Offensive Coaching Failures: Shifts, Audibles, etc.

OnTheClock · 2009-11-25T13:55:54-08:00

These are things I have not been seeing that I believe would dramatically improve our offense's current problem of extreme predictability, not to mention our offensive production as a whole, for that matter. Many times, I've seen teams audible from under center to a shotgun formation and vice versa. If we were able to do such a thing, I doubt opposing teams would expect it, based on what we've done thus far. Our game planning on the offensive side of the ball (and recently, our defensive side too) has been just terrible. I remember reading an article that asked Raye about "making adjustments to the game plan" and I believe his response was "we'll wait until the game and adjust from there." Are you kidding me? This is the NFL. You're an NFL Coordinator. You better dang well have a plan -- no, at least two plans -- in mind. Here's an example. Say we line up in one of the the Power-I formations show below: Now, lets say it's first or second down and the defense brings 8 or 9 into the box. There are so many things we can do: 1) Shift into a single-back set (we can either start out with Delanie or Norris at FB). The right split end shifts into the slot, and Vernon moves outside becoming a wide receiver. From here, there are numerous options. -A deep shot should be taken to whichever side of the field the one safety does not drift to. -A WR screen could pick up a huge gain, especially if they blitz. -Also if they blitz, a quick slant could be huge if they only have one safety back. -If they drop back the second safety in response to the shift, the underneath routes should still be open. Pump and go could be extremely effective in that case as well, but the QB would need a little time. Furthermore, from there: -Alex could shift back into the shotgun from the singleback formation. -Gore could go into motion to make it 5-wide. -If they back off all their defenders, and Gore stays in the backfield, we can stick with the called run-play and hope to gash them running out of the shotgun. So many possibilities with a single shift in formation, yet we see none of this, which leads me to believe that at this point, Jimmy Raye is problematic in two ways: 1) He does not know how to effectively game plan on a game-by-game basis to ever "outcoach" other teams. 2) He has not been able to fully cater the offense to each players' strengths (or adjust for weaknesses for that matter). This is disturbing to me. Raye must buckle down and mix things up, get creative, and at least make some sort of an effort to be less predictable, in order for us to improve. We have the talent to do some things. Raye just has to recognize that, and utilize it.

Nov 25, 2009 at 3:07 PM

OnTheClock
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Bumped for edit.

Nov 25, 2009 at 3:14 PM

znk916
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THANK GOD FOR BRIAN JENNINGS

Nov 25, 2009 at 4:02 PM

OnTheClock
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Originally posted by znk916:
THANK GOD FOR BRIAN JENNINGS

And what does this have to do with the original post?

Nov 25, 2009 at 5:36 PM

smileyman
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Originally posted by OnTheClock:
Originally posted by znk916:
THANK GOD FOR BRIAN JENNINGS

And what does this have to do with the original post?

Jennings is the savior?

FWIW I agree. However I don't see this happening during the season. Not with a new QB and an OC figuring out what the team is capable of.

Nov 25, 2009 at 5:44 PM

AXEGRINDER
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Great post.

I love the offensive set where Morgan goes in motion and lines up directly behind the guard.

Gee, I wonder what will happen next.

I'm sure glad Morgan was there to help fend off that DE or DT or else it would have been a 2 yard loss instead of no gain.

Nov 25, 2009 at 5:45 PM

OnTheClock
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Originally posted by smileyman:
Originally posted by OnTheClock:
Originally posted by znk916:
THANK GOD FOR BRIAN JENNINGS

And what does this have to do with the original post?

Jennings is the savior?

FWIW I agree. However I don't see this happening during the season. Not with a new QB and an OC figuring out what the team is capable of.

It's painful to come to the realization that Raye is incapable of outsmarting anyone. Simplicity and basic packages cannot be relied on when you don't have a superstar team, and I'm not sure Singletary realized that Raye is not the cerebral kind of coach like Martz was, who could so often come up with genius "situational" calls.

Raye does the same thing over and over, just hoping we can "execute" correctly. When you don't have the talent, it doesn't matter how many times you do it, you cannot get it done when you're being outplayed.

That being said, I understand the switch from Martz, but up until now, I think the Raye choice is highly, highly questionable, to say the least.

Nov 25, 2009 at 5:49 PM

smileyman
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Originally posted by AXEGRINDER:
Great post.

I love the offensive set where Morgan goes in motion and lines up directly behind the guard.

Gee, I wonder what will happen next.

I'm sure glad Morgan was there to help fend off that DE or DT or else it would have been a 2 yard loss instead of no gain.

We ran that play once against GB. I was thinking for sure it was gonna be a run (so did the Packers D), but it was a pass. I liked that Raye was trying something but I woud've preferred a pitch to the left.

You can see everybody shifting that way expecting a run--if we'd gone the other way it could've been sweet.

Nov 25, 2009 at 5:50 PM

OnTheClock
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Originally posted by AXEGRINDER:
Great post.

