Question for the coaches on the board....

[William Tecumsah Sherman]

Can you guys give specifics on how we should attack the zone the Pigs ran last night? Should we simply be more creative in our runs? Should we just be patient and hit the WR crossing routes until the defense starts creeping up? It seems to an untrained eye that more patience would have served us better. Take 4-5 yards on the drags and let the defense creep up to take those away. It looked like we became addicted to the big play and got restless and played right into UPig game plan. Let?s hear specifics when you guys get time. Hail State!

[the_real_MSU_is_us]

Well not a coach but... our O is 4 WRs and 1 RB, sometimes 3 and 2. Most Os replace a WR with a TE. Pretty similar really. So what do they do vs an 8 man zone and 5 man boxes? Run the ball with 6 blockers, or do play action and read the LBs; if the LBs stay up, flip it right over their heads into the voided space in the zone. Theoretically we could do that with 2 RBs by having one pretend to be the lead blocker but run past the LB. Or they delay QB draw with an OL or 2 leading the way.

In the Leach playbook you can.... run an RB with 5 blockers. That's it. I don't believe he has an RPO where he reads a LB, and I don't believe he has a delayed QB draw. Even the run play is incredibly simple; all 5 OL block the dude infront of you.

I think that's the weakness of the O. Needs another option or 2 in the box. I get that the O is about having few plays and repping them 'till you get really good at them, but I feel it's worth it to add a QB draw with the RB as a lead blocker, or a zone read based on if the unblocked DE crashed in... that would wreck vs 5 man boxes as pulling a tackle would make it 5 on 4, with 2 potential ball carriers and the slot WR able to block his guy.

We have 5 blockers, a RB, a QB, and 2 slot WRs that can run to the zone the LBs are supposed to cover. There's ways to make this painful for the D. Leach just doesn't seem to care