Very general philosophical tweaks for our offense

[Fireball77]

Mike Lombardi loves to reiterate a Henning quote where he says, "If you don't have tendencies on offense you aren't very good". I believe what Henning means by that is that in certain situations you rely on bread and butter stuff because you know your team can execute that stuff properly and succeed regardless of the defense.

Anyway, Davidson has now had some time in as an OC and I am sure he has tendencies as well. One can also learn and grow from those as well as relying on those plays. From his second to last stint, I am sure he learned that one must also be adaptable to continue to succeed. The trick is knowing what to keep and work on to get better, what to toss out, and what to add based on the skillset of your personnel.

We have already heard tell of different drills for the QBs since Scherer has been in town, and different stuff since Davidson has been in town which I love to hear about.

I am counting on our hawkeyed TC attenders to clue us in on whatever new stuff they see.

[caddieman]

I don't know that #3 will ever happen as long as Jake is our QB.

LMAO! He does not know what a TE is!

[DaCityKats]

We had a pretty good offense last year. D-Will probably accounted for half the horsepower of our engine, but now I am thinking that we need to oil it some more to get optimum performance by:

1. Designing some pass plays for Deangelo Williams (and company), preferably in the flat where he can get his motor running. Let the NCAA all-purpose yards leader do his thing by throwing to him.

2. Incorporating some more screen passes (in addition to the overused Smitty Screen (for lack of a better term).

3. Throwing to the TEs (which you know will be open most of the time) around five times per game, especially down in the red zone and end zone. Why squander all that athleticism and talent?

4. Using the draw play, the counter trey, and other running plays of misdirection a little more liberally.

5. Continued use and mastery of the shotgun

6. Getting the ball to the open number 3 receiver when warranted

(7. Perhaps throwing in a trick play every once in a blue moon, though I know that this is probably delusional on a Jon Fox team).

It seems as though I have been saying the same thing for years. They started using the shotgun more effectively a couple of years ago, now I only hope that the OC and Fox will ironically become a little more imaginative by using some of these "old school" tactics. I believe that incorporating more use of these tactics will ultimately lead to more ball control, time of possession, and ultimately a more precise and successful offensive machine.

this could be used as a running play.a lot of teams use the short pass as an extension for running.screens are perfect for us it slows the blitz down and our rbs all have the ability to break away and why we stop running the smoke screen to steveo anyways.

[Brandon]

I figure I'll tackle all of these rather than just saying don't touch it.

1. Designing some pass plays for Deangelo Williams (and company), preferably in the flat where he can get his motor running. Let the NCAA all-purpose yards leader do his thing by throwing to him.

This is already in the books but we don't need to put additional wear and tear on DeAngelo. I am sure we'll see a couple more passes to him in the flat but don't expect a huge change.

2. Incorporating some more screen passes (in addition to the overused Smitty Screen (for lack of a better term).

I'm sure we'll see more screen passes when the line is healthy, but if it's a little dinged up like it was last year it's too risky when you can get a lot of yards throwing deeper to Smitty. WR screens however may be in the cards but we aren't a short-pass team.

3. Throwing to the TEs (which you know will be open most of the time) around five times per game, especially down in the red zone and end zone. Why squander all that athleticism and talent?

All for this. But we are one of the best redzone teams already, we must have been doing something right.

4. Using the draw play, the counter trey, and other running plays of misdirection a little more liberally.

We use those a great deal already.

5. Continued use and mastery of the shotgun

No. The shotgun isn't a good formation to run out of so it doesn't work for our offense which is predicated off of running hte ball and play action passes.

6. Getting the ball to the open number 3 receiver when warranted

All for it, I think we'll see more of it now that Hackett is gone and Jarrett will be playing for his career.

(7. Perhaps throwing in a trick play every once in a blue moon, though I know that this is probably delusional on a Jon Fox team).

I'm confused why you'd add this in there, we used them a fair amount last year, especially the flea flicker.

[Fireball77]

I am of the opinion that pretty much whatever routes Welker runs, Smitty should run. So I was paying particular attention to those little WR screens and was delighted they did appear a few times last season. Tonight, the NYG-Cats game is on NFLN, and it was done with Smitty at least once in that game IIRC.

Running from shotgun is more effective if you are primarily a passing team that already lines up in shotgun a bunch anyway IMO.

[outlaw4]

This is already in the books but we don't need to put additional wear and tear on DeAngelo. I am sure we'll see a couple more passes to him in the flat but don't expect a huge change.

Maybe we'll see Goodson play this role.

I'm sure we'll see more screen passes when the line is healthy, but if it's a little dinged up like it was last year it's too risky when you can get a lot of yards throwing deeper to Smitty. WR screens however may be in the cards but we aren't a short-pass team.

