8 or 9 in the box, Hall, Anae, Fui & Unga - cougarguard.com — unofficial BYU Cougars / LDS sports, football, basketball forum and message board

Indy Coug · 09-14-2007, 12:33 PM

So I finally got around to rewatching the UCLA game last night.

Observations:

1. Fui and Tonga in the first half were consistently running against 8 or 9 man fronts, often with a cover 1 or cover 0 behind it. BYU was perpetually short one or two blockers in these situations. Yet as near as I can tell, BYU never audibled out of the run for a pass.

2. Not only did UCLA often have one or two unblocked men by stacking the box, but several times the OL and/or FB got beat on their blocks at the point of attack.

3. BYU finally (and rightfully) decided to largely abandon the run given what UCLA was trying to do and they exploited them pretty well. During one stretch in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, Max Hall was 18 of 21 for 246 yards 2 TDs and 0 INTs. That's an efficiency of 215.54.

4. During that 18 for 21 stretch, UCLA finally started consistently backing off the 8 and 9 man fronts. During that time Unga got a 24 and 5 yard run against 7 man fronts. That's something that Fui and Tonga had on maybe two or three plays. Tops. When Unga ran against 8 or 9, he was just as summarily stuffed by UCLA as Fui and Tonga were.

5. While Tonga and Fui didn't "make plays" on their runs, the failure of their run was primarily because UCLA was too good to block short handed.

So the question becomes: is the Anae offensive system that we run no matter what the defense presents? Is the QB unauthorized to check out of it?

Did Max Hall have the authority, but was unable to recognize the defense or unwilling to audible out?

Were we so cocksure that we were good enough to run against the 2006 #9 run defense in the NCAA even being short one or two blockers?

The run was there in the 2nd half, meaning UCLA was more consistently giving a 7 man front with less blitzing, but by that time we were in a groove passing.

jay santos · 09-14-2007, 02:58 PM

We passed 53 times and ran 25 times--six of those were by Hall in design pass plays. There's no way someone should think we should have passed more and ran less.

Indy Coug · 09-14-2007, 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jay santos

We passed 53 times and ran 25 times--six of those were by Hall in design pass plays. There's no way someone should think we should have passed more and ran less.

No, the argument is we shouldn't have run more, given what UCLA was doing defensively.

Plenty of people have been complaining about not giving Unga enough carries. My point is that it just didn't matter because BYU couldn't handle UCLA's scheme.

It was only after BYU softened up UCLA with sustained success throwing the ball that Unga was able to bust loose on his long run against 7 in the box.

Give Unga the ball 5 or 6 times in the first quarter against UCLA's 8 or 9 in the box and he wasn't going to do any better than Fui or Tonga.

jay santos · 09-14-2007, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Indy Coug

No, the argument is we shouldn't have run more, given what UCLA was doing defensively.

Plenty of people have been complaining about not giving Unga enough carries. My point is that it just didn't matter because BYU couldn't handle UCLA's scheme.

It was only after BYU softened up UCLA with sustained success throwing the ball that Unga was able to bust loose on his long run against 7 in the box.

Give Unga the ball 5 or 6 times in the first quarter against UCLA's 8 or 9 in the box and he wasn't going to do any better than Fui or Tonga.

OK, I can buy that. The offense was doing just fine after the first 1.5 quarters. The first 1.5 quarters was rough, but I don't blame it on playcalling. There was an appropriate mix of run and pass.

09-14-2007, 12:33 PM	#1
Indy Coug Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Between Iraq and a hard place Posts: 7,569	8 or 9 in the box, Hall, Anae, Fui & Unga So I finally got around to rewatching the UCLA game last night. Observations: 1. Fui and Tonga in the first half were consistently running against 8 or 9 man fronts, often with a cover 1 or cover 0 behind it. BYU was perpetually short one or two blockers in these situations. Yet as near as I can tell, BYU never audibled out of the run for a pass. 2. Not only did UCLA often have one or two unblocked men by stacking the box, but several times the OL and/or FB got beat on their blocks at the point of attack. 3. BYU finally (and rightfully) decided to largely abandon the run given what UCLA was trying to do and they exploited them pretty well. During one stretch in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, Max Hall was 18 of 21 for 246 yards 2 TDs and 0 INTs. That's an efficiency of 215.54. 4. During that 18 for 21 stretch, UCLA finally started consistently backing off the 8 and 9 man fronts. During that time Unga got a 24 and 5 yard run against 7 man fronts. That's something that Fui and Tonga had on maybe two or three plays. Tops. When Unga ran against 8 or 9, he was just as summarily stuffed by UCLA as Fui and Tonga were. 5. While Tonga and Fui didn't "make plays" on their runs, the failure of their run was primarily because UCLA was too good to block short handed. So the question becomes: is the Anae offensive system that we run no matter what the defense presents? Is the QB unauthorized to check out of it? Did Max Hall have the authority, but was unable to recognize the defense or unwilling to audible out? Were we so cocksure that we were good enough to run against the 2006 #9 run defense in the NCAA even being short one or two blockers? The run was there in the 2nd half, meaning UCLA was more consistently giving a 7 man front with less blitzing, but by that time we were in a groove passing. Last edited by Indy Coug; 09-14-2007 at 12:41 PM.

09-14-2007, 02:58 PM	#2
jay santos Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 6,177	We passed 53 times and ran 25 times--six of those were by Hall in design pass plays. There's no way someone should think we should have passed more and ran less.