Can Anyone Accurately Explain What We're Trying to Do on Offense?

[Irondawg]

You don't always need explosive players although it helps. Michael Thomas is one of the best receivers in the NFL and he's hardly explosive - but dude gets open and catches the ball. I think a lot of us were hoping Whop would be that kind of physical possession receiver. We don't have guys that will run right by anybody and some of that was Mullen making sure we had WR that would block and be physical with secondary players. We don't have a lot of burners. Was hoping Zuber could be that guy or Guidry.

Spivey is supposed to be fast, but when have we tried to isolate him on a LB and run a deep pattern with him?

[Tbonewannabe]

Joe had Chase Edmonds for his last 2 years at Fordham and Saquon at Penn St. Those are two of the most explosive RBs in the NFL. I imagine Edmonds made some people look really stupid in the Patriot League. I don't think Joe is a bad offensive coach but he might be really bad adapting his offense to SEC defensive speed. We look great against SEC teams that don't have great speed like A&M, Ark, and UM last year. Also UK took a big step back this year. The problem is most SEC teams have great speed and Joe is showing that he doesn't know what to do when that happens. Mullen had his struggles just like most coaches do but he would at least try to stick with what our guys could do.

We honestly looked great against mediocre to bad defenses last year but this year we have even taken a step back against those teams. Maybe Joe can figure it out and possibly getting a new S&C team would help a lot. I just don't have any faith in Joe figuring it out. He doesn't seem to be able to adapt to anything. He can't adapt his offense to his players. He doesn't adapt the offense to what the other defense is bad at.

[Tbonewannabe]

You don't always need explosive players although it helps. Michael Thomas is one of the best receivers in the NFL and he's hardly explosive - but dude gets open and catches the ball. I think a lot of us were hoping Whop would be that kind of physical possession receiver. We don't have guys that will run right by anybody and some of that was Mullen making sure we had WR that would block and be physical with secondary players. We don't have a lot of burners. Was hoping Zuber could be that guy or Guidry.

Spivey is supposed to be fast, but when have we tried to isolate him on a LB and run a deep pattern with him?

Our TEs are supposed to be really good and we even heard of possible 2 TE sets because they need to be on the field. Just another example of Joe not adjusting to his roster. If you had Gronk and Kelce on your team then you play 2 TEs. You don't bench one so you can play Will Prosser at WR.

[Coach34]

You notice how Barkley had 54 catches for JoMo at Penn State but Hill and the backs rarely catch passes for us?

You can go 5 wide in the Big Ten and not get your QB hurt. That?s not as true in the SEC. We allowed 25 sacks last year with 2 NFL caliber guys on our OL. This year? We have given up 20 sacks already. We have to keep the RB?s in for protection.

As a poster said earlier- just like Meyer and Mullen has to learn about the SEC- so has JoVester

[Todd4State]

It goes back to our offensive line not being physical enough- which goes back to poor S&C and lack of discipline- which affects us negatively in the running games putting us behind the sticks constantly. I think there is some poor use of personnel- split Kylin and Gibson’s carries more instead of relying almost solely on Kylin. Add the in some formations with two TE’s and or 2 RB’s some to aid in blocking some and add some variety.

[Todd4State]

Agree, but there is only so much you can do.

Our offensive skill players, except Shrader, are really bland & lack any explosiveness.

And that goes back to recruiting. Also on the o-line recruiting as well. Dan literally designed us to be carried by the QB running the ball ad nauseum. Not intentionally- he just couldn’t recruit.

[Todd4State]

Why is it that in the NFL you see tons of screen passes but very rarely see them in college football?

What stops college coaches from implementing them?

Takes time for the play to develop for certain screens and on others wide receivers have to block well. That and years of college coaches running tons of them people started to defend them better so coaches have gone away from them....for now.

[bulldawg989]

Where in the hell is 00-negative to carry Moorhead's water on this issue? I gotta believe based on his extensive posting history that this is all easily explainable, that it is all by design and that if it isn't working it is Mullen's fault.

