Florida's Offense, John Brantley, And Will Gators Opponents Cover The Flats?
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.
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More to the playbook
I’m thinking Weis probably has more in his playbook than what we saw last night.
I'd say that's likely.
I mean, we saw 19 off-tackle runs.
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.
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
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!
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
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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.
That is an interesting way to look at it.
But probably a valuable one.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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
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.
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.
It’s deceptively difficult to hit your guy in stride to make sure he gets maximum yardage on the play.
I agree. To lead them perfectly is no easy task.
Editor at Alligator Army - The Florida Gators Blog
The Florida Gators - The most despised team in all of college football - Which is fantastic.
As well as...
Those screens are the key to forcing the opposing D-Coordinatorsa to step up which in turn opens things up for the WRs and TEs…
Especially against zone coverage…
You may not like what I have to say...but somebody has to say it...
Yep. Good call.
Editor at Alligator Army - The Florida Gators Blog
The Florida Gators - The most despised team in all of college football - Which is fantastic.

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