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Is it just me, or does Furman tend to struggle with 3rd and 4th downs and short yardage?
With a strong offensive line and good running backs, I do not understand why we cannot get 3rd and 2 or 4th and 1. Moving forward,playing against good teams, I think it is imperative that we get first downs in these situations.

Go Dins!!

fu77fan wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 30, 2022 11:27 pm

Is it just me, or does Furman tend to struggle with 3rd and 4th downs and short yardage?
With a strong offensive line and good running backs, I do not understand why we cannot get 3rd and 2 or 4th and 1. Moving forward,playing against good teams, I think it is imperative that we get first downs in these situations.

Go Dins!!

Yes but it’s not just Furman. Teams still try the shortest route which is up the middle. The problem is there are just too many bodies and no where to go. On top of that the running backs are starting 7-8 yds deep, by the time they get to the los there’s a pile. If you are a defense your best chance for a stop os if the O runs up the middle.

We did try a couple of outside short passes against Elon on 3rd and 1 but the short passes were not thrown well.

These are going to be huge plays against UIW. We may have to gamble on a few 4th and one’s.

On another note, have we run a single trick play this whole year?

purplehorse123 wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 01, 2022 2:11 am

We did try a couple of outside short passes against Elon on 3rd and 1 but the short passes were not thrown well.

These are going to be huge plays against UIW. We may have to gamble on a few 4th and one’s.

On another note, have we run a single trick play this whole year?

Shiflett in wildcat on goal line … fake run, quick pass to Ryan Miller vs. Woffy was kind of a tricky-ish play

I continue to be amazed at how teams lose Ryan Miller near the goal line.

If I am the defensive coordinator, he's the one guy on the field I know we're going to have a guy covering.

I guess you could call Huff starting to run up the middle then hitting Roberto with the jump pass vs. Mercer sort of tricky.

I think this all stems from the qb not being under center.

apaladin wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 01, 2022 8:16 am

I guess you could call Huff starting to run up the middle then hitting Roberto with the jump pass vs. Mercer sort of tricky.

Think that was just the extended mesh (ala Wake Forest) RPO and a late pull by Huff, just after Thomas began to squeeze, causing Huff to be pulled a bit forward before he could get the ball pulled and slang it.

apaladin wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 01, 2022 8:16 am

I guess you could call Huff starting to run up the middle then hitting Roberto with the jump pass vs. Mercer sort of tricky.

This is a hill I die on, but most of these aren't "trick" plays. The "annexation of Puerto Rico" or "fumblerooski" are trick plays. All football, to some degree, is based on deception.

Roper can put pressure on defenses because, in part, he's not afraid to use the QB as a runner. He forces defenses to make real time decisions on where to be and exposes them for whatever choice they make.

The Pell Mell play is another good one…after Puerto Rico has been annexed.

We have caught lighting in a bottle letting Huff run the short yardage situations. He is money, he smells the 1st down sticks. He has been the missing piece.

tim wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 01, 2022 10:53 am

We have caught lighting in a bottle letting Huff run the short yardage situations. He is money, he smells the 1st down sticks. He has been the missing piece.

I have found it at least a little interesting that Huff rarely throws a deep ball. Most of our long pass plays have been relatively short throws with broken tackles. The pass plays frequently have the ball quickly out of his hand.

Even though he'll take some hits on runs, it really doesn't seem like Huff gets hit much in the pocket. Furman spreads you out a bit, but really seems to put a lot of pressure on your linebackers to dissect plays quickly. The ball comes out fast and when teams bring pressure, they risk Huff scrambling out of the pocket and losing contain. Few defenders have been able to tackle him one on one in the backfield.

Watching the offense run, it really seems like Roper is trying to mess with linebacker's keys. A lot of the defensive "rules" are hard to apply against Furman and following them will frequently put you out of position. Linebackers have to sit back a bit, react to the backfield, which is then going to react to whatever they do.