This is one of my biggest issues with the offense…in fact it may be one of the two issues I have. Our short yardage situations feel significantly more difficult than they should be and the Wildcat isn’t it. Thank god we have mostly abandoned that.
And while I’m generally a fan of the slow mesh and understand how difficult it is when defenses have to determine whether to play up or play back at a moment’s notice, that dynamic changes as the field shrinks and/or when clock and play management is critical. Walking up to the LOS when you need a yard is just so silly to me. Put in a jumbo package, hand the ball off to the RB who isn’t 5-7 yards away from the line to gain and challenge your veteran O-Line to get a push (if you decide to run). If they don’t, well shame on them, but FFS don’t get beat by beating yourself. I’d rather a defense make a big play to stop our offense than to try and play 4-D chess and shit the bed.
Dave is a great coach so he must know something I don’t, but he strikes me as overthinking the hell out of simple situations like that and it’s proven to be one of the things that has kept us from busting through to higher levels of play. The only game we should have lost this year was at Louisville. Clemson, UNC and Duke were all lost because of poor play calls and situational management. We played like shit at State and that’s a game we probably should have won as well, but it doesn’t stand out like the other three.
Anyway, imagine being 10-2 instead of 7-5. We really have nobody to blame but ourselves. Hope we learn from it and get better. Also hope Clawson retires here. He’s a great coach and a perfect fit for Wake. Anyone questioning that right now needs to step away for a while.