Fullback play???

[PrideandDream]

So I put some of this in a response in another thread. But I thought it's worthy of discussion.

This team has been really good up until last night. Bryson Daily has been amazing to watch. But not utilizing Udoh more last night seems odd.

Daily had 39 carries.
Udoh had 10.

On the year Daily has 213 carries to Udoh's 138. Short, Howard, and Robinson have 75 on the year.

I know we've become more and more QB centric in this offense over the years but if I'm Al Golden last night I just stack the box and say tackle Daily.

Ideally in a triple scheme, and I know we aren't truly a triple team, the QB and Fullback and slots would have roughly equal carries. One third for the QB, one third for the FB and one third for the slots. We aren't even close. And Udoh has one more game than Daily with AFA where he carried it 22 times. Never mind the slots not getting a third combined.

I'm certain they have a reason for this. Maybe it's turnovers and concern for ball security with Udoh. Maybe it's just the look and how the defense aligned or played the option, when we actually ran it.

My contention is that no matter how great Daily is if you aren't finding more balance in the run game then it gets really tough to win when you are out manned talent wise. I believe that's what we saw last night. The option is meant to negate the talent differential by forcing the defense to play assignments. I saw very little of that last night. I just saw 11 ND players swamping our QB over and over.

For reference if you looked back the '95 game. John Conroy the fullback had 31 carries in that game for 104 yards. Mcada had 17 carries for 177. Now this is two totally different teams in totally different eras with totally different players and coaches. But it is interesting to think about. And that's the closest game we've had since 1958. And of the last 16 meetings the only time Army scored more than 2 touchdowns.

Monken has always been heavy on the QB run. I just think that we need to reset and refocus on gaining some balance. Because in the games like last night where you are out talented across the board you have to, as Cody Worley says, "Be different".. Well nothing different about running Bryson Daily 39 times out of 58 run plays.

Now defense was challenged. And didn't stop the run either. Great goal line stand but that was it. And let's not even get started on the punter.

Man...on to UTSA! Gotta reset and go 1-0 and keep fighting. A lot left to play for!

PD

[WrekDivr]

Spot on, P&D! I was thinking the same and pulled some stats to confirm. Here are the % of runs by the QB by game (except for the AF game since it is an outlier with Daily out):

1. 32%
2. 30%
3: 52%
4: 51%
5: 55%
6: 36%
7: 55%
8: n/a (AF)
9: 56%
10: 66%

The trend toward the QB run is pretty clear. Here’s another snapshot - the mix of runs by QB, FB, and SB for the first two games vs. the last two games:

First Two
QB: 31%
FB: 36%
SB: 33%

Last Two
QB: 61%
FB: 19%
SB: 20%

We have indeed become more predictable.

Earlier in the year, CW said that balance in this offense isn’t pass/run, it’s QB/FB/SB mix. We are not balanced any more.

As you mentioned, there is likely a reason for this. Our coaching staff is smart and capable. But the lack of balance is making it easier to defend our O. Frankly, yesterday reminded me of TT charging into the line time after time with results that got our OC fired.

[wpgrad]

Worst called game since air force 10-9 a few years ago but….we had a few plays that are 20 yards versus navy or tulsa that were 3 yards versus nd. Theyre just too fast sidelibe to sideline

[Lusk2003]

This is more of an outmatched/talent issue.

While Bryson took the brunt of the load it’s because his production per carry was higher than anything else we were doing. Getting the ball to the outside resulted in lost yardage or a 1-2 yard gain. Fullback runs were 2 yard plays. WR were outmatched and ND played man to man. We won’t win that battle. Not against ND. Nothing else was working.

Lots of football left.

[WrekDivr]

This is more of an outmatched/talent issue.

While Bryson took the brunt of the load it’s because his production per carry was higher than anything else we were doing. Getting the ball to the outside resulted in lost yardage or a 1-2 yard gain. Fullback runs were 2 yard plays. WR were outmatched and ND played man to man. We won’t win that battle. Not against ND. Nothing else was working.

Lots of football left.

I agree that there was a huge talent gap (it is amazing what $2 million will buy these days), but the stats don’t back up that Daily was the only one having success. Here are some yards per carry numbers:

Daily: 3.8
Udoh: 3.5
Howard: 6.2

Short and Robinson were shit down for sure, but Udoh was pretty close to Daily and Howard was better.

