Playcalling Balance: Run vs Pass

**NC Raven** · 10-25-2011, 09:57 AM

Did anyone else get the sense we gave up on the run too easily last night? In the first half it seemed like there were no back to back run plays called. I realize that Rice was playing like he was lost in space, and maybe he spooked the coaches. But if ever a game cried out for "establishing the run" - especially when nobody was open and the pass-blocking was poor, this one was it. It seemed that one 2 yard gain sent them into pass-mode over and over again, instead of trying back to back runs to force the Jags to sell out against the run.

When I saw the stats this morning I was shocked: 8 carries for Rice, 12 run calls total. 38 passes. That's the stat line of a team trailing by 20+ points, not that of a team involved in a one score game.

The defense was never going to concede much in this one, so I thought if they would just be patient in getting the run working, they could open up the pass enough to at least become serviceable, even against what proved to be a very good DB corps for Jacksonville.

If I have a criticism here (aside from no one pass blocking, which is what it is, we have the players we have on O line; and nobody at WR being able to separate) its that Cam doesn't read the flow of the game as well as he should, and fails to adjust to what's in front of him. Does anyone have any insight into why they would up with a 38/12 pass run ratio in a game that's as close as last night's, where the defense was extremely strong and where even a 1 point lead could easily have been parlayed into Jacksonville panicking and playing into our hands?

Was it Rice being off his game and the staff afraid to give him the ball? Was the run blocking so horrible that the passing game was the lesser of two evils?

**mommathurgoesthatman** · 10-25-2011, 10:01 AM

I still say we are missing Willis Mcgahee. He was a better compliment for ray rice than ricky williams. Grubbs is a big factor for us because Gurode looks a few steps slow. Its hard to get anything going with consistent 3 and outs and turnovers.

**Teavo** · 10-25-2011, 11:26 AM

Good post. I agree that we gave up on the run far too early.

Not that we were running it very well. We weren't. But giving up on it made us one-dimensional which resulted in a further erosion of the passing game. It's a domino effect. Even if you want to pass, you have to run the ball just enough to keep the defense honest, and we didn't.

For some reason Cam Cam chose passing as the lesser of two evils but I think that was a mistake. Doing a mediocre job with both run and pass is better than doing a lousy job passing and not even trying to run.

Last night I think we saw how important it is to this offense to have Ray Rice bring his A game. Unfortunately he brought his D+ game and we watched the entire offense drive into a ditch as a result. Ray couldn't even outrun a guy named Pork Chop. :grbac:

**GOTA** · 10-25-2011, 11:37 AM

Suggs went to the media and said we gave up the run too early. Sounds like even the players have lost faith in Cam

**Raveninwoodlawn** · 10-25-2011, 11:38 AM

We definately did.

Cam thinks we are the Kurt Warner Rams.

**Haloti92** · 10-25-2011, 01:43 PM

If you look at the actual play-by-play summary, it isn't as bad as the final totals.

The fact is we had only two 2nd half drives before we were forced to throw every play due to game situation.

Of those two drives one started with a 50-yd PI gift then was annihilated by a -4 yard pass to Rice (which I am sure Cam considers a 'run'), a penalty, then a sack on 2nd and 20.

The other drive looked fine until the last 3 plays that were called starting at the Jax 28 yd-line. These 3 plays are the only really egregious errors, imo.

Check the play-by-play. We simply were not doing anything at all on the ground. The difference between us and Jax in terms of play selection is explained by their limited successes running the ball to our abject failure, and their limited successes passing the ball to our abject failure (until very very late), and having the lead.

On the Suggs-calls-out-Cam thread I detail the play results.

And for the record, I have been a Cam critic for a long time.