Turf
11-12-2013, 08:36 AM
I think Marrone brings a hell of a lot to the table, and has this team mentally going in the right direction. There are some basic flaws I think that if he changed, would bring better results.
1) With the success of the defense, I would scrap the hurry up offense philosophy. There's a place for it, but not as a rule. Imagine if this defense faced 20 less plays a game and was fresher. Imagine the ball control edge we could gain with this defense and a ball control offense. I think we're wasting a great opportunity to dominate games. We give the other team too many chances to score, and we're wearing our own team out.
2) Clock management, which is a follow through of the above. Don't go into the no huddle with under 2 mins left in the half because "that's what we do". Pretty blockheaded if you ask me.
3) Red zone inside the 5, or any 3rd and one. TE, blocking FB and HB, 2 receivers. You can simply bull your way through with the FB leading. You can fool them and hand off to the FB. You can fake it and let the TE slip out. Or you can throw to a receiver. Our current way is to predictable and narrow.
4) Punting inside the oppositions 40 yard line. Simply put, never.
5) Stop coddling EJ. We threw our backups to the wolves and made them throw balls all over the field. The playbook appeared to be open. When EJ gets in, we're afraid to hurt his ego, and we go ultra conservative. Find out if he can throw a football or not and move on.
This team has the opportunity to be a ball possession team with this defense. But that will never happen with the hurry up offense. A couple lengthy drives, the rested defense gets on the field and the offense has to throw because of time left in the game.
These are pretty simple adjustments that would dramatically change the output of these games. So Doug, instead of going home and feeling sick and grinding over this, make some simple changes to the core philosophy of your approach.
1) With the success of the defense, I would scrap the hurry up offense philosophy. There's a place for it, but not as a rule. Imagine if this defense faced 20 less plays a game and was fresher. Imagine the ball control edge we could gain with this defense and a ball control offense. I think we're wasting a great opportunity to dominate games. We give the other team too many chances to score, and we're wearing our own team out.
2) Clock management, which is a follow through of the above. Don't go into the no huddle with under 2 mins left in the half because "that's what we do". Pretty blockheaded if you ask me.
3) Red zone inside the 5, or any 3rd and one. TE, blocking FB and HB, 2 receivers. You can simply bull your way through with the FB leading. You can fool them and hand off to the FB. You can fake it and let the TE slip out. Or you can throw to a receiver. Our current way is to predictable and narrow.
4) Punting inside the oppositions 40 yard line. Simply put, never.
5) Stop coddling EJ. We threw our backups to the wolves and made them throw balls all over the field. The playbook appeared to be open. When EJ gets in, we're afraid to hurt his ego, and we go ultra conservative. Find out if he can throw a football or not and move on.
This team has the opportunity to be a ball possession team with this defense. But that will never happen with the hurry up offense. A couple lengthy drives, the rested defense gets on the field and the offense has to throw because of time left in the game.
These are pretty simple adjustments that would dramatically change the output of these games. So Doug, instead of going home and feeling sick and grinding over this, make some simple changes to the core philosophy of your approach.