The offensive line success the past two seasons was built with defenses that were more honest, with Purdy as a wlidcard and a capable passing game, rather than selling out to stop AA in Hall. It’s a line that can have success if being asked to exploit what a defense is giving up. It’s not a OL that can start a game and bully a defense that knows Hall is getting the ball. They need Manning to do well, and they also need Purdy to be feared, both in terms of scrambling, but also his arm. Purdy and Manning have not been threatening, although we saw a little more against UNLV.
Right now defenses can live on keying on Hall for a short gain, then giving Purdy a tight pocket and pressing the receivers on predictable passing downs, resulting in a lot of traffic when we check down. Even if we have success with a bunch of small gain plays, we'll have poor execution eventually (TO, penalty, or missed play). Not a great sign that against an inferior opponent that is KU quality, we converted the easy success into just 14 points, consistent with our inability to play efficiently right now despite a ton of experience. Eventually culture kicks in and we steamroll these bad programs, but that doesn't work even against the UNI types.
