Phenom wrote:Their OL cupboard is pretty bare.
I won't deny that they've played badly up front, but this is not new to football the last couple of years where OL are totally outclassed by a DL. One of the reasons the spread took hold so firmly and allowed smaller players/schools to succeed with it was because of the QUICK passing game (wider OLine splits also used to be a part of it but that's gone away from what I can see). Last night Russell Wilson would not throw it out quickly to save his life because he and the coaches apparently just love the home run/big play. Yet when Seattle and other teams scheme around getting the ball out in under 3 seconds, defenses have to adjust to it and they tend to stop loading the box and bringing pressure and all of a sudden, bad OL look like they can actually play and you can still try shots down the field once the defense is over committing to the short game.
Running plays with a Read Option or showing it even if its not a true read (hello Chip) take up time that could be used throwing the ball out. An incomplete pass isn't the worst thing in the world. Constantly giving up pressure from holding onto the ball however can lead to that "our OL is the worst in Football" mentality because the coaches haven't done anything to help out.
Now even while the Futile State offense might actually look worse than Chips, little willie does have a Defense that looks like its easily the single best unit that either team has and would rank as good if they had a competent offense. So based on 3 games I'd have to lean towards the Futile State Defense winning the game through turnovers and field position.