When our offense has been successful under HCDB, and it has been at other times, we have been able to by scheme and tempo impose our will on opposing defenses, As great as Eric Dungey ran the ball, many of his runs were made possible by a spread offense that created room for him.
This season, the opposite has been true. On a number of the plays featured in this thread’s video that blew up against us, we were in spread offense. Pitt showed no respect for it, rushing six against our six blockers, which included our RB. The calculus Pitt seemed to be making is that you don’t need to worry about the back end because you are overwhelming our pocket so fast that we could have a dozen receivers out there and it would not matter. Also, we aren’t forcing defenses to do what the spread intends, which is to force another defender into coverage and create an advantage in the box to run.
Maybe go to two TE formation, with Benson able to play at the line or move wide, Hackett can play at line or H back — one or both can block or chip and flare or pop or take a shovel pass. Target our slot receiver on quick slants. Use our outside guy for screens and short, come back routes against one on one coverage. Taj is exceptional at yac. If defenses have to respect this, they can’t pin their ears back on every play.
On the other hand, a two TE formation with only two WRs really invites defenses to stack the box, reducing the size of the field for our offense. And then we could be even worse off.
So, while easy to blame QB and play calling, they don’t have great options. What this uneducated eye sees is, in two games, defenses able to impose their will on our offense, and us not being able to, for a variety of reasons, make the defenses pay for it.