[Viking_Guy]

I think the unimaginativeness is what's bothering me most.  In the Harbaugh/Roman version, everything was predicated on gaining an angle, an advantage, some kind of leverage against the defense.  And a LOT of it was by motion, resetting the line, starting the tight end split out wide then bringing him in tight or across the formation to hit the gap as another blocker.  Even when Stanford ran the same traditional power play, they often started in a different formation and forced the defense to shift.

Now, imagination seems to be limited to an unbalanced line (didn't we run both third and fourth down with Toilolo on the left side of an unbalanced line? Is that much of a clue that we'll run right?).

I'm not sure how much is innate conservatism (I also remember a much more conservative play-calling scheme with Luck in 2011 than in 2010) and how much is either not fully trusting Nunes or the O-Line to execute. 

But it seems as if being "committed to the run" has morphed into almost a machismo-laden "committed to the one running play" - and again I reiterate, it's hard to wear a team out when more than 2/3rds of your offensive series are 3 plays or less.

VG

[Viking_Guy]

I think the unimaginativeness is what's bothering me most.  In the Harbaugh/Roman version, everything was predicated on gaining an angle, an advantage, some kind of leverage against the defense.  And a LOT of it was by motion, resetting the line, starting the tight end split out wide then bringing him in tight or across the formation to hit the gap as another blocker.  Even when Stanford ran the same traditional power play, they often started in a different formation and forced the defense to shift.

Now, imagination seems to be limited to an unbalanced line (didn't we run both third and fourth down with Toilolo on the left side of an unbalanced line? Is that much of a clue that we'll run right?).

I'm not sure how much is innate conservatism (I also remember a much more conservative play-calling scheme with Luck in 2011 than in 2010) and how much is either not fully trusting Nunes or the O-Line to execute. 

But it seems as if being "committed to the run" has morphed into almost a machismo-laden "committed to the one running play" - and again I reiterate, it's hard to wear a team out when more than 2/3rds of your offensive series are 3 plays or less.

VG