I love the offensive set where Morgan goes in motion and lines up directly behind the guard.

Gee, I wonder what will happen next.

I'm sure glad Morgan was there to help fend off that DE or DT or else it would have been a 2 yard loss instead of no gain.

It's one of, if not our most obvious running formations of all. When Morgan comes into motion, defenses know that all they have to do is crash the line as hard as they can because even if it's not a run (which 95% of the time it is), with 9 guys on the line, they'll bust through and Alex won't even have half a second before he has to throw -- likely to a receiver stuck in the flats.

If we balanced it, and at least ran a roll out with some play action -- dragging Morgan or a TE across, we could set ourselves up for a big gain. Instead we go with the obvious. I often wonder what goes on in Raye's head... "It's SO SIMPLE, they'll HAVE to think it's a trick and back off!" ..

Crap like this is a huge part of why we can neither run or pass so often, leading to our league-leading 3-and-out number.

Nov 25, 2009 at 5:50 PM

BenQ
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at this point i can't expect anything from raye besides predictability of play calls

Nov 25, 2009 at 5:51 PM

#10

chimp914
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I wish you were our OC.

Nov 25, 2009 at 6:08 PM

#11

OnTheClock
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Originally posted by smileyman:
Originally posted by AXEGRINDER:
Great post.

I love the offensive set where Morgan goes in motion and lines up directly behind the guard.

Gee, I wonder what will happen next.

I'm sure glad Morgan was there to help fend off that DE or DT or else it would have been a 2 yard loss instead of no gain.

We ran that play once against GB. I was thinking for sure it was gonna be a run (so did the Packers D), but it was a pass. I liked that Raye was trying something but I woud've preferred a pitch to the left.

You can see everybody shifting that way expecting a run--if we'd gone the other way it could've been sweet.

Indeed it could've been. The unfortunate thing with Raye is -- because he's so predictable, we can't get defenses to back off of us. With a better blend and more creativity, defenses will not be able to stack the line as often -- and even if they do, they run the risk of getting beat badly. But that's only if we had better play calls.

On Gore's one good run, they only had 5 in the box. They learned from that mistake and stacked the line all game until we spread them out in the 2nd half.

This was the formation on Gore's long run. They were expecting it. Notice Al Harris creeping towards the inside of Crabtree.

Nov 25, 2009 at 6:10 PM

#12

AXEGRINDER
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Posts: 25,679

Originally posted by smileyman:
Originally posted by AXEGRINDER:
Great post.

I love the offensive set where Morgan goes in motion and lines up directly behind the guard.

Gee, I wonder what will happen next.

I'm sure glad Morgan was there to help fend off that DE or DT or else it would have been a 2 yard loss instead of no gain.

We ran that play once against GB. I was thinking for sure it was gonna be a run (so did the Packers D), but it was a pass. I liked that Raye was trying something but I woud've preferred a pitch to the left.

You can see everybody shifting that way expecting a run--if we'd gone the other way it could've been sweet.

Wow.

I formation with 1 reciever split right. Like OnTheClock said, that is the most obvious running formation one could ever put out there.

Refresh my memory, as I was too busy wanting to puke, who did Smith end up throwing to on that play? I could be wrong, but I'll bet it was someone on the weak side where the coverage would have been strongest.

I agree with you BTW that a HB toss to the left could have been money.

Nov 25, 2009 at 6:13 PM

#13

smileyman
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Originally posted by OnTheClock:

Indeed it could've been. The unfortunate thing with Raye is -- because he's so predictable, we can't get defenses to back off of us. With a better blend and more creativity, defenses will not be able to stack the line as often -- and even if they do, they run the risk of getting beat badly. But that's only if we had better play calls.

On Gore's one good run, they only had 5 in the box. They learned from that mistake and stacked the line all game until we spread them out in the 2nd half.

This was the formation on Gore's long run. They were expecting it. Notice Al Harris creeping towards the inside of Crabtree.

Yup. I think they also called a blitz on that one and we got the blocks to turn the corner. No blitz and no 42 yd gain.

Nov 25, 2009 at 6:15 PM

#14

smileyman
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Originally posted by AXEGRINDER:
Originally posted by smileyman:

We ran that play once against GB. I was thinking for sure it was gonna be a run (so did the Packers D), but it was a pass. I liked that Raye was trying something but I woud've preferred a pitch to the left.

You can see everybody shifting that way expecting a run--if we'd gone the other way it could've been sweet.

Wow.

I formation with 1 reciever split right. Like OnTheClock said, that is the most obvious running formation one could ever put out there.

Refresh my memory, as I was too busy wanting to puke, who did Smith end up throwing to on that play? I could be wrong, but I'll bet it was someone on the weak side where the coverage would have been strongest.

I believe it was a quick out to Morgan that was incomplete.

Quote:

I agree with you BTW that a HB toss to the left could have been money.

We even have the personnel in for it. FB goes around the left side and picks up the first defender and it's nothing but green grass ahead of Gore.