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Why Isn’t Ohio State’s Offensive Staff Meshing?
WVaBuckeye via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
There have been so many opinions thrown out there about why things are wrong with the offense early in the season and eventually I will get to the stats because they don’t lie. What’s important to remember here is that through the first three games there’s a difference in the total offensive yards by 150 and Ohio State has scored just four less touchdowns.
The place where we can probably look closer and lay some blame would be the offensive line’s lack of execution with their blocking assignments. Particularly against the bear front. They appear to admit they are dumbfounded by it and weren’t prepared. Basically meaning that they watched film of the last two opponents who never showed a tendency to run it but ran it anyway. Shouldn’t the staff expect to see that front because it’s giving them fits?
I’d be screaming mad too if I wasn’t pulling the staff together
Let’s start with the new guys on staff that are trying to put things together under a new play caller in Warinner. Co-Offensive coordinator Tim Beck and running backs coach Tony Alford have come in at a tough time to be in transition. They have Heisman caliber players returning and the one strength that made their season is becoming a bit of an issue with the QB’s. I am struggling here because I believe that Tom Herman had a feel for who was the best QB for this system and he hand picked him!
Again, talking about these three puts me in the mind that the two of the latter would probably want to figure out ways to feature your star running back while making it more difficult to defend. This leads me to the reason the staff may not be meshing right now. In the past, we knew they liked to script the first few series to test the other teams defensive strategies and tendencies because you can’t lay your odds on film study entirely.
We haven’t really seen a hint of that and at most times it feels like Warinner is trying too hard to feature an individual player and when the defense knew it was coming? That causes for concern because of the lack of immediate adjustment. They just keep trying the same package and player waiting for the home-run when the o-line is struggling.
Taylor Decker leads an offensive line that needs to find its way again
That brings me to my final point before cutting you loose on the stats. I truly believe that they aren’t scripting and it’s with good reason. This is a confident coaching staff. The best in the country if you ask me and the Buckeyes will lose a couple more of them this off-season. The reason they aren’t scripting is because they have primarily ran their base offense this entire time, with some exceptions against VaTech, they did run the trap for 80 yards that sprung Zeke.
They also ran Braxton in shot-gun and he made a play for the ages. That’s the offense everyone wants to see, but the stark reality is that this team is good enough to beat anyone without running anything special. They should be able to line up and beat anyone on their schedule. Man to man, offense against defense and vice versa.
They are struggling to mesh because they are showing bad tendencies to other teams to study and quite possibly saving some special things for November 21st and for the last game of the regular season. Time will tell just how good this staff can be together, and there really isn’t reason to get concerned just yet. They’ll mix things up and get the ball rolling. I don’t see a lot of panicking in Columbus right now by the people I would expect to panic!
Below you will see the stats comparisons from this seasons first three games during the last two seasons. Please bare in mind when reading them that the offense had the best deep threat in America, the best blocking WR in America, and a decided starting QB who was just beginning to set the world on fire, but not yet!
2014 Rushing Receiving Passing tot
Date Opponent no. yds td lg no. yds td lg c-a-i yds td lg off
Aug 30 vs Navy 40 194 1 20 12 226 2 80 12-15-1 226 2 80 420
Sep 06 VIRGINIA TECH 40 108 2 25 9 219 1 58 9-29-3 219 1 58 327
Sep 13 KENT STATE 53 284 3 26 25 344 6 63 25-34-1 344 6 63 628
Totals 133 586 6 26 46 789 9 80 46-78-5 789 9 80 1375
2015 Rushing Receiving Passing
Date Opponent no. yds td lg no. yds td lg c-a-i yds td lg off
Sep 07 at Virginia Tech 36 359 3 80 11 213 3 54 11-20-1 213 3 54 572
Sep 12 HAWAI’I 49 182 4 24 20 181 0 24 20-34-0 181 0 24 363
Sep 19 NIU 37 162 0 13 16 136 1 25 16-29-3 136 1 25 298
Totals 122 703 7 80 47 530 4 54 47-83-4 530 4 54 1233
The post Why Isn’t Ohio State’s Offensive Staff Meshing? appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.
