🏈 What needs to happen to fix our running game?

[bamaledge]

Is the issue with the Oline or backs? Or maybe a little bit of both?

 

[24and7]

The right Oline for the system..
Running backs not nursing injuries..Jam has been hurt most of it..

 

[Crtuneman]

This is my observations so far with the O line and the run game:
It seems at times that either the blocking scheme or the implementation is not right. Saturday, on one particular run, Formby was lined up with the D End on his right shoulder. Cuevas was lined up to the right of Formby. When the ball was snapped to Bernard, Cuevas tried to block down to the end while Formby pulled to the right. Cuevas had to go around Formby and whiffed on the D End, leaving Bernard with a 6 yard loss. There is no way Cuevas can block down while Formby pulls with an End in the outside gap. Scheme or understanding? Don't know, but that happens way too often.

The O Line doesn't seem to have much upper body strength. I rarely see a Bama O lineman pushing a D lineman out of the play or down the field, and I rarely see an O lineman getting to the second level to block a safety or a LB. There hardly seems to be any movement at all when the ball is snapped. Is it strength? Is it hand placement? Is it foot position? Is it leverage? I don't know, but whatever is missing continues to be missing. It has not improved at all.

The RBs don't seem to have very good vision. There are times when the RB gets the ball and runs where the play is supposed to go, regardless of whether or not a gap might open up somewhere else. I don't see many cutbacks, and the occasional bounce outside doesn't always work. And it doesn't look like they have confidence in hitting the hole if one does actually open up. Maybe they are so surprised they hesitate, but they are slow to hit the LOS.

And for the love of all that is holy, why is D Hill not getting more carries? He is clearly the best RB on the team. He has size, vision and power, and he hits the hole fast. He has done well in the passing game, but he is an afterthought in the run game. Why is Bernard having so much success? Why is the only one making explosive plays? Why can the Miller and Riley not get explosive plays? Why is Hill not getting the opportunity?

Personally I think there is something wrong with the coaching, because it has not improved at all this year, and I cannot believe that the O linemen Bama has recruited are that incompetent or incapable. But I can tell you this much. It's not going to get better. Oklahoma and Auburn have the best defenses in the SEC, and I don't see any way that Bama can have any success on the ground against them.

 

[scottyhk]

It seems like 90 percent of the run calls are between the tackles. It also seems that in quite a few cases the blocking scheme doesn't help the situation either...

 

[No Huddle]

No push at all. A successful run is a win on the double team and move to a second level. We do not win very many double teams.

 

[PurlJam]

Block somebody.

 

[64Tide]

Run when they are expecting pass. Seems we are always outnumbered when we try to run.

 

[64Tide]

Oklahoma and Auburn have the best defenses in the SEC, and I don't see any way that Bama can have any success on the ground against them.

You're so right Carl...

 

[bamatommy]

We haven't had a decent o-line coach in ages

 

[It Takes Eleven]

When we are in a down and distance that suggests run, and there is an upback set, the DL stunts and submarines, almost always disrupting the play. Typically, it's Jam and he has no room to negotiate. It's Ken Darby 2.0; he has to avoid tacklers in the backfield before making any headway or getting any momentum. There have been toss sweeps to Hill, and they are beautiful watching him run downhill for good yardage.

I've complained about those inside handoffs all season. Stop doing that, give the RB some room to see and adjust, and go get it. The biggest weakness of a big, tall line, is getting beat low. Having the backs tight to the line magnifies that exposure.

Did I mention the inside handoffs?

 

[rick4bama]

Block somebody.

Blocking sound good !

 

[mando]

Seems like there are several issues.... At times they are getting physically whipped (see proctor on the on TFL can't recall exactly the time in the game). Another was the TE was to block down and the RT was to pull outside. The RT did not get enough depth and chipped the TE so the inside DL the TE was supposed to block got penetration and blew up the play. Other times Simpson probably needed to audible out of a play where they were outnumbered and they just could not block them all.

The simple answer may be the most likely normally and that is they are just not being physical enough.

 

[Scrape&Search1032]

To me, it's starts with have a starting 5 that can get enough reps and gel together. I truly think one of the reasons we're struggling so bad is because we keep rotating our o-line so much.

 

[UAgrad93]

IMHO, decide on 5 best OL and be done with it. Personally, Proctor, Dewberry, Brailsford, Roberts, Carroll would be my 5. I don’t like some of the slow developing runs from gun with pullers. Too much penetration kills those. Give me some stretch plays, zone read, and toss.

 

[bamafan9201]

A couple of issues IMO:

1) The DL and LB are run blitzing or stunting on almost every run down 1st and 10 or 2nd and 5. We are being way too telegraphed, we are struggling to stretch the field on 1st and 2nd and there's a few different ways to do it I think they need to start doing.

2) Our O-line is missing assignments at times, we're missing blocks or doing incorrect combo blocks where we combo and don't put hands on the backer.

3) We aren't utilizing Zone scheme or outside runs much. Something that I think this team could do well.

Fixes:

1) We need to adjust to a zone run scheme IMO and allow for more designed outside runs instead of forcing it on inside handoffs.

2) We need to utilize the outside WR screens and quick side to side throws or HB flare routes to allow them to attack the edges and make their LBs float horizontally vs vertically. We have most LBs pushing the gaps on 1st down and DL are constantly doing slants towards the strong side or run stunts.

