It seems we do a great job of forcing teams to place extra men in the box, which subsequently makes their secondary back off the majority of the time. It feels like we never just take what’s given to us in the passing game though.
How often do we hit quick slants, hitches, etc? We like to run longer developing routes, which makes us complain about the “lack of separation” from our wide receivers. Alabama for the whole first half just took what we were giving them underneath with our off coverage, so why don’t we run timing routes as well?
Also, watch how often other teams use motion just to execute a basic run play. This creates hesitation or small misdirection for the linebackers. We tend to line up and just pound it, which works pretty well but I think we can exploit bigger plays. I just don’t think we use quick hitters, motion and wrinkles of our base plays as much as other top offensive teams do.
To add to this, I just watched North Carolina hit a running back on a wheel route for a TD. Where the hell is that for ND’s offense? You could even have Mayer run that along with any of our RBs.
The key will always be the generational QB, but I also think we’re missing pretty basic offensive schematic advantages we see other teams use. We have the personnel that Shanahan uses with his incredibly awesome offense with the 49ers that I wish we emulated a lot more. They try to establish the run and use multiple tight ends too, but still produce explosive plays.
I have trust in Rees and hope that he can grow quite a bit with one full year under his belt, but I guess I’m just disappointed we’re not more creative especially with BK’s offensive background.
