This is what I've really been hoping to see. They don't have to run read option constantly to be effective. Running it 5 times a game is enough to keep defenses on their heels, and can open so many other options to this offense. Tannehill has proved he can run it effectively.

 

Thanks, I enjoyed reading through that.

It's worth reading the grantland article linked from there as well on defending the read option.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id...ching-nfl-coaches-know-how-defend-read-option


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Don't let a certain poster see this.....talking about Wallace and double coverage and opening things up....poppycock! A QB running! Blasphemy!

 

The Mike Wallace love letter was more than a little ridiculous in the context, those aren't really particularly notable alignments.

I think there's also a probability that the read option plays where Tannehill seems to make strange/borderline decisions are "fake' read option plays, where it's a typical called hand-off that just looks like an option play.

 

Agreed. We didn't see any safeties lining up that deep against any of our WRs before Wallace was here. Wallace clearly impacts how defenses game plan against us. He clearly draws extra attention.

 

The key though, is he has to use it, meaning RT has to be a realistic threat to run it every game. I don't believe you maintain that realistic threat if RT only keeps it a few times a season. That was the mistake with the wildcat. It worked b/c of the pass threat, but after that first game they tried maybe three passes out of the formation the next two years. The defense just ignored that and run blitzed the formation every time. So you can't run that fake read where RT hands it off regardless of what the end/OLB does to death. You have to trust RT to make the read and RT has to make the D pay if the end crashes down. And sometime RT's got to pull up and throw it to. If I'm the CB and I expect the read, I'm crashing in. But if I'm wrong then Hartline (in the example in the article) is wide open for an easy completion with at most just a S (if the S didn't also crash in) between him and the goal line. That's the key to the read. The D has to hesitate before reacting or you make them pay. But the hesitation or the making them pay part only works if you use all three options.

 

Another thing for Belichick to have to gameplan for. That's a plus in and of itself.

 

There's been a lot of discussion here in Alabama, because of Auburn's read-option, and in particular the pass play against Alabama where AU ran the read option (the staple of our offense), the linemen were run-blocking so they engaged the LBs downfield, Alabama's CB came up to make a play on the QB seeing that the lineman had come to the second level, and AU's WR, Sammie Coates was wide open and Nick Marshall hit him for a catch and run for the tying score. They were also talking about it on College Gameday and the other ESPN shows afterward, and how defensive keys are to come up if they see the linemen blast out like that. Basically, they're saying since AU threw the ball, the play should have been flagged for illegal man downfield.

The reason I bring it up is because if we run the read option and our linemen are blocking for the tailback run (or QB keep if the DE chases down toward the RB) and do so blow off the ball into the second level like it's a running play rather than a pass where the lineman may take a step but really just come up in their stance and begin to pass protect (which mostly nullifies the play action), if we did pass off of that run action, wouldn't we get flagged for illegal man downfield? It seems they call that penalty more often in the pro game than they do in the college game. I guess what I'm asking is how much legal passing are you really going to do out of the read-option?

 

He's about 15 yards off the ball cheated towards what is also otherwise the strong side of the formation. It's hardly that weird or shocking a position, especially for the Steelers in those circumstances.

At this rate it's not going to take long for someone at some point to attribute basically every common coverage shell/alignment to the magic of Mike Wallace.

 

I've been waiting all year for Sherman to start using read options and Tannehill's running ability to open up other plays like Thomas into the EZ. Let's hope he keeps this and a couple variations in the game plan every game. If we run it effectively like Tannehill did vs. Pittsburgh, it could be very effective, assuming we run it just enough to cause the opposing Defenses honest.

 

Dear Sherman:

You think!

-Beloved Phins fan!

 

The beauty of a read option is that you don't need the line crashing up field immediately. The most important aspect is just setting the edge. If thrre are LBs to the outside Tannehill isn't keeping it.

Aside from that, a pass is most likely going to be called before the play, not so much as a third option. Its going to be more like a fake handoff with a Tannehill bootleg where he has the option to run if the pass isn't open.

Imo asking him to read the end and then the covrerage is too much. Its more about calling the pass at the proper time. My two cents

 

Of course we've seen safeties lined up like that before Wallace got here. Pretty regularly, in fact. Perhaps you haven't noticed it because that guy often isn't shown on the TV feed, but in the stadium it is easy to see and has happened pretty regularly for years.

 

This, on the other hand, I agree with.

 

Coaching is even improving. Those are game changing plays.

 

You & me both but sadly I don't have faith in Sherman to remember to do this from time to time. Sherman is Henning 2.0 to me & he will revert to he's normal self (1st half form) soon enough. But, I'll give him credit for finally adding it in. Might be a little too late now though but we shall see.

 

I could be wrong but I believe we did pass out of the read-option at least once during the Steelers game.

 

To put a little finer point on the fact that is is not unusual to see safeties playing 15-16+ yards off the LOS even without Wallace or any other prototypical deep threat, here is some video of the targets to Hartline in the first third of last season, before Hartline had even proven he was a legit NFL receiver in his own right:

[video=youtube;fGXnA5ux0gE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGXnA5ux0gE[/video]

On the vast majority of plays, the deep safety is lined up beyond the range fo the camera angle, which is usually around 13-15 yards past the LOS. On a few, you can see how deep that deep safety is at the snap. Just a few examples:

At 4:27, you can see the ball is on the 26 and the deep S is 20 yards downfield at the 6 yard line.


