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Only criticism: offensive play calling

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Gary_ISU

Active Member
Apr 12, 2006
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That was a terrific effort today. Chizik and his staff did a great job of getting us ready after the thrashing by Texas. This is one of those games that we will always remember as we "should have won."

I do not want to come off sounding like a Hawkeye (criticize O'Keefe) but I thought we tried to run the ball to Scales up the middle way to much this game. Coming into the game, Oklahoma was ranked 4th in the country in rush defense. They have given up an avg of 65 yards per game and a 1.89 avg per carry. Their pass defense was 73rd giving up 238 yards per game. Our pass defense was actually ranked 70th.

In this game, we averaged 2.8 yards per carry with Scales at 2.1. I guess we did better than OU's average but it seemed like we kept trying and failing. The most obvious example was running for no gain on 3 and 4 down after the interception in the first half. I thought trying it on 3rd was fine but running to Scales on 4th was a bad call. At least we learned and ran the option on 4th down in the 4th quarter. The other offensive criticism I had was the receiver screen. We ran this over and over again. It seemed like we tried several times on 3rd down and it never worked.

What I thought was very successfully were the mid range 10-20 yard routes along the sidelines and middle of the field. Hamilton made several nice catches. I thought when we were running the mid range routes and Meyer got some pressure he did a nice job of running with the ball or throwing it away. At the end of the 3rd quarter we had actually completed 15-20 for 119 yards. It just seemed like that might have been were OU was vulnerable and we did not do enough to take advantage of it.

I also did not like punting in the 3rd quarter on 4th and 2 from the OU 38. We ended up with a touchback and OU marched down the field for touchdown.

All in all a great effort especially by the defense. Hopefully we can build off this and win a couple more games.
 
4th and half a yard to go deep in OU territory and we went with a slow developing handoff of Scales.

Do we not have a fullback, or we just want to keep him as the secret weapon? Even a QB sneak would have sufficed in that situation.

And I agree with you on the 4th and 2 at the 38. We only netted 18 yards on that punt. It was a true waste of a possession.
 
Gary,

Your points are well understood. I was again frustrated with our redzone offense. From a production standpoint, we have got to be one of the worst redzone scoring teams in the country right now. This has killed us all year. I didn't mind the back to back runs on 3rd and 4th down. What I didn't like was the type of delayed handoff type run we called. We needed a quick hitting run right up the middle.
When we had the lead, I thought we grinded it out pretty well in the first half. It was nice to keep the clock running and the chains moving. Chances of having incomplete passes would of given OU more time in the first half. Hopefully you understand my point. Although a few more passes would of been nice...

I'm really excited for next year after this game. We had a lot of young guys step up and play today. Most of those guys are back next year, especially in the secondary.

I just hope we can win a 2-3 more this year and have a little momentum. This would definitely help for recruiting.
 
McFarland likes to control the clock and establish the run. Scales is a bull, but against a defensive line like OU's, he was not going to go much of anywhere. Again, this was probably a game where it would have been nice to have Bass in.

Once we get the players that the coaches need for their system, expect a more productive rushing game. I don't think the play calling was a problem -- there were several times that I saw OU's defense completely fooled by a play action pass. Meyer looked frightened out there, often waiting until the last second to throw the ball. He's not getting sacked nearly as often this year, but the beatings he takes after he throws the ball are just as bad.

EDIT: Responding to the above post, I've been encouraged by the play of the defense all year. With the exception of Texas and Texas Tech, they've shown that a year or two from now, they will be a force. The offense has me worried, but I'm hoping that once Blythe and Meyer graduate, whoever steps in and claims the starting spots next year will surprise me as much as the offensive line has.
 
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I can say I did like to see Meyer throwing some balls away and turning it up and running here and there. He made many more good decisions today. That being said, our offense is a complete liability. My hat is off to this defense today. They got picked apart last week but came out today with their hair on fire and played one heck of a ball game.
 
Drews79 said:
Gary,

When we had the lead, I thought we grinded it out pretty well in the first half. It was nice to keep the clock running and the chains moving. Chances of having incomplete passes would of given OU more time in the first half. Hopefully you understand my point. Although a few more passes would of been nice...
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I agree we did a nice job of shortening the game in the first half but a few more passes would have been nice...
 
