ShortSideOption
Guest
People use fullbacks to create another gap, not evening the numbers. If your center is getting crossed, guard is tripping to second level, and your TE can't make a seal block when the guy is playing inside of them, a fullback creating an extra gap who has brought another guy in the box is of zero value.But we have/had a running quarterback. That is the equalizer. There's a reason people use fullbacks at times. Evening the numbers is it, especially when the QB can credibly run and they have to account for him. If everyone hits their blocks, you should gain yards. Yes, that's an if. But so is everything in football. It won't happen every time, but it should happen more than 9 of 33 passing (27%) when every incomplete is zero yards (or six points for the other team).
I'm not saying revert to the option. I'm just saying it doesn't make sense to me to say, "Well, they stacked the box, so we're giving up on the run." Really? It's that easy for them? Just the *threat" makes us run it six times in the second half? Why not make them earn it? Even if you only get two yards per run and have to punt, you've burned a lot more clock than on three passes.
We ran the ball 24 times in the game. I think everyone knows if we'd run it 45 times, the score would not have been 62-3. It might've been 48-3, but that's a hell of a lot better. More likely, it would have been 34-9. Maybe 34-13. That's a respectable loss when you lose your QB and have a cattle call on O-line. Embarrassment means something. It hurts. And it can impact a team.
I hope we bounce back like Florida State did after getting annihilated by Louisville, but look at Michigan State or ND. Things can hit the skids pretty quickly when a team gets kicked around.
The O-coordinator needs to try to win, but if that's not going to happen, there's something to be said for making it respectable, even if it means deviating from your "style" or "plan," and what I'm trying to understand is why everyone seems to agree on that, but the O-coordinator. Every analyst. Every armchair coach. Every beat writer is saying the same thing. They wouldn't be if we'd run the ball 40 times and lost 34-13.
Now, if we want to talk about how we should have stuck with the running game more to keep it close that's fine. But a fullback was solving nothing Saturday night.
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