Evolving the Option: The Pop Pass and the Future of Football

Not worried about that one play even though the thread is ABOUT that one play. It sure as heck matters if Bama was reacting to only what *u could do legally, and what they did was illegal.

Fat in the middle, fast on the edges. If you take away the inside run without committing more people and properly execute edge blitzes then you'll start hammering the QB. The QB in this type of offense is even more critical than in a pro style passing attack. Once the inside run isn't killing you and you've popped that QB a couple of times then that offense becomes one dimensional real quick. It takes different personnel to defend a run heavy offense vs a pass heavy offense. Every 15-20 years offenses flip back and forth to be opposite of popular defensive personnel and it's called innovation. It's taken offenses 30 years to put the wishbone in the shotgun and throw it from the edge sometimes. Call me a cynic if I'm not astounded. This, too, will be contained and, eventually, it will reappear with a new "innovation".

Wasn't this the play that Saban said "if it is legal, I have no defense for it"?

It looks to me like one of Auburn's OL was almost 5 yards down field when the ball is thrown. That may have been hard for an official to see in that situation. But in some of his other videos, linemen are farther down field. What is that Kansas State OL doing 10-15 yards down field. He just starting sprinting up field when the ball was snapped. Ole Miss had two down field on that video. The only on that looked legal was from the Oklahoma spring game.

crimsonaudio said:

I've seen some pretty detailed breakdowns of that play and I don't think a lineman was illegally down field. ...

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I agree. I have heard this a lot, and watched it several times. IIRC You get 3 yards to work with and I don't think any of the ineligible ones moved that far. There were cases where I thought they did, but I didn't think so on this play.

I think a lot of people see the back come around the end and think he is ineligible, or don't think the linemen can move past the line of scrimmage at all.

Not a student of history, but CFB history has taught me this; one of the great defensive minds in the game will shut this play done cold, and then the NCAA will make a new rule that makes the play easier for the offense, and the beat goes on...

RTR91 said:

Read these comments from Auburn's offensive assistants about the system. It's not something we can immediately squash like some think. I do believe there are ways to stop it, but the personnel has to be exactly right.

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he's a legend in his own (or his assistant's) mind

yellowstone said:

It looks to me like one of Auburn's OL was almost 5 yards down field when the ball is thrown. That may have been hard for an official to see in that situation. But in some of his other videos, linemen are farther down field. What is that Kansas State OL doing 10-15 yards down field. He just starting sprinting up field when the ball was snapped. Ole Miss had two down field on that video. The only on that looked legal was from the Oklahoma spring game.

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I think you are seeing Jay Propst Auburn's fullback.

crimsonaudio said:

I'll be honest with you - if they get a decent defense down there, they're gonna be really tough to beat. As much as I like making fun of delusional fan bases, his offense is REALLY tough to stop.

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yeah, but our d weaknesses (no vinnie, weak on the edges, no penetration) played right into it last year.

anyway, they didn't need decent d to whip our butts in 2010 or 2013

crimsonaudio said:

I'll be honest with you - if they get a decent defense down there, they're gonna be really tough to beat. As much as I like making fun of delusional fan bases, his offense is REALLY tough to stop.

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I want to see how well he does this year before I go that far. Don't get me wrong... what he has done at Auburn is impressive but it was basically an otherworldly player in 2010, and then last year it was a practically new offense than his earlier time at Auburn.

He was less than impressive in 2011 at the barn, and didn't set the world on fire in his one year at Arkansas State. Now we've had an entire off season for defenses to really break down film of everything they did last year. I will bet Coach Saban could probably recite every single play they ran last year. I still expect them to be good, and I still expect them to put up good numbers. But I'm betting we see a good bit of drop off from a year ago. We'll see.

TideEngineer08 said:

I want to see how well he does this year before I go that far. Don't get me wrong... what he has done at Auburn is impressive but it was basically an otherworldly player in 2010, and then last year it was a practically new offense than his earlier time at Auburn.

He was less than impressive in 2011 at the barn, and didn't set the world on fire in his one year at Arkansas State. Now we've had an entire off season for defenses to really break down film of everything they did last year. I will bet Coach Saban could probably recite every single play they ran last year. I still expect them to be good, and I still expect them to put up good numbers. But I'm betting we see a good bit of drop off from a year ago. We'll see.

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Spot on. People seem to gloss over his work in 2011 and 2012 when they want to crown him as the new king of coaching.

Another thing that bugs me about all the praise he's getting... yes, they won the iron bowl, but Saban's defense held them in check a large portion of the game and IMO it was his worst defense since his first (perhaps his second also) year at Alabama.

The Barn usually does something stupid a year or two after it looks like they might have a good thing going.

Let's see how they deal with a "normal" year of having some injuries (already happening) and maybe having to deal with some adversity of the ball bouncing the wrong way.

TideEngineer08 said:

And the play should never have happened because they had linemen illegally downfield.

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every one of those plays showed linemen illegally down field.