The offense has zero identity

[Beyerball]

It's really frustrating seeing DM get hit in the backfield on so many carries. If the OL could just give him enough space to get to consistently get to the LB's we'd be seeing a lot of 2nd and 5's and offense would run a LOT better.

Every single time DM got slammed I’m backfield was usually after a good run play and we came right back with the exact same run play..

CMC needs to get creative and in a hurry and start trusting his offense.

We aren’t Wisc or hell Iowa running the ball. We should never be in same formation 2 times in a row.

How our HC doesn’t see this is beyond me.

Wts..we need Mueller back as well as Chase Allen.

 

[madguy30]

I agree and I'm fine with that. It's the best way we can neutralize these high powered offenses. They have already built a defense that can slow down big 12 offenses.

Is the Big Ten really as much of a meat and potatoes conference as everyone assumes? Iowa and Wisconsin run pretty old formulas, maybe Michigan, but don't many of their teams run more similar stuff to many other teams all over?

Either way, KSU's been doing it for years.

Good fundamentally sound defense and an offense that runs, what, 6 plays (exaggerating, but they do nothing flashy and win) that exploits what they can do well.

The offense needs to improve but also with some better defense, which includes better tackling, ISU may very well have beaten OU last week even with 27 points.

 

[madguy30]

Every single time DM got slammed I’m backfield was usually after a good run play and we came right back with the exact same run play..

CMC needs to get creative and in a hurry and start trusting his offense.

We aren’t Wisc or hell Iowa running the ball. We should never be in same formation 2 times in a row.

How our HC doesn’t see this is beyond me.

Wts..we need Mueller back as well as Chase Allen.

I don't care about the formation, it's doing more with what's on the field at any given time. Isn't being unpredictable the ability to do many things out of a similar look?

 

[Tre4ISU]

Didn't read the whole thread, and didn't even see the game, but so far under CMC it's taken until October for a real team identity to start to develop so we'll see what happens over the next two weeks.

It's a good thing to have the defense be the anchor for the team and hopefully the offensive side can get things figured out.

The offense may have found and identity at times in 2016 but it never did find one last year. They were a bad offense.

 

[CycloneVet]

Go out and get Steve Loney for the O-Line maybe he can still work magic....

Lol ffs Steve Loney is constantly being brought up. It's going on 20 years since he has been here. He isn't coming back.

 

[CyCloned]

Lol ffs Steve Loney is constantly being brought up. It's going on 20 years since he has been here. He isn't coming back.

Thought he was recently in Ames looking at the facilities.

 

[madguy30]

The offense may have found and identity at times in 2016 but it never did find one last year. They were a bad offense.

Said team identity.

 

[FinalFourCy]

The offense may have found and identity at times in 2016 but it never did find one last year. They were a bad offense.

They didn’t?

I think they had one before Park went AWOL, or were at least as far along as any team can be early in the year of Year 2 in having an identity, and it was close to what everyone was rightfully excited for.

And to the staff’s credit, when losing the second most important player and having to go to a walkon, they found another identity on the fly. Now, that identity wasn’t the exciting one we hoped for prior to the year, but it was suitable for the limited QB and OL talent we had.

Unfortunately a weak OL and a game manager QB can only coexist for so long before the opposing DCs catch on.

 

[StLouisClone]

The offense may have found and identity at times in 2016 but it never did find one last year. They were a bad offense.

What are you talking about. 2017 offense was 2x better than 2016 offense.

 

[BoxsterCy]

 

[FinalFourCy]

CMC needs to get creative and in a hurry and start trusting his offense.

We aren’t Wisc or hell Iowa running the ball. We should never be in same formation 2 times in a row.

How our HC doesn’t see this is beyond me.

There are only so many cards you can play to mitigate weaknesses on the OL, even less when you also have a limited QB. Why use those against one of the worst teams on the schedule when you clearly don’t need to?

I’d love to have more success being transparent and predictable, but that’s unlikely to happen when starting a freshman and a walkon on the OL.

 

[Cyched]

We won a game I think

 

[flycy]

Year 3, and we don’t have a good offensive line and I don’t think it’s going to improve much this year.

When will we (I don’t follow recruiting close enough to know so it’s an honest question)?

Next year? 2 years?

