Yup. If you say that half of Smith's rushing "attempts" came from actual scrambles and the other half from sacks... then the entire team had 445 true rushing attempts (not counting sacks) and the QB's (Smith + Boomer) had 444 passing attempts.
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It’s less about raw number of passes and runs, but more about a balance of yards gained and overall efficiency of the offense.
The Malzahn offense was almost always 50/50 and always had 5 or 6 big plays a game. But that offense didn’t depend on those 5 or 6 big plays to score. They were opportunities created by an inability of the defense to account for all the threats on the field. When it was 3rd and 7, you didn’t know if Tarrion was going to run inside, Jesse was going to take a shot as caught the ball over the middle at the marker, Clay would catch it in the flat or Brennan would run a crossing route. You could run or pass and have a balanced chance to efficiently pick up the yardage.
The Montgomery offense is almost always 50/50 but the net average yards gained on the near majority of those “passes” are throws at or near the line of scrimmage for little or no gain. Those “passes” or essentially running plays that are extended handoffs. It all designed to set up breakdowns in the running game that lead to big plays from iso, as well as uncover deep threat throws that can be exploited. But when those breakdowns don’t happen because teams are prepared, disciplined, or and/or physically superior on the line, then the offense quickly breaks down and we have no other answers or options. We run blindly into the line and hope Brewer springs free. So please don’t tell me those 20 throws a game outside the numbers one yard deep are “passes”. You can take those extended handoffs onto the passing stats to skew the analysis, but all eyes can see we throw maybe 15 to 20 passes a game, rarely on “passing” down and distance and when we do throw, the efficiency per play is extremely low when you eliminate every throw over 40 yards.
You can say the yardage is balanced, but big whup when you run 20 passes for 100 yards with a long of 61, and 20 throws for 100 yards with a long of 65, give the ball back or turnover six times and go into the lockerroom at half time down 38-10 then run out the clock in the second half before you fly home. But man those coaching checks cash for now, don’t they?
This madness must end.
The Malzahn offense was almost always 50/50 and always had 5 or 6 big plays a game. But that offense didn’t depend on those 5 or 6 big plays to score. They were opportunities created by an inability of the defense to account for all the threats on the field. When it was 3rd and 7, you didn’t know if Tarrion was going to run inside, Jesse was going to take a shot as caught the ball over the middle at the marker, Clay would catch it in the flat or Brennan would run a crossing route. You could run or pass and have a balanced chance to efficiently pick up the yardage.
The Montgomery offense is almost always 50/50 but the net average yards gained on the near majority of those “passes” are throws at or near the line of scrimmage for little or no gain. Those “passes” or essentially running plays that are extended handoffs. It all designed to set up breakdowns in the running game that lead to big plays from iso, as well as uncover deep threat throws that can be exploited. But when those breakdowns don’t happen because teams are prepared, disciplined, or and/or physically superior on the line, then the offense quickly breaks down and we have no other answers or options. We run blindly into the line and hope Brewer springs free. So please don’t tell me those 20 throws a game outside the numbers one yard deep are “passes”. You can take those extended handoffs onto the passing stats to skew the analysis, but all eyes can see we throw maybe 15 to 20 passes a game, rarely on “passing” down and distance and when we do throw, the efficiency per play is extremely low when you eliminate every throw over 40 yards.
You can say the yardage is balanced, but big whup when you run 20 passes for 100 yards with a long of 61, and 20 throws for 100 yards with a long of 65, give the ball back or turnover six times and go into the lockerroom at half time down 38-10 then run out the clock in the second half before you fly home. But man those coaching checks cash for now, don’t they?
This madness must end.
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2016 showed that both offenses can be prolific given the right personnel. Malzahn benefited from having Brennan Marion + Damaris Johnson + Charles Clay. Two of those guys played meaningful downs in the league and the other one probably would have done the same if he hadn't gotten injured. The Briles offense absolutely works better when it has guys like KD Cannon, Corey Coleman, Tevin Reese, etc... that can average around 20 yards per catch like Marrion did. So far, we haven't had that guy under Monty. I would blame receiver recruiting in terms of "stars players" rather than the offensive scheme though.
You don't think Monty would stretch the field more often if he had somebody like Marion burning guys overtop?
No. Montgomery will be the first to tell you he wishes he was an offensive lineman. The entire offense is designed to set up power iso running using zone blocking and antiquated veer option concepts. You could put Deion Sanders and Ocho Cinco out there and while they might add one maybe two additional deep shot pray before I get bashed in the face throws from Smith per game, that may or may not be thrown with correct timing, they would still be asked to block nearly every play and be used mostly to catch the aforementioned back “passes” in service of the quixotic delusions of our little man head coach and his foolish devotion to his high school offense.
But it’s a moot point. Nobody with options signs at WR to block 30 times a game against defenses who are bigger than you. As we’ve seen time and again in recruiting. We’ve got a few select players at WR and exactly none of them said to themselves they wanted to play at Tulsa to run block for the 27th time this game on 3rd and 12 on the oppo’s 39 yard line down by 3 scores.
Let’s get 5 hard nose thrown em in the dirt nasty dudes and ground and pound down the field. Let’s go old school.......make holes and pound it out ........ we have some really good running backs. Maybe wishful thinking but.......I think we have talent, the offense didn’t work last year at all so let’s shake it up, throw it back , and find a way to win. We have the guys just let’s get the best out of them. Best guy plays and pound it out . POUND IT OUT!!!!
Monty, from day 1... and I mean day 1.... has always preached "take what the defense is giving you". If the defense is getting burned over top he's going to tell his QB to bomb the football. If the defense is playing lightly in the box he's going to pound them up the gut. That's just what he does.
I certainly get the disdain for the offense considering the Chad President / Luke Skipper debacles where neither of them could throw reliably and they had all kinds of trouble in pass protection so Monty over-relied on the run. But the offensive line was really the problem last season. We weren't getting any push in the run game and we had trouble in pass protection and we had problems with offensive penalties.
Look at the Tulane loss. Smith throws for 270 yds + 50% completion + 1 TD. The run game only produced ~130 yards.
Look at the Cincinnati loss: O-Line penalty puts us in 2nd and 20. Smith gets "crushed" on a late evolving pass play where the RG gets beat. We lose his fumble. A few possessions later, Smith makes the right read in the read option and pulls the ball, but fumbles as he's tackled. A few plays later.... Smith throws with an arm coming for his throwing hand (RG got beat again) results in a wobbly throw for an interception. Another drive... Smith, sacked as he throws as the LT gets beat... results in an under throw and INT. Last drive of the game... Smith gets sacked again as the LT gets beat AGAIN... and fumbles.
Is it any surprise that we let our OL coach walk to UNT? Reminds me of how we let our Secondary coach walk to KSU and magically our secondary improved by leaps and bounds.
The buck certainly stops on Montgomery's desk... but I will give him credit for making a change at the OL coaching spot. Now all that's left to see is if that change can be successful in time to make a difference. If it can't.... I totally agree that the offense was bungled over time (but I'd put that mostly by bad positional coaching hires and lackluster recruiting at QB and WR post 2016)
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He needs to tell the driver to quit messing around and pop the clutch!
Nice to see that Tyler Smith is working really hard during quarantine. We can only hope the rest of the OLINE and the whole team in general are as well. Getting very excited for the season. Hopeful but will be ready for the disappointment to set in.
