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Imagination in the Running Game?

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fourbama

BamaNation Citizen
Mar 25, 2010
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I will admit that the next down of competitive football I play will be my first, but as a long time fan and a self proclaimed student of the game, I just don't see very much imagination in our running game. Am I missing something or is this a reality? It seems that we have a few plays that we run over and over and if it works great, but if it doesn't then we can't adjust. I think DH is a great talent, but sometimes it seems that he needs a step or two to get started and when he is being met in the backfield by defenders he doesn't have quick enough feet to avoid them. I know that is a product of the OL not blocking but it seems to me that Henry is much better if he has a little space. Just asking for opinions. I think Bama can win Saturday if we can move the ball and score cause I don't think the dogs are going to do too much on our D.
 
What's happening is we're attempting to block 8 men with 6 men; a battle we'll lose the majority of the time. Until we can consistently complete passes downfield, we will continue to see run blitzes, stunts, and safeties in the box with all of their focus on stopping our run game.

Out run game wasn't bad when 22 (despite his faults) was on the field at WR in 07. The running game looked great when the threat of 8 was there from 08-10. Looked great when you had a QB with a big league arm and supermodel Aubie girlfriend that could sling it even without a prolific playmaker on the field. No way you'd be dumb enough to stack the box with #9 on the field last year.

So until we can say that about ANYBODY on our team this year, it's uphill for Coach Burns and the running game. Teams will let Mullaney dink & dunk all game but as long as Stew can't catch a cold beyond 10 yards, everything will be concentrated in the box. Prime example, remember Super Bowl 48 when the Seahawks drubbed the Broncos & Peyton Manning? Little known fact: Demaryus Thomas set a Super Bowl record for receptions in a Super Bowl. I think it was 22 or 23. But they were all mostly bubble screens and short completions. Teams will give us that. We have to successfully stretch the field vertically. There's no such thing as winning the game one way. There has to be balance. There's simply no way around it. No 1-dimensional team will ever have much success in today's game. We need a strong vertical attack to complement / open up the running game
 
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WMack4Bama said:
What's happening is we're attempting to block 8 men with 6 men; a battle we'll lose the majority of the time. Until we can consistently complete passes downfield, we will continue to see run blitzes, stunts, and safeties in the box with all of their focus on stopping our run game.

Out run game wasn't bad when 22 (despite his faults) was on the field at WR in 07. The running game looked great when the threat of 8 was there from 08-10. Looked great when you had a QB with a big league arm and supermodel Aubie girlfriend that could sling it even without a prolific playmaker on the field. No way you'd be dumb enough to stack the box with #9 on the field last year.

So until we can say that about ANYBODY on our team this year, it's uphill for Coach Burns and the running game. Teams will let Mullaney dink & dunk all game but as long as Stew can't catch a cold beyond 10 yards, everything will be concentrated in the box. Prime example, remember Super Bowl 48 when the Seahawks drubbed the Broncos & Peyton Manning? Little known fact: Demaryus Thomas set a Super Bowl record for receptions in a Super Bowl. I think it was 22 or 23. But they were all mostly bubble screens and short completions. Teams will give us that. We have to successfully stretch the field vertically. There's no such thing as winning the game one way. There has to be balance. There's simply no way around it. No 1-dimensional team will ever have much success in today's game. We need a strong vertical attack to complement / open up the running game
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THANK YOU for that!!
 
I agree with what Mack said. I also think DH would have a lot more success with running plays that were run from under center. I think he would be able to get a head of steam towards the LOS vs taking a handoff in the pistol and not having any forward momentum. The runs from the pistol have to be blocked perfectly or they end up with a TFL (Alabama is close to first in FBS in TFLs given up). If a straight ahead run from under center is blocked poorly I still feel like DH would be able to at least get back to the LOS or gain 1-2 yards by just falling forward..
 
