Tag Archives: Read option

Thoughts On The Ravens Firing John Harbaugh

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John Harbaugh being let go needed to happen as his message had become stale in the locker room. Beyond that you can’t waste the career of a franchise quarterback in the prime of his career when you have Super Bowl aspirations. Even The Chancellor had them picked to appear in Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara.

Lamar Jackson isn’t innocent in any of this as his playoff performances have been skittish and incomplete. He has been 3-5 in the playoffs and has yet to play a complete game. Jackson supporters point to last year’s playoff loss in Buffalo blaming TE Mark Andrews’ 2 point conversion dropped pass but omit Jackson’s 5 of 9 103 yds and an interception falling behind 21-10 at the half.

What about the 2023 AFC Championship when he came out hot but fell in a rut while Patrick Mahomes built a 17-7 lead? As a #1 seed with homefield advantage and the #1 defense, their star QB went 5 of 12 for 67 yards and 1 TD in the 1st half. The worm started to turn in many circles as ’23 mirrored ’19 where the defense had been dominant but Jackson and the homefield throughout Ravens fell 28-12 in the divisional to the Tennesee Titans. You don’t want the stats and Jackson didn’t get the Ravens a touchdown until 11 minutes left in the 4th quarter. What went wrong??

In my original series Shameful Impatience With Black Quarterbacks, one of the warnings I gave when Lamar Jackson was coming to the NFL was this: “One is the lack of commitment to fully developing black qbs to be more than an offensive anomaly for a few years.” In this instance they didnt but under the guise of hiring 4 different offensive coordinators in 5 years, they ran practically the same offense – Read Option run first from the Pistol. What I meant originally and expanded on elsewhere is the coaching to bring the QB out of the running stage of his career into one where he passes more as the years went on. The specificity of pass play dynamics from under center on time to intermediate routes. This was Harbaugh’s failing.

Keep in mind my article was right before the 2018 NFL Draft when the Ravens selected Jackson.

Also from Shameful Impatience  “Its on the offensive coaches to gradually mature these scramblers into pocket quarterbacks. Landry did it with Roger Staubach and Bill Walsh and Mike Holmgren did this with Steve Young. It takes years… it takes commitment.” I reminded you that Buddy Ryan brought in BYU passing guru Doug Scovil to coach the passing game to a young raw Randall Cunningham in the mid 80s.

They leaned as much for Lamar to “use his legs” at 29 years of age as he had at 21 years of age and the punishment is catching up with him. He has missed 17 games over the last seven years due to the blows he takes. Think back to Steve Young in 1987 with the 49ers, he was scrambling while learning The West Coast Offense out in San Francisco. Fast forward 7 seasons and in 1994 he was winning his 3rd straight passing crown and taking the 49ers to Super Bowl XXIX. There he carved the Chargers up for a record 6TDs to win the game. Throwing from the pocket… if you don’t remember click here.

Harbaugh is the Head Coach and should have told his OC I want to utilize Jackson running more back in that ’23 AFC Championship since he came out cold throwing. He didn’t… He never adjusted to an OC that didn’t run the same college plays that don’t bode well in the NFL playoffs nor teach Lamar an offensive approach allowing for audibles to a more sophisticated pass play when he needed to. There were times he needed to tell OC Todd Munken to get Derrick Henry in the game and stop going with lesser running backs. Asert yourself as the Head Coach and override your OC trying to show how much of a genius he is. Especially when its your ass on the line for winning and losing these big games.

In the NFL you can’t waste the prime of a franchise quarterback and Jackson just finished his 8th year and just turned 29 years old today! His 29th birthday and here we are he hasn’t been submerged in a true NFL passing attack. He should be much further along and has maybe another 3 years playing in the style he’s accustomed to. The Ravens need to bring in a real offensive approach with their next move whether a defensive coach and an OC who can teach true QB play. They don’t need to bring in one of these Madden Coaches who doesn’t understand the importance of full dimensional football which includes a Derrick Henry in the attack.

They had a good run with Jackson being named MVP on 2 occassions but they need a change to prolong Jackson’s tenure as a franchise quarterback and reach the Super Bowl. They have to get him under center and teach the full nuance of playing NFL quarterback and get him out of these garbage read option college plays. If they don’t he will never beat a sophisticated defense in an AFC Championship Game.

Jonn Harbaugh will go on and coach again in the NFL but he needs to reboot with a team playing more traditional offense. With this marriage it was just time.

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The Most Influential College Football Game In The Last 50 Years

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Slaton celebrated all night with a dazzling rushing performance.

Slaton celebrated all night with a dazzling rushing performance.