[Oliphant]

It was a WWI strategy complete with Monken letting Daily take unnecessary hits in an already lost game. But hey, we hit double-digits!

[Dong Fong '09]

So I put some of this in a response in another thread. But I thought it's worthy of discussion.

This team has been really good up until last night. Bryson Daily has been amazing to watch. But not utilizing Udoh more last night seems odd.

Daily had 39 carries.
Udoh had 10.

On the year Daily has 213 carries to Udoh's 138. Short, Howard, and Robinson have 75 on the year.

I know we've become more and more QB centric in this offense over the years but if I'm Al Golden last night I just stack the box and say tackle Daily.

Ideally in a triple scheme, and I know we aren't truly a triple team, the QB and Fullback and slots would have roughly equal carries. One third for the QB, one third for the FB and one third for the slots. We aren't even close. And Udoh has one more game than Daily with AFA where he carried it 22 times. Never mind the slots not getting a third combined.

I'm certain they have a reason for this. Maybe it's turnovers and concern for ball security with Udoh. Maybe it's just the look and how the defense aligned or played the option, when we actually ran it.

My contention is that no matter how great Daily is if you aren't finding more balance in the run game then it gets really tough to win when you are out manned talent wise. I believe that's what we saw last night. The option is meant to negate the talent differential by forcing the defense to play assignments. I saw very little of that last night. I just saw 11 ND players swamping our QB over and over.

For reference if you looked back the '95 game. John Conroy the fullback had 31 carries in that game for 104 yards. Mcada had 17 carries for 177. Now this is two totally different teams in totally different eras with totally different players and coaches. But it is interesting to think about. And that's the closest game we've had since 1958. And of the last 16 meetings the only time Army scored more than 2 touchdowns.

Monken has always been heavy on the QB run. I just think that we need to reset and refocus on gaining some balance. Because in the games like last night where you are out talented across the board you have to, as Cody Worley says, "Be different".. Well nothing different about running Bryson Daily 39 times out of 58 run plays.

Now defense was challenged. And didn't stop the run either. Great goal line stand but that was it. And let's not even get started on the punter.

Man...on to UTSA! Gotta reset and go 1-0 and keep fighting. A lot left to play for!

PD

Opened the game with three straight daily runs. And Notre dame seemed prepared for it. Hopefully we get back to distributing the ball more these next few games

Daily is our most important player on offense but udoh is our most talented in my opinion. Need to get him going especially in fourth quarter (and he needs to stop fumbling)

That being said there were a handful of runs to the outside that I thought would be big gains that ended up being 1 yard gains

[ArmorDude]

The lateral speed of the defense was something I did not expect. I too saw a number of plays that would have gone for big gains against a AAC opponent that went for 1-2 yards. And when Dailey dropped back to pass, our receivers could not get open.

So I'm not sure what kind of play you can dial up. Better football minds than I must have an idea to do with a fast, but disciplined, defense.

[neumanna1]

The lateral speed of the defense was something I did not expect. I too saw a number of plays that would have gone for big gains against a AAC opponent that went for 1-2 yards. And when Dailey dropped back to pass, our receivers could not get open.

So I'm not sure what kind of play you can dial up. Better football minds than I must have an idea to do with a fast, but disciplined, defense.

This stuck out to me too. Plays that normally would get a decent chunk of yardage were stopped after a yard or two. They just have closing speed Army couldn’t deal with.

[PrideandDream]

I agree with all the speed comments. And maybe it wouldn't have mattered. But my contention still remains that the inside fullback play is critical to make this thing go. The midline, veer, trap, plus the fullback zone should all be at the core of what we do followed by the QB power, QB zone, then the inside slot counter, qb counter, toss sweep and then the passing game. This needs to happened with varying splits as well. Some tight and some wide but constantly moving. Not sure how often we vary the splits. But one way to keep the backers from pursuing so fast is forcing them to be inside more often than not and then open things up.

Maybe that wouldn't have helped and we still get dominated but one thing was clear. Daily couldn't carry us on even almost 40 attempts and that as was stated above was obvious from the first series.

So going forward we will see how we respond in the next 4 games and that will tell us how good Army really is.

And ND will make the playoffs and we'll see just how good ND is.

What's fascinating is we might find out both these teams are really really good. One might be elite, and nothing pains me more than to say that, and the other might still be an all time great Army team. But either way we will find out in the next 4 ball games.

PD