From my recollection of the last two years, other than the Smitty screens, we just don't do screens well. Don't know if we can't execute them or the defense reads it every time.

All for this. But we are one of the best redzone teams already, we must have been doing something right.

Yes but I believe the passing game in the red zone needs work as Jake used to NEVER throw INT's in the red zone.

No. The shotgun isn't a good formation to run out of so it doesn't work for our offense which is predicated off of running hte ball and play action passes.

But it works with certain packages, especially the 2-minute drill. That, and I'm not sure anyone else noticed, but Jake had quite a lot of his passes batted down at the line last season. More shotgun formations might help him (or a ladder to practice throwing over )

All for it, I think we'll see more of it now that Hackett is gone and Jarrett will be playing for his career.

I can already see the jokes with "He went to Jarrett" every time he gets the ball.

[Raleighcat83]

We can't get the ball to the #3 WR more because he's almost never on the field, we ran more 2 receiver sets than any team last year. King actually had a decent number of catches, I agree I'd like to see our TEs go downfield more, not sure if King is the guy to do that though. As far as draws and counter plays, we used to run a lot of misdirection in the running game under Henning, Davidson seems to prefer more of a straight ahead, mauling style of run offense. I agree on screens though, I'd like to see more of those, maybe Goodson can make in impact in that aspect.

[panthers55]

The offense the second half of the year was very good maybe the best in the league. I don't think we need to do a whole lot more but we need to do what we do better. Execution makes any play look good.

You also have to make sure that you take advantage of other team's tendencies and create mismatches. And you need to react to their gameplan and establish your own.

If you look at the games we struggled in, it was usually against a team that made us one dimensional and then emphasized stopping that part of our game. For example against Oakland they shut down our passing attack and made us run the ball. Against Tampa they shut down our passing game and made us run. The first time they stopped us, the second time we ran all over them. In both games they focused on stopping the pass and made us run the ball largely because they had good pass defenses. But expect teams to try and take away either our run game or passing game this year as well. How we do establishing what the defense gives us will determine our success this year.

That and not giving up lots of points will help the offense as much as anything.

[CRA]

We had a pretty good offense last year. D-Will probably accounted for half the horsepower of our engine, but now I am thinking that we need to oil it some more to get optimum performance by:

3. Throwing to the TEs (which you know will be open most of the time) around five times per game, especially down in the red zone and end zone. Why squander all that athleticism and talent?

4. Using the draw play, the counter trey, and other running plays of misdirection a little more liberally.

5. Continued use and mastery of the shotgun

6. Getting the ball to the open number 3 receiver when warranted

(7. Perhaps throwing in a trick play every once in a blue moon, though I know that this is probably delusional on a Jon Fox team).

It seems as though I have been saying the same thing for years. They started using the shotgun more effectively a couple of years ago, now I only hope that the OC and Fox will ironically become a little more imaginative by using some of these "old school" tactics. I believe that incorporating more use of these tactics will ultimately lead to more ball control, time of possession, and ultimately a more precise and successful offensive machine.

As far as throwing the TEs and shotgun comments go.......based on what we have on offense I don't want to see a lot more shotgun or passing to the TEs. We are built to run imo so we need to make that priority #1.

Fox needs to take the draw out of his playbook. Why would you want to see more of it?

I agree on the #3 WR.

Fox is a conservative guy and does add in a trick play every now and then.......but they always backfire more times than not. Great play call on a flea flicker on the first play of the game where he hit Moose.......and then Moose fumbles.

[panthers55]

As far as throwing the TEs and shotgun comments go.......based on what we have on offense I don't want to see a lot more shotgun or passing to the TEs. We are built to run imo so we need to make that priority #1.

Fox needs to take the draw out of his playbook. Why would you want to see more of it?

I agree on the #3 WR.

Fox is a conservative guy and does add in a trick play every now and then.......but they always backfire more times than not. Great play call on a flea flicker on the first play of the game where he hit Moose.......and then Moose fumbles.

Teams run out of the shotgun all the time, it doesn't really impact your ability to run. If you use a traditional run offense with a lead fullback and tailback behind him it could be an issue but many teams run out of a shotgun with one or two backs in the backfield. The bigger question is whether Jake does better in a shotgun formation and sees the field better versus being at the line of scrimmage. But limiting the playcalling it not really an issue.

Throwing to a TE in a 2 TE set (if he can spread the field) is a great way to keep teams from loading the box and making the safety respect the pass as well as the run. Problem for us was neither King or Rosario strike much fear in the defenses. Look at a team like Chicago with Greg Olsen. He functions as a wide receiver and gets lots of catches. You can put a LB on him all day or you get burned.

As for the draw it is a good play for williams now. Last year we converted quite a few rather than the wasted play it was with Foster or Williams in years past.