Brawn Over Brains : ESPN Insider article

[pigskinguy]

My biggest issue with Linehan is that I wonder if he really knows where his players' heads are on the field. Hell, Ricky Williams had to be the one who was quoted in the media as saying that we need an identity on offense and that we should run the ball to get one. Then Linehan passes on 3rd and 2 when I bet that EVERY player on offense wanted to keep pounding Atlanta with the run. Does Linehan have his finger on the pulse of his players AT ALL? He calls plays like Gus Frerotte is Peyton Manning, and he seems unable to grasp the concept that when the players are DOMINATING a defense with a certain style of play, they usually want to KEEP dominating the defense that way until it's stopped, and you can keep them highly motivated by continuing to call those kinds of plays. But here we are at crunch time in games still calling pass plays....

But again, I think alot of that has to be on Saban. He has to be able to look at his OC is doing and say, "no, we're not doing that." Saban must now realize he can't Linehan full reign to do what he wants.

 

[Shouright]

But again, I think alot of that has to be on Saban. He has to be able to look at his OC is doing and say, "no, we're not doing that." Saban must now realize he can't Linehan full reign to do what he wants.

Right, but who knows what Saban had to agree to to get Linehan on board. Huizenga probably had to agree that Saban could have full reign over the team to get Saban on board. Maybe Saban had to do the same thing in relation to the offense to get Linehan. If that's the case then I think we're looking at a firing situation at year's end rather than a simple "we're not doing that."

 

[AtticusFinz]

Catching teams off guard is what teams need to do when they can't win any other way. When you're dominating a defense with something, THERE'S NO NEED to catch anyone off guard. Why make a call based on what the defense is thinking or doing when you can call a play based on WHAT YOU'RE DOING WELL?

If you're constantly calling plays based on what the defense is thinking or doing, you'll never develop an identity for YOUR OWN team.

Agreed!

Linehan situational playcalls have been suspect. He reminds me of Mike Martz playcalling.

who knows, his philosophy may be set up the run with the pass...

 

[NLude33]

Grooves12, For the most part I agree with you.

You have to keep teams off balance, you have to mix it up.
If we improve our passing this will be a non-issue.

I don't thinbk it was a terrible call, to try and catch them off gaurd.
Gus should have just thrown it away, and or try to run with it.
He tries to force it in and the Def made a good play.

If it would have gone for an incomplete or anything else we would have had another down to pound it with the running game.

I don;t think we should Hang the Coaches yet.

And don't forget, We are getting better

Exactly....

You know the could've stuffed our run twice, and the same result happens. You don't know. Would I have run it, yes, but we tried to catch them off gaurd, and their guy made a nice play. Like Saban said "their guys get paid too you know".

 

[NLude33]

Right, but who knows what Saban had to agree to to get Linehan on board. Huizenga probably had to agree that Saban could have full reign over the team to get Saban on board. Maybe Saban had to do the same thing in relation to the offense to get Linehan. If that's the case then I think we're looking at a firing situation at year's end rather than a simple "we're not doing that."

This could be true, but I think not. Linehan was a wanted as a OC, but not to the point where he can push HC's around, and especially not Saban. Linehan was hired with the knowledge that this is Saban's team, and things will be done Saban's way.

 

[Superself]

I think many are over-reacting because of the results... it is not like he has abandoned the run. He is doing what all good OC's do and try to keep the offense balanced, and he is doing a very good job of it. The problem is with the quarterback, plain and simple. If we had a QB that could execute the plays he called properly we ould have one of the most varied offenses in the league. Unfortunately... that is not the case. The 3rd and 2 play call can be second guessed over and over, but the rest of his playcalling has been pretty spot on...

If we say well, the running game is executing... just keep pounding it down their throat, eventually that stops working because teams will load 9 in the box, and it clogs up the short passing game. We all saw how effective that was under Wannstedt's regime. At least the THREAT of a deep passing game keeps defenses honest and opens things up underneath, and so far Linehan's play calling has kept defenses off balance.

It is tough to run 25-30 times per hame when you can't convert 3rd downs to keep drives alive, but he is doing the best he can with what he has to work with. If we get better execution from the QB, he looks like a genius. But, personally I don't see how people can be Linehan bashing from essentially ONE play call that may have cost us a game when its plainly obvious there are MUCH bigger problems with the offense. In just about every other game and situation he has seemed to do the right thing... and I think he has been a great addition. But, when you have a handicap as large as Frerotte currently is, sometimes it forcees you to try to get cute to get things to work... and unfortunately we may have to deal with that the rest of the year.

