Scheming Around A SOFT OLine: When You Can't Block 4 With 6.....

I had the unfortunate occurrence of being at a party Saturday for the game.

This meant I had to listen to the announcers for the first time in years (torture), but nothing compared to the fact that there was a Bama fan at this party too.

The one item he literally kept laughing about..and I mean belly laughs....was just how soft our Oline was. Multiple replays where they just sent 3 or 4, and one guy would break a double team and kill the play.

This was consistent, which begs the question, why didn't our staff adjust?

You know, when your Oline is as soft and weak as ours is, there ARE ways to work around this. Other teams with much softer and weaker Olines did for Bama.

Just a few suggestions:

1) Quit calling plays that take an extra 2-3 seconds to develop due to fakes that DON'T work. Bama was not biting on Play Action simply because our soft Oline can't run block that well. They knew this. So all these cute fake tosses, etc, just took extra time that allowed our weak Oline to be exploited.

2) Call more misdirection/bootleg plays to get them to overcommit to one side, and roll the a couple of soft linemen out with the QB to help.

3) Screens. Draws. Where were they? Bama ran them and ran them to perfection. Converted a few third and longs with them.

4) Please, for the love of god, quit running sweeps to the SHORT SIDE OF THE FIELD. When you have a shitty Oline that can't block, you eliminate 80% of the field here to work with. Hallman quit coaching 20+ years ago. Let go of his playbook.

5) Quick passes from the shotgun. Seriously. Snap the ball. Quick drop. Release. Bama was doing it despite the fact that our weak Dline couldn't get a rush. That is what Burrow should be doing as well.

I could go on and on, but those are a few ideas.