I share in the disappointment and frustration voiced here today. But after cooling off, yes I was pretty upset earlier, I must say we are making great strides. With that in mind, I will list a few suggestions of where we can improve in game strategy, play calling, etc. (I will not list obvious needs in terms of better execution)
1. On offense, to counter blitzes, we must run hot pass routes, i.e. quick slants and short crosses.
2. We must have more diversity in our formations. We are very predictable with our wideout and double wideout formations. We need more slot, double slot, wing and double wing formations. More formations make it harder to for D to prepare and these formations provide many more options for plays in space.
3. We need more motion plays, especially creating overloads to one side.
4. We need to pass on first down sometimes. Avoid being predictable.
5. Run overload routes, including curl, cross, out, post and flag routes which flood one half of the field, with proper spacing of routes of course. This leads to the QB having multiple options in one view frame.
6. Stop running to the short side of the field. We do not have the blocking to execute that this year. Defenses are getting to the sideline before the play consistently when we run this. We are bottling up our playmakers and helping the defense with these play calls.
7. Give other RB's a chance. They are all skilled and have different skill sets. Today we needed the skills of our best straight line, one cut RBs. Our best ones did not get on the field today, or in some cases, have not played much this season. Put in the personnel based upon situation not based upon habit.
8. Run reverses, counters and misdirection plays to use the defense's speed and pursuit against them.
In essence, we have very good athletes on the field and Frost has done well to attract even more complimentary talent. Now we just have to always be strategic in how we deploy our playmakers because we are not the only team that has lots of talent.