You are simply not listening. Pull your head out of the sand.

 

[Shouright]

Exactly....

You know the could've stuffed our run twice, and the same result happens. You don't know. Would I have run it, yes, but we tried to catch them off gaurd, and their guy made a nice play. Like Saban said "their guys get paid too you know".

And if they would've stuffed the run twice, then at least our players would've gone home knowing that our coaching staff trusted them to keep doing well what they had done well ALL GAME. As it was they probably went home wondering why the coaching staff didn't trust and rely on them to keep doing it.

Like I said, catching teams off guard is a great concept if you can't dominate the other team with anything. If you're dominating the other team with something, and the other team hasn't stopped it all day, why is there any need to catch them off guard?

I'd rather have the feeling that the defense knew what was coming and STILL couldn't stop it than the feeling that we got smart and tried to catch them off guard but MAY have won had we just kept doing what we'd done well all day.

And by the way, the definition of "identity" is when the other team knows what's coming and still can't stop it. Every Super Bowl Champion has an identity. Linehan himself is keeping us from developing one.

 

[Phinanthropist]

One of the more interesting points made in KC's article, revealing, surprising, and being largely ignored in this post, is the poor running statistics being logged behind our two tackles.

I had not realized how bad our sweep plays have been this year. This is no doubt the reason Linehan continues to call the reverses. It is obvious to me that he feels he needs to attack the perimeter to soften the middle for the counter and the iso plays. With the level of tackle play the way it is, he has very limited options to do so.

KC also descibed perfectly why we made a change at the FB position. Hopefully, Barnes will help us to develop the isolation that much better.

Joyner writes good stuff. (BTW, though he might not admit it for the sake of seeming to be impartial, he really is a Dolphin fan at heart.)

 

[Oboy]

Not sure how many of you actually have insider and read the whole article, but it is a real good read. It basically goes a bit more in-depth on our oline blocking. For a quick summary... basically our guards and center are blocking real well, but our tackles are struggling a bit.

The author goes in-depth on the different types of runs and the yards gained on each.


For the others here... Balance is good. However, when your QB is making mistakes that are just, for lack of a better word, unacceptable it is time to run more. The way we were running in that game we should have kept running until they stopped us. ESPECIALLY in the fourth quarter when their D was already getting tired from the pounding...

 

[CrunchTime]

This may sound extreme to some, but if Miami (Linehan) doesn't change their approach and run the ball, then Linehan should be let go. We have to run more and set up the pass. CLEARLY, Gus is not going to pass this team to victory. If Linehan can't see that, then he is not the O.C. we all thought he was.

Coaches are supposed to adapt their offense according to their teams talents.

There has been an underutilization of this teams talents which IMO are the RBs not the inconsistant QBs an WRs.

Yet another case of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.If Linehan doesnt see that then he is not the guy for us.

 

[Shouright]

Not sure how many of you actually have insider and read the whole article, but it is a real good read. It basically goes a bit more in-depth on our oline blocking. For a quick summary... basically our guards and center are blocking real well, but our tackles are struggling a bit.

The author goes in-depth on the different types of runs and the yards gained on each.


For the others here... Balance is good. However, when your QB is making mistakes that are just, for lack of a better word, unacceptable it is time to run more. The way we were running in that game we should have kept running until they stopped us. ESPECIALLY in the fourth quarter when their D was already getting tired from the pounding...

And is there any other way to develop the feeling for the players that "THIS is what we do well and YOU can't stop it"? Instead of the players' getting that feeling from the Atlanta game, they probably got the feeling that the OC doesn't have his finger on their pulse.

 

[Shouright]

Coaches are supposed to adapt their offense according to their teams talents.

There has been an underutilization of this teams talents which IMO are the RBs not the inconsistant QBs an WRs.

Yet another case of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.If Linehan doesnt see that then he is not the guy for us.

And Ricky Williams of all people had to be the one to get that message out through the media. He basically said that we're a new offense and that we don't have Daunte Culpepper and Randy Moss out there. I think Linehan is still calling plays as if we DO!