Then along came Rich Rodriguez and his West Virginia Mountaineers. He took the spread offense to a complete zenith with what you could do with a 53 1/3 yard wide field and implemented a power rushing attack from a spread formation. First he recruited Pat White from Alabama.  At 6’0 (being generous) and 185 lbs. he was short for a quarterback and had a decent arm, yet it was his 4.28 40 yard dash that made it nearly impossible for interior linebackers to read blocking patterns, than get to the flank to defend against his options or pitch to Steve Slaton.

Slaton was brought down from Pennsylvania and one of the nation’s fastest running backs coming out of high school in 2005.  He had committed to Maryland who had offered him a scholarship then retracted their offer.  He took his 4.3 speed to West Virginia to team with Pat White, Owen Schmitt, recievers Darius Reynaud #82 and Brandon Miles#7 and a powerhouse was born. They spread from a traditional set and some 3 receivers yet ran what they call a speed option that most MLBs didnt have the lateral quickness to stay with.  The result?? First we have to set the table for you.

Pat White became the first QB in history to win 4 New Years Bowl Games.

Pat White became the first QB in history to win 4 New Years Bowl Games.

My Miami Hurricanes and Boston College had just fled the Big East to join the ACC. Many felt that the Big East was no longer a top flight conference with two of their heavyweight schools having departed. Yet the Mountaineers started a redshirt freshman in Pat White, and a freshman tailback in Steve Slaton and a new offense took the country by storm.

They improved as the season went on and Slaton finished the season with 1,128 yards and 17 TDs, while White finished with 952 yds rushing and 7 TDs to go along with moderate passing to keep defenses honest.

Once they ran out to a 10-1 record, their Big East championship gave them an automatic bid to the BCS Sugar Bowl where they would take on Georgia. The Bulldogs that year were 10-2 and only a close loss in SEC play had kept them from appearing in the National Championship Game and were ranked 3rd.

Experts scoffed that West Virginia’s offense couldn’t perform that well against a superior defense from a superior conference. Yes experts were treating the Big East as a second tier conference with the remaining teams.  So the battle lines were drawn and since the Sugar Bowl had to be moved from New Orleans to Atlanta’s Georgia Dome, because of Hurricane Katrina, this would be a home crowd for the Bulldogs too. No way the Mountaineers could stay on the field with an SEC team……………….right??

The Mountaineers had humiliated the Georgia defense rushing for 382 yards. They were within 53 yards of the Sugar Bowl record of 439 that had stood for 35 years. A record was set with Steve Slaton’s 204 yards on 26 carries and 3 scores. West Virginia embarrassed the entire SEC into recognizing the spread offense in front of millions. Since the game recieved a 9.0 Nielsen rating, somewhere around 14 million viewers watched Georgia’s defense give chase but never catch Pat White and Steve Slaton.

The entire SEC Conference moved their offensive approach to the spread from this point on. Take a look at Urban Meyer’s first Florida national champion to Auburn and Cam Newton’s 2010 championship. They were all in spread read option offensive attacks where just 6 years before they had been laughing at the approach.

So the landscape has changed, first through the proliferation of cable television stations allowing players to play in far away places and still be seen back home.  This changed the way colleges could approach players when they weren’t the clear cut favorite to land a particular recruit. Players weren’t forced to switch positions to go to a particular name school when there were other alternatives. This happened simultaneously with the NCAA limiting the amount of scholarships teams which spread talent all over the collegiate landscape.

Steve Slaton killed Georgia with 202 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Steve Slaton killed Georgia with 202 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Then in an effort to find the great equalizer, coaching innovations leveled the playing field even more with better tactics while landing a better athlete on their campus than ever before.  Couple these factors with the natural chip on the shoulder that most underdogs play with and college football has turned into “On any given Saturday…” Making college football an even greater game than before.

The following year Rodriuguez’s team charged into the season ranked 3rd and were in a dead sprint to play for the National Championship for 2007. Ranked #2 in the country going into the final weekend they were upset 13-7 in “The Backyard Brawl” to their rival Pitt. The nation was introduced to Sean “Shady” McCoy who ran for 148 yds and the difference making touchdown.

They were “this close” to playing for it all! They did rout Okalhoma 48-28 in the Fiesta Bowl to finish the season ranked 3rd.

Yet it was this Sugar Bowl played in prime-time the year before that changed the attitudes of coaches and pundits of the power conferences. From coast to coast teams were using the uptempo spread offense to run as well as pass. Teams could outflank those they couldn’t physically go toe to toe with. Forcing their opponent to field a different set of defenders and players who play better in space. This game was Rich Rodriguez’s masterpiece and changed the way college football is being played today.

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