Florida's Offense, John Brantley, And Will Gators Opponents Cover The Flats?

by ParadigmShift35 on Sep 4, 2011 1:51 PM EDT

Edited, fronted. — Andy

Most of you watched Florida's Saturday night's game against FAU and were more than psyched with Will Muschamp's coaching debut. I personally loved it. He showed so much emotion and handled everything extremely well.

But will this offensive success last when our opponents cover the flat?

John Brantley looked sharp most of the game. He threw a couple of interceptions, but one was a tipped pass. His other pass was thrown into triple coverage. No bueno, bro; that won't help us beat Alabama. We need to protect the football.

Brantley's main success game from a dual-back set in the backfield. Both halfbacks ran out into the flat on pass plays. It seemed like FAU held their DBs back 10 yards where our smaller, faster HBs could juke them, gain plenty of yards, and keep the sticks moving. (C'MON, SCHNELLENBERGER!)

This worked out great for us last night. But what happens when an opponent plays Cover 2, deploying DBs to cover the flat, and Brantley loses both of those outlets? Will he be able to make the deep throws that will keep the chains moving? I honestly don't know.

I want to hear your thoughts on this. I am also aware that Brantley made a few good throws on third and long, and found Jordan Reed a number of times. Also, in fairness to Brantley, if the flat is completely open, why wouldn't you throw to it?

Discuss, y'all.

Please be kind and use good grammar.

Tweet Comment 19 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

More to the playbook

I’m thinking Weis probably has more in his playbook than what we saw last night.

by metalligator on Sep 4, 2011 2:10 PM EDT reply actions

I'd say that's likely.

I mean, we saw 19 off-tackle runs.

SB Nation Archive | @AndyHutchins | Alligator Army | @AlligatorArmy

by Andy Hutchins on Sep 4, 2011 2:48 PM EDT up reply actions

An important piece was missing

With Burton going out with injury so early, I wonder how many of those check downs would have gone his way. I hope his injury is minor as I believe he will be an exciting piece in this offense.

by Raoul Duke on Sep 5, 2011 3:09 PM EDT up reply actions

Rainey said he thought they ran about 6 different plays, Brantley thought about 8

And that’s actually pretty typical for Charlie, if a play keeps working and gaining big yards he keeps running it. That won’t cut it vs LSU or Bama or any of the other good teams but it doesn’t bother me that we didn’t see more here.

I witnessed the Kentucky - Western Kentucky derpfest of '11 and survived to tell the tale

by SC-Gator on Sep 6, 2011 11:26 AM EDT up reply actions

I actually like that better

means we have more to show, possibly better plays

Brantley Watch. The mood is tense; I have been on some serious, serious reports but nothing quite like this. I uh... Jon... John is inside right now. I tried to get an interview with him, but they said no, you can't do that he's a live Gator, he will literally rip your face off.
[to the Brantley] Hey, you're making me look stupid. Get out here, Brantley!

by ECFIVESTER on Sep 7, 2011 10:20 AM EDT up reply actions

Yeah, I wouldn’t worry about it. Pretty vanilla offense. As all the teams who played lesser opponents showed. Other than Auburn and South Carolina of course. Happens every year.

Editor at Alligator Army - The Florida Gators Blog
The Florida Gators - The most despised team in all of college football - Which is fantastic.

by FlaGators on Sep 4, 2011 3:22 PM EDT reply actions

Jordan Reed is the key to opening things up

FAU played a defense so that Brantley HAD to throw short passes because the defense was bailing out on every pass play. Brantley’s ability to make deep throws isn’t going to matter when safeties are that deep, what’s going to matter is how well the offense uses the tight ends and the running game to force those safeties to come up. The Cover Two defense is never beaten by going deep, that’s the exact trap the Cover 2 wants the QB to fall into, you beat the Cover 2 by using RBs breaking free/tight end up the middle. If UF runs the ball well then those safeties will come up.

