Lulay, Chapdelaine and the offence ...

[MexicoLionFan]

Blitz, if what you said were true about our Offensive schemes and system, with the talent we have, this would be a top 1 or 2 offence in the league...we aren't because our offence is outdated and stale...our running plays that are designed to our RB are consistently telegraphed and thus Harris sees less open field than any other RB in the league...if Harris had the space Hugh Charles gets, he would have well over 2,000 yards of combined offence...but he doesn't because he constantly runs into a wall of blockers...is this the fault of the OLine, in particular the inside 3??? To some extent, as none of them do a very good job of getting "push", but its a numbers thing...always with this offence, we are outnumbered...its like Chapdelaine opts to play 9 against 12...what our OC needs to figure out is how to get his talent into open spaces...when I constructed my offensive system, this is exactly where I started...before the blocking, before the other movements, where would the defence be if they lined up in each formation...because each formation leaves areas of vulnerability and you must ATTACK them.

I wasn't kidding when I said before, I used to love when defences blitzed me, because inevitably the inside of the field was always open, which is always the quickest, easiest read for any QB...all our receivers have to do, as you aptly pointed out after the Hamilton game, is just slant down hard off the line...Lulay will have the ball gone in 2 steps...there is no defence that can defend this...or how about getting Harris the hell out of the backfield on obvious blitzing situations completely...if we lined him up in the slot, what is a defence supposed to do??? If they are in a Zero blitz or have 7 men in the box, the Safety, usually a slower moving DB, is the only one who can adapt and cover...and if a LB tries to do this, how open will Harris be in 3 steps??? Again, none of this is rocket science...just look at Peyton Manning...when teams try to blitz him consistently, he will simply go to a spread formation with 3 or 4 receivers and a RB in the slot, and proceed to slice up the defence...why? Becauses there are MISMATCHES EVERYWHERE and thus you have achieved what every OC should be working to create...space for their talent...who cares if the ball travels 3 yards in the air or 33...if the end result is first downs and TDs then it is VERY sexy.

As I always tell you, I respect your thoughts and wisdom immensly, but in this instance, with our offensive woes, you might just be on the other side of what is actually ailing us...coaching, and to some extent poor execution of stale sytems are what plague this team more than anything else. Lulay isn't purrfect, as we both know, but he is a fierce competitor, and over 60 minutes, he will beat any defence if the cuffs are taken off...this is why I would support Lulay calling his own plays for stretches of the game.

[Blitz]

Blitz, if what you said were true about our Offensive schemes and system, with the talent we have, this would be a top 1 or 2 offence in the league...we aren't because our offence is outdated and stale...our running plays that are designed to our RB are consistently telegraphed and thus Harris sees less open field than any other RB in the league...if Harris had the space Hugh Charles gets, he would have well over 2,000 yards of combined offence...but he doesn't because he constantly runs into a wall of blockers...is this the fault of the OLine, in particular the inside 3??? To some extent, as none of them do a very good job of getting "push", but its a numbers thing...always with this offence, we are outnumbered...its like Chapdelaine opts to play 9 against 12...what our OC needs to figure out is how to get his talent into open spaces...when I constructed my offensive system, this is exactly where I started...before the blocking, before the other movements, where would the defence be if they lined up in each formation...because each formation leaves areas of vulnerability and you must ATTACK them.

I wasn't kidding when I said before, I used to love when defences blitzed me, because inevitably the inside of the field was always open, which is always the quickest, easiest read for any QB...all our receivers have to do, as you aptly pointed out after the Hamilton game, is just slant down hard off the line...Lulay will have the ball gone in 2 steps...there is no defence that can defend this...or how about getting Harris the hell out of the backfield on obvious blitzing situations completely...if we lined him up in the slot, what is a defence supposed to do??? If they are in a Zero blitz or have 7 men in the box, the Safety, usually a slower moving DB, is the only one who can adapt and cover...and if a LB tries to do this, how open will Harris be in 3 steps??? Again, none of this is rocket science...just look at Peyton Manning...when teams try to blitz him consistently, he will simply go to a spread formation with 3 or 4 receivers and a RB in the slot, and proceed to slice up the defence...why? Becauses there are MISMATCHES EVERYWHERE and thus you have achieved what every OC should be working to create...space for their talent...who cares if the ball travels 3 yards in the air or 33...if the end result is first downs and TDs then it is VERY sexy.

As I always tell you, I respect your thoughts and wisdom immensly, but in this instance, with our offensive woes, you might just be on the other side of what is actually ailing us...coaching, and to some extent poor execution of stale sytems are what plague this team more than anything else. Lulay isn't purrfect, as we both know, but he is a fierce competitor, and over 60 minutes, he will beat any defence if the cuffs are taken off...this is why I would support Lulay calling his own plays for stretches of the game.

The focus is always on differences, rather than on agreement..as if this is a psychological war. Its not.

First of all I agree with you that our offence does not need to be complicated to be deceptive. I also agree that multiple formations can be constipating but they can also be effective. New England is a multi-formational team offensively and very effective at it. However, using a formation without the right personell is not effective.

I just provided an example in my post on Stukes Chalk that shows why our power formation with Myddleton and Lumbala is not effective....because the defense does not account for them and its a formation that we can't pass effectively out of because the defense can cover our three recievers with five defenders, spy Harris, and still blitz 6.

Is a power formation a good formation? It is with the right personnell and one of the best formations to use against the blitz because it is better to block for the run against the blitz and still can be deceptive with the pass. However, the formation is not effective for us.

One of the big reasons that we've had trouble running Harris is that there are so many player in the box or blitzing. Passing effectively changes that. However, we have not been able to do that against the blitz. When Hamilton didn't blitz at times during the first game we passed the football well. When Hamilton took off the blitz in the second game for the fourth quarter our offence rolled. Our offence is not predictable.. its just predictably bad against the blitz.

If our offence was so predictable defenses wouldn't need to take the chances to blitz it. They would just play normal coverage and shut it down because they would know what was coming.

I don't know what level you coached at MLF but if your offence was so effective against the blitz because you used the inside of the field, with your inside recievers slanting down as you say, then you sure as hell weren't rolling out your quarterback to do that.

I certainly agree with you regarding how to use Harris and I have agreed with you before on the concept of using Harris in the slot (I would also like to see us use him in motion).

If you want to use Peyton Manning and the spread offence as an example of beating the blitz and its a great example ..Manning is in the pocket, not rolling out, and the football is out of his hands quickly. Whether its Chap's fault or Lulay's fault or the football gods fault we don't do that enough.