Offensive Play Calling

beaVo

beaVo

500+ Posts
for those smarter than me (most everyone on the board)…. why is our play calling so vanilla the vast majority of the time?

i watch other games and see so many other teams run creative or misdirection plays that we should be fully capable of running, but don’t.
 
Define "vanilla". What I see is Sark (much smarter than all of us) running an offense that fits his available personnel. Young quarterbacks, two freshman OLs, Neyor injured. I think this offense has performed admirably.
 
From what I’ve seen, our screen and short passing game is creative as anyones. Sark also seems excellent at some deeper stuff too. For my tastes, he forces things a bit too much at times.
 
to be more specific… i get aggravated with the play calling in short yardage or red zone situations. i hate it when it’s 3rd & 2 or 3rd & goals and we run it up the middle for little or no gain. that’s the ideal time to do somethin a little creative. but we rarely do.

fake it to bijan then toss it to the tight end. or fake a pitch one direction, then turn around and do somethin the other direction. or toss it to roschon and let him pull up and throw it.
 
beaVo said:
for those smarter than me (most everyone on the board)…. why is our play calling so vanilla the vast majority of the time?

i watch other games and see so many other teams run creative or misdirection plays that we should be fully capable of running, but don’t.
Click to expand...

I have to disagree with your post. I have seen those very plays run in various situations. One example that comes to mind quickly is the TD to Worthy on fourth down against ISU. It was a tight formation, could have run out of it and a great route by worthy fooled two isu defenders who were set to double team worthy yet the creative play call faked them out of their jock straps. Other examples abound of misdirection, play fakes , etc.
 
^^^ sometimes I too tire of predictable runs up the gut in the Red Zone with D in goal line stacked formation, with small techniques / holes to run through.

Often I yell out fake a TB drive up the gut and:

Fake handoff, QB rollout and hit receivers on quick crisscrossing pattern on the wide side of the field.

Pitch to HB dragging to one side or the other.

Bootleg QB run or pass.

Hit TE quick in the flat or over the middle.

Point is, mix it up better... become less predictable!!
 
WorsterMan said:
^^^ sometimes I too tire of predictable runs up the gut in the Red Zone with D in goal line stacked formation, with small techniques / holes to run through.

Often I yell out fake a TB drive up the gut and:

Fake handoff, QB rollout and hit receivers on quick crisscrossing pattern on the wide side of the field.

Pitch to HB dragging to one side or the other.

Bootleg QB run or pass.

Hit TE quick in the flat or over the middle.

Point is, mix it up better... become less predictable!!
Click to expand...
love naked boot legs yet we never do it.
 
WorsterMan said:
^^^ sometimes I too tire of predictable runs up the gut in the Red Zone with D in goal line stacked formation, with small techniques / holes to run through.

Often I yell out fake a TB drive up the gut and:

Fake handoff, QB rollout and hit receivers on quick crisscrossing pattern on the wide side of the field.

Pitch to HB dragging to one side or the other.

Bootleg QB run or pass.

Hit TE quick in the flat or over the middle.

Point is, mix it up better... become less predictable!!
Click to expand...

I have no problem with Sark's play calling in the red zone. However, I do think there is a reason we don't see Ewers bootleg or rolling much to the flats where he has the option to run or pass. Ewers is a bit slow afoot. Great arm, good vision downfield, but a very mediocre runner. Card has quick feet and has above average speed for a QB. Bootlegs and rollouts are more suited to Card.

We will see Roschon take a handoff or pitch wide and pull up and throw to a receiver. that is in the playbook. We saw an even more creative version of this when Ewers threw to Worthy out wide and HE threw for a TD. Most folks know that Ro is a former QB and expect him to throw it sooner or later. But Worthy?? That was a real surprise.
 
I've said it more than once, but...

Wildcat with Roschon (former QB), Whittington (former QB), Robinson, and Robinson would be lethal. Especially if we passed out of it ~20% of the time.
 
caryhorn said:
I have to disagree with your post. I have seen those very plays run in various situations.
Click to expand...

I’m not saying these plays have never been run… but they haven’t been run enough to be able to disagree with my post.

I sure hope I’m wrong but i fully expect to be disappointed with much of the play calling tomorrow in clutch situations. On the road, against a good team… it’s just what I’ve come to expect. Conservative, often predictable stuff from page 1 of the play book.
 
beaVo said:
Conservative, often predictable stuff from page 1 of the play book.
Click to expand...
You mean like the play calling that earned us the game winning drive against ISU? You see, the gadgetry you pine for isn't worth a crap if your opponent doesn't have to respect your ability to hurt them with predictable stuff from page 1 of the play book.
 
Whether it's vanilla, chocolate or cookies and cream all that matters to me is we move the ball down the field and score lots of points. Texas has been pretty darn good at that.

The only really frustrating game to me was at tech when they were selling out to stop the run and we played right into their hands in the 2nd half. That's what cost us the game, imo. But Sark pretty much admitted that and it's been much better since.
 
beaVo said:
for those smarter than me (most everyone on the board)…. why is our play calling so vanilla the vast majority of the time?

i watch other games and see so many other teams run creative or misdirection plays that we should be fully capable of running, but don’t.
Click to expand...
 
Sark should realize that Gundy will be very creative in all phases of this game. We had better surpass the cowboy tricks or Gundy will out smart Sark. We won’t overcome biased officiating..which I expect...and being out coached.
 
Pomspoms said:
love naked boot legs
Click to expand...

Me too....now back to topic.

iu
 
that TD pass to Worthy with about 5 minutes to go in the 1st quarter was very nice. little bit of misdirection!l.

And Ewers was under center!

i’m ready to eat my words if we can keep it up.
 
My issue with the play-calling is the wheel routes, inventive use of the TE out of the backfield and other nice schemes completely disappear in the second half.
 
The problem isn't play calling. It is teaching and holding players accountable for executing the plays. Ewers is a 5 star thrower but he had no clue what he was doing today. Gundy wasn't letting Bijan beat him today. Ewers had to play well in the 2nd half, but played like he was drunk.
 
CreakyHorn said:
Define "vanilla". What I see is Sark (much smarter than all of us) running an offense that fits his available personnel. Young quarterbacks, two freshman OLs, Neyor injured. I think this offense has performed admirably.
Click to expand...
We played 3 true freshman OL a lot
 
My only observation was that during the 2nd half drought, we ran the inside zone run on 1st down 80% of the time. Problem was they loaded the box snd ran Tun blitzs every 1st down. That puts us well behind the chains most of the 2nd half.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Recent Threads

Back
Top