Reviewing the play calls on offense

[CorningHog]

I just had to get this off my chest.  I thought it was funny that Nutt and his offensive staff continued to force the issue with D'Arrius Howard and at times, Peyton Hillis, in the running game.

I had thought if Nutt would put Hillis into the passing game, and as a blocking FB we might score some points.  He did some, but not near enough.  He also forced and wasted 10 plays with Howard at TB.  Howard had 10 plays for a net of 4 yards, yes, 4, which also included 3 plays with a loss of 10 and 7 plays for a positive 12 yards.  Okay, lets divide 7 into 12 and that is 1.7 yds a carry.  Hillis didn't fare too much better.

The two freshman backs however did much better, with Felix getting 12 carries for 75 yds with 9 yds lost on a fumble late in the game.  Darren McFadden had 13 carries for 88 yds.  Imagine if we had given them each 20 carries?  They both averaged 5.5 and 6.8 yds per carry respectively.

Our passing game was fine for two series and actually kept the USC defense on its heels, but it was obvious that Nutt had no intention of trying to get his passing game going.  Same old boring plays and no imagination or 4 receiver sets to run out of.

All in all, Nutt and Co. tried to basically be very predictable and without the two freshmen backs, Hillis helping in the passing game and a few catches by Monk and Washington, the offense looked anemic again!

I expect we will see D Howard at tailback again this week against Alabama.

I will be there in person, since I had planned this game 4 months ago or longer.  If I had known Nutt was going to use this offensive talent this way, I may have re-considered my thoughts.  I will be very interested to see how he calls this game.  If it looks similar to his last two, it will be hard to believe we will win another 5 ballgames and be bowl eligible.

He has not got a clue as to how to attack a defense or use his most talented players.

I heard in the paper that he removed D Howard and P Hillis from the running game, to rest them for Bama and to avoid injuring his veteran talents.

NOTE TO HOUSTON:

Move Hillis to FB and H-back, avoid giving him carries as a TB or featured back.  Use Hillis in the passing game.  Insert the two freshmen tailbacks, sometimes both at the same time, and ALWAYS put the running game in their hands.  Start using your 4 receiver sets and one back from now on, sorta like USC and what Bama is going to do!

Wake up!  hello.......anybody in there?

[Chuck Beavers]

At least there are some options on offense. But on defense, geez... we are so, so bad I fear there is no hope.

[bigred7987]

maybe its just me but I don't want to see us start airing it out scoring every two minutes...why you ask? Because that means our defense has to go on the field more often...which we all agree is a bad thing.  We need to have T.O.P in our favor to even have a chance, the only way to do that is run the ball effectively.

[kremlinhog]

hey corning, you are the master but would nutt subject himself to even more ridicule playing howard at alabama after the freshmen showed so much promise
i think nutt responds to pressure and i think he got so much after the vandy game that it didnt surprise me a bit that  jones and mc fadden got alot of playing time
against usc or that he came out of his shell at least for a couple of offensive series.

[Flatline]

What I am wondering now after looking at the receiving situation is, why did we move Brown.  We probably need another 6'6 guy catching the ball.  Did he even make a tackle the other night.

[Biggus Piggus]

Good work, Corning.

[Razorback Jedi]

Is it possible to throw the ball to Monk on a pass that does not include stopping and turning around?

We have no clue how to throw the long ball.

[WILL CLINTON]

Corning, agreed with most of what you said, except for the winning 5 more games part.  IF they beat Miss St, I see another win against ULM and that's it.  How can anyone expect a 6 win season out of this $hit?

[The Max Swineberg 7]

maybe its just me but I don't want to see us start airing it out scoring every two minutes...why you ask? Because that means our defense has to go on the field more often...which we all agree is a bad thing. We need to have T.O.P in our favor to even have a chance, the only way to do that is run the ball effectively.

We don't want to score quickly because we don't want our defense out there on the field??? 

How about this.  Let's just score.  We dominated in time of possession in the first half against USC.  What we wound up with was being behind 42-10.  And our lone TD wasn't a long, time-consuming drive.

We aren't good enough to pick and choose when we score.  We just need to figure out a way to score.  We need to figure out how to pass block, too.

Trust me if we "start airing it out scoring every two minutes" we will win in spite of our terrible defense.

[PAHog]

Brown had a sack, but I don't think he did much else.  We definitely need to throw more, as that is where we've had success especially the last two games.  We need to stop trying to run the ball like a power football team.  Pass to set up the run instead of the other way around.  The Missiouri St game put it in Nutt's head that we'll be able to run on everyone when that is not the case.