Offense

[JayLarson]

Thanks for the vote of confidence BisonAlum! Hopefully in conference play we get things straightened out, alot of us come here to vent and yesterday was just a day where many of us came here to vent. Last year JJ was second in passing efficiency in the conference for almost the whole season, this year he is not even in the top 8. We have one of the worst offenses in the Big Sky, with one of the most talented groups of offensive players, so you could respect our frustration.

 

[Spanky]

Didn't one of our assistant coaches play OL in the NFL? Is it difficult for a former player to become a good coach?

 

['68griz]

Didn't one of our assistant coaches play OL in the NFL? Is it difficult for a former player to become a good coach?

Just because you can play does not mean you can coach. Bart Starr is a good example.

 

[BigPawzSharpClawz]

Let's discuss our offense, or lack there of. We expected our OL to be inconsistent this season. Most us are not surprised that Wyoming and NDSU each beat our OL consistently. Good thing is, the OL is young and it takes time to get in sync, so it will continue to improve. Against solid defenses JJ and rest our offense has very little opportunity to execute. Why is that? It looks to me it goes beyond the obvious OL inexperience and youth. Our coaching staff is not helping anything. Hell our Offensive staff cannot get out of it's own shadow.

This is not about the style of play they have chosen but the play calling in the chosen style. This staff needs to help our young OL and JJ with implementing more quick passing, with slants, ins, outs, hooks and drags. Defenses know most our routes are long developing, and very seldom do we have short quick routes of any sort on most plays. This offense does not try or know how to open up the middle of the field. This was a problem for most of last season as well, even with an experienced OL we relied too much on long pass plays.

This staff cannot continue to be this stubborn. A young OL needs to be helped a lot more by better offensive play calling. We have a SR QB, and damn fine skill position players. They are not able to be effective until this staff learns to change their strategy. Is this offense so predictable and lack of creativity makes game planning easy against our Offense?

It is a damn shame we have OC's holding back a very good SR QB with plenty of talent at skill positions. I'd love to have a offensive staff that calls a game like EWU, MSU, or Sac State calls. Is this staff ever going to stop being stubborn offensively?

I'd love to hear what others have to say. Let's not use the bring back Pflu style either. I really don't think the style is the problem. It is the play calling and lack of creativity.

A friend of mine told me not long ago, the difference between good & great is adaptation. Our HC refuses to change even when its fairly obvious to those around him. This is a SPEED team on offense and the current scheme aint doing diddly poo.

We wont see any real change until there is change (new head coach) but for now at least up the tempo in the scheme we have because the more plays you run...the more your core four players (Canada, Jones, Henderson, Van) touch the football. Simple concept to ADAPT within what you already do coach.

Blame the position coaches if y'all want, but I am confident they are doing as told by the head ball coach and not the other way around. That stubborn tough Butte mentality dont work all that well in todays real world.

Come on Mick. So us something that makes us say, Please Dont Go! Right now, honestly I am making plans for your departure at year end. And dont get me going on how POORLY we recruited the O-Line position that past two off seasons. I saw in another thread where someone talked about how great of a job recruiting this staff has done under Mick.

Mick is responsible here as well. If I was on the board of THIS company, I would be asking for the head of the CEO on a stick. Just one old mans outlook on another. Change it up now because next week may be too damn late.

 

[griz4life]

Good grief, if the Griz didn't have to rely on three sophomore linemen who had never started before this year, there would be no belly aching about the offense.

 

[stubbins]

The irony in your post is that we only had over 500 yards offense in the EWU and CCU games because we abandoned the "power" offense, went hurry up, and put the ball in our playmaker QB's hands. :|

Also, how about the fact that Pflu ran the ball just as much...
What did havre think they were going to say, that the offensive scheme and play calling sucks?

 

[citygriz]

i'm not an x's and o's guy unless we're talking kisses and hugs. but it mystifies me why with so much athleticism at the skill positions--jj, van, hendu, canada, jones--we can't figure out a way to get these guys in space, fast. get that ball out of the pocket in one second and let these guys do their thing.

at the same time, i'm fully aware of the deficiencies along the oline. you can't show up against a team like ndsu with a young smallish group like ours, and not get your butt kicked. like yesterday. oh, for the great montana offensive lines!

 

[GrizLA]

i'm not an x's and o's guy unless we're talking kisses and hugs. but it mystifies me why with so much athleticism at the skill positions--jj, van, hendu, canada, jones--we can't figure out a way to get these guys in space, fast. get that ball out of the pocket in one second and let these guys do their thing.

at the same time, i'm fully aware of the deficiencies along the oline. you can't show up against a team like ndsu with anyoung smallish group like ours, and not get your butt kicked. like yesterday. oh, for the great montana offensive lines!

The coaching staff has a plan and they are sticking to it..no variance from first game to last...

 

['68griz]

i'm not an x's and o's guy unless we're talking kisses and hugs. but it mystifies me why with so much athleticism at the skill positions--jj, van, hendu, canada, jones--we can't figure out a way to get these guys in space, fast. get that ball out of the pocket in one second and let these guys do their thing.

at the same time, i'm fully aware of the deficiencies along the oline. you can't show up against a team like ndsu with anyoung smallish group like ours, and not get your butt kicked. like yesterday. oh, for the great montana offensive lines!

The coaching staff has a plan and they are sticking to it..no variance from first game to last...

That's my fear....

 

[mtgrizrule]

Good grief, if the Griz didn't have to rely on three sophomore linemen who had never started before this year, there would be no belly aching about the offense.

You are right. That is the exact reason why the offensive coaches need to implement more quick passing. We don't have the experience at OL to consistently execute their longer passing trees. An offensive staff can help an young OL by creating plays that don't require sustaining blocks as long.

