Unfortunately, in two straight years, I think the primary RB being injured in playoff, basically took a wrecking ball to play-book. I put some of that at feet of Day....I recognize there’s only so many reps to go around, and installing new plays to a gameplan, presents challenges with limited game preparation time.
Without a doubt against Clemson, when Dobbins was hurt, our offense went into a shell. When Teague entered game, what was a pretty creative gameplan, with more misdirection than we had seen throughout season, went extremely basic and became a shell. I’m pretty convinced it’s because Teague didn’t have aspects of the gameplan down m, heading into game. Essentially, Dobbins injury shut down a large section of the playbook that had been installed, in preparation for Clemson.....and I don’t really put that on Teague.....you have to anticipate injuries will happen in FB. That’s a huge risk to run.
Against Bama, I think we saw a similar situation happen. I don’t think the playbook shrunk as much necessarily like the year prior, but you could see Sermon had become lead back, and the Buckeyes were rolling with him. The timing on several plays was off with Teague, where had it been Sermon you wonder what might’ve been.....the missed screen pass that would’ve gone for huge yards against Bama comes to mind. Again, that is primarily practice reps and getting basics like timing and understanding the concept down. Then there’s a whole package of unique plays Day likes to install leading into specific games, and something as simple as blocking scheme can make a playcaller gun shy if the RB doesn’t have basic assignments down.
It’s not to excuse Teague.....just some explanation as to why things have gone south when injuries to the starter have happened. The offense immediately looks out of sync, and that’s because it is. I feel like if anything, after last 2 years and way season has ended, Day will get the backup RB’s more reps for unique game situations so hopefully the playbook doesn’t shut down IMO.
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