If Shaggy had kicked 36 yarder and that last interception was a touchdown, our playcalling would look a little better.


We should have, we could have won.
 
The offensive system that is being implemented will pay huge dividends in 2 years. The only problem I had was the call of Scales up the gut back to back on 3rd/4th in the 2nd quarter. If you fool them on 3rd and 1 there by running to the outside and your tackle is able to handle the defensive end, you not only get the first down but you score.
 
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Rogue52 said:
The offensive system that is being implemented will pay huge dividends in 2 years. The only problem I had was the call of Scales up the gut back to back on 3rd/4th in the 2nd quarter. If you fool them on 3rd and 1 there by running to the outside and your tackle is able to handle the defensive end, you not only get the first down but you score.
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Personally, I think that situation should've been either a sneak or a straight, fast FB hit. Adamant you don't take the ball off the line that far in that situation. Not with our "iffy" line and OU's speed. Gotta hit them fast and immediately.

Get the yard, get a new set of downs and go to work.

Not gonna gripe too much about it. I was happy as hell they WENT for it in the first place. For those of us who complained about coaches not "going for it", we're getting a good dose so far with Chizik & co.
 
Considering the relative strengths of our OL and rushing game vs the Oklahoma rush defense, Scales' number should never get called four straight times in a possession. Short pass, QB bootleg or something. The staff really must not trust Meyer in the redzone.
 
I thought the playcalling was pretty good. At least I'm not able to predict what they're going to do, which was common in the past. Execution makes plays work or not, unless you are really predictable. Obviously the red zone left a lot to be desired. On that 4th and 1 play, I would have really liked to see anything but a run up the middle. Maybe a fake up the middle with a roll to the left with a tight end doing a short pattern in that direction for a run/pass option. Of course, I've seen that kind of play result in a quick sack too.
 
Maybe a fake up the middle with a roll to the left with a tight end doing a short pattern in that direction for a run/pass option. Of course, I've seen that kind of play result in a quick sack too.
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And hindsight is always 20/20.

I was expecting a QB sneak on the 4th Down of that series, but thinking about it, Scales was hit and miss all game today. He'd gain 2-4 on play, 8-9 the next. My guess is that they believed he'd make someone miss, or bull someone over for that first down.
 
ISUAlum2002 said:
4th and half a yard to go deep in OU territory and we went with a slow developing handoff of Scales.

Do we not have a fullback, or we just want to keep him as the secret weapon? Even a QB sneak would have sufficed in that situation.

And I agree with you on the 4th and 2 at the 38. We only netted 18 yards on that punt. It was a true waste of a possession.
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:skeptical:Unbelievable!! Horrible call!! Why go five yards backwards and hand the ball off when we could have used the QB sneak or handed the ball off to the up back, like we did with Ryan Koch? If Oklahoma stops us, then at least we tried the most logical play. Didn't we go through this with McCarney before him and Cotten finally understood Koch could get one yard. Why is this so hard to figure out?
 
acody said:
:skeptical:Unbelievable!! Horrible call!! Why go five yards backwards and hand the ball off when we could have used the QB sneak or handed the ball off to the up back, like we did with Ryan Koch? If Oklahoma stops us, then at least we tried the most logical play. Didn't we go through this with McCarney before him and Cotten finally understood Koch could get one yard. Why is this so hard to figure out?
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We no longer have a Koch to use
 
don't want to wade through the whole thread but i just hate when we have a third down play and dont throw it past the first down marker and expect our players to make someone miss
 
I guess the only thing I didn't understand is on the 4th down and short attempts, if we're going to run it, why don't we come out with Blythe/Hamilton outside so we can spread them out at least. We always get some kind of yardage with a run in that kind of formation and hardly ever lose yards. When we come out in a goalline set with no receivers it's pretty obvious what we're going to do...and we're basically hoping our front guys/FB/TE's can overpower their 8-10 they're going to have in the box...which in this case wasn't going to happen.
 
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