Live Thread - Watching the game now, general play by play observations

[top dawg]

40 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

It's still early, but I'm starting to think not blowing a huge wad on Short may turn out to be smarter than anyone would have suspected.

I was always suspect on Short and long money. He's good at times, just not great all of the time. He's certainly not living up to a $17 million per year contract.

[Mr. Scot]

1 minute ago, gmonjimbo said:

Might be time to abandon the read option completely.

I've been in favor of that for a while.

[gmonjimbo]

1 minute ago, Mr. Scot said:

I've been in favor of that for a while.

Do you think we have the personnel to run I formation with power,counter,etc.?

[top dawg]

42 minutes ago, Jeremy Igo said:

OK, Panthers down 14-0. 

Cam played poorly. 

Defensive line got no pressure. 

Safeties were terrible. 

Those were the top 3 issues so far, imo. 

 

I saw the D-line getting pressure. They had three sacks for goodness' sakes. This doesn't even include all the actual pressure. Ryan had a clean pocket sometimes, but that's football.

The cornerbacks were suspect also as far as I'm concerned.

The O-line got blown ups few times also.

[pstall]

Don't abandon the read but just use it as a surprise rather than your base.

The offense is SOOOOO predictable right now. Guess what happens when you are predictable? You get bull rushed left and right. 

[truthjuice]

8 minutes ago, gmonjimbo said:

Might be time to abandon the read option completely. If they want to run Cam, then do direct runs. It would be nice to have a RB that can handle the bulk load of carries. I like the combination that the Falcons have in Coleman and Freeman. Also, as many have already mentioned, Tolbert is done. All he does is get stoned in the backfield and he can not block. 

That would mean Shula has to change. Shula doesn't like change. I want to see Cam's game evolve period. 

[Nick_81]

5 minutes ago, gmonjimbo said:

Do you think we have the personnel to run I formation with power,counter,etc.?

I think we do.  Most of our o-line is pretty athletic, and it would be a hell of a lot better for our current backs, including Stewart.

[The NFL Shield At Midfield]

3 minutes ago, pstall said:

Don't abandon the read but just use it as a surprise rather than your base.

The offense is SOOOOO predictable right now. Guess what happens when you are predictable? You get bull rushed left and right. 

the threat of the read option is almost as important as its actual use

we saw it when chud went off the deep end with the zone read looks in the first half of 2012.   just constant sloooooow developing play fakes and misdirection in the backfield that resulted in a ton of unnecessary hits and rushed decisions under pressure.  all it was doing was giving the pass rush extra time to get there.  he backed off that starting after the denver loss and started running something of a more conventional offense and cam had the most attempts without an interception in the league at one point.

[Mr. Scot]

15 minutes ago, gmonjimbo said:

Do you think we have the personnel to run I formation with power,counter,etc.?

I think we have the personnel to run either a straight Coryell or an Erhardt-Perkins system (and that includes coaching).

Shifting gears in season is no easy task, though.

 

11 minutes ago, pstall said:

Don't abandon the read but just use it as a surprise rather than your base.

The offense is SOOOOO predictable right now. Guess what happens when you are predictable? You get bull rushed left and right. 

Agreed.

[Mr. Scot]

7 minutes ago, The NFL Shield At Midfield said:

the threat of the read option is almost as important as its actual use

we saw it when chud went off the deep end with the zone read looks in the first half of 2012.   just constant sloooooow developing play fakes and misdirection in the backfield that resulted in a ton of unnecessary hits and rushed decisions under pressure.  all it was doing was giving the pass rush extra time to get there.  he backed off that starting after the denver loss and started running something of a more conventional offense and cam had the most attempts without an interception in the league at one point.

Said it elsewhere and will say it here...

We run complicated systems on both sides of the ball.  And anyone who works with mechanical or electronic stuff will tell you that the more complicated something is, the easier it is for one tiny little detail going bad to monkey wrench the whole thing.

Maybe we need to simplify all around.  That's reasonable, or at least more reasonable than a complete overhaul of everything you've been practicing since training camp.

[UNCrules2187]

1 hour ago, Jeremy Igo said:

Was a nice drive for Cam up until this play. Both Brown and Ginn wide open. 

Overthrows Ginn horribly. Brown may have been the easier throw. This is all on Cam. 

Something else that bothers me this year - no aggression. Why are we punting on 4th and 3 from the 48 yard line? Because it's the 1st quarter? So what? Run the same exact play, run a screen, run QB Power with Cam. Have we gone for it on 4th when the game is still in reach, but not absolutely needed (e.g. the 4th and 22 in Denver doesn't count because we had no choice) this year? What the fug happened to Riverboat Ron?

[Cuttinedge]

1 hour ago, CatMan72 said:

Would have to see how Jones and Coleman were lined up before the snap, but from the looks of it this was to Coleman's side of the field and from what I recall Bene pointed at Coleman after this play and gave him a WTF? gesture. 

Coleman has been god awful this year. He was out of  position all day yesterday 

[The_Rainmaker]

2 hours ago, Jeremy Igo said:

First series still. Cameron Artis-Payne needs more practice in the exchanges with Cam in the option. He should never be fighting Cam for the ball. Awkward. 

 

 

Shula needs to go away from the RO as the base of of the running game, it seems like defenses have figures how to attack it since it gives the defenders extra second during the exchange. We need to use more of a traditonal run game and sprinkle in RO  time to time. 

[The_Rainmaker]

36 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

Said it elsewhere and will say it here...

We run complicated systems on both sides of the ball.  And anyone who works with mechanical or electronic stuff will tell you that the more complicated something is, the easier it is for one tiny little detail going bad to monkey wrench the whole thing.

Maybe we need to simplify all around.  That's reasonable, or at least more reasonable than a complete overhaul of everything you've been practicing since training camp.

RO should be a sprinkle in the offense, This OL is designed for traditonal run game with the interior we have and OTs are not good enough to seal the edges. Also the during the RO it gives the defender extra second to attack QB/RB exchange.