Re: TNET: Elliott wants to get Etienne more touches on designed runs

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Re: Amen

Oct 15, 2019, 9:13 AM

I'm not sure what you mean by "real or deception". RPOs are all about putting one defender in conflict and making him guess wrong every time. We (like most spread teams) have had a high percentage of RPOs for several years, but college football has a way of reacting to change with change and so defenses have learned to adjust to RPOs.

Venables is a perfect example of the genius needed to counter RPOs. Beating an RPO looks like the interception by Terrell against 'Bama in the NC game - or especially like the interception by Derion Kendrick against FSU this past Saturday. Neither of those plays were really RPOs, but it's about disguised coverages.

Other teams have figured out some of this as well and in combination with our high % of RPOs may be one of the reasons that TL has experienced a greater number of interceptions this year. Trevor is very good at his RPO reads - and extremely quick at making the decision, which may be one of the issues.... he's so quick with the decision that the D morphs into coverage as he's making the throw and he doesn't get the picture until late.

Another issue might have been pass blocking. One of the main goals to defend RPOs is to attack the mesh point. Teams have been doing this to us all year and too often, we've failed to pick up the defender with an effective block, which leads to a blown up play or a skittish QB who makes the throw from a bad position, which can result in a pick.

An effective RPO scheme is based on a spread offense running a fast tempo - another issue of late. At times, we're giving the D too long to set the trap scheme, when it's us who should be trapping them.

My final observation is that RPOs should usually have in the read progression short and long middle-of-the-field passing targets, which we haven't had since Jordan Leggett and Hunter Renfrow.

So, I think we've been successful with RPOs in the past and they became a large part of our offense through habit, even though we didn't have enough talent or training in many of the positions needed to make them work as well as before..... we've been sort of forcing it.

More designed runs may bring the D in tighter, which could open up the passing lanes for us.

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The problem is that third option to throw in your scenario. By the time the QB gets to the point to decide whether to throw or not a huge amount of time has passed. Time that a offensive linemen could be blocking down field or setting up for pass protection. What it forces linemen to do is basically sit and wait, and attempt to run block within three yards of the LOS. That is hard, really hard. And unless the Defensive Linemen and Backers over commit to the run or pass, you basically have a mess with OL not being able to block downfield or truly setup for pass protection, when you would have been better off to just call a pure run play or pure pass play. It just increases the chances to put your OL in bad situations that are extremely hard to win. I have just never been a huge fan of the RPO, except in certain situations where the defense you are playing is vulnerable. Though I will say with as much RPO as Elliot says we run, I am even more impressed with Clemson's OL than before, in that being put in those positions, they win more than they lose....so there is that.

TNET: Elliott wants to get Etienne more touches on designed runs

Amen

Re: Amen

Re: Amen

Hallelujah!***