3) We also need to know that teams are keying on the run in 1st down and start with play actions earlier in the game instead of trying to force the run like we've done in the most recent weeks. Like the 2nd half vs USCe we forced the run immediately trying to run on 1st and 2nd but honestly they were wide open for hot routes, screens, or things over the middle.

 

[94 Grad]

This is my observations so far with the O line and the run game:
It seems at times that either the blocking scheme or the implementation is not right. Saturday, on one particular run, Formby was lined up with the D End on his right shoulder. Cuevas was lined up to the right of Formby. When the ball was snapped to Bernard, Cuevas tried to block down to the end while Formby pulled to the right. Cuevas had to go around Formby and whiffed on the D End, leaving Bernard with a 6 yard loss. There is no way Cuevas can block down while Formby pulls with an End in the outside gap. Scheme or understanding? Don't know, but that happens way too often.

The O Line doesn't seem to have much upper body strength. I rarely see a Bama O lineman pushing a D lineman out of the play or down the field, and I rarely see an O lineman getting to the second level to block a safety or a LB. There hardly seems to be any movement at all when the ball is snapped. Is it strength? Is it hand placement? Is it foot position? Is it leverage? I don't know, but whatever is missing continues to be missing. It has not improved at all.

The RBs don't seem to have very good vision. There are times when the RB gets the ball and runs where the play is supposed to go, regardless of whether or not a gap might open up somewhere else. I don't see many cutbacks, and the occasional bounce outside doesn't always work. And it doesn't look like they have confidence in hitting the hole if one does actually open up. Maybe they are so surprised they hesitate, but they are slow to hit the LOS.

And for the love of all that is holy, why is D Hill not getting more carries? He is clearly the best RB on the team. He has size, vision and power, and he hits the hole fast. He has done well in the passing game, but he is an afterthought in the run game. Why is Bernard having so much success? Why is the only one making explosive plays? Why can the Miller and Riley not get explosive plays? Why is Hill not getting the opportunity?

Personally I think there is something wrong with the coaching, because it has not improved at all this year, and I cannot believe that the O linemen Bama has recruited are that incompetent or incapable. But I can tell you this much. It's not going to get better. Oklahoma and Auburn have the best defenses in the SEC, and I don't see any way that Bama can have any success on the ground against them.

And I would add defenses that don't put 7-9 guys in or near the box. uSC had 7 guys consistently in the box with safeties cheating down. They also had one of the best Dlines (after watching some of the game file) we will see this year, IMHO. They could stop the run AND still pressure the QB in a hurry if it was a pass. I think that is way they keep trying to fire the ball down field so many times to try and get the Safeties from cheating down for the run... but I don't think it mattered much. They got plenty of pressure with just the 4 down lineman. It was actually an impressive performance by their Dline. I Think uSC preferred us passing the ball as they know their DLine pressure was getting to us so they never really did "unstack" the box in the game.

I think the running game is just fine for most games. We do need better run blocking on the Oline across the board, but center to LT is seems solid for run blocking, not so much RG/RT side of things. I think teams tend to shade us that way because we don't tend to run behind the RG/RT because of that...

So I would say it's a mix of playing a team that doesn't stack the box as much. Changing some of our tendencies on running left and having a healthy backfield.

 

[94 Grad]

We haven't had a decent o-line coach in ages

Last one we had is head coach at miami....

 

[musso]

It seems like 90 percent of the run calls are between the tackles.

When handed off to the RBs, yes. The WRs have gotten nearly all of the wide runs.

There have been toss sweeps to Hill, and they are beautiful watching him run downhill for good yardage.

I've complained about those inside handoffs all season. Stop doing that, give the RB some room to see and adjust, and go get it. The biggest weakness of a big, tall line, is getting beat low. Having the backs tight to the line magnifies that exposure.

Did I mention the inside handoffs?

Shoot, I think Jam would do at least as well as Hill with the toss sweeps. I'd love to know why Hill has been the only RB to get a crack at it.

 

[bamanc50]

IMO not as much emphasis is put on the 4th qt. program as in the past especially the weight lifting.

 

[alabama mike]

@Crtuneman
"And for the love of all that is holy, why is D Hill not getting more carries? He is clearly the best RB on the team. He has size, vision and power, and he hits the hole fast. He has done well in the passing game, but he is an afterthought in the run game. Why is Bernard having so much success? Why is the only one making explosive plays? Why can the Miller and Riley not get explosive plays? Why is Hill not getting the opportunity?"

Agree, he is the best RB we have. The main problem with Hill is that he does not pick up well when blocking on a pass play that he is not involved in. TY has taken several hard hits due to his poor pass blocking skills. Hopefully, this week they have been working with him more and he will get more playing time and carries.

@UAgrad93 I also agree with you on the long developing running plays. Our OL does not get a push at all and bc the play takes longer to develop, our RB's get hit before the LOS or at it. Another thing that causes the OL problems is the very long developing pass plays.

Since I am not at practice, I have no idea how much live blocking is done by the OL. In the old days, when I played, we hit live, 4 days a week, yes, even on the walkthrough day. I see a lot of teams wearing a lot of shorts and helmets only and very little live hitting. Heck, even when they "practice tackling", they are tackling at 1/2 speed and into a high jump mat at that. Bottom line, I think OL are much stronger and bigger than my days BUT they do not practice the necessary things at full speed hitting. Just my opinion.