MidlandsPaladin wrote: ↑Sat Oct 21, 2023 9:45 pm
No one has mentioned playcalling. Masterful. FU has just been doing enough to win all season without opening up too much of the playbook. Today we flung it wide open. We’ve got a great one in Roper. We need to enjoy this while it lasts.
If you watch the last drive, it's great play calling by Roper, IMO.
The last drive, WCU was committing 9 men into the box to stop Furman's run game. The Catamounts were pretty obviously in man coverage with every available defender keyed on Roberto.
Two plays before Huff's run, Furman runs a zone read type play leaving WCU's BANDIT unblocked. The BANDIT keeps his shoulders square up field, but ends up making the tackle somewhere in the middle of the field. Typically, the job of that outside player, be it a linebacker or defensive end, is to keep offensive players from getting around him. In my uneducated opinion, he was getting sucked too far into the play and lost his containment responsibilities.
Even if WCU was switching those responsibilities with a safety, as they may have been, both players outside were biting hard on Roberto. I suspect Roper saw that.
Two plays later on the 3rd down Furman runs another zone read. They again leave the BANDIT unblocked. He again gets sucked down into the play looking to make a tackle, only this time Huff keeps the ball. Both Pline and Shiflett were lined up to the play side, and knowing they would be in man coverage, ran out breaking routes, which forced their defenders to turn away from the play.
The BANDIT, just as he did two plays earlier, gets sucked too far into the play action. By the time he realizes that, he's too committed to recover and tackle the much faster Huff. Huff just had to beat him to the edge.
I would guess Roper knew they'd be in man coverage. He knew the BANDIT was overcommitting to the run and losing his containment responsibilities. He knew that the safeties responsible for the running backs would also be running to the play action. Huff had to beat one man and there'd be no one left to tackle him.
