More Creativity Needed on Offense

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

(12-18-2018, 11:52 AM)Au165 Wrote: The problem is people complain when "creativity" doesn't work saying they are being too cute and call it gimmicky. Hue actually used to do a lot of what is in vogue today a few years back and people thought it was just a gimmick. Things like running a bunch of reverse actions on a lot of plays with an occasional hand off. People got mad when the hand off didn't gain much but they don't understand that it's window dressing because it moves responsibility across players. When you move responsibility between players you increase the odds of blown assignments.

The "Monster" formation that he used where he split linemen out had many reads  and checks in it, but people got mad when they'd start in it and motion guys back in. The reason was it was a check that if a look wasn't there they checked out of. Later in the year they added some pop passes out of it beyond the screens with some success. If you were here though you'd remember a bunch of complaints about gimmick offenses and how they never work.

In the end the bread and butter of a lot of teams aren't the fancy window dressed up things. For instance the Rams run the same formation a majority of the time, 12 personnel tight, then they will show the same stretch play and either it's the hand off or it's a play action off it. It's not super creative, they just are really good at using this similar action in different ways. KC has kind of skewed people's idea of what effective offense is for a lot of people. I would simply be happy with a OC who embraces identifying a strength and finding different ways to use it, for instance positioning Boyd and Green to the same side creates a problem for safeties as it forces him to play one leaving the other single covered. Not fancy, just practical and Lazor started doing that a bit this year with AJ in the slot but we need more of that kind of thinking.

Amen about Hue Jackson.  For as much shit as he gets as a HC, I thought he was a damn fine OC.  I point to 2014 as a prime example.  No Eifert, no Marvin Jones, no AJ for a stretch, and we still won 10 games and scored enough, including 5 rushing TDs and a reception TD from our QB.  He had no choice other than to be creative, and he was.  2015 showed us what this offense can do with a full slate of playmakers.  Imagine if he had Joe Mixon.

Window dressing is important.  Not only does it give you looks during pre-snap, it sets up playcalling on down the line.  Very insightful and great post.