Penalties and our RZ offense, especially inside the 10.
We got away with it last night but you can’t continue to make the dumb penalties we do in the postseason. The number of times we line up or jump offsides on 3rd down is comical at this point, for example.
The RZ offense is just weird. We could have dropped 50+ on them if we weren’t so feeble inside the 10. Is it Pollard? Who knows. On our first trip inside the 10, the ran him on first down and he had nowhere to go. Is it the OL? Maybe but it’s puzzling how you can’t muster and adequate RZ run game when you have Martin and Tyler and even a healthy Tyron. McCarthy? I have no idea.
Sydia, I know exactly what you mean. The penalties on O-Line fall completely on coaching. I do not like the O-Line coach. He is better than the last one at pass blocking at times but the combo of the O-Line coach and MM playcalling is killing me. Our run game has suffered since MM has been here and we have had problems with the O-Line. We need a good O-Line coach, our players are healthy and talented there is no excuse for the penalties, especially in the red zone. Daks yelling “here we go” for a reason.
Now the red zone problems inside the 5 yard line is play calling. I have never screamed at the TV so much as last night. And it was at play calling inside the 5. MM refuses to do a couple of things.
1 - Not sure if JJ is making him start Pollard or not. But MM will run Pollard straight up the middle all the way to the 5 yard line. Then he won’t take the shortest distance to the goal line and try the middle. I watched him run off tackle last night from the 2 yard line. He has to run a bigger back earlier in the game up the middle. Once we start using Dowdle then it opens up for Pollard later but they refuse to use a bigger back until late in the 2nd or the 3rd quarter. MM is missing lots of run yards early. We had Lupke in the game but he never got the ball. Answer… Use a bigger back up the middle on the goal line. And if you’re gonna pound the middle early in the game use a bigger back. Pollard will do his thing later in the game. We don’t have Elliot anymore. That’s just how important a RB like that is to a team.
2 - We need a O-Line coach that’s good at run blocking. And can coach the penalties away. This won’t fly against good teams. It cost us egirls game.
It’s becoming a psychological thing for the team when they get inside the 10. Last night Dak rarely used his feet for some reason. MM needs to find an answer and I think it’s a bigger back. I was one in favor or getting a big RB but thought we would be using Luepke for that and that’s why we never got one. Luepke has 3 runs all season. 1 of those runs is a TD FROM THE 4 YARD LINE. Use him.
