1st half vs.OSU: Zone Read FAIL

Why not THAT fucking question? Gah!

 

Because the MSM knows nothing about the game of football, only about "storylines" and hyperbole.

Excellent question.  I would like to know if that was be design (many Denard runs have no RB option) or simply Denard not "seeing" what's out there.  If the latter you have to believe coaches see the same thing and will work on it for the bowl game.  If it's the former then maybe the Magee Florida rumors aren't as scary as one might think.

less coffee

Been sayin' this for a while now.  Seems like the only DRob run is a designed QB lead with the RB blocking in front.  No attempt at deception like Oregon does.  There is almost always a fake in the Oregon offense, it's very difficult to find the ball.

My guess is that Denard is a little banged up and is minimizing some contact on his own. Otherwise, he's just making the wrong read. 

Because that would require knowledge of the sport. MSM is only interested in reality tv.

worried about. Yes, he is the innovator of the spread offense. But time--and innovation--do catch up with people. Much of the rest of the football world has come to understand how his offenses work. Most "geniuses" have one or two early bursts of insight, then work through the implications of those ideas as life-long projects. 

There is a very real possibility that Rod is stuck with some thinking that the world has caught up to. That doesn't mean he can't succeed--run it right, with the right personnel, and the spread works because several key players CANNOT be covered. Maybe it means getting a great back in there with Denard. Maybe it means Denard a year older and more confident--he is still really, really young. And let's not forget that despite the tendencies you i.d. we STILL had the best QB in the Big Ten, one of the best in college ball. . . 

Personally, D or no D, I am just praying that Rich can GET to next year, because even if the D still sucks the O will be accomplishing amazing, amazing things. Harbaugh can wait until we have a more definitive read on RichRod. 

if it's a designed give to the running back?

You sure that he's reading the DE? Teams have used the 'scrape-exchange' for quite a while now, and the read is on the LB, not the DE. I only had time to look at one example (Shaw's big run) and on that play it looked like OSU brought a safety from the edge. Denard, obviously, made the right read on that.

Anyway, I think the point is that you're not really reading the DE on every ZR.

I don't have a problem with how the game started.  It seemed like the same thing a pro-style offense would do to open, especially with a young quarterback on the road in a big game.  Somewhat conservative, run until they prove they can consistently stop it, expand from there.  The biggest problem we had was ball security - fumbles and dropped passes.  Without them we are close or ahead well into the 2nd quarter.

I would have to look at the tape to see that Denard was wrong (could have been a LB containing, maybe he's open carrying out the play fake because there is no football in his hands) but take issue with this:

If you remove Shaw's 39-yard run, the other 12 ZR plays reulted in 32 yards with 1 fumble.  That's 2.67 YPC. Terrible.

Why does Shaw's run not count?  What you're telling me is we ran 13 Zone Reads for 71 yards, at 5.5 YPC.  That sounds good to me.  And our first half total offense was in the neighborhood of 250 total yards.  Against a top flight defense that does not suggest schematic stupidity.  We should have been on pace for 600 yards?

And even if you restrict the sample the way you want, 2.67 is not terrible.  Not good, but not terrible.

I think the issue is twofold: 1) our RBs are not nearly the threat that Denard is - because of this, good defenses will set up deliberately to make sure "hand off" is always the "right" read. 2) Denard is still a first year starter - he's not going to be 100% comfortable with the zone read at game speed against a good defense, so it would be asking a lot of him to expect him to make a double read, e.g. "do A if player X does this, but if that's what they want you to think, do B".

I would have liked to see what adjustments they came up with at halftime, but unfortunately Denard was injured at that point and didn't play much of the second half. It's worth remembering that we actually moved the ball quite effectively in the first half, racking up well over 200 yards. It was unforced errors and dumb penalties that kept us out of the endzone more than playcalling.

this appears to be an anti-RR post.  Who are you questioning RR's offensive scheme ?  Don't you KNOW that RR is an offensive genius ?  

Geez  -  if you going to flame the offense ... what possibly is left that's positive to discuss ?  (OK  -  other than GERG's hair !)

Go Blue !

You are spot on in your analysis.  It seemed as if OSU had us scouted and knew what we were going to do.  To me, when the opposing defense can successfully predict what our offense is going to do, this is a RPS FAIL on our part.

And you don't need the Vest's obvious coaching mastery to figure us out.  By the end of the first quarter, even my wife - MY WIFE! - who has been watching football for all of 7 years said, why does Denard keep giving it to Smith or Shaw on the zone read - why not keep it a few times to throw them off?  I just don't get this. 

All season, RR defenders have said that the main reason to keep RR is because of our offense.  Many have said that it is not fair to blame RR for the struggles on defense because he is less involved there, the youth, the injuries, the attrition, etc.  They have said that RR can't be blamed for  the special teams because we are the only D1 team that does not have a kicker (I actually agree with this defense, but only wrt the kicking).  But the offense, well that's RR's baby - nobody disputes that.  The problem is that when we play the Indianas of the world, we can be predictable, because our offense just simply out talents their defense.  But, every single time we have played a good defense, our offense has sputtered, largely because of predictability. 

how do you know it wasnt a designed handoff?

I agree that giving it on all of those plays was not the correct read every time, but those are Denards reads. RR can only do so much to prep Denard on the reads, it is up to him to make the proper ones. I remember reading that it takes a while for the reads to be instinctual rather than just a guess.

Also this only adds to the lore of Denard. He is a first year starter in an offense that puts tons of pressure on the QB and he was making a good amount of poor reads and he still put up one of the best statistical seasons in NCAA history. Wait until it clicks and he "gets it." That will be a fun year.

Hopefully with bowl game, spring, and summer practices, Denard can become a zone read machine.  With his work ethic and talent, he should get better and more comfortable as a QB.

Because it was working. The first drive went 49 yards on twelve plays, in which they passed three times.

The second drive was stopped by a fumble, but the rush game was working.

The third drive, they tried to pass and failed.

Okay, on the fourth drive in the second quarter, went eighty yards on an eleven drive play where they passed THREE TIMES.

So, what's the problem?

We had 238 yds in the first half on the Big10 #1D (?). Failure was no kicker (3pts), fumble (3-7pts), two motion penalties (drive kill shots), drops (more kill shots), sweet 18 yd punt (-7pts), Kickoff TD (-7pts) . If we take care of these issues, halftime score looks around 17-14/10 UM.