Were the critics of the T.O. right?

gtcu17

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Whenever those sports analysts said that "the offense wouldn't work against teams that prepared for it", I got extremely pissed and couldn't wait to shut them up...

well?

After three games of mediocre play, I'm starting to wonder if they're right. The defense is making our team look TERRIBLE, especially the secondary. I know we've got Butler, Terrant, and Burnett, but Miami seemed to always throw to guys WIDE open, and the line got next-to-no penetration. There was one play on a reverse where we ALMOST got a tackle-for-loss of maybe 10, then he ran for the first down...

But the offense... guys, I'm terrified. The blocking is terrible. The play where Roddy got "scorpioned" (his face plant into the dirt with feet curled over), that Miami player was the ONLY defender there. I'm sure it would have been a TD had Anthony Allen made that block.. And Miami stuffed the middle every play, Nesbitt was always being flushed out, and all the defenders rushed to the sidelines on option plays. Thats something I saw both at Clemson and now Miami... who's to say every team we face won't do the same?

as for Kevin Cone? Practice team. The kid got 2 block-in-the-backs, one on a 20 yard gain, the other on a touchdown by Roddy Jones. No excuse.

This was a horrible game, but I already knew the outcome would be. I think UNC will be our "measuring stick" matchup to see if we really are going to buckle down and do well this year.
 
Never judge a system or the playcalling when the team can't block a lick is a pretty good axiom.

Last year we had a similar problem, but had one or two people that blocked consistently to keep the ball moving. This year we seem to have none of that.
 
The 3-O is not a juggernaut that cannot be stopped. It is like any other offense. Well run, it is hard to stop. Against an opponent who hasn't prepared properly, it is murder. Matt Ryan destroyed our D 2 years ago, but he had to have an OL. Same with the 3-O, you have to have execution. We are not. Rather, we are missing blocks all over the place. It is not pretty right now.

I think we need to go back to Cox, Dwyer and Jones and do what we know we can do.
 
The 3-O is not a juggernaut that cannot be stopped. It is like any other offense. Well run, it is hard to stop. Against an opponent who hasn't prepared properly, it is murder. Matt Ryan destroyed our D 2 years ago, but he had to have an OL. Same with the 3-O, you have to have execution. We are not. Rather, we are missing blocks all over the place. It is not pretty right now.

I think we need to go back to Cox, Dwyer and Jones and do what we know we can do.

don't leave Marcus Wright out of that mix. He is a blocker--and we need blockers.
 
Agreed that we can't judge the offense on such a piss poor exhibition of it. I was wondering, is CPJ trying to move it along too quickly? Asking more ofthe guys (particularly the O line) than they really can do? Is he forgetting these aren't his guys, they weren't recruited to run anything like this?
 
Navy still scores points and competes with anybody with this offense with many lesser athletes (ask Ohio State). The offense isn't the problem, it's execution.
 
Critics of Johnson's offense aren't right. His success with this scheme has spanned three decades.

Critics of our defense, however...
 
We are getting ****ty blocking out of the g-c-g. Our a-backs are probably getting half as many blocks as they should. I think it is time to move Cox back into the starting lineup. Sure, he isn't going to break a huge gain, but he will spring the other guy better than anyone esle we have.

OTOH, when Cox was at BB, the defense didn't crash the dive like the do with Dwyer. That might be a way to open up the BB for 4-5 yards on first down.
 
I'll also add that I read way back (I have no links, and I read this when Johnson was still at Navy) that Navy's QB's usually graded out at like a 90%+ clip of making the correct reads. The play might not always work, but the QB usually made the correct read at least 90% of the time or more, and that's why they were always so efficient.

I'll go out on a limb and say that Nesbitt is nowhere near that mark. It just looks like GT hasn't reached that "instinctive" stage yet in running the O. And terrible blocking most likely has a lot to do with that.
 
Whenever those sports analysts said that "the offense wouldn't work against teams that prepared for it", I got extremely pissed and couldn't wait to shut them up...

well?

The blocking is terrible.
You answered your question right there! Any offensive scheme will be "figured out," or more aptly put exposed, if you do not execute your blocks.
 
Look at Nebraska in their hayday. If you have an O-line that can actually block, it's extremely scary to defend. Right now it's child's play because our O-line is one of the worst in the ACC.
 
