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[QUOTE="blizz, post: 4216328, member: 4252"]
It's a good question. I don't see the QB running situation with Devito as having an effect on the horizontal pass game. In fact, quite the opposite. When executed, streching the defense horizontally should relieve a lot of pressure off the qb and oline. It takes defenders out of the box and makes a blitz from the outside less likely and easier to pick up. Those quick passes out to the flat or in the seam between linebackers are predicated on speed, the ball has to get out of the qb's hands very quickly in order to exploit the reaction of a linebacker reading a pass play. They are equivalent to outside runs, but usually create a little bit of space underneath because of that split second reaction where the read of a pass play causes the defender to initiate a drop back. It was these subtle gaps in coverage (a reactive backpedal, a linebacker lining up deep, a safety lining up three yards short and inside, a corner who's hips are out of phase off the bump) that Devito never seemed to grasp or exploit.

And I don't think Devito was not a threat to run the ball, he was fast enough to be a dangerous runner. More than anything he displayed an unwillingness to run, and clearly teams exploited that tendency. The  Babers system doesn't rely on qb mobility so much as the recognition of when there are easy yards for the qb to pick up by tucking and running for an easy gain. Matt Johnson at Bowling Green was nowhere near the athlete Devito is, yet he routinely picked up lots of easy yards by running the ball when the underneath defenders had cleared out to defend against a vertical concept.
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