Play Action?

First of all congratulations to the Cougars for coming out with some fire and picking up the W! It feels good to see the Cougars win again.

I'm not here to say we should go back to airing the ball out 50 times a game, but I was hoping to see a play action on 1st down... at least once in the second half (I don't recall a single one). It seems like they should've put more than 10 points on the board in the second half. IMO when the run is as successful as it was tonight a few play action plays to stretch the d and go for some distance could've helped sparked the O to a few more scores.

Just a thought, maybe you all saw things a little differently...

Why so little play action, when in a normal game it would have been a perfect call time and again?



I have a sneaking suspicion that after last week, there was a complete breakdown in either a) Heaps' self-confidence, or b) everyone's confidence in the receivers (probably both); the endzone interception (on a play action, no less) may have strengthened that. Anae's play-calling in this game (esp. the second half) strikes me not as a new direction for the offense (good: Wisconsin puts me to sleep), but it was triage on the morale of the offense. I believe the entire plan was to take the pressure off Heaps and the receivers, get a win, then get them back to work next week. I'm just glad the O-line showed up today; this game plan would have been a disaster with the o-line we've had in recent games. Reynolds was finally the machine we expected him to be. However, TCU's d-line won't roll over like this, so Ashworth, get out the stick-um!

bplewe wrote:
Why so little play action, when in a normal game it would have been a perfect call time and again?



I have a sneaking suspicion that after last week, there was a complete breakdown in either a) Heaps' self-confidence, or b) everyone's confidence in the receivers (probably both); the endzone interception (on a play action, no less) may have strengthened that. Anae's play-calling in this game (esp. the second half) strikes me not as a new direction for the offense (good: Wisconsin puts me to sleep), but it was triage on the morale of the offense. I believe the entire plan was to take the pressure off Heaps and the receivers, get a win, then get them back to work next week. I'm just glad the O-line showed up today; this game plan would have been a disaster with the o-line we've had in recent games. Reynolds was finally the machine we expected him to be. However, TCU's d-line won't roll over like this, so Ashworth, get out the stick-um!

more playaction and more bootleg. I agree with the rest of your post, this is the offense they should have been running the last 5 weeks already.

This game was about ball control. When you can pick up 5-6 yards on every run why pass?

Ashworth shouldn't even be traveling with the team next week. He'd just make it worse.

I thought it was Jacobsen who dropped it in the endzone...again. He made a few short nifty plays after that. I think Matthews is the tight end that has proven he will catch it over the middle and should be the starting tight end (except he needs to learn to tuck the dang ball instead of looking like he wants to pitch it).



Juice is getting more playing time, as he should.



Kariya was used as a short yardage specialist, as he should.



I thought we did a great job of working with what we got.

I was very surprised we never went deep or used play action. Their safeties were in the box all game long and had no over the top help for their cornerbacks.

CAFB_04-12 wrote:
This game was about ball control. When you can pick up 5-6 yards on every run why pass?

Heaps said as much in the post game show.

Bronco was asked if he was ever tempted to try to go over the top since SDSU seemed to be inviting BYU to do it all night. He said he had a blunt answer and that he wasn't second guessing Anae during the game due to having his hands full with the D. His answer did seem to indicate agreement that it was inviting on several occasions due to DBs creeping up so close to the line.



But it may come back to lack of confidence in throwing and catching the deep ball - and since we were running it down their throats and dominating TOP to keep the defense off the field, Anae either did not see the invite or chose not to risk accepting it.



Since nobody ever seems to interview Anae, we may never hear whether he didn't see it or thought better of taking the risk.



TCU will test our O and our D and we will not succeed with a 1-dimensional game plan and certainly will not be able to run it down their throats at will unless the passing game is loosening up their D.



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I think Heaps looks most comfortable off of the play action. I'm assuming they will start to work it into the offense a little more later in the season .... probably after TCU

The goal of play-action is to freeze the safety to create space down the field, and also to try to get the LBs to commit run first and open up space behind them. Problem is, our WRs and TEs do not separate this year. Seriously, it is a real problem. When their corners can man us up--and do it well, play action is less effective, with one exception--when the TE can beat his man who thought run first. And this is not happening this year. Our guys our not good route runners just yet, not physical at the line to create space, and just do not get open and beat their men. Once that starts to happen, play action will work way better.

What's "play action"? Robert and I were wondering what that was. :gross: