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OK, we've had 24 hours to digest the mess that was the loss to Tulane. No way to dress it up as anything more than it was: a mess.

However, here are some things I'd like to see that could help us pull off a win at Marshall next week:

- Better blocking!
- All 11 players on defense wrapping up their tackles.
- Two more sacks from Justin Rogers (that guy is getting really good!)
- A MINIMUM of 7 or 8 passes thrown toward Ryan Kennedy (which would be more than those thrown his way in the first four games)
- Better blocking.
- Marshall kicking off to Jessie Henderson.
- No easy drops by the receivers.
- Hitting low by Wilton McCray. (He's fast enough to make a lot of plays, but is small enough that he can't take on big guys with high hits.)
- More sweep/pitch plays for DeMyron Martin, to get him out on the edge, where he'll have a chance to hit a crack in the defense and break off some long runs).
- No false start penalties on the offensive line.

Casey wrote:- More sweep/pitch plays for DeMyron Martin, to get him out on the edge, where he'll have a chance to hit a crack in the defense and break off some long runs).

I agree with everything else, but NOT this. Our strength is running off guard or off tackle. Martin's size becomes an advantage inside. When we run a sweep, it is too slow to develop and we don't have the team speed to get blockers outside. Our ONLY effective outside runs are on misdirection plays, such as the reverse.

We need quick handoffs up the middle. That is where Martin is effective. Don't ask our guys to hold blocks with delayed handoffs. Quick handoffs, up the middle. The one decent drive we have stalled out because we tried to run a sweep.

JasonB wrote:
We need quick handoffs up the middle. That is where Martin is effective. Don't ask our guys to hold blocks with delayed handoffs. Quick handoffs, up the middle. The one decent drive we have stalled out because we tried to run a sweep.

Which is what makes the current offense so ridiculous, IMO. We should not be running a spread formation. We need to be running two tight ends sets with Chase and Kennedy. We need to be running stuff out of the I with a fullback. That offense with Massey and Martin in the backfield and Massey blocking worked (for a while). But for some reason, Burns and Bennett think we need to be running 4 and 5 wide all day. We don't have a QB to run a spread offense and we don't have the receivers to run a spread offense.

SMU Football Blog wrote:

JasonB wrote:
We need quick handoffs up the middle. That is where Martin is effective. Don't ask our guys to hold blocks with delayed handoffs. Quick handoffs, up the middle. The one decent drive we have stalled out because we tried to run a sweep.

Which is what makes the current offense so ridiculous, IMO. We should not be running a spread formation. We need to be running two tight ends sets with Chase and Kennedy. We need to be running stuff out of the I with a fullback. That offense with Massey and Martin in the backfield and Massey blocking worked (for a while). But for some reason, Burns and Bennett think we need to be running 4 and 5 wide all day. We don't have a QB to run a spread offense and we don't have the receivers to run a spread offense.

And, on top of that, if they are going to blitz and clog up the middle, then leave a back in, leave the 2 TEs in, max protect, and give you time to use our speed to throw the deep ball.

Simple offense. Power run, power formations, use speed and size (which we actually have now) at WR to loosen safties up and throw deep. Massey and Martin should each get 20 touches per game. Period. Grind away, hit the occasional deep ball. Hold the ball for decent periods of tiime and keep the fast defense off the field and rested.

its a very good point that our offense is not well suited to our personnel this year. We play walkon receivers in the spread instead of some pretty talented RBs and TEs who are 3rd and 4th strings.

Alvin Nnabuife and Wilton McCray (and to a lesser extent, Reggie Carrington and Avery Cleveland) can all run. One or more of them should be blitzing on every play.

JasonB wrote:

SMU Football Blog wrote:

JasonB wrote:
We need quick handoffs up the middle. That is where Martin is effective. Don't ask our guys to hold blocks with delayed handoffs. Quick handoffs, up the middle. The one decent drive we have stalled out because we tried to run a sweep.

Which is what makes the current offense so ridiculous, IMO. We should not be running a spread formation. We need to be running two tight ends sets with Chase and Kennedy. We need to be running stuff out of the I with a fullback. That offense with Massey and Martin in the backfield and Massey blocking worked (for a while). But for some reason, Burns and Bennett think we need to be running 4 and 5 wide all day. We don't have a QB to run a spread offense and we don't have the receivers to run a spread offense.

And, on top of that, if they are going to blitz and clog up the middle, then leave a back in, leave the 2 TEs in, max protect, and give you time to use our speed to throw the deep ball.

Simple offense. Power run, power formations, use speed and size (which we actually have now) at WR to loosen safties up and throw deep. Massey and Martin should each get 20 touches per game. Period. Grind away, hit the occasional deep ball. Hold the ball for decent periods of tiime and keep the fast defense off the field and rested.

Hmmm. . .that sounds a lot like the offense that Darrel Dickey runs up at UNT, and the offense that we ran in 1997 when he was the OC here and we won 6 games. Makes sense to me.

Casey wrote: .... - Better blocking!
- All 11 players on defense wrapping up their tackles....

Give me those first two and we'll look more like the team that beat TCU. If we do those two things, we'll have a shot at Marshall.

GO SMU!