Offensive Playcalling vs. The Fish
 

Ok, after a day to soak it all in and discuss around the watercooler one has to really pin down Haley, Muir, Zorn and even Cassel to a lesser extent.

We had a shitload of 3rd downs. The run-right, run-left then convert 3rd and 5 is old. Sad as it may seem Cassel is our offense right now with our WR's. Stop the running of Dex up the middle. How many games do we have to see it not work to figure it out?

On more of a coaching aspect though I have to call out Haley, Muir and Zorn. Cassel was being mauled, hit, sacked, hurried, you name it. The one constant was the pocket or lack thereof. Maybe I didn't see it but we never rolled the pocket or slid the pocket to either direction. We kept having Cassel drop back to the same spots all game. Straight drops.

I can remember back when Vermeil was here when he would say that when the other team was getting pressure we would start moving the pocket around so the defense couldn't just target a spot and go for it. Is it really that hard of a concept?

No misdirection plays, no quick slants and no hot routes. That falls on the OC. Even if Cassel doesn't hit the hot route on a play or 2 one of the coaches has to get in his ear about it. The fact we consistently did not have hot routes, or so it appeared, falls on the playcallers.

We were as predictable on offense as we could be and we made sure Cassel was at the same spot every down for the defense.

When teams blitz like the Fish were yesterday there seem to be some bread & butter plays you would go too and I have to wonder why we didn't? Quick slants, skinny posts and TE's off the edge.

WHERE WAS IT???

Eh, move on & if they lose to the Tebows
Off them all

Holy Christ - I just looked it up - we had TWENTY 3rd down conversion attempts.

It's njot jus tyesterday though. It seemed we found the slant in week 3 and it disappeared in week 7 against the Chargers. I don't think we have thrown a skinny post all year. These are the plays that loosen up a blitz and force the LB's to stay at home. Breaston has really brought the crossing route to life with our offense but those routes take time. He has great hands...I could not believe we did not continue to hit him on skinny posts all game. Or hit him, Baldwin or Bowe on some slants. They were blitzing a lot yesterday and those are the holes they leave and we continued to look for bigger plays down the field, or so it appeared.

I don't recall too many 3-tep drops from Cassel yesterday. That is probably one of the best ways to nullify a blitz.

So is being able to read a defense and take advantage of one-on-one matchups all over the field.

Reminded me of the Raider game last December.
Offensive Line got manhandled and there looked to be no adjustments.

I kept wondering when we were going to dial up some plays to use that furious Fin rush against them. NEVER happened. If there's one way Dex oughta be used...it's in the screen game. NEVER came.

Yeah but you have to wonder what is going on with the play? Trent Green used to get super pissed that he was not allowed to audible. I am not saying Cassel isn't allowed but again, if he fails to do it on a play then that is what the coaches are for. If they are seeing something he isn't then that is what they are for.

Just by the nature of what we saw yesterday and even some in the Chargers game I still think the playcalling lacks a certain amount of "attack" to it and I think it is by design. You shouldn't have to read the defense too much to call a slant in the huddle. When teams were blitzing and getting pressure like Miami was you shouldn't have to audible into a bootleg. It should be the called play. They were getting so much pressure off the edge and up the middle yesterday the slant and 3-step drops should have been called play after play until they backed off.

They didn't even make halftime adjustments ... wtf ... I was at least waiting for that. Instead they ran the same shit in the 2nd half thinking it was going to work ... "well they think we're going to change things up ... but we'll show them .... 3rd and long? c'mon Dex it time for a sprint draw"

I almost threw a midget across the bar to turn the TV off

Who's to say they're not in a good play and Cassel's just not capable of determining where the blitz is coming from and figuring out who his "hot" read is?

As some of the replays showed, and I'm sure Clay will show in Gif'd Up, guys were running open. But at the slightest sign of pressure, Cassel shits himself and pays more attention to the rush than his WR's running open.

Should we have called more slants, screens, etc? Absolutely.

But let's not act as if every play call was doomed just because of Miami's blitzing. Good QB's WANT to be blitzed, because they can take advantage of the matchups. As we know, Cassel's not a good QB.

This team doesn't know WTF they want to do. The first drive was great. Fell short but we drove, held the ball a long time and got some points.

The rest of the game was just sad. It's like they just kept trying the same shit over and over hoping it would work. I kept telling my wife they need to just stick Baldwin in the slot and let him run right to the zone vacated by the blitz and hit him on a 3-step drop. It isn't rocket surgery. Defender blitzes from hole A then WR runs to hole A and QB throws to hole A.

Has Haley EVER made adjustments during a game?

Not really.

Predictable situational playcalling has been a problem over the last two HC's.

Agreed. There are ways to neutralize a blitz.
Didn't seem to me that we tried. No misdirection. No screens. No flares.
How about Breaston on that Drag route? I might've seen that once...

I also kinda felt like they were far too reluctant to run the ball on 3rd & Short. We were way too cute yesterday in that situation.

I don't disagree. I just think when it is that consistent then something else is going on. We don't know what Cassel is told. Montana used to tell his WR's if he got flushed out of the pocket for them to just keep running their routes. Some QB's want guys to break off and run to them. Some coaches want the QB to scramble and look downfield. Others want the QB to just protect the ball.

Listen, I am not putting Cassel up on a pedastal but the fact is that this year when we have moved the ball mostly it has been because of our passing game. Yes, the running game shows up for maybe a drive or two a game and does great when they do. But consistently this year it has been the passing game. I don't think our coaces are accepting of that reality because they know as well as we do Cassel is not an All-World QB.

I would love to be a fly on the wall in the meetings with Cassel and the coaches. It has been more than obvious this year Cassel has been frustrated with the playcalling from the calls to getting them called into the huddle. If he was up at the line for 15 secs before the snap I would lean more towards him than the coaching. When he is at the line for 3-4 secs then it can be tough on anyone.

He has. As often as he should? No. But I've definitely seen it.