There is a pretty good article on SB Nation on how the current roster fits with the Chad Morris offense. I’m not sur about posting a link from a competitor site. Go read it. I found it encouraging.
Good read. I think he makes some excellent points. Of course, at this point we have no idea who will be taking the first snap against EIU, but a CK assumption works for this kind of article, especially since he’s the only one who has seen any significant PT.
<LINK_TEXT text=“https://www.sbnation.com/college-footba … tball-2018”>https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2018/7/16/17548830/chad-morris-offense-arkansas-football-2018</LINK_TEXT>
Completely off this subject, but I do have some concerns about our defense under Chief. I understand the desire to try to force the action instead of bend-don’t-break, but I also understand why you play BDB defense: Because if you get aggressive and miss, the other team’s band is gonna be playing their fight song a lot. But that’s why Chief is getting the big bucks, to keep their band quiet. So we’ll see. Besides, we kept bands busy last year playing BDB, so might as well go for it.
I agree there are concerns; however, after the last 2 years I would rather see us fail while being aggressive than fail by being passive.
We played bend but don’t break the last 2 years and the fight song played a lot.
Which is exactly what I said in the last sentence above.
I absolutely hate the Bend Don’t Break defense, especially if your offense is a quick strike offense. Gus Malzahn led the nation in offense the two years he was at Tulsa. Coach Todd Graham’s BDB defense was close to the bottom in the nation. Explain to me what the “Bend” in “Bend Don’t Break” means. I believe it means giving us a whole lot of initial yards at the line of scrimmage. I was absolutely sick of seeing teams march down the field on Tulsa eating up chunks of yardage. I was sick of Graham complaining that Malzahn’s offense scored too quickly and it was too tough on his defense. I kept saying “force a three and out and get your butts off the field.” I was sick of Graham using every blasted time out allowed in the game to give his defense a rest break.
I listened to Beliema complain about the HUNH being too tough on his big fat linemen until I was tired of it. Being passive in football in my opinion goes against the nature of the game. Folks I have plenty of experience in following the HUNH offense even at the high school level. I remember Gus used a highly recruited high school tight end his final high school year mostly on defense. The kid was a great athlete and had size. Gus lined him all over the place and he totally disrupted the opposition offense. That was what Gus wanted because he knew that he had to have an aggressive defense or his kids would wear completely out having to go back on the field after a quick score.
Sorry, but I think I’m going to be sick from talking about Bend Don’t Break.
Bend Don’t Break defense can be a very good defense IF–and I emphasize IF–you can get off the field on 3rd Down. The problem with Arkansas was trying to get off the field on 3rd Down. Many teams have been successful with BDB, but at some point in the drive, they could get off the field. But if you can’t get off the field or you still have the tendency to give up the big play (which the Hogs did), then you have to start taking some chances.
Great read. Gives this fan hope
I expect Arkansas to score but can the defense survive being on the field so long?
If not it could be a situation of who has the ball last to win (except for Bama which I just hope the Razorbacks keep it close and no Ark starters are destroyed)
all BDB defenses do is wear your defense out if you’re not getting stops if the end result is giving up a TD I say lets be aggressive and try to create a TO and if they score quickly just puts their defense back on the field and give our offense another chance to match them
I think the pro philosophy on defense is appropriate, which places a premium on forcing three and outs and on making the other guys settle for threes when they get down in your end. You have to give the other guys some bad plays to accomplish those goals, and bad plays tend to happen when offensive players have to react to something unforeseen or have to react quicker than they planned. It’s more about getting quick stops/and red zone stops than either bend but don’t break or kamikaze blitzing.
So you do stunts and bring run blitzes when you need to, you bring different pass pressures, and sometimes you have your DBs jump the short routes. You are going to give up some big plays doing this, but it puts a premium on pace and not getting your defense tired early in a game.
It also puts the ball back in our offense’s hands quicker, where we can again dictate pace and hopefully either force the opposition into a track meet or just keep running power spread runs and keep the defense off the field.
But there is also more to it than that. If a defender jumps a route and runs an interception back for a score or a blitz causes a fumble that is run in for a score, the defense then has to come right back on the field. We also want defenders in great shape and hopefully some quality depth. As to the former, I am reminded of a game, lo these many years ago, when fairly late in the game a defender motioned for his replacement to come in and he came off the field. Coach Bear Bryant asked the player what he was doing on the sidelines, and he responded, “Coach, I’m tired.” The Bear immediately said, “Tired my arse (not the actual wordage), get back on the field and stop the football!” Actually, the player did just that.