Why the spread isn't always the answer

ChosenChildren

ChosenChildren

Well-Known Member
It is easy to criticize Iowa for its conservative offensive philosophy, but there are pros and cons with every type of offense.

Pitt's spread worked well but I believe it really hurt them after they went up 27-10. They kept going up tempo and passing the ball, lengthening the game for Iowa and allowing Iowa enough time to catch up.

The spread is a two-edged sword. It really hurt Pitt on Saturday when they should have been possessing the ball and burning clock.

I do love Vandy out of the shotgun. That is the offense he ran at Keokuk, and he sure looked comfortable in it on Saturday.
 


Iowa will use it this yr as change of pace. But they r not going to abandon their base offense, nor should they. They killed themselves a lot in the first half. Poor execution
 


The problem through the first 2 and 3/4ths quarters wasn't the offense, it was that JVB couldn't spot open guys or hit them. In other words, the base offense accomplished its mission of getting guys wide open, but the QB was having a tough time out there. Pitt also laid way back and went into Parker mode, so we've gotta thank them for that.

That hurry up is not sustainable in the B10 when the weather gets bad, at some point we've got to be able to execute our base offense which is built for bad weather games.

The running game also kind of had me worried.
 


ChosenChildren said:
It is easy to criticize Iowa for its conservative offensive philosophy, but there are pros and cons with every type of offense.

Pitt's spread worked well but I believe it really hurt them after they went up 27-10. They kept going up tempo and passing the ball, lengthening the game for Iowa and allowing Iowa enough time to catch up.

The spread is a two-edged sword. It really hurt Pitt on Saturday when they should have been possessing the ball and burning clock.

I do love Vandy out of the shotgun. That is the offense he ran at Keokuk, and he sure looked comfortable in it on Saturday.
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I completely agree. I was telling my buddy when Pitt was still in the hurry-up that they were keeping the game in reach for us. And fortunately, we took advantage of it!
 
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Agree with all of these points. My point about "Vandenberg the Great" is that he sure looks comfortable in the shot gun. He seems to see the field a little better. I was talking to a person who saw all of his games in high school and he told me that Vandenberg always lined up in the shotgun at Keokuk. You don't have to run an up tempo offense, but perhaps he lines up in the shot gun more often so that he can see the field better.
 




okeefe4prez said:
The problem through the first 2 and 3/4ths quarters wasn't the offense, it was that JVB couldn't spot open guys or hit them. In other words, the base offense accomplished its mission of getting guys wide open, but the QB was having a tough time out there. Pitt also laid way back and went into Parker mode, so we've gotta thank them for that.

That hurry up is not sustainable in the B10 when the weather gets bad, at some point we've got to be able to execute our base offense which is built for bad weather games.

The running game also kind of had me worried.
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Wow, I agree with every single line of an OK4P post. It's a strange world we're living in.
 


Iowa's D in the past has had a couple games where they just got gassed. A spread no huddle going 3 & outs will not help the D get rest. This is a reason Iowa will never go to it solely as its offensive style. Need to control the clock to give the D a rest.

But, as the great Jon stated, I think they will use it periodically during games at the specific moments.

I look at it as a luxury that Iowa has a competant QB that can run it when it is needed. It's a bonus to have that skill-set, if you will.
 
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You can line up in the shotgun and still run the play clock all the way down. I wouldn't mind seeing us modify our single-back sets to a pistol formation. We don't need to run all the jet sweeps and counter-action that actual pistol teams do, but it would put Vandy in the gun while maintaining some downhill-running and ball-control capability.
 


Cover3 said:
You can line up in the shotgun and still run the play clock all the way down. I wouldn't mind seeing us modify our single-back sets to a pistol formation. We don't need to run all the jet sweeps and counter-action that actual pistol teams do, but it would put Vandy in the gun while maintaining some downhill-running and ball-control capability.
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Wouldn't a team just huddle up then if it was all about running the clock down? But, what it does do is allow the QB to survey the D & change plays, I guess.
 


