense. As good as the offense was in the OSU game, it was bad in the WV game. The play calling was so bad at times I would have sworn that GD had flown in for the game with Vince.
The funny thing is that it seemed like before the game the majority of the opinions on this board were that TOP was key and we needed to play grind-it-out offense to keep their offense off the field.