A few thoughts on Mullen and the offense...
Peeps, had a few things rattling around in my head that I thought might be an interesting discussion. Let's start here: Mullen is the best HC we've ever had. It would be hard as hell to replace him. That said, I think he has regressed as an offensive coach since being here. Allow me to lay out my case:
1. We were more creative in 2009 & 2010. We used more formations and were unpredictable in what we did from them. Two back shotgun, H-back, Wishbone were all used at different times. Now we're basically a one back shotgun, three wide, one tight offense. We're using more TEs this season, but we aren't seeing the wide range of formations we saw those first 2-3 seasons.
2. Personnel usage is predictable. Players have very defined roles and they aren't used outside that role. Let's use Mixon as an example from just this season. We've decided he's a slot WR and that's the only way he touches the ball. We aren't involving him with any jet sweep or tossing it to him out of the backfield. Instead, he lines up in the slot and that's the end of it. He could be so much more effective if we used him as a "super athlete."
3. Our basic plays are predictable. Does anyone but me remember us using an unbalance line at times in 2009-10? We kept using it for a few games, setting up a larger play from the formation later in the season. Sure enough, in a big game, we saw the unbalanced line. But instead of running the play we had run out of it for 3-4 weeks before that, we ran a different play that went for a huge gain. Why the eff has that disappeared?
Now, let me play devil's advocate on the other side. A lot of that "creativity" from Mullen likely had to do with the personnel he had at the time. We literally only had about 5 WRs on the roster when he got here. He was trying to make chicken salad from the chicken shit left by Crxxm. And frankly, those Crxxm OLs were better than any Mullen-Hev OL to date. Dan was playing to the strength of his personnel.
From my side: We're once again short (metaphorically and physically) at WR. We've got at least 3 good RBs and several TEs who all need more touches. Why aren't we seeing Dan reincorporate some of the things he was doing earlier in his career? And hell, some of that stuff would work even with the full complement of Mullen personnel, like the use of the unbalanced line. I would say Dan has stopped thinking long term over the course of the season on offense and is just focusing week to week.
What say ye, fellow EDers?