[Bothrops]

Agree, but there is only so much you can do.

Our offensive skill players, except Shrader, are really bland & lack any explosiveness.

That's why I think getting the ball to Thomas, Gibson and Witherspoon can add some much needed speed. All of those guys are great in space, Joe needs to give them more opportunities.

[CadaverDawg]

He says we're trying to put defensive players in conflict and take advantage of mismatches. LSU does a lot of what we want to do, they are just better organized and have much much better players.

The problem is we can't count on having better players than we have right now. Sure, we might have a little better talent in certain years, but what we have now is something that the Mississippi State coach has to find a way to win with because most years this is as good as it gets. I'm sure what he wants to do works on paper and/or with better players. But if he can't coach this caliber of player to do what he wants in order to be successful, what good does it do? Then you add bad effort 2 out of every 3 games, double digit penalties and an overall lack of toughness and here we are.

Perfectly said.

[Irondawg]

Of course then I think about the Chiefs and Bears. Same offensive playbook but one team has Tyreek Hill, Kelce and Mahomes (and had K. Hunt).

The other has Trubisky, Allen Robinson, and T. Cohen

One team scores a bunch of points, the other can't score at all

[CadaverDawg]

I'm not buying the "no explosive talent" BS. All off season we heard about Payton being an elite WR. All offseason we heard about Spivey and Dontae Jones and Brad Cumbest being game changers at TE. All off season we heard about Zuber and we also saw what he did at KSU. We have guys that can make big plays....we just don't have a Coach that knows how to get them the football.

Do we have Bama and LSU talent? Of course not. Never will. But the things that make coaches successful offensively is knowing your strengths and playing to them. Joe runs an offense built around taking the option every play that the defense chooses to give you. He allows the defense to dictate his game plan and every play call. The winning programs in the SEC set the tone, and don't allow you to take away their best players. They find a way to get them involved. We don't. Our coach thinks "getting Hill involved" means ramming him in to an 8 man box right up the middle and then stopping when after 10 tries it doesn't work. You have to get creative, run an option play, direct snap, screen, jet sweep, put him in the slot, run a deep whee route with him....make them defend him in order to truly take him out of the game. If all they have to do to remove your best player is stack the box, you deserve to lose.

How about putting two TE's in there and run a screen to Spivey? How bout sending a guy like Zuber that has proven able to catch tough passes on a fly pattern and throw him a 1 on 1 ball? Where's a KT package?? You're losing him anyway after this year, and his RS is safe...use him! How about a few quick screens to make the defense run side to side before slamming Kylin up the middle to soften them up?? No, you can't do things like that schematically when your game plan is to let your opponent decide your scheme that day.

[TrapGame]

I just had a fellow employee who's of the female persuasion come up to me and ask: "Does that Moorhead guy run the same damn plays over and over again?" She's a Cowboys' fan that knows virtually zero about football but she noticed Saturday afternoon we were lining up in the same formations running the same plays again and again. There ain't much game planning against that. We're making some mediocre DCs look like geniuses.

[DeputyDawg94]

Where in the hell is 00-negative to carry Moorhead's water on this issue? I gotta believe based on his extensive posting history that this is all easily explainable, that it is all by design and that if it isn't working it is Mullen's fault.

Don’t talk him up.

[MadDawg]

I just had a fellow employee who's of the female persuasion come up to me and ask: "Does that Moorhead guy run the same damn plays over and over again?" She's a Cowboys' fan that knows virtually zero about football but she noticed Saturday afternoon we were lining up in the same formations running the same plays again and again. There ain't much game planning against that. We're making some mediocre DCs look like geniuses.

Sounds like what the brain trusts said about Mullen too.

[Dental Dawg33]

I need some help here.

The effort was better Saturday, the defense is improving, & I believe Shrader is one of those rare QBs, like Dak, that can pretty much excel at whatever type of offense we want to run. Seriously, from the triple option to Mike Leach's system, I think he'd be pretty good.

However, with that being said, does anyone have any clue what we are trying to do on offense?

