Our Offense

[MNORM]

Painful to watch. Reminds me of the abysmal offense from 2015.

[youwouldno]

I can chalk some of this up to a weird spring season. But this stuff better get ironed out by the fall.

Or what? You'll be annoyed by having to come up with a new set of excuses?

[FUPlayer74]

Our first 3 possessions of the 4th qtr netted 9 plays, +3yds, and a whopping 3:07 in time of possession. By the time we got the ball back with 3:50 to go the score was 14-26, game over.

[purplehorse]

Painful to watch. Reminds me of the abysmal offense from 2015.

I guess I am just getting old. I don’t remember a FU offense this bad.

[The Jackal]

Painful to watch. Reminds me of the abysmal offense from 2015.

I guess I am just getting old. I don’t remember a FU offense this bad.

You must have missed the last few seasons of Bruce Fowler's tenure.

Similar ineffectiveness, but with zero shot at hitting a big play. At least this Furman offense can, at times, break one big.

[fu77fan]

In the article in the earlier post Clay Hendrix said....
- We have to be able to hit some throws
AND
- We are struggling running the ball

The combination of not being able to run or pass pretty much sums up the offense this season...... and is why we are all in agreement that our offense sucks!!

[fufanatic]

Furman offense:

Can’t block.
Can’t run.
Can’t throw.
Can’t catch.
Can’t coach.

[gofurman]

Furman offense:

Can’t block.
Can’t run.
Can’t throw.
Can’t catch.
Can’t coach.

staying positive - its the BLOCKING that most confuses me.. or the inability. It's mostly the same guys as last year - Jumper Harris Kroeber. Maybe teams are putting even another guy in the box now and it's just numbers? 7 standard.. last year 8 and now sometimes 9 in the box?? Is that what is happening? I have seen them stacking it some but haven't counted on every play by any means.

I am asking - have defenses gone from 7 to 8 (last year) to now 8 or 9 in the box against us?

[Furmanoid]

8 is fairly normal. 4-3 cover 3 is pretty much 8 in the box. 9 seems pretty weird. Wouldn’t you just line up in trips, throw a bubble screen and score pretty near every time against that?

It may have more to do with the first step or two those second level guys are taking. It looks like they read “run” so fast that they are just blasting straight ahead. Those over the middle passes should slow them down (back them up) some but they don’t.

But even so, we should be able to block everybody who’s in the play. It just seems like it takes a half second too long to hit the hole (when there is one) and guys can come from 3 gaps over to make the play. But I’m starting to suspect that our linemen just aren’t very good. They are deceptively slow. How we fix that in a few weeks of summer practice, I don’t know.

Maybe FUBeAR can explain but I wonder why teams don’t go to 2ft or bigger splits so the hole are already there and you only need to keep them open for 1-2 seconds. Then you just read the defensive line techniques and run where there aren’t. If the lb’s aren’t respecting your spread out receivers, then put one at FB go under center and hit the hole FAST.

[apaladin]

Teams are just outnumbering us up front. They do not have any respect for our passing game and we have no receivers that can’t be covered one on one and no deep threats. Even if we did have a deep threat we don’t have time to throw it. We supposedly had a replacement or 2 for Thomas Gordon, that has not even come close to comig true. We miss TG really bad.

[FUBeAR]

8 is fairly normal. 4-3 cover 3 is pretty much 8 in the box. 9 seems pretty weird. Wouldn’t you just line up in trips, throw a bubble screen and score pretty near every time against that?

It may have more to do with the first step or two those second level guys are taking. It looks like they read “run” so fast that they are just blasting straight ahead. Those over the middle passes should slow them down (back them up) some but they don’t.

But even so, we should be able to block everybody who’s in the play. It just seems like it takes a half second too long to hit the hole (when there is one) and guys can come from 3 gaps over to make the play. But I’m starting to suspect that our linemen just aren’t very good. They are deceptively slow. How we fix that in a few weeks of summer practice, I don’t know.

Maybe FUBeAR can explain but I wonder why teams don’t go to 2ft or bigger splits so the hole are already there and you only need to keep them open for 1-2 seconds. Then you just read the defensive line techniques and run where there aren’t. If the lb’s aren’t respecting your spread out receivers, then put one at FB go under center and hit the hole FAST.

LOL - FUBeAR Jr. was commenting on Line Splits during the game just this week.

He was talking about the splits he saw during the game & those we we ran when I was Coaching his HS OLine. 2.5’ C to OG & 3’ OG to OT - wider on Inside running plays...how much wider? Well...as wide as you can go & they’ll still take their “normal” alignment on you... AND as wide as you can go & still Reach / Cutoff (whatever you need to do)...but you better be able to do that from ‘real-dang-wide.’ If you can only play OL in a phone booth, you can’t play for FUBeAR. Only ATHLETES wanted who can play in space...and we ran Stretch / Outside zone...from tighter splits...but not much tighter. Didn’t run Inside Zone - gap blocked all of our inside plays from WIDE splits...ran Power / Counter / ISO until it hairlipped Fulton County.

