[SamuelMcF]

We ran a very different offense in 2020 than we did in 2011.  Arguably, the problem is that we've strayed too far from our roots, which were effective, and now run too much of a "me too" offensive philosophy that doesn't fit our strengths (as intimated by the OP)

That's what happens when you have a new OC, new OL coach and run game coordinator. It's also now two guys instead of just Bloomgren.

Bloomgren ran a power man-blocking scheme out of the I formation. These are the "roots" you're talking about.

Pritchberry runs a duo zone-blocking scheme out of the shotgun with more spread/RPO looks. We did keep some play action out of a more "power" look from time to time, but the base scheme is a complete 180 from what we used to run under Bloom. I have no idea how people can look at our offense and claim it's the same. It's not. It feels to me like many believe "bad offense" = "the same offense." Nope. That said...

It was very clear Shaw took over playcalling on 3rd downs and in the RZ, and it looked much more like previous years' stuff and absolutely sucked. Our 3rd down conversion rate and RZ touchdown rate were both abysmal. As an example, specifically in the RZ, we ran out of 4TE sets with walk-on Kyle McCombs as the 4th TE at least 5 times, and (I'm not exaggerating) netted NEGATIVE yardage on those plays. There was a sequence in a game (I forget which) where we did it three times in a row for a net gain of zero. Mind-boggling that we not only tried, but CONTINUED TO TRY to run behind a walk-on TE getting obliterated by an opposing DE/OLB. [These stuck out in my mind because I would notice a TE wearing #85 in the game and go "wait, who is that?"]

On third down and long-ish, our playcall was basically always one of three things: a give-up RB draw (sad), a screen pass, or "Four Verticals" from Madden with maybe an in route somewhere near the marker. No creativity, and so easy for defenses to plan against.

So really IMO the problem is not that we've strayed too far from "our roots," it's that Shaw is holding us back from actually moving on when the rest of the offensive braintrust and personnel already have. Pritchard and Carberry play half the chess game, then Shaw replaces all their pieces with pawns and finishes the game with them because it used to work when the pawns could move like queens.




HOWEVER, ALL THIS SAID, I want to echo BobK. The elephant in the room is that our defense has completely fallen off a cliff. That's the bigger issue that needs fixing right now. And in a hurry.

[SamuelMcF]

We ran a very different offense in 2020 than we did in 2011.  Arguably, the problem is that we've strayed too far from our roots, which were effective, and now run too much of a "me too" offensive philosophy that doesn't fit our strengths (as intimated by the OP)

That's what happens when you have a new OC, new OL coach and run game coordinator. It's also now two guys instead of just Bloomgren.

Bloomgren ran a power man-blocking scheme out of the I formation. These are the "roots" you're talking about.

Pritchberry runs a duo zone-blocking scheme out of the shotgun with more spread/RPO looks. We did keep some play action out of a more "power" look from time to time, but the base scheme is a complete 180 from what we used to run under Bloom. I have no idea how people can look at our offense and claim it's the same. It's not. It feels to me like many believe "bad offense" = "the same offense." Nope. That said...

It was very clear Shaw took over playcalling on 3rd downs and in the RZ, and it looked much more like previous years' stuff and absolutely sucked. Our 3rd down conversion rate and RZ touchdown rate were both abysmal. As an example, specifically in the RZ, we ran out of 4TE sets with walk-on Kyle McCombs as the 4th TE at least 5 times, and (I'm not exaggerating) netted NEGATIVE yardage on those plays. There was a sequence in a game (I forget which) where we did it three times in a row for a net gain of zero. Mind-boggling that we not only tried, but CONTINUED TO TRY to run behind a walk-on TE getting obliterated by an opposing DE/OLB. [These stuck out in my mind because I would notice a TE wearing #85 in the game and go "wait, who is that?"]

On third down and long-ish, our playcall was basically always one of three things: a give-up RB draw (sad), a screen pass, or "Four Verticals" from Madden with maybe an in route somewhere near the marker. No creativity, and so easy for defenses to plan against.

So really IMO the problem is not that we've strayed too far from "our roots," it's that Shaw is holding us back from actually moving on when the rest of the offensive braintrust and personnel already have. Pritchard and Carberry play half the chess game, then Shaw replaces all their pieces with pawns and finishes the game with them because it used to work when the pawns could move like queens.




HOWEVER, ALL THIS SAID, I want to echo BobK. The elephant in the room is that our defense has completely fallen off a cliff. That's the bigger issue that needs fixing right now. And in a hurry.