Seems to me that we just call plays with no real direction or identity.

If someone can accurately identify how this offense will take off without LSU/Bama type WRs, please let me know.

I'm not writing this to be negative & turn this into a "replace Joe" thread. I'm just generally confused about where we are going with this thing.

FWIW, after watching LSU's offense the other day, I didn't think schematically they were awesome. I just think LSU has really really good players & this new offense gives them a better chance of getting those awesome players in space instead of the phone booth they used to play in. LSU did the check with me stuff as well & show many of the same tempo as we do, but with significantly better players

I don?t know as much as some folks on here about football but I played and have a good grasp...what I?m seeing is line up, survey defense, oh boy the line backer creeping up showing blitz, look to sideline at JoMos blank/lost facial expession, change plays, line backer settles back and calls our bluff seconds before the snap, now holy shit the safety is scratching his crotch, timeout TIMEOUT. Discuss for 30 seconds, come out and repeat the above, then with 1 second left......wait for it....QB Sneak

[TNDawg35]

One of our main probs is we have a damn RB who thinks he is the best in the league and tries to be cute. He isn’t fast enough for break always, then he tries to stutter step everyone on the edge. That’s why all the end arounds are 1-2 yrd gains. Hell like I said Witherspoon looked better to me.

I would give Gibson the ball more. Like ALOT MORE.

I just think Joe is in over his head. If we had LSU talent, the offense would be working. But we don’t. Until Joe realizes that, we will struggle.

I think the O did look better and even liked the new ply callls, just LSU is too damn good. I think they smoke Bama this yr. our defense is getting better by the wk.

[Percho]

You notice how Barkley had 54 catches for JoMo at Penn State but Hill and the backs rarely catch passes for us?

You can go 5 wide in the Big Ten and not get your QB hurt. That?s not as true in the SEC. We allowed 25 sacks last year with 2 NFL caliber guys on our OL. This year? We have given up 20 sacks already. We have to keep the RB?s in for protection.

As a poster said earlier- just like Meyer and Mullen has to learn about the SEC- so has JoVester

I guess he does take up a little space back there, but protection?

[Percho]

I'm not buying the "no explosive talent" BS. All off season we heard about Payton being an elite WR. All offseason we heard about Spivey and Dontae Jones and Brad Cumbest being game changers at TE. All off season we heard about Zuber and we also saw what he did at KSU. We have guys that can make big plays....we just don't have a Coach that knows how to get them the football.

Do we have Bama and LSU talent? Of course not. Never will. But the things that make coaches successful offensively is knowing your strengths and playing to them. Joe runs an offense built around taking the option every play that the defense chooses to give you. He allows the defense to dictate his game plan and every play call. The winning programs in the SEC set the tone, and don't allow you to take away their best players. They find a way to get them involved. We don't. Our coach thinks "getting Hill involved" means ramming him in to an 8 man box right up the middle and then stopping when after 10 tries it doesn't work. You have to get creative, run an option play, direct snap, screen, jet sweep, put him in the slot, run a deep whee route with him....make them defend him in order to truly take him out of the game. If all they have to do to remove your best player is stack the box, you deserve to lose.

How about putting two TE's in there and run a screen to Spivey? How bout sending a guy like Zuber that has proven able to catch tough passes on a fly pattern and throw him a 1 on 1 ball? Where's a KT package?? You're losing him anyway after this year, and his RS is safe...use him! How about a few quick screens to make the defense run side to side before slamming Kylin up the middle to soften them up?? No, you can't do things like that schematically when your game plan is to let your opponent decide your scheme that day.

Good points. How does Norvell make the kid from Yazoo City, Kenneth Gainwell, look like an all american? Did we recruite him?

[PMDawg]

Tried to give you rep.

While I'm on it, the rep system on this site is ignorant. It's like if you've ever given someone rep, you can never give them rep again. Why? If I want to rep somebody, I should be able to. Right now, there are about 10 people that I just can't rep, and haven't been able to for weeks or even months. It's really dumb guys. tEnd of my rant.