Why did Coach O's offense work so much better?

Because it doesn't ignore common sense.

If you spread the defense out and throw little dink and dunk 6 yard passes to 7 different people, they have no choice but to respect the pass. Then, you use our monster running backs to annihilate them.

It really is that simple. The fans were right. Les was wrong.

It just seemed to be more about Rhythm. Miles never let his offense get into a rhythm. It was always ugly. Always run into a loaded box a couple of times, and then a 30 yard play-action incompletion when we only needed 4 yards.... and that's if we got the play off in time without having to burn a timeout, which happened about 60% of the time. The offense always seemed to look nervous and afraid to make a mistake.

I legit felt like I was watching a 2004 USC offense Saturday night.

Well, first it is Ensminger's offense.

Second, its not like he reinvented the wheel here. He rotated position players, put guys in motion to shift the defense, spread the defense out more, and worked in more variety in terms of passing plays (not just go long).

It was a good game plan but its basic stuff, which is why Miles was such a bad coach at the end.

They simplified things. Cameron used to many formations and had to many moving parts. Case in point in the Auburn game during the 2 minute drill late the end of the game they had multiple shifts by the receivers. The second to last play had a 2 receiver set shift that took 20 seconds to run (one reason we had the penalty). Cameron was horrible OC. They didn't change a whole bunch but simplified and put the best 11 on the field to run the plays that were called. It worked for one game. Lets see where we are in 3 weeks.

Rhythm shorter passing game. We still pushed the football down the field some, but near like it seemed like we tried to do with Miles. They are low percentage throws and we dont have NFL QBs back there. When you make an average to bad QB a big part of the equation, your offense will suffer. When you give them easier passes and the ability to get into a rhythm and spread the ball around, the offense can move the chains more frequently and open up the ground game even more.

I cant stress the word "rhythm" enough though...that's really the biggest difference in the game vs. Mizzou than with Les Miles previously. Les Miles' offense NEVER built a rhythm because they were extremely slow and didnt take advantage of the best players or put them in a position to succeed consistently. When you even just subtly change things like spreading the ball AROUND the field, emphasis on moving the chains rather than just explosive plays and not force your offense to sit around and watch the play clock run out, it gets into a RHYTHM and that's exactly what we saw Saturday.

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Why did Coach O's offense work so much better?

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Because they focused on staying ahead of the sticks. They threw on first down quite a bit, and if it didn't work, they threw on 2nd down and 10 too. The mix of run and pass was actually close to our averages in most years under Miles, but when they threw it was probably the biggest difference.

People freak out about formations and what not, but the truth is that the I-formation was the most unpredictable formation for us Saturday. Outside of the last drive, we ran it 18 times out of the I and threw it 11 times. Shotgun was 25%/75% run/pass and single back was 78%/22% run/pass.

We also ran into essentially the same amount of defenders in the box as we did against Wisconsin, but the OL really played better and Guice broke off some nice runs on broken plays.

They probably looked at film and attacked perceived weaknesses, rather than running the plays they WANT to run and work.

The other team's defense now has to defend the ENTIRE field on EVERY play, not just the LOS and deep sideline. They now know we will throw some on first down, they know we will do different things out of the same formations so less predictability, we are not tipping off plays as much due to personnel, etc.

It's amazing that running out of the one back sets can open up lanes. Spread them out, get them out of the box. That has been the problem for so long.
And when you play teams that you can't do that and you fail to adjust is what cost Miles his job.

Not to mention injuring Fournette and most of the oline during fall camp.