What to do on offense when your offensive line is poor

Anybody have any opinions on this? I know this much, playing smash-mouth football by running the ball up the gut from the spread with a weak line and lack of exceptional backs isn't working. It's been tried every game with little to no success.

There has been little creativity in this offense. It's been boring to watch, when not frustrating to witness. I watched Joe Paterno's ultra-conservative offense put up more razzle-dazzle yesterday than I've seen from the Gophers all year. Michigan successfully used more trick plays in their first two offensive series than the Gophers have attempted all year.

So let's say you have no confidence to do any trick plays. And let's say your poor offensive line prevents you from attempting them, or from throwing deep. Then wouldn't it make some sense to do things to slow down the pass rush? What about screen passes to the running backs to make the defense a little more cautious? Perhaps a two-back set would be useful. How about an I formation, to help the running game with a fullback blocker? What about short quick, West-coast style passes? What about rolling out the QB on a designed play - get help from the TE and RBs to block outside, if needed.

You offensive gurus out there, what offensive strategies would YOU employ if utilizing a poor offensive line?

When you have inexperienced quarterbacks, inexperienced offensive lines and some problems with the receiving corps and running backs that can't really make it happen all on their own and slower team spead than the defenses that you are playing in Big Ten play you pretty much have to keep things simple and try to finally start executing with all the players who are on the field at the same time. That means that there are 11 individuals out there and if one or two of them blow their assignment or get physibally beaten by the defenders or drop a ball they should have caught or run an incorrect route or make a poor read, the play isn't going to work very well.

You are NOT going to "trick" your way to success.

IF you have a great offense, speed to burn, a good offensive line, great running backs, a good exprienced qb, good receivers and can execute your normal offense pretty well...every now and then you can have a little success pulling "tricks..." on the defense.

When you have the perfect storm working against you, then once you hit the Big Ten portion of the schedule, somtimes you are just plain flat out of luck. You do a lot of three and outs and that puts your poor defense under even more pressure.

What do you do? You get used to the fact that the media and the fans and the people on the internet are going to bash you, trash you, call you names, laugh at you and try to insult you. You get TOUGH, menatlly. You keep on working. You use the plan and techniques that you know will help do the most with the fundamentals that your teams physical liabilities will allow.

In the middle of the season it's damn tough on the players and on the coaches. But, you show up for work every day...you show up for practice...you call on all the faith, courage, strength and "want to" that you can muster. And you keep trying. No matter what you keep trying.

You shut the mobbers and bashers out as much as you can. You are responsible for your own effort. You may not have all it takes to impact the outcome. But, you are responsible for your own effort.

You work to get better...to improve...to be better than you were last week.

Your competition varies from week to week. Sometimes the scores get better or worse.

You probably sometimes feel like quitting...but you NEVER quit. You refuse to let all the negativity being written about you...said about you beat you.

And in the end: you NEVER let the ba$tards get you down. You steel yourself and you become so damn mentlly tough that NOTHING can own you or ever really beat you. You survive when you have to survive. And you ALWAYS realize that football...JUST LIKE THE WORKPLACE is NOT the thing that really defines you. You keep things in perspective. You treat others around you with respect and dignity and you follow your core values that really DO help to keep all other things in their proper perspective.

The student athletes work HARD on their school work and they keep GOOD people in their lives.

You live the best life that you can live. You fight the best fight that you can fight. And, at the end of the day: you PUT IT TO BED. When you wake up in the morning, you trust and have confidence in the fact that you know you will give it your best TODAY. And, all day long, you keep it in TODAY.

And, as I stated earlier: you NEVER let the ba$tards get you down...OR...take you out of being who you are.

Do you know what? By doing all of those things that a "losing" team has to do to keep trying to get better...every single day, at the end of that day you have been a winner! You have been a good person. IF you have given your best, you are at peace with yourself and with the world. And, by being at peace with yourself and those around you, there is NOTHING that any mobber...basher...trasher...reusse-esque person can say or do that can hurt you, define you or belittle you. In other words: there is NO ba$tard out there who can touch you. Just work to get better...to improve and to do the best you can. NOBODY can do any more. In the process you win in SO many ways.

Good luck Gophers! Stay with it. There ARE people who appreciate very much what this process is like. Stay with it...always stay with it...and learn.

; 0 )

+1

Quick kick on 1st down every series.

Right now Limegrover and his staff need to figure out what kind of offense they are going to be at Minnesota. They have two inexperienced QB's with very different skill sets. In Gray you have a great athlete who seems a bit lost playing QB. in Shortell you have a true QB but you lose the overall athletic ability and freelance ability that Gray brings to the position.

My two cents would be that if you assume this year and next year are probably lost causes you put your focus on developing Shortell and you convince Gray to play receiver. With Gray at receiver you would give Shortell two big options on the outside and you could use Jones out of the slot.

No offensive guru, here. But I think it depends on whether the coaches think their young players are any good. If you want to run a certain type of offense -- whatever that may be -- if you think your freshmen and sophomores will be able to do it effectively in two or three years, run your offense. Maybe they're not skilled enough or big enough on the line yet, so you lose today but are that much better in two years. As for QB, what kind of QB do you want? Pick the guy with the style who fits your system even if he's not good enough to win today.

But if you don't think your young guys will be good enough when they're upper-classmen, maybe that's different. I don't know what Kill thinks about his young guys. He keeps saying the roster is empty and it's going to take three years or more. I haven't heard him say, "Just wait until these guys are juniors." Maybe he doesn't believe in them, and he's throwing darts at a wall right now.

First off stop buying into the team speed factor. We may not be as talented or as well coached as other teams but we are as fast. Denard Robinson has been running away from every defense Michigan has played.

A coach can circumvent bad line play by spreading the defense out (spread offense) and putting multiple receivers in pass routes and using 3 step drops.

If you don't have the O-line, run the veer or option.

Option, slant passes, TE/RB for extra blocking and occasional outlet pass.

metrolax said:

If you don't have the O-line, run the veer or option.

Click to expand...

Respectfully disagree. When you are in year one and playing a ton of young guys, you run your offense so the young guys can learn it. Going to the veer or the option doesn't help develop your players or your team for the long haul if that is not your base offense. As much as we hate seeing our team get embarrassed, it is much better to get embarrassed this year if it provides the young guys with a better grasp of the offense so they can play more instinctual next year when they are bigger, stronger, and faster. Any rebuilding project is undertaken with the end in mind, not minimizing short-term pain. Sometimes pain is necessary for growth. Sucks right now, but reality. So don't expect a change in philosophy, trick plays, etc. Expect more of the same and hope that we see some slight improvement as this year progresses.

The OP highlights the problem with fans assessments of the current state of the Gopher football program. Everyone is looking for the quick fix. Well there isn't a quick fix. This is a young, inexperienced team competing against experienced competition. The only way to fix this hard work in the film and weight rooms as well as time. However, the biggest factor may be time. The longer these kids are in the same system and in a good S & C program the better they will be. These kids aren't gonna be able to compete with guys who have been in a college S & C program for 4 years when the majority of them are just completing their 1st or 2nd.

A coach isn't going to ask the players to do something they can't do. Thus, if your players aren't capable of much the play calls will reflect that.

Punt....lots and lots of punts.

Employ elements of the zone blocking scheme.

Do what you do well more
Do what you do poorly less

Dont try to do too much.
Don't get too complicated.

Take advantage of the little talent you do have.