I'll also add that I read way back (I have no links, and I read this when Johnson was still at Navy) that Navy's QB's usually graded out at like a 90%+ clip of making the correct reads. The play might not always work, but the QB usually made the correct read at least 90% of the time or more, and that's why they were always so efficient.

I'll go out on a limb and say that Nesbitt is nowhere near that mark. It just looks like GT hasn't reached that "instinctive" stage yet in running the O. And terrible blocking most likely has a lot to do with that.
He is making the proper reads but the line folds or a block is missed on the edge, and the play blows up. Until we are consistently hitting our blocks more, we may never know how good our offense is.
 
Navy still scores points and competes with anybody with this offense with many lesser athletes (ask Ohio State). The offense isn't the problem, it's execution.

There's another big difference between us and Navy. Navy can sneak up on people. You think OSU spent much time in the offseason preparing for Navy with USC in week 2? I sure don't.

Now that we've been successful, more people are targeting and scheming for us, which is just going to make it that much harder.

Not that I don't think it can be done, because it absolutely can. I beelieve in our jackets and I know we can get it done.
 
Watching the Navy/OSU game, it's obvious that we still are not operating close to their speed of executing the TO (lesser athletes or not).
 
He is making the proper reads but the line folds or a block is missed on the edge, and the play blows up. Until we are consistently hitting our blocks more, we may never know how good our offense is.

Yes, but.... I all honesty, they are pursuing hard to the edges with 8-9 guys. Yes, we're missing blocks that can make this offense go, but until we back them off, I don't think it's gonna matter.
 
Let's get as passionate about our defense as we are our cutesy offense.

But on the offensive note, completing more passes would be grand.
 
There's another big difference between us and Navy. Navy can sneak up on people. You think OSU spent much time in the offseason preparing for Navy with USC in week 2? I sure don't.

Now that we've been successful, more people are targeting and scheming for us, which is just going to make it that much harder.

Not that I don't think it can be done, because it absolutely can. I beelieve in our jackets and I know we can get it done.


I hear what you're saying, but in all honesty I don't think any additional scheming matters that much. This offense isn't anything new by any means, and folks have been scheming against it for decades. There's nothing new they can do to defend it that hasn't been done before. All they can do is out execute it, which is what Miami did last night.

When GSU was running it under Johnson, all the teams they played every year prepared extra hard for it too. And they still got their asses handed to 'em every year as a result. It just all boils down to execution, which is pretty much the case with any offense, regardless if it is the I-formation, wing-T, pro set, fun 'n gun, etc.
 
You answered your question right there! Any offensive scheme will be "figured out," or more aptly put exposed, if you do not execute your blocks.

Living out of town, I have been able to watch every game on DVR over the past season and a half. I typically replay a bunch of plays while I'm watching. I see alot of missed blocks in one-on-one situations (total whiffs) as well as a lot of times where two guys are blocking one defender while another makes the play. A good example was a toss sweep last night to the right, where Roddy was playing the right A-back. Josh changed the call at the line based on alignment, and literally pointed at the guy that Roddy was supposed to block (the outside CB or S). Roddy went after the LB instead, as did Bebe, who seemed to be blocking the right assignment. So, we had two guys blocking the LB, and nobody blocking the DB. Result: -2 yards. Result with good blocking: +10 yds.
 
I agree that execution is the #1 issue. However, is anyone else noticing that all of the teams we've faced this year have often just had more bodies at the POA than we've had?

Maybe it just seems that way since our guys are lying on the ground and theirs are making plays. If true, this tells me they are not respecting the pass. IMO, right behind execution is the passing game. We've got to make them pay for throwing 9 guys at the LOS.
 
He is making the proper reads but the line folds or a block is missed on the edge, and the play blows up. Until we are consistently hitting our blocks more, we may never know how good our offense is.

I think he does makes the proper reads a lot of times, but I don't think it's quite as high as 90% of the time. (Just my observation, I don't sit down and watch film)

I also agree with GoldZ - we aren't running it as full throttle as Navy is. That just tells me that we haven't reached the full potential yet (obviously!). Hopefully we can sooner rather than later.

But it won't do any good unless you can stop somebody on the other end. Geez..
 
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