Continue reading...
WVaBuckeye via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
There have been so many opinions thrown out there about why things are wrong with the offense early in the season and eventually I will get to the stats because they don’t lie. What’s important to remember here is that through the first three games there’s a difference in the total offensive yards by 150 and Ohio State has scored just four less touchdowns.
The place where we can probably look closer and lay some blame would be the offensive line’s lack of execution with their blocking assignments. Particularly against the bear front. They appear to admit they are dumbfounded by it and weren’t prepared. Basically meaning that they watched film of the last two opponents who never showed a tendency to run it but ran it anyway. Shouldn’t the staff expect to see that front because it’s giving them fits?
I’d be screaming mad too if I wasn’t pulling the staff together
Let’s start with the new guys on staff that are trying to put things together under a new play caller in Warinner. Co-Offensive coordinator Tim Beck and running backs coach Tony Alford have come in at a tough time to be in transition. They have Heisman caliber players returning and the one strength that made their season is becoming a bit of an issue with the QB’s. I am struggling here because I believe that Tom Herman had a feel for who was the best QB for this system and he hand picked him!
Again, talking about these three puts me in the mind that the two of the latter would probably want to figure out ways to feature your star running back while making it more difficult to defend. This leads me to the reason the staff may not be meshing right now. In the past, we knew they liked to script the first few series to test the other teams defensive strategies and tendencies because you can’t lay your odds on film study entirely.
We haven’t really seen a hint of that and at most times it feels like Warinner is trying too hard to feature an individual player and when the defense knew it was coming? That causes for concern because of the lack of immediate adjustment. They just keep trying the same package and player waiting for the home-run when the o-line is struggling.
Taylor Decker leads an offensive line that needs to find its way again
That brings me to my final point before cutting you loose on the stats. I truly believe that they aren’t scripting and it’s with good reason. This is a confident coaching staff. The best in the country if you ask me and the Buckeyes will lose a couple more of them this off-season. The reason they aren’t scripting is because they have primarily ran their base offense this entire time, with some exceptions against VaTech, they did run the trap for 80 yards that sprung Zeke.
They also ran Braxton in shot-gun and he made a play for the ages. That’s the offense everyone wants to see, but the stark reality is that this team is good enough to beat anyone without running anything special. They should be able to line up and beat anyone on their schedule. Man to man, offense against defense and vice versa.
They are struggling to mesh because they are showing bad tendencies to other teams to study and quite possibly saving some special things for November 21st and for the last game of the regular season. Time will tell just how good this staff can be together, and there really isn’t reason to get concerned just yet. They’ll mix things up and get the ball rolling. I don’t see a lot of panicking in Columbus right now by the people I would expect to panic!
Below you will see the stats comparisons from this seasons first three games during the last two seasons. Please bare in mind when reading them that the offense had the best deep threat in America, the best blocking WR in America, and a decided starting QB who was just beginning to set the world on fire, but not yet!
2014 Rushing Receiving Passing tot
Date Opponent no. yds td lg no. yds td lg c-a-i yds td lg off
Aug 30 vs Navy 40 194 1 20 12 226 2 80 12-15-1 226 2 80 420
Sep 06 VIRGINIA TECH 40 108 2 25 9 219 1 58 9-29-3 219 1 58 327
Sep 13 KENT STATE 53 284 3 26 25 344 6 63 25-34-1 344 6 63 628
Totals 133 586 6 26 46 789 9 80 46-78-5 789 9 80 1375
2015 Rushing Receiving Passing
Date Opponent no. yds td lg no. yds td lg c-a-i yds td lg off
Sep 07 at Virginia Tech 36 359 3 80 11 213 3 54 11-20-1 213 3 54 572
Sep 12 HAWAI’I 49 182 4 24 20 181 0 24 20-34-0 181 0 24 363
Sep 19 NIU 37 162 0 13 16 136 1 25 16-29-3 136 1 25 298
Totals 122 703 7 80 47 530 4 54 47-83-4 530 4 54 1233
The post Why Isn’t Ohio State’s Offensive Staff Meshing? appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.
Continue reading...