Campbell's first line recruits are redshirt sophomores. To develop lineman out of non 4 start recruits you hope for them not to see significant action until their redshirt jr years. We start a true freshman, redshift sophomore, and walk on. That is because they beat out the jr and sr lineman that were recruited by the previous staff. This incredible impatients with the position is mind blowing. You just aren't going to have a good line with that kind of youth playing unless you have Alabama level recruits.

 

[SpokaneCY]

They didn’t?

I think they had one before Park went AWOL, or were at least as far along as any team can be early in the year of Year 2 in having an identity, and it was close to what everyone was rightfully excited for.

And to the staff’s credit, when losing the second most important player and having to go to a walkon, they found another identity on the fly. Now, that identity wasn’t the exciting one we hoped for prior to the year, but it was suitable for the limited QB and OL talent we had.

Unfortunately a weak OL and a game manager QB can only coexist for so long before the opposing DCs catch on.

We need to have an identity. But then the coaches need to have a scheme to fit the players. Seems to me CMC is taking the players we have and deploying them the best we can at this stage of the OL re-build and the identity (whatever that means) is driven by the players and what they can do. It's absolutely malleable.

 

[Kurttr]

1) I'm thrilled that Matt Campbell is our coach, and I hope he stays for a long time.
2) I'd like him to lose the phone # for Brad Childress, as our O in the Iowa and Akron games has looked way too "kick ass" for me. For those who don't recall Chilly's years as the Vikings coach - we had lots of running the ball into the line and, especially, the beloved two-yard pass when we needed five+ for a first down. Let's get away from that from now on.
3) I'd prefer not to talk about anything else Vikings-related today as well...

 

[BCClone]

Every single time DM got slammed I’m backfield was usually after a good run play and we came right back with the exact same run play..

CMC needs to get creative and in a hurry and start trusting his offense.

We aren’t Wisc or hell Iowa running the ball. We should never be in same formation 2 times in a row.

How our HC doesn’t see this is beyond me.

Wts..we need Mueller back as well as Chase Allen.

Most OC's like to run various plays out of the same formation to not telegraph their plays. If you are bouncing all over, you actually become a bit more predictable than using less formations and running extra plays out of them.

 

[Tre4ISU]

What are you talking about. 2017 offense was 2x better than 2016 offense.

No it wasn't. They had 3 good outing and the rest hovered between bad and awful. It looked pretty much exactly like this years offense.

 

[CYCLNST8]

At least we have a power package for the endzone now. That makes me happy. Noland took the snap under center and we used an extra lineman in the backfield. Baby steps I guess...

 

[Chitowncy]

CMC trust the defense. He went vanilla again. Olson was in his first start on the line, so perhaps that has something to do with it. Seems our best run option is a zone sweep with DM choosing when to cut back or if he can turn the corner. Disappointed that we don't have a good screen pass to slow down the aggressive defense. When will Noland be told to keep the ball on the zone read? Defensive end on left side was jumping inside on every inside read, and Noland needs to keep it occasionally to keep them honest.

Bingo. Part of the reason a zone read offense works is that the QB needs to keep the ball every 5th or 6th time to keep the defense honest and run for a few yards around the end. I don't think I've seen either Noland or Kempt keep the ball the entire year! That's about 30 to 40 straight hand-offs in the backfield. The defensive ends are pinching in and cheating / keying in straight on Montgomery. It is too easy to defend when you know what's coming.

Hopefully Noland is not only told that he has to keep it once in a while this week, but he also does it. He might be being told that by the coaches, and is just not doing it. That's possible as well. Regardless, there have been many times when the defense has 7 or 8 in the box and they all crash for Montgomery. There have been several plays where Noland or Kempt would have been wide open to scamper around the end for an easy 5 to 10 yards and they need to do that to keep the defense from cheating.

Either way, I agree a screen here or there, plus Noland getting through his progressions to the third or fourth option (which is often an unguarded back coming out of the backfield) and dumping it off for a gain would help a lot.

 

[madguy30]

At least we have a power package for the endzone now. That makes me happy. Noland took the snap under center and we used an extra lineman in the backfield. Baby steps I guess...

I've only seen highlights but I did like this. More blockers in front with still the possibility of a passing situation.