Thought this was a cool article about how SF used trap against Lovie.
https://www.cornnation.com/2019/9/2...w-a-familiar-play-fooled-the-illinois-defense
https://www.cornnation.com/2019/9/2...w-a-familiar-play-fooled-the-illinois-defense
Good X&O Breakdown
- Thread starter TheBeav815
- Start date
You are not alone. Sit in a film room with some coaches and your head will be spinning. I would venture to say 99% on here have never heard or understand those terms.
Thats why I shake my head when people gripe about play calling. Would any of them think a trap on an over D with a direct snap would be a better call?
People think every handoff out of the shotgun is a zone read so I don’t expect them to know what a trap play really is.
Me too, which is why I don’t ***** about play calling and why it bothers me so much that most fans do.
I think only a handful of people on here are actually qualified to second guess the play calls, and even they don’t have the benefit of knowing our personnel like the staff does and the opposing team’s tendencies.
Well, as the saying goes, you don't have to be a world class chef to know whether something tastes bad.
I've been consistent on my points of criticism with this offense which is that it tries to get too clever at times and that when it's all on the line you need to be able to line up and run on people. That and they hadn't sorted out where and how to be aggressive and where to be conservative at the right time the first couple games.
You're starting to see the inside run game work better. Blocking has improved and Mills has improved and the offense is really starting to pop. They need the ground game popping because Adrian is still wild with the ball a lot.
This direct snap is a perfect example of how to be aggressive in a low-risk way if that makes sense. It's a dagger of a play, but if it doesn't work it's stuffed for no gain and you keep the clock running.
Vs. that swing to Mo being a dagger of a play but if it doesn't work it's a safety, or a backward pass or a pick-6, or you stop the clock.
I think SF draws up some brilliant stuff, and what's so smart about it is that it does fool the eye, you think it's the same old thing but what makes it subtly different is what makes it hit for 25 yards before anyone lays a finger on the guy. One of those traps if 19 would block like he gives a **** about blocking it's a TD.
I was listening to Bahe's podcast yesterday with him and Bo Ruud and they made a great analogy. The 2-TE, huddle up, pound it at you offense doesn't refuse to go no-huddle and throw it in a two minute drill because "that's who we are." They go fast because the situation demands it.
So don't get stubborn and do stuff like chuck a swing in your own end zone or push the record for world's fastest 3-and-out if your defense is starting to get gassed.
And what did Scott do with the game on the line @ Illinois? He ran it right up their *** and chewed that clock and left town with a W. That's why I'm high on Frost long term, I think he's really damn smart now and does a lot of things that work, but I think he also learns from his mistakes and changes things that don't work.
Well, I am home sick and finally felt like watching the replay. I just finished the first half. It was awful aside from a few plays. They feasted on BO greeting the wham on the tackle and you are right, 19 didn't block anyone on one.
On some plays I went a tiny frame at a time and I gotta say, this is some of the worst O line blocking I have ever seen. Pretty evenly spread out but Hixson got owned several times. That was the penetration the guy spoke of in the film review. Out TE blocking wasn't much to write home about as well. One play AM pulls the ball on the right side and everyone was pinned down but he kept it and had a loss.
Chin didn't blitz.as much as normal. MO was lost out there when he has to set back and read. Too many times, their first TD was one, we had guys come on the edge and not flatten out. We use to teach guys to aim for their inside leg, but too wide angles and they just cut inside and we're gone.
After watching the first half reply, we stunk much worse than I originally thought. It was not good. We need a complete game from our O line one of these days.
Lastly, a couple people thought the snaps were better. Better than what? They were terrible. That just needs to get much better. People are all over AM on his reads, well he has to look/reach up to get the ball and then locate the D to make the read. We just were not very smooth that first half, understatement I know.
I thought our O line play was average against a poor defense. I don't think they did terrible though. Watching it live, it felt like Illinois was well in control of the game until the 4th quarter. We didn't even have a good 3rd quarter either. Adrian came out in the 2nd half and was running as tentative as ever. It wasn't until about 5:00 left in the 3rd quarter where he started running hard and actually striding out and running full speed for maybe the first time this year. I know he got a talking to in the first half by Frost but I don't know if there was another one in the 3rd quarter that caused such a dramatic change in his running.
Good grief, go back and watch it, slowly, and tell Someoneme what you see. They missed a block on almost every play. The trap was the saving grace as they set Bo up to come downhill on the tackle.
I watched more later today and Adrian does a jump set for lack of a better phrase to get his feet right for the play. When he has to jump for the ball it messes everything up. Go back and watch, you will see what I mean.
I also don't think our WR's are doing their best to both block and get open. It is hard to see in TV film what they are doing on every play.
We should not have had problems blocking an even front with little blitzing and you always know where the corners and safeties see going to be. But we did, they made it easier but we still couldn't get it done consistently. There were a couple plays where we just totally missed the hole.
The D got key stops and it was good for them they didn't have to go far to cash in on our mistakes. Still, our tackling is suspect and our LB play is lacking. MO is late to the party and Honas overruns and gets caught in traffic.