No Huddle Time

I’m not exactly certain how I feel about the no-huddle, but I think they are going in the right direction. Bo understands defense very well. This also means that he knows what kind of offenses give him problems. I think this is the direction the Nebraska offense is headed.

That gets so old watching.

Regarding the no huddle in general, I’m still a bit skeptical. No huddle spreads are great when you’re facing a mediocre defense who’s not prepared for it. I’m sure Beck’s offense will run up a lot of points on a lot of teams…..in games where 14 would have been sufficient for the W.

As hard as I try to think, Oregon’s offense last year was about the only no huddle spread that was largely effective against pretty much everyone. And even then, it wasn’t exactly great against Auburn in the title. And its important to remember that for every Oregon, there was about 30 teams like Misery, Texas Tech, Michigan, etc that enjoyed using their high paced flashy attacks to incinerate McNeese State but then would get squashed by high caliber defenses.

This isn’t to say that what we’re doing is the wrong thing, just that we had better figure out how to be uniquely good at it, because any fast, disciplined defense (a fairly rare combination to be sure) will stop any run of the middle spread/no huddle offense in its tracks.

No huddle probably requires some number of scripted drives. Reduced flexibility against a prepared defense concerns me a little. Not to mention scouting reports, game film and wikileaks.

It sounds like Bo and Beck et al are applying the same concept-based system to the offense that is currently used by the defense. That is, rather than a ton of intricately diagrammed plays and formations, the offense will actually be more flexible and able to adjust according to what they see on the field. Pattern recognition and team philosophy, which is what has placed the NU defense among the elite again, will be guiding the offense now as well. If they can pull it off, it should be exciting to see.

It’s my uneducated impression that the spread flourishes only until you meet a team who has some speed down the depth charts in their D-backfield. Spread-based passing attacks encountering those seem to go poof quite a bit. Running-based spread attacks have a little more success. I thought Oregon did OK against Auburn & moved the ball well at times.but a good, balanced defense is a good, balanced defense and all things being equal, a very good offense is not going to run up & down the field on one.

And I know there’s a purpose to the fake snap,but that doesn’t change the fact that it constantly annoys me – and last year I didn’t even have the pleasure of making keg-shape, crybaby and bad line beard jokes about Booger Daniel while he was doing it.

I don’t like the no-huddle. What most folks don’t know is that OU, not Oregon, has ran the most offensive plays per game the last few years. Yes, when a team has a great offense it allows them to play to that strength more during the game. On the other hand, if your team has a less than stellar defense the other team gets lots of shots versus that defense. OU’s defense has been pretty average since Brent Venables took over and teams have been scoring a lot of points on us.

My observations: 1) it seems to me that most of a team’s time is spent standing around the line of scrimmage looking to the sidelines for plays. I don’t like it. I think a Qb should be adept enough that he can call plays at the line of scrimmage without help from the coaching staff. Frankly I think using plays from the sideline using cards and such is a crutch and should be disallowed.

2) It encourages sloppy execution. I don’t believe that a nohuddle offense is conducive to a crisply executed offensive plan. Players get tired and sloppy. I guess it would be a strength if the offense is better conditioned than the defense, but the reverse is that a defense in great shape will have the advantage over a less well conditioned offense.

3) The skill level of the QB has to be disproportionately high. Since the offense is getting so many snaps the QB is given many more opportunities to screw up. 2 years ago Landry Jones nearly gave me a heart attack. Last year he improved alot and this year he will be awesome..but believe me when I say only a few Qbs are really suited for the nohuddle offense. A young guy like Martinez…no way.