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CrimsonForce said:
I agree with what Mack said. I also think DH would have a lot more success with running plays that were run from under center. I think he would be able to get a head of steam towards the LOS vs taking a handoff in the pistol and not having any forward momentum. The runs from the pistol have to be blocked perfectly or they end up with a TFL (Alabama is close to first in FBS in TFLs given up). If a straight ahead run from under center is blocked poorly I still feel like DH would be able to at least get back to the LOS or gain 1-2 yards by just falling forward..
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Yep...DH's weakness is his first couple of steps but when he builds forward momentum he's pretty fluid even in traffic. But if he's dancing around tacklers in the backfield he can be tackled around the ankles.

I think our best play is the pitch/sweep to the left that allows him to get going in the open spaces and then he can turn it upfield with some momentum.
 
WMack4Bama said:
What's happening is we're attempting to block 8 men with 6 men; a battle we'll lose the majority of the time. Until we can consistently complete passes downfield, we will continue to see run blitzes, stunts, and safeties in the box with all of their focus on stopping our run game.

Out run game wasn't bad when 22 (despite his faults) was on the field at WR in 07. The running game looked great when the threat of 8 was there from 08-10. Looked great when you had a QB with a big league arm and supermodel Aubie girlfriend that could sling it even without a prolific playmaker on the field. No way you'd be dumb enough to stack the box with #9 on the field last year.

So until we can say that about ANYBODY on our team this year, it's uphill for Coach Burns and the running game. Teams will let Mullaney dink & dunk all game but as long as Stew can't catch a cold beyond 10 yards, everything will be concentrated in the box. Prime example, remember Super Bowl 48 when the Seahawks drubbed the Broncos & Peyton Manning? Little known fact: Demaryus Thomas set a Super Bowl record for receptions in a Super Bowl. I think it was 22 or 23. But they were all mostly bubble screens and short completions. Teams will give us that. We have to successfully stretch the field vertically. There's no such thing as winning the game one way. There has to be balance. There's simply no way around it. No 1-dimensional team will ever have much success in today's game. We need a strong vertical attack to complement / open up the running game
Click to expand...

Great post.
 
WMack4Bama said:
What's happening is we're attempting to block 8 men with 6 men; a battle we'll lose the majority of the time. Until we can consistently complete passes downfield, we will continue to see run blitzes, stunts, and safeties in the box with all of their focus on stopping our run game.

Out run game wasn't bad when 22 (despite his faults) was on the field at WR in 07. The running game looked great when the threat of 8 was there from 08-10. Looked great when you had a QB with a big league arm and supermodel Aubie girlfriend that could sling it even without a prolific playmaker on the field. No way you'd be dumb enough to stack the box with #9 on the field last year.

So until we can say that about ANYBODY on our team this year, it's uphill for Coach Burns and the running game. Teams will let Mullaney dink & dunk all game but as long as Stew can't catch a cold beyond 10 yards, everything will be concentrated in the box. Prime example, remember Super Bowl 48 when the Seahawks drubbed the Broncos & Peyton Manning? Little known fact: Demaryus Thomas set a Super Bowl record for receptions in a Super Bowl. I think it was 22 or 23. But they were all mostly bubble screens and short completions. Teams will give us that. We have to successfully stretch the field vertically. There's no such thing as winning the game one way. There has to be balance. There's simply no way around it. No 1-dimensional team will ever have much success in today's game. We need a strong vertical attack to complement / open up the running game
Click to expand...
Quoted for truth. Until we can do more than imagine our WRs catching deep balls, here's where we are. We may need to just dink and dunk, and every now and again try to catch the safeties napping.
 
I don't really know what the plays are called now days but I was thinking the OP was meaning instead of running straight handoffs between the tackles run more quick pitches, quick sweep, jet sweep, or classic toss sweep type plays.
During the game thread, right after somebody mentioned running to the edge we run an old fashioned toss sweep to Drake that was successful.
 