 

[GrizLA]

Good grief, if the Griz didn't have to rely on three sophomore linemen who had never started before this year, there would be no belly aching about the offense.

You are right. That is the exact reason why the offensive coaches need to implement more quick passing. We don't have the experience at OL to consistently execute their longer passing trees. An offensive staff can help an young OL by creating plays that don't require sustaining blocks as long.

From observing the past two years, I don't think the staff is capable of that...

 

[IHateRobPhenicie]

Would it kill them to run a quick slant or two here or there? Get the ball to Jones and Henderson and let them work. Throwing the deep ball is going to get JJ killed behind this line.

 

[griz4life]

I think they have tried the quick slants you're looking for. They did against Wyoming and the results were pretty mixed, not many YACs and several incompletions.

Not everything that doesn't get called is because of coaching philosophy. Montana's coaches, like all coaches, have a good idea about which plays have the highest probability of completion against certain defensive formations. They have more video than you can imagine. If a play isn't being called, it's probably because it hasn't worked well in practice.

 

[mtgrizrule]

I think they have tried the quick slants you're looking for. They did against Wyoming and the results were pretty mixed, not many YACs and several incompletions.

Not everything that doesn't get called is because of coaching philosophy. Montana's coaches, like all coaches, have a good idea about which plays have the highest probability of completion against certain defensive formations. They have more video than you can imagine. If a play isn't being called, it's probably because it hasn't worked well in practice.

So we have been struggling finding a consistent passing game for the last year, and they still have not found a fix? Seriously, how often do we see passes go to a WR running a deep route? It is pretty easy for most DC's to figure out how to defend our passing game. Guys here it is, Make sure we keep someone deep for Henderson. Keep Jamal Jones in front of you, stay on him tightly. Commit a fast LB or Safety to Van. Take away those 3, by then JJ is running for his life and does not have time for any options beyond 3. Hell he is lucky to see options 1 and 2 against good pass rushing teams.

It would not hurt for our coaches to use our other talent as the 1st 2 options with quick passes consistently. If we pepper defenses with our other options, in time it will force defenses to account for everyone and open things up for our big play makers. I'd rather have mixed results than our current results. Mixed results would likely be an improvement.

Would it hurt to have Henderson run more quick, short, and medium patterns and have others go deep now and then? Our coaches need to add more versatility and options to our offense. They just have not for the last year. I just don't understand how this can be a problem for such a long time.

 

[statler & waldorf]

The coaching staff has a plan and they are sticking to it..no variance from first game to last...

:thumb:
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. -- Albert Einstein

 

[Raider]

The coaching staff has a plan and they are sticking to it..no variance from first game to last...

:thumb:
Idiocy: posting the same thing over and over again and expecting it to be funny at some point

I agree. Good call.

 

[griz4life]

It's probably worth considering that Naccarato's injury had a bad affect on the quick slant plays. He was probably an important part of that game.

 

[reinell30]

It's probably worth considering that Naccarato's injury had a bad affect on the quick slant plays. He was probably an important part of that game.

I believe you are right there. Won't Chase be back this week?

 

[qwerty15ster]

I think they have tried the quick slants you're looking for. They did against Wyoming and the results were pretty mixed, not many YACs and several incompletions.

Not everything that doesn't get called is because of coaching philosophy. Montana's coaches, like all coaches, have a good idea about which plays have the highest probability of completion against certain defensive formations. They have more video than you can imagine. If a play isn't being called, it's probably because it hasn't worked well in practice.

So we have been struggling finding a consistent passing game for the last year, and they still have not found a fix? Seriously, how often do we see passes go to a WR running a deep route? It is pretty easy for most DC's to figure out how to defend our passing game. Guys here it is, Make sure we keep someone deep for Henderson. Keep Jamal Jones in front of you, stay on him tightly. Commit a fast LB or Safety to Van. Take away those 3, by then JJ is running for his life and does not have time for any options beyond 3. Hell he is lucky to see options 1 and 2 against good pass rushing teams.

It would not hurt for our coaches to use our other talent as the 1st 2 options with quick passes consistently. If we pepper defenses with our other options, in time it will force defenses to account for everyone and open things up for our big play makers. I'd rather have mixed results than our current results. Mixed results would likely be an improvement.

Would it hurt to have Henderson run more quick, short, and medium patterns and have others go deep now and then? Our coaches need to add more versatility and options to our offense. They just have not for the last year. I just don't understand how this can be a problem for such a long time.

Something I've been wondering, is whether this was a play call by the OC's, or something JJ saw at the line. In the USD game, I think most (if not all) the times JJ tried the deep ball was when the WR had single coverage. I'm wondering if JJ saw that at the line and changed the play.

A more expansive question is how much freedom is JJ given at the line to change the play? It looks like a lot. He is seemingly communicating with the rest of the offense while at the line a lot. Although he is possibly just killing the first play he was given in favor of running the second. I don't how that works with the Griz.

 

[grizatwork]

i'm not an x's and o's guy unless we're talking kisses and hugs. but it mystifies me why with so much athleticism at the skill positions--jj, van, hendu, canada, jones--we can't figure out a way to get these guys in space, fast. get that ball out of the pocket in one second and let these guys do their thing.

at the same time, i'm fully aware of the deficiencies along the oline. you can't show up against a team like ndsu with anyoung smallish group like ours, and not get your butt kicked. like yesterday. oh, for the great montana offensive lines!

The coaching staff has a plan and they are sticking to it..no variance from first game to last...

So did Pflu in 2011 and it sucked for 8 games and then the guys got better at. Guys who were recruited for a different system. I am not saying it will happen this year, but the similarities are there.