[jerryaldini]

Originally Posted by Megatron96

Well, they basically didn't run at Clark when he was on the field, and I also figured it had something to do with the back-up LT in there. Made sense to run behind the strength of you OL anyway.

But I even posted my observation about them doubling/chipping Frank during the gdt, after I watched them do it 3-4 times in a row.

Of course, it wasn't surprising that Stefanski would do that to Frank. And it sure looked like Spags game-planned with that in mind.

And since no one else seems to have caught on to it, the other thing forcing CLE to chip Frank with Hunt or Chubb did was ruin the timing of their backs coming out of the backfield. Frank ran wide and upfield a lot, forcing their backs to have to actually retreat several yards to get outside leverage to execute their chips. That added at least an extra 1.5-2 seconds to their eventual routes. I had to go back and watch some of the highlight clips on YT last night because Frank's route to Baker seemed extra circuitous, compared to his normal rush.

Some of them appeared to be simply to take away the roll out to the left, but then I noticed just how far Hunt had to run just to get his chip on Frank twice in a row in the 3rd quarter, iirc. He had to run at least 5 yards behind where he started, and it probably added an extra 15 yards total to his route.

I'm pretty sure those extra wide rushes were pre-planned by Spags/Daly. Frank's never tried to rush from 7 yards wide and basically straight downfield before to my knowledge, so why would he suddenly do it last night? Unless it was scripted, like the simulated rush to take away the roll out. Becaue he for damned sure doesn't have the raw speed to cover that much ground against Baker, who we all knew was going to try and get rid of the ball in under 3 seconds.

Excellent couple of posts, thanks. Don't know how you manage to be disciplined enough to watch that stuff during the game. I'm always tunnel vision on the QB.