@Bill Landis @AustinWard
I know that you both, like nearly every other writer, wants to drill down on WTH was that offensive gameplan. Abandoning our strength for repeated cracks of our literal weakness on their strength. I listened to an interesting analysis by Joel Klatt about reasons/s/ for the plan. Give it a listen if you want. Short of Doug attending and asking his own question, I’ve been on this train forever with Day and was glad to know it wasn’t just me when Doug brought it up after the Oregon game. My thoughts exactly. Think about this. We ran a reverse to JJ Smith in a game against NW up multiple touchdowns when he shouldn’t have even been in the game after injuring an ankle. But shudder the thought of running that against Michigan when you keep running into a brick wall. How about throwing a swing pass to Innis and letting him uncork one to JJ? He played QB in high school. Remember when Tressel snuck Ginn in at TE and released him deep on a safety for a TD? Or when Tressel waited all year to run Clarett on that wheel route in 2002? For goodness sakes we ran a stutter/go with Trey split wide on a LB against Purdue when we were up 4 TD. Purdue! You guys said you saw them practice that play a dozen times in the preseason and had been waiting to see them use it. Yeah let’s use that against Purdue so they don’t mount a 35 point comeback. It’s absolute insanity. They’re only creative when the game is in the bag against completely overwhelmed opponents. Literally not a single gimmick or trick against Oregon or Michigan in a high leverage moment. I won’t even get into a pop pass to Emeka or getting him involved in the run game. Or any of the creative counter action we ran all. year. long. The game plan sucked but why can’t that shitty gameplan involve the occasional trick? It’s like he doesn’t think the points count if he fools them.
I know that you both, like nearly every other writer, wants to drill down on WTH was that offensive gameplan. Abandoning our strength for repeated cracks of our literal weakness on their strength. I listened to an interesting analysis by Joel Klatt about reasons/s/ for the plan. Give it a listen if you want. Short of Doug attending and asking his own question, I’ve been on this train forever with Day and was glad to know it wasn’t just me when Doug brought it up after the Oregon game. My thoughts exactly. Think about this. We ran a reverse to JJ Smith in a game against NW up multiple touchdowns when he shouldn’t have even been in the game after injuring an ankle. But shudder the thought of running that against Michigan when you keep running into a brick wall. How about throwing a swing pass to Innis and letting him uncork one to JJ? He played QB in high school. Remember when Tressel snuck Ginn in at TE and released him deep on a safety for a TD? Or when Tressel waited all year to run Clarett on that wheel route in 2002? For goodness sakes we ran a stutter/go with Trey split wide on a LB against Purdue when we were up 4 TD. Purdue! You guys said you saw them practice that play a dozen times in the preseason and had been waiting to see them use it. Yeah let’s use that against Purdue so they don’t mount a 35 point comeback. It’s absolute insanity. They’re only creative when the game is in the bag against completely overwhelmed opponents. Literally not a single gimmick or trick against Oregon or Michigan in a high leverage moment. I won’t even get into a pop pass to Emeka or getting him involved in the run game. Or any of the creative counter action we ran all. year. long. The game plan sucked but why can’t that shitty gameplan involve the occasional trick? It’s like he doesn’t think the points count if he fools them.