At 5:56, the ball is at the 24 and you can see the deep safety's feet at the top of the screen at the 46 or so, 22 yards downfield.


At 9:40, the ball is at the 41 and the deep safety is at the 19, 22 yards downfield.


At 15:24, the ball is at the Dolphin 24 and the deep safety is at the 40, 16 yards downfield.


At 16:31, the ball is at the Dolphins 34.5. At the snap the S is at the Cardinal 49 and retreating. 16.5 yards past the LOS.


At 21:00, the ball is at the dolphin 29 and the deep safety is at the 47 and retreating, 18 yards away from the LOS.


The notion that safeties never played 15+ yards off the LOS before Wallace got here is clearly incorrect.

 

We kind of did on Clay's first TD. There was the fake to the RB and the threat of Tannehill rolling, but he really didn't need to as Clay was wide open.

 

That Tannehill read option run was longest by Dolphins QB in franchise history.....

 

I liked the article, but the bit I disagreed with was the part about the D rolling the coverage to Wallace. I thought it was fairly obvious that the safety was shading to the strength of the formation.

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Another Tannehill franchise record... they're adding up.

 

In terms of the read option part of it, I thought it was a little bit interesting they went a little further than they did with it in the past.

I could be wrong, but I don't remember them ever going past basic 101 level read option. They lined up in a normal shotgun formation and read the unblocked end. At this point, I think everyone has scrape exchanges in their defense, you might get some use out of tricking them once or twice if you don't have tendencies or whatever.

Miami went in running some arc blocks with Charles Clay. They were ready to counter basic spread option defense, and they are seemingly able to run it with packages that don't arise suspicion because Clay isn't a tell like lining up 3 WR and a FB.

 

Not necessarily any specific place, but I think they certainly need to use it more often than they have, and I'm encouraged they put together a package that looks more like a dalliance in the same way half the teams in the league used the Wildcat for a play or two to see if it was actually magic.

 

I don't know why it has taken this long to run RT. I know he is our future and he is worth a lot of $$$, but he has to run. If he had come out his junior year he would have been a 1st day WR in the draft. He has speed, he knows how to get hit, and he knows how to run. Let him do it Sherman!

 

Having him run is fine in addition to what he does from the pocket, but to say that he has to run isn't accurate. He HAS to be able to read the full field and make decisions from the pocket. If he can't do that, then he's worthless as a quarterback even if he can run.

Teams that "let" their quarterbacks run early on (RGIII, CKap) are now having trouble getting their quarterbacks to play from the pocket. Miami took the approach to have Ryan play from the pocket and will add the run in when he can consistently make plays from the pocket.

 

I should have been more clear, he has to run when we pull out the read option. I feel like one of our coaches shackled him this season and told him to stay put. Letting him run will only benefit us. Pocket passer first of course, but let him do some damage with his feet.

 

Agreed mostly.

I think the difference is that Ryan will never be a run first QB on drop backs like an RGIII or Kaepernick to a lesser extent.

I like the way we have developed Ryan. I do think the timing is right to start sprinkling in more runs however.

 

Nitpicking but, first day WR? Meaning 1st round pick? That's hard for me to believe. I could be wrong, but I don't think he was rated near that high as a WR.

As far as the premise, I agree that RT should be running more. And not only read option, but especially in situational circumstances. For instance, in the second half against Pittsburgh -- think we were down by a point in the late third or early fourth (my mind gets a little hazy after these games, so the details may be a little skewed, but the principle here is the thing) -- I believe we had a 2nd and 3 where Tannehill broke out of the pocket and the field opened up in front of him, and he could have ran for a first down and more. Instead, he forced an incomplete pass to Hartline. We ended up not making a first down on third down, and we had to punt. Now, I'm all for Tannehill going through his progressions and not bailing at the first sign of pressure in the pocket - I think the coaches are doing right by him, his future, and the team by having him read thru his progressions and being a pocket passer. However, late in games where first downs are critical and when the rhythm of a play has been thrown off, if you have a chance to run for 15 yards before someone touches you, I'd like to see Tannehill take that option of the sure first down instead of forcing a pass downfield. Earlier in the game, maybe it's more up for grabs on what to do (although, personally, I like seeing the sticks move every time in those situations), but late in the game when the lead is in the balance, I think Ryan should look to make the first down using his feet in situations like what I'm mentioning. (Not to derail the thread, which is more along the lines of the read option, just making a point about Tannehill running more, and sometimes on his own rather than just from the play call itself.)

 

I actually remember watching Ryan as a WR and he was extremely impressive. He could have been a second rounder IMO.

 

When he would have come out at WR, I believe the 1st day was still 2nd round. I remember hearing that he was projected that high if he had stayed at WR, during the year he was drafted.

 

Maaaaaaaaaybe, but even if that was the case, that's still Day Two, and not Day One. Or am I missing something and two years ago there was more than one round the first day? I thought that's when the Round One (and only Round One) on the first day started or maybe the year before.

Either way, I don't think I ever heard anyone talking about him being a first rounder as a WR... I never heard of anyone talking him being a second rounder, personally. But he wasn't coming out that year anyway, so it's probably a moot point.

 

Okiedoke. That's two people. I stand corrected.

 

To be fair, I don't know where he would have been projected. That was just my personal analysis. He had really great hands and body control with very good but not blow by you speed.