Ya they opened up some nice running lanes to start the game. Would like to see Pope get some action with the ones, he was impressive.
Im more worried about the right side of the ol than the left. Henderson looked like hot garbage. Ejifior looks to be the real deal holyfield. Bye Bye Clowney?
It's funny you keep bringing this up. Lamar had 4 rushes for 29 yards. The only one under 5 yards was the 3rd and 1 up the middle, at least 2 of the others were up the middle too and the biggest one was to the outside, so 25% of his runs were outside and you just focus on the one 3rd and 1 attempt.. He was purposefully not using Watson, otherwise I bet he throws it there. I think 1. BOB is trying to get his Oline to do some run blocking, and 2. He is not going to run around with Watson to help Lamar in preseason.
When a guy is at his best when running to the outside or catching a ball in space, and the majority of their touches are running up the middle......don't you see how that's a problem? I mean, we can waive this off as just preseason, but he does the same **** in the regular season
Every team whether they are successful or not will have plays in which they will run the ball up the middle. You have to do it for several reasons. Bill O'Brien knows this Bobby.
I wasn't suggesting never running the ball up the middle, but forcing the wrong types of RB's to run the ball up the middle again and again is foolish. If you have a power back, go for it, if you are using a scatback to run into the O line and fall down again and again, you are shooting your team in the foot.
Every team whether they are successful or not will have plays in which they will run the ball up the middle. You have to do it for several reasons. Bill O'Brien knows this Bobby.
I wasn't suggesting never running the ball up the middle, but forcing the wrong types of RB's to run the ball up the middle again and again is foolish. If you have a power back, go for it, if you are using a scatback to run into the O line and fall down again and again, you are shooting your team in the foot.
Yes, it can be annoying, but you do have to run it up the middle sometimes. I think he will vary it a bit more with Watson actually playing in regular season but that's just me. On a happy note, Lamar slimming down looked pretty good, if he does break into the second level he showed that quickness. In the regular season, nothing, I get it. But in preseason where he is just shutting Watson down, it was just practice for the Oline. On 3rd and 1 a lot of teams would run it up the middle. Our oline needs practice blocking and Lamar needs practice finding the hole. But we'll see in the regular season how it plays out. Lamar also had 2 runs up the middle for 5 or so yards each, but everyone focuses on the 3rd and 1 failure. When Watson was healthy, during the regular season, whatever BOB was calling, led to us having the first or second best rushing attack in the league. A lot of that is on Watson, but we have Watson back so I think it won't be as big of an issue.
Last year against the Titans and a few other teams we were successful running Miller up the middle. As a coach you have to trust your features back and offensive line to be able to win some of those battles. If the line doesn't do their jobs, then I don't care who you have back there, you're not going to win most of those short yardage battles.
