Frost...take notes

[justducky0]

A little tidbit on the Eagles ground game. I wish Oregon would do this.


The Eagles Ground Game: From Hot Mess to Work in Progress - ChipWagon
Needless to say, the Eagles really needed to get the ground game working if we were to expect to see any improvements on the offensive side of the ball. Fortunately, we saw that on Sunday against a tough New York Jets front. Fran Duffy over at Philadelphiaeagles.com did a great job outlining how the Eagles game-planned against that Jets defensive front with a heavy dose of outside running to avoid the interior of the Jets DL. Certainly, after reviewing the All-22 we saw some major improvements in the execution of the run game, but Chip also did an excellent job of moving away from the inside zone and sweep play and introduced a bit more diversity in the run game. In this post, we'll talk a little bit about how Chip mixed up formations and used a heavy dose of outside zone to attack the Jets with some decent success.

He also did this at Oregon.

[rockthief]

Makes so much sense. My group of game watchers has been hollering this at the television all season. Those repeated runs up the middle are mind blowingly ridiculous. Will it take Freeman getting injured, thus leaving us without a big back, to do this?

[pezsez1]

I said this in another thread, but if we're going to be pounding Royce up the gut then we really should be doing that in the second half. Taj and TBJ should be running defenses ragged in the first half with their speed.

[QuackininBama]

Remember when Chip would run our runningbacks right, left, right, left, all the way from sideline to sideline the entire first quarter.....I was laughing my ass off cause he didn't care if it was gaining positive yards, he was just wearing out the linebackers and defensive backs for the second half, and it always worked. They were puking by the middle of the 3rd quarter.

[dthomas=ddixon]

I said this in another thread, but if we're going to be pounding Royce up the gut then we really should be doing that in the second half. Taj and TBJ should be running defenses ragged in the first half with their speed.

You could even do the opposite; tire the defense with RF then gash them with the quick guys once the defense tires. The problem is that neither have happened. It's just Freeman up the middle all game.

[rockthief]

So why are we not doing this. I really do not understand. It is foolish and a huge waste of great talent. Is Frost a dolt?

[buckmarkduck]

Well, it's a hell of a lot easier to run, when you can throw the ball. Utah diene respect the QBs, and had more guys than we could block. If we had a qb, then we could have scored at will, or forced to to play pass D. It won't change until Adams is healthy or Lockie proves he can play, or until the coaches stop being stubborn and just start Alie. Big deal if he's a walk on, he's moved the O when he's in the game, and has a stronger arm than Lockie.

[Alan]

Alie moved the ball against 3's and 4's although I wouldn't mind seeing what he does against the ones, just be ready to yank him quick.

I agree we need to go but to what worked with the backs, speed to the outside then pound the middle. Also short, quick passes to the outside, bubble screens etc.

[pezsez1]

I think people are expecting a little too much out of Allie. He has looked OK against reserves, but he hasn't thrown the ball much and there's probably a reason he's third on the depth chart.

Honestly, if neither VA or Lockie can get it done against Colorado, then the offense is in trouble.

[Alan]

I think people are expecting a little too much out of Allie. He has looked OK against reserves, but he hasn't thrown the ball much and there's probably a reason he's third on the depth chart.

Honestly, if neither VA or Lockie can get it done against Colorado, then the offense is in trouble.

I agree with your assessment of Allie completely, there is a reason he is third string but I would like to see him against the ones. Neither VA or Lockie are getting it done, neither of them can run, which kills the spread option, but Allie may not have it as a passer. It will be a long season if we don't get a decent QB...... And the first two choices aren't getting it done.

[buckmarkduck]

I'm not calling for Alie over VA, I just don't think we see VA until UW.

[OregonFan4Life]

There isn't near as many variances of the read option as there was under Chip, I pointed this out before. Every game Chip had a new variance of the read that would fool opposing defenses. Frost seems to just run an IZR and OZR and by now all defense understand that play. Chip would run plays that made defenders think there in position but in reality they're useless and not a factor at all. The best example was the sweep zone read he drew up against UCLA in the 2011 Pac-12 championship game. They were lined up in an IZR, but as soon as the ball was hiked the line all switched left like it was a sweep play, the DL and LB's followed to try and stuff it, but the strong side DE stayed out cause he thought he needed to stop the QB keeper since it was an IZR formation. However DT actually read the nose tackle and since he ran to stop the sweep, DT kept it and ran for about 50 yards until he got caught from behind. That's just one example of many on how Chip would use different zone read variations to fool the defense. There is no creativity in Frost's plays. I don't know if it's cause he's lazy or just not a good play caller. You also can't forget how he used the SAME EXACT strategy against OSU and since they clearly watched film of the Rose Bowl, they knew how to stop it.

[Duck07]

The biggest thing I see is that we aren't attacking the whole field the way we have before. When we throw bubble screens the LB's might fly over but the DL doesn't pursue the same way as if it was a fly sweep with an option backside.

I kind of feel that Frost needs to break into his memory bank from when he was in the film room at Nebraska to remember some of what used to work with QB runs. You think lining up in a Veer formation on one play wouldn't start to confuse the defense? We aren't creating that half second of hesitation in the defenders minds at all to make them play slow even when they do get lined up.

I also thought the OL was going to see some big improvement this year and it really hasn't. Very little push at the point of attack.

[karlhungis]

It did look better last night once they finally gave up on trying to throw the ball and rotated the RB's. I don't know if we will be able to duplicate that success against a more talented team that doesn't have to respect the passing game though.