Running plays

[22Ute22]

I’m not a big X’s and O’s guy, and I have barely payed any football in my life. That being said, I can watch the games and analyze what I see from Utah, as well as other teams. Why is every single running play we do up the middle? We never seem to do any designed power runs to the outside, whether it be with NJ or the RB’s. I know Baylor did it in the first half against us and it worked well. Why are we having NJ, who is our starting QB at the moment and is 195 pounds, run into the front 7? It is a complete misuse of his skill set, and it’s very dangerous for him. Did our coaches not see him getting slammed by Baylor’s players? Can someone who knows more about football, hopefully OnlyU, explain why we do this? Because I am completely lost as to why Ludwig is getting paid 1.25 million dollars. I can understand the lack of creativity in the passing game since we are a run first team, but you’d think a run first team would be creative in the run game.

[Hellhound152]

Ok here we go. Throw out everything that happened after fumble #3. Whit admitted in postgame that they shut the offense down. As far as why certain plays are ran the way they were ran. It has been well documented about the level that UCLA’s defensive front seven is currently playing at. Part of the strength has been defensive ends that do a great job setting the edge and linebackers that pursue sideline to sideline with great flow. The offensive staff saw something on film that led them to believe that the best way to attack the front was forcing UCLA to fit the interior gaps. The strategy was working early in the game when JJ was playing. Utah was not finishing drives but they were moving the football. After JJ went out, Glover was brought in and he simply doesn’t finish runs with the same violence as Jackson who makes a run blocked for 3 yards a 5 yard gain. To the QB run game, again efforts to test the edge early were unsuccessful however Johnson was gaining yards on the interior power play where the guard would pull and lead through the hole he just never broke one. FWW this was the same play he scored at Baylor on. As is often the case, attacking the interior of a strong front seven is the best schematic strategy but it can be boring until the 3 yard gains turn into 9 yard gains in the second half. That result never materialized consistently even though Glover had some decent runs in the 2nd half.

To flip things, Chip spent the whole first half trying to test our defenses edges with no success. He then came back in the 2nd half and most of the runs were between the tackles and they were having better success due to LB’s over running the play or missed gap fits allowing some cutbacks and better gains than they had in the first half. The run game is just as complex if not more than the passing game but it just isn’t as sexy to watch unless your are a sadist.

[KLars04]

Honestly as much as the fan base has been blasting the offensive decision making, I don’t think Whitt cares if we score 40 points a game or 14, just as long as we win, he will do what it takes. UCLA wasn’t scoring on us and we were up 14, it just felt like with the fumbles and the pass protection breaking down time and time again, the play was to be conservative until UCLA proved they could score on our defense. I’m sure had UCLA scored earlier in the game, we would’ve seen the offense play out differently because they would of had to but honestly some games you just need to find a way to win which ultimately we did.

I do think our offense has a long way to go and this game this week makes me nervous with Oregon State coming off of a lose but I’d rather have to fix the offense then have to fix the defense. Hopefully as Johnson continues to learn the system and our offensive line play improved, we can start opening up the scoring more.

Lastly, I do think UCLA will have the best defense we will play this year. I think they are the only team that can punch back at us like that. But I guess we will see. Go Utes!

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