WMack4Bama said:
What's happening is we're attempting to block 8 men with 6 men; a battle we'll lose the majority of the time. Until we can consistently complete passes downfield, we will continue to see run blitzes, stunts, and safeties in the box with all of their focus on stopping our run game.

Out run game wasn't bad when 22 (despite his faults) was on the field at WR in 07. The running game looked great when the threat of 8 was there from 08-10. Looked great when you had a QB with a big league arm and supermodel Aubie girlfriend that could sling it even without a prolific playmaker on the field. No way you'd be dumb enough to stack the box with #9 on the field last year.

So until we can say that about ANYBODY on our team this year, it's uphill for Coach Burns and the running game. Teams will let Mullaney dink & dunk all game but as long as Stew can't catch a cold beyond 10 yards, everything will be concentrated in the box. Prime example, remember Super Bowl 48 when the Seahawks drubbed the Broncos & Peyton Manning? Little known fact: Demaryus Thomas set a Super Bowl record for receptions in a Super Bowl. I think it was 22 or 23. But they were all mostly bubble screens and short completions. Teams will give us that. We have to successfully stretch the field vertically. There's no such thing as winning the game one way. There has to be balance. There's simply no way around it. No 1-dimensional team will ever have much success in today's game. We need a strong vertical attack to complement / open up the running game
Click to expand...

Yep, you don`t have to be Bill Belichek (sp?) to figure out what everybody will do unless/until we can back them out of it.
 
WMack4Bama said:
What's happening is we're attempting to block 8 men with 6 men; a battle we'll lose the majority of the time. Until we can consistently complete passes downfield, we will continue to see run blitzes, stunts, and safeties in the box with all of their focus on stopping our run game.

Out run game wasn't bad when 22 (despite his faults) was on the field at WR in 07. The running game looked great when the threat of 8 was there from 08-10. Looked great when you had a QB with a big league arm and supermodel Aubie girlfriend that could sling it even without a prolific playmaker on the field. No way you'd be dumb enough to stack the box with #9 on the field last year.

So until we can say that about ANYBODY on our team this year, it's uphill for Coach Burns and the running game. Teams will let Mullaney dink & dunk all game but as long as Stew can't catch a cold beyond 10 yards, everything will be concentrated in the box. Prime example, remember Super Bowl 48 when the Seahawks drubbed the Broncos & Peyton Manning? Little known fact: Demaryus Thomas set a Super Bowl record for receptions in a Super Bowl. I think it was 22 or 23. But they were all mostly bubble screens and short completions. Teams will give us that. We have to successfully stretch the field vertically. There's no such thing as winning the game one way. There has to be balance. There's simply no way around it. No 1-dimensional team will ever have much success in today's game. We need a strong vertical attack to complement / open up the running game
Click to expand...

So Mack -- would the key be, how to get Ridley/Stewart OR Howard - in one-on-one situations -- deep?

If so -- do we have to get tricky? Flea Flicker/PA or some other gimmicky play?
 
NationalTitles15 said:
We don't need imagination. We need execution.
Click to expand...

Very well said. There *has* to be a certain amount of unpredictability and ingenuity from your coaching and play calling but there comes a time when you simply must execute. The offense is mostly young, but we haven't been doing the execution part very well lately. One of the very best games I have ever seen Bama execute almost flawlessly was the first half of the blackout game in 2008. I hope we come in like that again.
 
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i agree with you OP.. when the runs up the middle are not working, it'd be nice to see more outside runs or misdirection. we run so many dives and iso's sometimes, even when it's not working. I'd also, like others have said would like to see more under center runs in short yardage situations. I'd like to see us stop using the sweep play unless we find a play that we can set up as a result of running the sweeps. but of course i'm not the coach, so i just hope our execution gets better with what we are running and use some playaction to keep them from crowding the box.
 
Most teams are run blitzing us with their safety and lb. They are keying on the one rb we have in the game. We need to use 2 running backs sometimes, and run counter plays or fake to one and hand to the other. Fake to one and throw a rb pass behind the dl. Too predictable in the running game!
 
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