Anyway - not really a comment on FU’s O-Line splits - just interesting that you called it out & it was a topic of conversation for us during the game.

You can see what I mean on this video. The “star” of this particular video, btw, became an All SoCon OLman for the Paladins...

[FurmAlum]

I know there weren't a lot of bright spots on offense but Bailor Hughes did make two catches in the 4th quarter and looked pretty fast to me after he caught the ball. Might we see more of him?

[Furmanoid]

8 is fairly normal. 4-3 cover 3 is pretty much 8 in the box. 9 seems pretty weird. Wouldn’t you just line up in trips, throw a bubble screen and score pretty near every time against that?

It may have more to do with the first step or two those second level guys are taking. It looks like they read “run” so fast that they are just blasting straight ahead. Those over the middle passes should slow them down (back them up) some but they don’t.

But even so, we should be able to block everybody who’s in the play. It just seems like it takes a half second too long to hit the hole (when there is one) and guys can come from 3 gaps over to make the play. But I’m starting to suspect that our linemen just aren’t very good. They are deceptively slow. How we fix that in a few weeks of summer practice, I don’t know.

Maybe FUBeAR can explain but I wonder why teams don’t go to 2ft or bigger splits so the hole are already there and you only need to keep them open for 1-2 seconds. Then you just read the defensive line techniques and run where there aren’t. If the lb’s aren’t respecting your spread out receivers, then put one at FB go under center and hit the hole FAST.

LOL - FUBeAR Jr. was commenting on Line Splits during the game just this week.

He was talking about the splits he saw during the game & those we we ran when I was Coaching his HS OLine. 2.5’ C to OG & 3’ OG to OT - wider on Inside running plays...how much wider? Well...as wide as you can go & they’ll still take their “normal” alignment on you... AND as wide as you can go & still Reach / Cutoff (whatever you need to do)...but you better be able to do that from ‘real-dang-wide.’ If you can only play OL in a phone booth, you can’t play for FUBeAR. Only ATHLETES wanted who can play in space...and we ran Stretch / Outside zone...from tighter splits...but not much tighter. Didn’t run Inside Zone - gap blocked all of our inside plays from WIDE splits...ran Power / Counter / ISO until it hairlipped Fulton County.

Anyway - not really a comment on FU’s O-Line splits - just interesting that you called it out & it was a topic of conversation for us during the game.

You can see what I mean on this video. The “star” of this particular video, btw, became an All SoCon OLman for the Paladins...

From what I read about Air Force a few years ago, I figured we would have your kind of guy on our line by now, but apparently we’re going in another direction.

[The Jackal]

It is difficult to try and isolate the problem.

Here's a good example. 2nd and 2. Furman runs a little play action naked boot.

Watch Mercer's MLB - the kid that makes the play - he starts running to his right before Sisson even completes the fake and plants him in the backfield.

Thoughts:

1. The MLB apparently KNOWS what play is coming. Run based personnel on a short yardage down and he doesn't hesitate to attack the backside of the formation on the boot pass. He isn't blitzing. There's no reason for the MLB to be moving opposite of the action on that play unless something is telling him we aren't running.

2. Our offense is too predictable. As an underdog, do Mercer's coaches just take a gamble that Furman is passing in that situation or there something obvious that signals what we are doing on a given play? Again, this isn't a stunt. The MLB does not hesitate once Sisson begins the fake.

3. Are teams just not afraid of our running game? This seems also reasonable. Is our offensive line struggling to get a push such that a defense doesn't have to send its linebackers?

I'm sure there are execution problems (none obvious to me), but there's not much Sisson can do here. Blocking a backside blitz does not appear to be contemplated in the play design. The only area where we have no blocking is outside the TE on the backside, which is exactly where Mercer brings pressure.

This is where I think the coaches have to figure something out. Mercer appears to KNOW what play Furman is running here - from the linebackers back to the safeties (who sit in the zone waiting on Furman to run crossing routes - about the only pass we can routinely complete).

[Furmanoid]

I’ve had that same theory, that we have a tell that gives our intentions away. But to me this play disproves that. That mlb appears to honor our OK looking fake and takes off when he sees it’s a bootleg. The problem is that he runs about 15yds in the time it takes the QB to turn and take about 6 steps. QB looks at the open receiver and doesn’t pull the trigger.
But it still couldn’t have been ok. Usually if I’m rooting for the defense in this situation, the QB usually makes any evasive move at all and the defender flies by because he’s completely out of control. But that doesn’t happen much with us.

This play suggests that we are just too slow. I’m sure he has a decent 40 time. I mean slow footwork getting ready to pass. There’s almost always an extra step in there like he needs it to help him throw. Too much hesitation. He had time. That play should never be called until that is fixed. We should just throw bubble screens and quick slants as soon as he catches the snap. But I bet he would take several steps even to do that. Or maybe go under center and throw on the third step period.