The All-Encompassing Offensive Formation Thread

Chaney spent the entire UGA game working the sidelines with Da'Rick and Zach. The middle of the field was open all day and Rivera murdered them whenever we went there, which was not nearly often enough. Everything worked against Cincy because their defense sucked way too bad to cover those two guys. Rogers and Hunter could have told the secondary before each play what route they were about to run.

 

I'm thinking he is better as a quality control guy with someone else (Lane Kiffin or Joe Tiller) calling the shots.

 

I think you're putting too much emphasis on route combinations. I would say the primary reason we sucked ass after Hunter went down is because we couldn't run the ball at all. Teams could stop our run in their base defense and focus their attention to stopping Da'Rick and it was pretty much game over.

 

Agree.

 

I remember feeling that we lost to UGA partly due to not hitting them with what was working at the time, i.e. Rivera. That could be off, since that was months ago and I was pretty disappointed in losing Bray so not necessarily forming coherent (sober) thoughts.

As I recall, we kept trying to force the run and it wasn't there for a variety of reasons:

1) we sucked at the run
2) it was predictable when we would run
3) it was predictable what formations we would try to run out of

Instead of trying to impose our will with passes to the middle of the field to someone not named Rogers, we kept trying to force it to them. It wasn't until towards the end of the game we started attacking the middle of the field regularly and then it was too late.

 

Hence, have Da'Rick go one way and Rivera go the other. I just have a hard time believing that with Da'Rick double covered no one else could get open.

 

I don't. I don't see Zach Rogers and crew blowing past anyone.

 

Downs was ready to go last year but was rarely utilizes. Arnett should have been sooner. Fugate was a better receiver than Bartholomew but he never saw the field. We may not have had a WRU type roster last year, but we couldn't pass against anyone after Florida, Vandy and UK included.

Also, the idea that any of our wide receivers need to "blow past" someone in order for our passing game to work was part of the problem last year. Kept trying to open up the field with deep passes.

 

Zach can blow past people, he just can't catch the ball after he does. While he sucks, you had Rivera, who wasn't utilized enough, Arnett who didn't see the field until way too late and Neal, who moved to WR and looked pretty damn good with 2 games left in the season.

There were enough weapons to have an offense that could at least get first downs without 3 passes towards Da'Rick.

 

I believe Bray threw for around 260 against UGA and played poorly, and then we had Worley the rest of the year. The problem was the run game not the passing game, imo.

 

The run game was a huge problem, which was also a lot of Chaney's fault. That said, pass-first teams exist. It happens with less talent on offense than Tennessee had last year.

 

You couldn't have a passing game with Matt Simms. But after he was benched, I agree.

 

Agree that Chaney gets the blame for the run game. I just don't think we were going to go into a Case Keenum offense after Hunter went down. They probably could have done better, but you had a bunch of guys that had never played and obviously weren't prepared enough in the offseason because they weren't expected to play.

 

I mean, we had one of the best QBs in the SEC and our only offense was praying Da'Rick did something Randy Moss-ish.

 

I really hope that last sentence isn't true. The standard excuse for the run game is that we didn't practice running it enough because of our passing triumvirate. If we didn't even bother preparing any receivers beyond the first string, we must have had a really shitty offseason.

 

I can guarantee you that the practices leading up to 2011 had as little to do with trying to establish the LOS and running the ball as it did planning to break out the pistol 12 weeks into the season.

 

Except we didn't, from about the start of the 4th quarter on of the Georgia game.

 

We had him and three weeks of preparation prior to the UGA game and looked like garbage. Vandy and UK was more of the same.

 

Not arguing about the Georgia game, although the ball moved well in the first half. I don't think he was 100% after he came back fwiw jmo.

 

I agree that he deserves some slack on the last two games of the season. No such excuse for UGA though.