The question that I haven’t really seen asked yet is what is the Gators offense going to do when Demps and Rainey inevitably slow down against SEC defenses? Every year it’s the same thing, those two play great against the warm up teams but when the real opponents show up they tend to disappear.

by SunshinePacker on Sep 4, 2011 3:44 PM EDT reply actions

That is an interesting way to look at it.

But probably a valuable one.

SB Nation Archive | @AndyHutchins | Alligator Army | @AlligatorArmy

by Andy Hutchins on Sep 4, 2011 4:00 PM EDT up reply actions

Improved

They showed improvement and gave a hundred percent.
The Dline was gettin after it,Easley was a beast,just needs to watch those dance moves he’d made it halfway through the fourth if he hadnt shot his load acting like Bow Wow.
Wr’s blocking was excellent,Oline gave the team a running game.
Rainey was looking like the old numer one,Harvin
Only draw was it was crazy seeing that orange 22 on Elam but i doubt Emmit minds.
Cant way to seee this offense after a tough Sec,come November the Noles will get a game.

by gatorblues on Sep 4, 2011 3:54 PM EDT reply actions

Baby stepping

The Gators showed great progress across the board but particularly on offense. Their pass and run blocking finally showed up and it was a joy to see in contrast to last year. I left The Swamp greatly uplifted.

by renegator on Sep 4, 2011 4:12 PM EDT reply actions

Normally I'd buy the limited playbook+umbrella coverage thing...

but Brantley hasn’t earned the benefit of the doubt from me yet. If he had proven his ability to go downfield before, then I would accept that it was a truncated playbook and that FAU was all out against the deep ball.

My question is: if you’re Weis, is it better (once you’re up by four TDs) to let your QB coast on easy flat passes, or to force him into more challenging throws, that may not be open, in order to work on an area of weakness? You don’t want to build bad habits, but you also don’t want to talk into the UT game with a starting QB that hasn’t made a 20 yard throw yet.

This stuff didn’t matter so much in the spread. In a pro-style offense, the deep ball has to be an option. A great defense will swarm the box and underneath routes, and suffocate the offense to death.

I’m not any more concerned than I was before the game, but I will be deeply worried if we still can’t any deep balls or reliable intermediate passing going after the UAB game. As good as Rainey and Demps looked, I have little faith that they alone can carry us to victory at LSU, etc.

Because if it's about Brantley going in the ocean, the answer is "No."

by Troll2Troll on Sep 4, 2011 4:14 PM EDT reply actions

It’s not about Brantley. It is about Weis.

Editor at Alligator Army - The Florida Gators Blog
The Florida Gators - The most despised team in all of college football - Which is fantastic.

by FlaGators on Sep 4, 2011 4:40 PM EDT up reply actions

The Well

I am not concerned, as Weis has stated, he’ll call the same play over and over until the D adjusts. The Owls didn’t cover the flat, so he kept going to that well. If they they go Cover 2, he’ll call his Cover 2-beaters. Can Brantley improve? Absolutely. It is what it is, but I am not concerned with our game-planning nor play-calling. Who am i to question a proven O guy like Weis? The kool-aid tastes great!

by GradyWilson on Sep 4, 2011 4:31 PM EDT via iPhone app reply actions

No reason to show anything

Pretty much I’m going to say what everyone else said up there. I’m not worried about the offense, especially with a mentally stable Rainey and healthy Demps.

Neath the Orange and Blue Victorious

by BKGator on Sep 4, 2011 5:36 PM EDT reply actions

After two years of...

an OC playing checkers, it’s at least nice to see someone who might know how to play chess. What both Spurier and Mullen did well is get the ball into our playmakers hands and let them make plays. I saw a glimpse of that yesterday.

by gator'n'mempho on Sep 4, 2011 10:08 PM EDT reply actions

I feel pretty encouraged

Brantley threw those swing passes really well. It’s deceptively difficult to hit your guy in stride to make sure he gets maximum yardage on the play. After seeing our offense take a couple shots downfield (even though they weren’t completions), and watching the way Brantley hit some deep outs to his wide receivers, I’m beginning to HOPE that defenses start covering the flats.

by Steel Gator on Sep 6, 2011 11:04 AM EDT reply actions