The Spread

Heard an interesting bit on EPSN Radio (Tirico) that got me to thinking. They made the following statement--more or less, I'm paraphrasing.

"Defenses have figured out the spread offense. You can only really move the ball with it if you have superior athletes."

Wow? Really? Imagine, superior athletes mattering. But, it falls into something that I have been meaning to post, but haven't had the chance.

The simple fact is that our offense is not what it used to be. We used to be an absolute circus, racing down the field and scoring almost always at will. Using virtually the same scheme, we are now having difficulty moving the football. How can that be?

(Note, too, that uberspreadman Urban Meyer is having a similar problem at Florida).

Well, I think there are two reasons.

The first is that when we were racing up and down the field, big play after big play, we had better players. I don't mean that as disrespect, but our offensive skill players included Omar Jacobs, Josh Harris, Cole Magner, Steve Sanders, Charles Sharon, and PJ Pope, each of whom had attempts to get into the NFL, and two of whom have regular season snaps in the NFL.

And we had guys like James Hawkins, BJ Lane, Corn McGrady, etc, also providing solid play.

We have good players now and very hard working. There are not 5-6 of them who will end up in an NFL camp.

So, reason number 1 is that our players simply are not as dominating.

And, I think there is something to the idea that defenses are figuring the spread out. There's almost a need for the next generation of offensive strategies. It was supposed to negate physical differences, but defenses have adjusted and we simply are not scoring the way we used to.

That's reason number 2.

Its just a theory, but it just seems to me that the spread offense may need to be tweaked. Whatever the defenses are doing to cover it (and I think dropping lots of guys plays into it), we need to figure out how to counteract that. I think that when we become too one-dimensional and can't run, it makes it hard on Tyler.

It seems to me that our playcalling has gotten conservative, but that may just be me. We aren't as aggressive as we were in the halcyon days.

Of course, that may have to do with.....better players, right?

Random musings from a tired mind.