One reason is because the offensive line jumped early to put us behind the chains and didn't block worth a damn either.
Printable View
I saw him play in High School. If you go back a few months, I said then with Rogers being young and graduated a year early, he is work in progress. Needs to get stronger and he can be serviceable. It's not so much Rogers I would be worried about, It's Leach and his overall offense. I don't think you can win just tossing the ball around every play in the Sec. Fact is the last 3 games our offense has scored what 3 times?
I will sit and watch without so much bashing, good teams now days have balance on offense, say it ain't so. The Pac 12 and Big 12 suck overall!
Rogers had been quarantined the previous 2 weeks and got thrown in the fire. He also didn’t play terrible. Mitchell catches the ball and who knows what happens after that. Either way, he looks better than KJ when he is in the game due to his mobility alone. As bad as our Center and right tackle are, we better have someone back there that can at least get out of the way if we are going to score at all. I am completely apathetic to this team for the remainder of the year. Hopefully we get better up front once leach recruits his guys. One can only hope.
Our biggest issue is/was his commitment to KJ Costello, just like Shotgun said. Alabama couldn't beat our last three opponents with the way he's played.
First of all its not a prevent D. It is a drop 8 (for the most part), but a bunch of those 8 in the zone are only about 5 to 7 yards off the LOS and are still right there to make tackles even when we check down or call a running play. So teams are playing heavy zone but they are NOT giving up chunks of yardage underneath like a prevent D would. The other thing is that we DO need a QB that can move in the pocket right now because our OL is not good in this system yet. Costello is a total statue and will not work unless you have an OL blocking at a very high level so, for that reason if nothing else, we have to let Rogers play. But that leads to the other issue of NOT getting a Spring practice to go through and teach the fundamentals of how to block in this system. That is not something you can learn over a Zoom call or work on 7 on 7. Leach never had to deal with no Spring at TT or WSU so judging this system with a few weeks of Fall camp is not a fair trial. You and others saying this is not going to work may be absolutely correct but until we get a regular cycle of coaching and learning by the team we won't know one way or the other. Most MS guys have never seen or played in an offense anything close to this.
A) Yes it is a prevent D- they are dropping 8. The goal is to let nothing behind you and come up and tackle. This aint the Big 12 or Pac 12- SEC players on D come up and make tackles. That is what Leach isnt getting so far vs the Drop 8- no tackles are being broken for big plays to punish the D for playing soft.
B) Rogers is a coach's kid of a pretty good coach. He will do ok- but this system as is will not work in the SEC. Now- having a mobile QB to punish these defenses is a different story. That would add to the running game that is needed.
C) This team had 2 straight months of practice and they had to have worked against the Drop 8 quite often. It wasnt like it was going to be some big surprise. We as of yet have no answer.
D) The OL isnt going to get any better with what we do currently. As I have said for 20 years- the players on the DL of the SEC separate the league from the rest. You can expect SEC teams to continue to get pressure. A&M got a little creative and that is why they had 6 sacks. They lined up one way-shifted- and then brought people from somewhere else. but it was still just a 3 or 4 man pressure. Until there is a run threat- this offense wont get better.
Repeat- until there is a run threat- this offense wont get better. SEC DL's have too many grown ass men on them
C34 I think you're being a bit intellectually dishonest regarding the OL: You imply the whole pass blocking issue is Leach's wide splits, and that the DE's "don't respect the run". Well, why don't they respect the run? Because the OL can't run block either.
The odds of the OL being unable to win 1 on 1's in the run game and ALSO being just fine at pass pro were it not for Leach's splits seems low. They simply look poorly coached to me. They miss assignments and aren't physical when they do lock up with someone. Ad if we could run it for 5-6 yards a pop like we should vs a 5 man box the DE's wouldn't pin their ears back.
The splits might not help either but at the end of the day the OL is sucking at everything. Cross is good but the other 4 are liable to get beat, be it by a DE, NT, DT, or LB, and often the defender seems lined up right in front of them so weird angles from wide splits doesn't apply.
As for the "The O works with Rogers vs it was just garbage time and the O didn't work anyway" argument, lets just agree that the best 2 drives of the last 2 games were with Will in. KJ had his chances to score in garbage time and he couldn't' do it. SO how much better is the O with Will? I don't know, but it IS BETTER
A) SEC DL players are elite or very good
B) Our wide splits allow those athletes to use multiple moves on our OL guys- we are at a disadvantage
C) Because of the speed of SEC DL's- stunts they run get to the QB more often than stunts run by teams like Iowa State, Washington, Utah, etc
D) Our run game is so basic it doesnt give the DL's anything to really prepare for
And for the money:
Our OL coach has been an Air Raid guy most of his career and has worked for Mumme and Leach. His OL's at Wash State in 2018 and 2019 allowed the fewest sacks in the conference. So tell me- what has changed? Leach has his guy coaching the OL. This guy was the awesome in the Pac12- what changed?
I’m a big believer in Occum’s Razor and The easiest explanation here is that 4 games and no Spring practice isn’t near enough time to make any grand conclusions on the future of this OL. Occum’s Razor says that 4 games and Spring practice ain’t enough time to flawlessly implement a new blocking style.
Thats what you dont seem to understand- it's not that different. We zone block and we pass block. The difference is now we have more 1-on-1's with bigger line splits- which allows the athletes that plays on SEC DL's use their athleticism. It's really quite simple