[Hulk01]

We ran a lot of what you can call "intended sweeps"--stretch plays with Love, with the possibility that the optimum choice would be to run wide. 

But it rarely was an attractive option--from the get go.  That's because our effective-but-slow wide receivers allow defenses to play their corner backs up at the LOS in press or near-press coverage, and they create obvious obstacles.  At they very least, opposing corners are required to turn the play inside. 

And because the stretch play is slow developing, opposing safeties are able to come up and help stop the wide play, too.  (K State's Deontay Burnett is a vivid example, going back to Mac._

Add to those problems the increased speed of so many of today's defensive ends (glorified/former outside linebackers) and outside linebackers (safeties in speed and often in background), and you can see why it's not just Stanford that doesn't run many sweeps.  It takes so long to get to the edge.  By the time you get there, there's a crowd waiting.

And at its best, the Green Bay sweep was really a classic four yards and a cloud of dust play.  It wasn't interesting or unpredictable, but it was usually good for four yards.  The good old, and slower, days.

[Hulk01]

We ran a lot of what you can call "intended sweeps"--stretch plays with Love, with the possibility that the optimum choice would be to run wide. 

But it rarely was an attractive option--from the get go.  That's because our effective-but-slow wide receivers allow defenses to play their corner backs up at the LOS in press or near-press coverage, and they create obvious obstacles.  At they very least, opposing corners are required to turn the play inside. 

And because the stretch play is slow developing, opposing safeties are able to come up and help stop the wide play, too.  (K State's Deontay Burnett is a vivid example, going back to Mac._

Add to those problems the increased speed of so many of today's defensive ends (glorified/former outside linebackers) and outside linebackers (safeties in speed and often in background), and you can see why it's not just Stanford that doesn't run many sweeps.  It takes so long to get to the edge.  By the time you get there, there's a crowd waiting.

And at its best, the Green Bay sweep was really a classic four yards and a cloud of dust play.  It wasn't interesting or unpredictable, but it was usually good for four yards.  The good old, and slower, days.