it's September in Shreveport.

Really only Penn State, New Mexico State, Marshall, and ULM did.

EDSBS tweeted (jokingly) during the game that Frank was the nation's newest air-raid coach. But seriously, I couldn't believe that we threw 3 times in a row on our first drive and (I think) another 3 on our second drive. I was so happy to see us really gashing them with play action off of the pistol, it was so damn effective (and hopefully we keep it up next year)

Part of it was having a healthy TT. Another part is that you take what they other team gives you. ULM was overly aggressive about trying to stop the run, and they paid the price. Note that the long passes were all one on one, usually against their safety, and they had no deep help. Beside the  8 plays of 15+ yards, I can think of at least 3 with interference calls where the DB had to interfere to prevent a TD.

Monroe, I completely agree that the Offensive line had a great game. They gave up no sacks, and I don't even remember much pressure on TT.  I was amused, actually by one thing. ULM had their corners covering the wideouts, and their safeties covering the guy in the slot. Ohio ran short routes, as in, fake bubble screens, with the wideouts, and went deep with Cochran from the slot, meaning it was the safety on coverage, not a corner.

Yes, the defense blitzed some, but the key was that the rush was a contain-rush, Every player stayed in their lanes, and left the ULM QB nowhere to go.  Yes, he occasionally got outside the pocket, but more often than not he'd start one way, someone would be there, he'd try another way, and someone was there, too. It was very well planned and executed.

I'm usually more one that watches the line play than the db's, but the idea behind play action is that it is a called pass all the way. When safeties have "run support" on the brain, the fake to the running back causes the safeties to freeze while they determine if they need to charge up to support the run, or drop back in pass coverage.

I just went back and watched the first part of the game again on ESPN3, and focused on the ULM db's. Number 25 and 31 were the safeties, and usually one was in coverage, and the other had run support/deep support. They were lining up correctly, but were so focused on run support, and being aggressive, that on the fakes to Beau they were either freezing, or actually charging the line, and then they couldn't get back fast enough to be a factor in the pass. On the first pass to Cochran the safety freezes momentarily, just enough to make him too late to be able to help in pass coverage. On the 68 yard pass for a TD it was worse. It was a third down, and he was clearly thinking run, and on the fake he bought it completely, and started charging up. By the time he reversed, he had no chance of helping on coverage, and when Cochran burned the guy covering him man-for-man, it was all over as there was no safety to help.

This isn't an unusual play, by they way, and ULM ran it too. Look at their fourth play of their first drive, and you see Ohio with identical pass coverage, but the safety is over there in time to help. Similarly, on the next ULM drive, if you remember Moore's interception, he was back deep, in support and thus able to pick off the slightly overthrown ball. The difference is that while Ohio's db was also beaten man-for-man on the play, Gerald Moore was thinking pass all the way, so he was in perfect position. Ohio was relying on the front seven to stop runs, so play action had no effect on Moore.

To a certain extent I think Ohio used the TT injury to their advantage. Late in the season TT apparently couldn't throw the ball downfield that well, so Ohio was throwing a lot of short stuff - bubble screens, slants, etc, mixed in with the runs. Ohio correctly guessed that the fact that their offense had been missing the deep threat would cause ULM to be overly aggressive.

Thanks for those articles. If you think about it, those plays are merely a modern variation of an option play, where the QB changes what he does based on how a defender reacts. Rather than being a choice between a handoff to a fullback or a pitch play outside, the choices are a short pass or a draw.  As a fan of the option, I like that concept, and I suspect Solich would be a fan of it, too.

No, I don't think that is what we were looking at against ULM, though, at least, not on those plays.. The thing is, after the fake to the Beau, Beau is gone, and if the safety doesn't bite, it's too late to go back and say "i guess I should have given it to him". Instead you're just looking at a situation where TT is reading the safety. Once the safety bites, TT knows that the safety is out of position, and he just has to make the play happen.

Watch the 44 yard pass to Futrell with the score at 17-7. Again a safety (#10) bites hard on the run fake, and now is doomed. Now its just a matter of Futrell breaking free of the man-for-man coverage, but he takes awhile to do it on the pattern, which looked like a slant, then breaking deep. TT has to buy time with his feet, and ends up taking a hit in the process, but TT has already committed to the throw to Futrell, and just has to wait for the right time in the route. The safety, 10,  is never in the picture, arriving only after Futrell has been tackled. This is where a good pass rush can/could overcome flaws in defensive coverage, by the way, and also where a mobile QB can help to have enough time to complete the pattern.

At least you are not using EA Sports to learn football. ;-)

Hahaha no no, though I did spend several hours last summer trying to incorporate a stick-draw/playaction-option type play into my NCAA2012 play

Ugh. I do not like leaving a DT unblocked on any play. Bad things happen. Perhaps the only exception is some sort of inside trap, but then he's not really unblocked, he's just not blocked directly.

I think LC is right in that our offense is essentially designed to get the safeties to bite on the run. It's not designed to be a 4 yards and a cloud of dust running game. If it were, we'd have a fullback. It's almost a quick-strike run game, basically read-the-blocking-zones-and-find-the-lane-to-the-second-level-and-try-to-break-the-big-one. If the safeties start cheating up to fill the blocking zones, then we change it up to hit them deep.

One variant of the stick-draw I wouldn't mind seeing in action is an inside run/bubble screen option. I think you could probably run it with a TE & wing and key the SAM or out of the slot and key the DE. It might be too slow developing for the bubble screen to work, though.

Obviously not a fan of any type of option, screen, or veer play then.

We do run and have run several times the little stick-draw run/pass.