I am going to do an analysis on 1 play I saw. The reason I am going to use this play is its not simply about having a pulling guard, it is about how the play is designed and executed. You cannot practice a play until your team gets it right, you practice until you cant get it wrong. I cannot find the exact play as the OSU full game has not been uploaded yet to youtube.
I will later do one about a play we had with a pulling guard that was just poorly designed. To give a short explanation of this play we opened the puller and handed the ball into his lane, meaning that the only free runner was going into the lane just opened up by the pulling guard which is directly in front of the ball carrier. Anyway I will get to that one later.
Anyway, the play design is a simple run play to the right side. It was in the fourth quarter. The entire offensive line shifted to the left and blocked the guy in front of them. The reason that this play is terrible is because if you are just going to block the guy in front of you the hand off or pitch has to be quick. This is usually a blocking method used on sweeps. But instead, DR took the snap and did a lengthy hand off. The right side of the line shifted left as did everyone. This allows the left side of the D line (or the right side facing us), to either seal the edge preventing a cut back, or blitz that side in case it is a pass. So DR pulls back and hands to the only back. But oddly enough the play is designed to be a run to the right very similar to what a counter would have been in the 90s. Except with a counter, you are pulling guards to set an edge and having your back run to the inside of that edge. Instead, the RB cuts back to the right...... WHERE THERE ARE NO BLOCKERS. And before you ask, was this improvised by the RB? No, it wasn't. Meaning the only chance for success was that the other end loses discipline and runs to the far side getting caught up in the wash of the line and not seeing the cut back. There is only one problem, there was not just an end to that side, there was also on OLB. The same OLB that had been on the right side all game? Why did the OLB stay on that side? Because he had contain on the RB in the event that the RB set a block and ran out for a pass. Thus, if the WR was blocking that side, the RB sets a block and goes out he would have been wide open. So the DE realizes the run is not going to his side and simply sets the edge. Then the LB also sees that the entire line went the other way and what does he do? He runs to the backfield? Why would he do this? Because there was no TE on his side and there was only one back. So now, the RB gets the ball and cuts back right into a DE and LB running right at him. The result, a two to three yard loss. Terrible play design. Terrible play call based on what OSU had been doing to prevent the screen. This is why Satt is just not cut out for college football. This play should never have been designed, let alone ran.