I think a portion of our fanbase needs a lesson in offensive balance

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"But we appeared to run a pass heavy offense because of all the different formations. We really were balanced"

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I read that and just started laughing.

The part about how we were also a balanced offense under Petrino because we used different formations, audibled to different formations and used motion before the snap was great as well.

da fuq?

I think there's a too literal emphasis on "balanced".

2B's flat out said he's gunning for 200 on the ground and 200 through the air. The tends to lead people to look at the yardage amounts. The next best stat to look at is plays attempted and how those break down by pass or run.

For me when I think of a balanced attack, it means keeping the defense off-balanced, by being good at all the facets of the game. Primarily those being straight ahead power run plays, mis-direction or counter runs, play action passing through 3 levels (deep, intermediate, shallow) of pass routes, and good TE play that gives an offense flexibility.

Multi-dimensional is what we're after but using the word balanced.

No one will ever confuse Baylor with being balanced, or Auburn, or LSU, or even S. Carolina or Clemson. All of those teams lean heavily towards their strengths that they have by design and philosophy and which they recruited players that fit the mold to best run their X's & O's.

Another problem is Bielema's recruiting so far hasn't identified a pattern in the skill positions. We know what he wants on the Oline & DLine. He's benefited from Petrino's quest for length and size at the DE position. We'll see how they recruit the LB position if they go more towards smaller faster hybrid LB's, or bigger framed, slower, stronger LB's. I tend to prefer the faster guys that can blitz, get into coverage, and beat a block. Of course they have to be able to tackle which few of our back 7 players the last 2 years have shown a high ability in doing so.

We'll just have to see how Herbert's bulking up of the team affects their speed and agility. One of the things that makes football the great sport that it is in America is the specialized job duties of each position means kids of all shapes and sizes are needed to field a team. 190 lbs linemen don't stand a chance anymore, WR's that can't get open can't contribute, DB's that can't keep up with WR's or TE's get burned and give up huge plays, QB's that can't throw or make good decisions bury a team. So recruiting for a specific size range can limit your options, I tend to prefer finding really good football players with intelligence and natural instincts regardless of the numbers or 40 times, bring those guys in to lead and teach and go find some freak athletes to pair with them and cover each other's weaknesses with their strengths. Or just be like Saban and get players that have the whole package of freak athleticism, intelligence, High football IQ, and size.

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being good at all the facets of the game

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fricking great post and this is all that needs to be said. We are struggling bad with the passing game right now, but 2B's and Chaney will not give up on the philosophy.

That's why I get upset with all of the "Fire Chaney" threads.

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Then they go on to say balance is about attempts not yards.

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it is

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So, if you ran for 250 yards on 35 attempts, and passed for 250 yards on 18 attempts, You are on dimensional.

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that means that 33% of the time we pass the ball. 66% of the time we run. do you think that is balance?

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petrino used him as often as spurrier used lattimore and everyone said spurrier was running lattimore into the ground at the time.

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To be honest, that's really not true. Remember Knile didn't even start the first 6 games. He very rarely had over 10 carries the first half of the season, and there rest of the year only had 2 games with over 30 carries. He just busted huge runs on the reg. That's what averaging 6.5 a carry will do.

Balance is and always should be about plays.



50% run/50% pass is balance


66% run/33% pass is a run heavy offense.




If you have one pass play that goes for 80 yards and 40 run plays that combine for 80 yards.. is that balance? I don't think so.


We do NOT have a balanced attack, we have a run heavy attack.

We SHOULD have a more balanced attack, maybe 60/40 or 55/45 with the run bias.

My point with this before it gets lost is measuring in yards isn't the best way because the coach doesn't control how many yards a guy will get.


If you call 2 run plays that go for 95 yards a piece
you have 190 rushing yards that game. if that's the only rushing plays you call and your qb has a shitty day throws something like 10/48 for 200 yards. it appears balanced when you look at the yard stats and not plays called.

you have to look at both plays called and yds produced to see if you've achieved balance. also you should have less running yards than passing yards if you've really achieved balance. Pass plays go for 10 yds on the reg rushing plays don't.

I think the correct mix is somewhere around 55% run 45% pass plays called if both are producing offense. Where petrino was useless was that his running game didn't produce yards no matter how many times he called a rush play.

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Lattimore also got hurt that year, remember?

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very true i didn't consider that, so the better measure will be team as a whole then instead of one players output since neither contributed for the full year.

attempts:
Razorbacks rushed 421 times that year
USC rushed 522

Yards wise
2161- usc
1935- arkansas

Teams main rushing attack:
arkansas attempts yards
Davis 204 1322
Green 104 365
Johnson 41 253

USC attempts yards
lattimore 249 1197
garcia 105 222
maddox 74 391
shaw 32 165
miles40 152

looks to me like the difference between our offenses rushing attempts came from the QB position the year we placed a bronze statue back there as our qb. Or at least a kid as slow as a statue.

I think people greatly underestimate the amount of run plays petrino called that flat out didn't work because we were only able to run the ball consistently that 1/2 year with davis and even then petrino couldn't figure out to give him a shot til mid season. That alabama game told me exactly who our star at RB was going to be, he was the only one that could move the ball on the ground.

Do you think that ratio goes up or down with a more efficient passing game?
Do they call more passes because they're productive, or do they call more runs because the defense isn't stacking the line?

Obviously, it could be different on a per game basis, but I think over a complete season it would even out to what it is now, about 60/40 run (percentage of plays called).

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Do you think that ratio goes up or down with a more efficient passing game?
Do they call more passes because they're productive, or do they call more runs because the defense isn't stacking the line?

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i think there would be more passes if our passing attack didn't SUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK SO DAMN MUCH