Made the LSU trip with a teasip

He, "always wanted to see an SEC game". He wore a Central Michigan jersey to blend in, but he's 100% sip through and through.

It was cold and rainy, and from the endzone you don't really get a great feel for a lot of what happened so this might just be a more general thought process and less of some comment one the game being a microcosm of what is an underlying problem. The loss sucked I was hoping for the Sugar Bowl, but life goes on. Anyway, on the car ride back from Dallas(aside from the various musing about teasip football), he made a good point. Keeping the defense honest.

As intense of the arguments we've had about Manziel being the GOAT, he did admit that the whole game seemed off, and the weather made the offense really stale at the beginning. Not an excuse by any means, but nothing seemed to be going our way from the get go. Yet, on the walk to the car, he kept bringing up the lack of the zone read. I also expressed frustration with this, but I think through the course of the dialogue through the day, and discussion of college football in general, I think this offense does a bad job of keeping the defense honest, and it finally showed.

Remember how Manziel lead the SEC in rushing last year? Well that wasn't a result of the system, that was in spite of the system. I remember some stat mentioned on ESPN about 70% of the yards being on scrambles. Yet this year, Manziel has gone more with what he's "supposed to do". Going through his reads. Going for the higher percentage play. But, can the higher percentage play be counter productive? Can going for your second or third pass option just make the defense more ready to cover that play better the next drive, instead of worrying about the scramble? Can that extra uncertainty you put in the defense have an underlying effect that is actually better than the higher percentage play?

My teasip buddy kept asking about the zone read. For obvious reasons about how they've been burned earlier in the season on it, no doubt being why he kept mentioning it... but isn't keeping the defense honest important? Wouldn't the zone read help accomplish this in a lot of ways?

I know that might not have been the problem this game, and Manziel made quite a few great plays with his feet, and his struggles were in the passing game, and you ask what would the zone read really have to do with that... and you're right. I'm not saying the zone read would have made any sort of difference, I just agree with the premise about predictability. Even in a passing situation, the defense having to prepare for a run from Manziel can have a compounding effect. I know LSU is really athletic in space on the defensive line and that's really what made Manziel struggle last year, but I think there might be more. I just think that Manziel this season, even with better passing numbers, might be creating a counter-productive element to how the defense has to play him.