Bootie wrote: ↑Wed May 09, 2018 8:20 am
The Jackal wrote: ↑Wed May 09, 2018 5:48 am
Paladin82 wrote: ↑Tue May 08, 2018 10:24 pm
I never get tired of watching those highlights.
Also the game where we scored a touchdown after shifting the offensive line pre-snap.
I can’t say that I’ve seen every football game ever played, but I’ve seen a bunch. I’ve never seen a team do that until Furman started doing it this year.
I know you've prob addressed it before, but please explain what that shift is doing for the offense and to the defense.
The basic framework of what Furman does there is not revolutionary. You'll see references to an "unbalanced line" or sometimes "tackle over." Essentially the offense is taking an OL from one side of the formation and lining him up on the other side, giving you three OL (usually G, T, T) to one side of the formation. Ordinarily the TE slides down and plays next to the G on weak side.
It is a defensible move. If a defense recognizes it quickly, you essentially just slide everyone over a gap to the strong side of the field. It's the same number of players the offense is using, they have just lined them up in an atypical spot. You essentially counter the offense's overload of oneside by overloading the defense to the same side (with recognition that the back side TE (now in the OT spot) is a likely target for a pass).
Nearly every time you see a team do this, though, they break the huddle and come out in that formation. What Furman did (that I had never seen before) is that they had the entire offensive line (except the center, who cannot move) shift one position to the right. It is the same idea, except the shift is so quick the defense does not have time to recognize and react to it.
On that touchdown play (2:31), Furman comes out with the strength (G, T, TE) to the short (left) side of the field. Pre-snap, the entire line moves, and the LG flips around to the RG, RG to RT, and the RT where would expect the TE to be. It takes about 1 second for Furman to flip the strength of the formation to the wide side of the field. You can immediately see the Citadel defensive players trying to sort out what they are seeing.
Furman then puts the left wingback in motion across the formation. So, Furman has now shifted the strength of the formation with the OL, and brings a running back to the same side as a blocker. 9 of 11 players are blocking on this play (besides Blazejowski and Dirks) and all but 2 of them are on one side of the formation. Furman essentially outflanks the Citadel by having more blockers on that side of the field than they have defenders.
Just my opinion, but its really hard for defensive linemen to pick up on this. They have limited visibility and are relying on the linebackers to make calls and get them in position. On that play, you can see that the Citadel's DE (on the offense's right side), who looks to be playing outside the OT's shoulder, does not move when the OL moves. When the ball is snapped, Furman has two blockers (OT and RB) outside of the guy on Citadel's defense responsible for containing the play to the outside.
Given the circumstances, I think the Citadel played it fairly well, but the idea is that on the snap of the ball there are more purple jerseys than white jerseys to the right side of the formation.