MelroseHawkins said:
Wouldn't a team just huddle up then if it was all about running the clock down? But, what it does do is allow the QB to survey the D & change plays, I guess.
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And increase the chances for false starts and missed audible calls. The base O just suffered from poor execution. If we get Rogers back at FB, Coker regains his confidence, the o-line gels a little more, and JVB does a better job of making his reads and hitting guys (preferably in stride), that base offense is going to pose a challenge for a lot of defenses. They just couldn't execute for the first 38 minutes of the game and if we fall behind by that many points against a good BCS conference team, we are going to get spanked 9 times out of 10.
 


Losing McCall has really hurt our running game. He showed us some quick's and change of direction that is now lacking.
 


okeefe4prez said:
And increase the chances for false starts and missed audible calls. The base O just suffered from poor execution. If we get Rogers back at FB, Coker regains his confidence, the o-line gels a little more, and JVB does a better job of making his reads and hitting guys (preferably in stride), that base offense is going to pose a challenge for a lot of defenses. They just couldn't execute for the first 38 minutes of the game and if we fall behind by that many points against a good BCS conference team, we are going to get spanked 9 times out of 10.
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That was my take of the first 2 3/4 quarters. The execution was horrible at best, and with no fullback, there were times Coker would get hit in the backfield by someone who was untouched. Vandy had time in the pocket but looked like he was very uncomfortable for some reason, and was missing big time on his throws.

I think the play calling was good in the first half but we just seemed unfocused for whatever reason.
 


I am hoping to see Vandy out of the shotgun in most obvious passing situations from here on out. If it is 3rd and long, the defense knows Iowa is passing,so why even bother to have him under center?

I was shocked that Graham did not just have Pitt take their time between plays in the last quarter. I guess it is all about tempo,but it certainly is about the only way that Iowa could come back so quickly without turnovers or long td plays.

During the OK-FSU game Herby mentioned that Stoops was asked about handling the FSU quickness and blitzing, and he said you beat it by playing at your own tempo,setting the tempo yourselves. I guess that was Grahams concept...play the same no matter what is happening, and in the end it will pay off. Thank you Todd Graham. It would drive me nuts if I was a Pitt fan.
 


I like the fact that we have the hurry up/no huddle and the spread as an option. At the very least we force the defense to play base or think twice about putting 8 in the box.

I hope if we catch a team in a defense set up to stop the run we go no huddle and have mismatches all over the field.
 


Some qb's are just better out of the shot-gun, maybe this is JVB. I wonder/ does anybody know if he was in the shot-gun a lot in HS? Might not neccessarily be the hurry up or no huddle, maybe it's the shotgun that makes him more comfortable....
 


HawkeyeMHA said:
Some qb's are just better out of the shot-gun, maybe this is JVB. I wonder/ does anybody know if he was in the shot-gun a lot in HS? Might not neccessarily be the hurry up or no huddle, maybe it's the shotgun that makes him more comfortable....
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He was a shotgunner in HS. Before we go off about how great the shotgun is, let us not forget about the 2-3 muffed Center-QB exchanges we had in 2004 when we had to run it a lot. And that was with Brian Ferentz at center, IIRC, he was no slouch, it just adds one more element of risk to the offensive scheme.
 


There are tradeoffs in every scheme. The teams that block and tackle the best usually still win.

Football will never change in that regard.
 


okeefe4prez said:
The problem through the first 2 and 3/4ths quarters wasn't the offense, it was that JVB couldn't spot open guys or hit them. In other words, the base offense accomplished its mission of getting guys wide open, but the QB was having a tough time out there. Pitt also laid way back and went into Parker mode, so we've gotta thank them for that.

That hurry up is not sustainable in the B10 when the weather gets bad, at some point we've got to be able to execute our base offense which is built for bad weather games.

The running game also kind of had me worried.
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The running game does have me very worried.
 
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Maybe I missed something, but Iowa wasn't running a spread offense in the 4th quarter. They were simply working out of the shotgun. There is a difference. With that said, Vandenberg obviously looked more comfortable out of the shotgun, and given the o-line's mediocre blocking through the first 3 games it's probably a good thing if we work primarily out of the shotgun. I must say I have been very disappointed in our o-line thus far. They were supposed to be the clear strength of the team, but I have not been impressed in the slightest. They haven't been opening holes for Coker, and Pitt's blitzes were owning us for the first 3 quarters.
 


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