(09-10-2023 06:24 AM)BluffCity901 Wrote: (09-09-2023 09:18 PM)Alanda Wrote: Nice to see another win. Ducker still looks like our best RB.
O-line needs a lot of work to establish any running game...or get more creative. But I do not disagree. Ducker always seems to pop the chunk plays. Vision, anticipation, I like him.
I also like Watson and Smith, but we missed a lot of open gaps in a zone scheme. So vision? Fix the front then find the guy.
To me the problem isn't the line, it's the over-reliance on the zone scheme that makes us predictable. Although it did lead to a nice misdirection pass play for a TD. Reminded me of Fuente as he relied on misdirection in his offense. Like you mentioned they need to be more creative. The problems have looked the same every season. It's too consistently/predictably bad for me to say it's all on the players up front.
I decided to look back at this game to look what all was run. I'm not as thorough as I used to be so it's definitely possible I missed some things. From what I can tell and ignoring Seth's runs, these are all of the runs that were not some type of Zone scheme in the game.
1Q, 9:00, 1st & 10 - Counter play for Watson to the right. 6yds. Scates seemed to either miss his assignment and/or not put much effort into his block. 2nd back tried to up this defender, but he makes the tackle. Watson gains more on that play with more effort from Scates.
1Q, 7:13, 1st & 10 - Looks like Gap (could be counter) for Smith to the left. 4yds. Landphere (TE) lines up as an H-Back on the right side. Right guard pulls and Landphere works kind like a lead blocker or might be viewed as pulling. That's why I can't clearly say gap or counter.
1Q, 1:11, 1st & 10 - Counter for Ducker. 0yds. Interesting design with this play as the counter block goes left, but they sweep right. Landphere is again at the H-Back on the right. He attempts to block Straker, but Straker blows up the block and runs Ducker out of bounds. Probably would have only gotten 3-4 yds at best if the block was solid.
2Q, 13:25, 1st & 10 - Man blocking for Watson up the middle. 2yds. Not much push and the DTs still make the tackle.
3Q, 10:48, 1st & 10 - Looks closest to Man blocking. Watson up the middle. 3yds. Left DE makes RT Hill, guessing based on number, miss the block.
3Q, 9:49, 3rd & 3 - Man, Watson up the middle. 2yds. LB makes the tackle.
4Q, 8:39, 1st & 10 - Counter right for Watson. 13yds. Safety saves this from being a much longer run.
4Q, 7:15, 2nd & 7 - Counter right for Smith. 0yds. Pulling LT Pounders unable to block the LB that made the tackle. Smith probably could have also bounced outside of that LB. If he slows down just a little bit he may have been able to see the hole that formed to the right of that LB.
4Q, 5:50, 1st & 10 - Counter left for Watson. 0yds. Pounders (not pulling this time) seems to go to far down the line to the right before getting up field to the LB. LB helps make the tackle.
By my count and again removing Seth's runs, 9/33 run plays were something other than zone. Which means about 72.7% of those runs were zone plays. And this feels like the most counter I've seen in one game, although three of those essentially came in garbage time. Maybe that's a sign we will see more counter going forward after all. I definitely hope so because we need it.
Unfortunately as I was writing these down I began to notice another concern for predictability. As you can see almost all of these happened on 1st & 10. I hope Cramsey mixes this up more in the future.
And here are the best zone plays I saw.
3Q, 13:22, 1st & 10 - Zone left. Watson runs to the right of the blocking for 8yds. Left corner makes tackle
3Q, 6:30, 1st & 10 - Zone right. Ducker runs for 22yds. Surprisingly the right DE is the one that makes the tackle. If I understand it right, the blocking in this play is called a split zone. I saw it run quite a bit, but I'm specifically mentioning it here because it might have been a touchdown if blocked right. TE Doyle is in motion right and then sets as the H-Back. Then he goes back left to block while the zone blocking goes right (split zone). He doesn't get a solid block on the right DE. If he does Ducker might have taken that 70. WR Taylor also seemed unsure on who to block. It looks like if he had been more decisive and picked up someone earlier, Ducker might be able to get a few more yards.
4Q, 6:31, 3 & 7 - Zone middle. Ducker runs for 13yds. LBs played up on the line making it much easier for the OL to make their blocks and open up the 2nd level.
So far I believe out of the Silverfield era RBs, Ducker has the best vision of them all. Personally I would hope that once he gets healthy he would be our main back. But I don't see practice to know why he doesn't get the most reps. Because based on games he should be our #1.
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