I will give you the “audible “ problem. It is a maddening tendency. I scream at the TV more than any grown man should when I see the QB calling an audible.
But Brian has already installed the trapping-type blocking scheme to augment the zone scheme. That is a major improvement. He also brought back the TE which had been shockingly de-emphasized during the GDGD campaigns. (Note: while I think we all agree that the GD experiment was less than successful, it was a change and an attempt at improving the offense.)
BigD - please tell me what WR you would consider as a “playmaker” that this offense has had to work with the last couple of years? (Another abject failure of GD and Kennedy). Once we get some bona fide playmakers at WR, to go along with our advantage at TE, it may even open up some more room for our ball-control, smash-mouth, clock-eating run game that can wear down a defense.
I love MVB, but he was a possession WR. Ditto on Easley. Great guys and necessary guys to have on your team. But other teams DCs have been daring us to throw downfield for several years and let’s face it: we don’t/haven’t had the horses. (You could make an argument that our only downfield target is a 240 pound TE).
I am hoping that with the arrival of Tracy and Locket and the continuing development of Smith and ISM, that BF will open up the playbook more and try to get the ball downfield more often. If we can do that, the offense might really start to look like a team strength instead of ... mediocre.
If we can get our offense to be a strength where the offensive ranking is just, say, top 50! to go along with our always tough defense (and please God, an average punter, at least) then we will have the look of a championship caliber team. Ball-control offenses that really own the time of possession stats are very effective and they travel well in enemy territory and work well when the weather turns bad.
