Interesting article on development of Offenses

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by MagicHef

I understand that Oklahoma is doing something new, but I'm not sure I follow the GB example. Rodgers read that Briggs was covering Finley, so he threw to the open man, Grant. How is that so new? Isn't the entire idea of passing predicated on reading how defenders react to routes?

Tebow was doing similar stuff with the run game last season, too. I don't expect that to take the league by storm.

I would say a screen pass as an 'outlet' is a fairly novel concept. Ordinarily you'd run your short routes as primary options with your RB leaking out as a last-ditch dump off if the short routes don't work.

Here it appears to have been blocked as a screen, but really intended as a short pass with a screen as a fall-back.

I agree that it's nowhere near as fascinating as the Oklahoma State example, but there are definitely some wrinkles in there that are interesting to read about.

I can only take "Cassel sucks" and "Bowe's back, bitches!" for so long. At some point I wouldn't mind some actual substantive football discussion.

[MagicHef]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

I would say a screen pass as an 'outlet' is a fairly novel concept. Ordinarily you'd run your short routes as primary options with your RB leaking out as a last-ditch dump off if the short routes don't work.

Here it appears to have been blocked as a screen, but really intended as a short pass with a screen as a fall-back.

I agree that it's nowhere near as fascinating as the Oklahoma State example, but there are definitely some wrinkles in there that are interesting to read about.

I can only take "Cassel sucks" and "Bowe's back, bitches!" for so long. At some point I wouldn't mind some actual substantive football discussion.

I wonder how teams will eventually counter Oklahoma's offense. Jamming every receiver? Less pass rush to be able to read offensive cues? More pass rush to try to disrupt the offense?

I do think the value of the OL and pass rushers in general goes down with every offensive innovation like this, though. The top offenses don't have their QBs standing back there for any length of time at all.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by MagicHef

I wonder how teams will eventually counter Oklahoma's offense. Jamming every receiver? Less pass rush to be able to read offensive cues? More pass rush to try to disrupt the offense?

I do think the value of the OL and pass rushers in general goes down with every offensive innovation like this, though. The top offenses don't have their QBs standing back there for any length of time at all.

They're already trying with disguised blitzes, stunts, etc... And as more tape gets out there, you'd have to think that D-Coordinators will start to pick up on who the 'trigger man' in the defense is and start doing more things to change that up. If the defense knows that Rodgers is going to key on the LOLB from a certain set, then they can start to decoy with the LOLB on occasion to throw him off. It's what Belichick did with Manning when he was up in his dome.

Ultimately I also wonder if we won't see more wide-9 sets with standup ends or even more 2-4-5 packages where you have 2 down lineman and 2 standup backers that switch off based on a read of their own. Ultimately it would just come down to going faster and more varied than the QB can read/react.

And as you get more 2-4-5 sets, you'd have more power running games and the cycle continues...

I really do hope the NFL rules committee does something to give some hope back to defenses. We're starting to shade a little more towards that arcade football that Herm warned us all about.

[Ace Gunner]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

They're already trying with disguised blitzes, stunts, etc... And as more tape gets out there, you'd have to think that D-Coordinators will start to pick up on who the 'trigger man' in the defense is and start doing more things to change that up. If the defense knows that Rodgers is going to key on the LOLB from a certain set, then they can start to decoy with the LOLB on occasion to throw him off. It's what Belichick did with Manning when he was up in his dome.

Ultimately I also wonder if we won't see more wide-9 sets with standup ends or even more 2-4-5 packages where you have 2 down lineman and 2 standup backers that switch off based on a read of their own. Ultimately it would just come down to going faster and more varied than the QB can read/react.

And as you get more 2-4-5 sets, you'd have more power running games and the cycle continues...

I really do hope the NFL rules committee does something to give some hope back to defenses. We're starting to shade a little more towards that arcade football that Herm warned us all about.

yep and I already miss the big hits between safeties & RB's.