Use the Offense to help the Defense

[El Paso Eagle]

Would like to see us play ball control offense from the start. The longer the offense is on the field the less time our defense has to play. No snaps with more than 5 seconds on the clock. If we win the coin toss – take the ball. A good 5 to 6+ minute drive to start the game would be great.

[GMG_Dallas]

Completely agree. After all the upsets Saturday, I was looking at our drive breakdowns so far this year and was seeing 10ish play drives being ran in 3-4 minutes. 3-and-outs have been taking less than 1 minute. We've got great running backs, tight ends, and offensive linemen. Sprinkle in some screen plays to our receivers as well to get the ball to our playmakers in space like other teams are doing. We definitely have the personnel to do this successfully, IMO. We're lacking offensive identity right now and this could be it instead of setting up the play action and missing open receivers down field.

[Glory to the Green]

It’s part of what worked at the end of last season. We ran hurry up vs SMU. Why?!?!  I like this idea. #rUNThedamnball

[akriesman]

29 minutes ago, Glory to the Green said:

It’s part of what worked at the end of last season. We ran hurry up vs SMU. Why?!?!  I like this idea. #rUNThedamnball

Teams run hurry up because it doesn't allow the defense to get set.  And, it actually wears them down faster because they don't really have a chance to catch their breath.    But yeah, it can also wear down your defense if you have a quick 3 and out.   SMU is more athletic.  So,  the team probably ran more hurray up to try and gain an edge.

You probably already knew that.  But, just in case.....

I believe that when you need a score and have your opponent on their heels, you run a quick snap.  If you have a big lead and the D is obviously gassed, you can slow it down.

I am pretty sure we ran a lot of hurray up last season also.   But, not 100% sure.

The fact is, we can run the ball, dominate and wear down weaker opponents.     That doesn't work so well against bigger, tougher, more talented opponents.   When a G5 school upsets a favored P5 school, it is usually because they were able to pass the ball extremely well.    Very, very rarely does a school from a smaller division run well against a higher division foe.

When NT should have upset Texas in 1988, I think our QB Scott Davis threw for over 400 yards.  I don't remember us being able to run at all in that game

Edited September 13, 2022 by akriesman

[GMG_Dallas]

9 hours ago, akriesman said:

Teams run hurry up because it doesn't allow the defense to get set.  And, it actually wears them down faster because they don't really have a chance to catch their breath.    But yeah, it can also wear down your defense if you have a quick 3 and out.   SMU is more athletic.  So,  the team probably ran more hurray up to try and gain an edge.

You probably already knew that.  But, just in case.....

I believe that when you need a score and have your opponent on their heels, you run a quick snap.  If you have a big lead and the D is obviously gassed, you can slow it down.

I am pretty sure we ran a lot of hurray up last season also.   But, not 100% sure.

The fact is, we can run the ball, dominate and wear down weaker opponents.     That doesn't work so well against bigger, tougher, more talented opponents.   When a G5 school upsets a favored P5 school, it is usually because they were able to pass the ball extremely well.    Very, very rarely does a school from a smaller division run well against a higher division foe.

When NT should have upset Texas in 1988, I think our QB Scott Davis threw for over 400 yards.  I don't remember us being able to run at all in that game

You're right about the hurry up gassing the defense but you know what else gasses them over the course of a game? Being on the hot field in direct sunlight for 30+ minutes, having to be down in their stances non-stop, and having to react to what the offense does for extended periods of time. The sun really wears on people, especially down south where most of our games are. Limit your substitutions so the defense doesn't have the benefit of cycling in fresh guys will also help.

To your comment of upsets usually happening with great passing games from the G5, we'll I'm not finding that to be true, at least not recently. Looking at App State, when they took a ranked Tennessee to overtime, they ran the ball nearly twice as much as they passed each time. Marshall just ran it 50 times vs 21 passes in a win against Notre Dame. When Troy beat LSU in 2017 they had the ball for nearly 10 more minutes and ran 14 more run plays than passing. Even UTSA vs Illinois last year with Frank Harris at QB had 32 passing plays vs 50 run plays. Utah state ran 10 more run plays last year when they beat Washington State. SDSU vs Stanford in 2017 they had almost 20 more run plays. Of course there's some where the pass game was more dominant but usually is not accurate as of late. Most G5s don't have the skill players to beat the P5 skill guys on defense. Gotta fatigue the big guys and keep the offense on the bench and out of rythm.

[El Paso Eagle]

Great example of the difference time of possession