Huntingdon (and some other 3/4 defenses) was shading to the inside of a slot or H-back and would end up walking into the box late thus "loading the box". But when we throw the WR screens to the outside, that's an outside running play of sorts. What's hurt us is the vision and setting up down field blocks to spring open a big play on those screens. As far a true running game from what I've seen is some of the RB just aren't seeing some of the holes. Which is what made Markeith so fun to watch his vision and setting up his blockers.
Moving into uww the margin of error drastically shrinks but I still believe in Coach Fred and Coach Lee to setup the offense to be successful. I scratched my head at some of the comments on here thinking that The Cru offense is supposed to put up 100's of points every week. Some years you have all the guys in place and some years like this you've got to fight through adversity and injuries (and we've had a ton this year). If you can remember the run from last year a lot of the same people on here was crying about the offense play calling, slow QB, etc... and at the end of the day that team had the #1 scoring offense and scored the most points for UMHB in a Stagg Bowl.
The fact remains the same Coach Fred is a defensive guy (and a very good one at that) and human nature is you always lean to what you know. So if y'all have to call it being conservative so be it as long as we go Back to Back so be it.
Some of us on this board have been watching UMHB football for a long time and remember Coach calling for a field goal late in the fourth qtr against UWW that wasn't enough points to give us the lead or tie and we lost. We also remember 2004 vs UMU when late in the 4th we stuck to the run first game plan and Walter Sharp makes the soul crushing TD catch in the snow that sent UMHB to it's first Stagg Bowl. Coach Fred's conservative offensive play calling is nothing new, but the thing that probably makes some of us tense up is that it used to be that the QB's were primarily running QBs who were ok at passing but everything was so run heavy the passing game was neglected. UMHB recruits a different type of player now and your boy can fling it, as can the other QB's and sometimes we just want to see the playbook opened up more in an unexpected situation. I am a fan of a bruising run game and I think there are some horses in the stable that will make that happen over the next few years, but I love watching our speed guys get down the field and having a QB that can hit them in stride. Jase to Jonell in the TLU game last year was one of the prettiest td passes I've ever seen. Now do we get greedy? Yes. we have become so accustomed to annihilating the competition that a 42 or 43 point output seems pedestrian sometimes. I have to remind myself those are legit numbers everywhere else and that defensive and special teams scores count, too.
Also, I was one that was somewhat critical of the week one performance, not because of the offensive out put. 3s count and Avila is a monster at kicker, but it just seemed something was off. Jase looked tentative when running, didn't seem to have his normal arm strength. The under throws didn't look intentional or caused, they looked like something was wrong. Last week, it was just the opposite. there was conviction when Jase ran the ball, solid plants when he hit the hole, and if anything seemed to have a little adrenaline flowing on a few of those passes. I think we can win it all. I have booked my hotel already. What's more is if we win it all this year, the pipeline is flush and there will be a good shot at a long run. I guess time will tell. Go Cru.
