Deep 13 offense, and how to not use it. (Weegie)

The story floating around the city this week was of course, "Crap, now what do we do?" Nobody's exactly looking forward to the notion of the Tommy Maddox start, but there is the realization that, if we want Ben to play in January, it's probably good to keep him away from the team that wouldn't mind going off Reichenbach Falls if it took its mortal enemy with them. So we find the story rife with B plots. Will Tommy recover after the Jaguars game? Signs say we hope so, he'll have a better cast to go with this time. Are we going to let the Ravens do what they nearly did on Halloween? Signs say we hope not, and our chief ally in this is Kyle Boller, a man who can't be the modern Vinny against the Steelers, simply because he's the modern Vinny against every other team as well. But the absolute riveting story this week was the possibility of us going with Randle El at QB. He's going in as the 3rd string this week, and there was some notion that him starting would be savvy, as it sounds like Marvel Smith won't be on line offering protection, so mobility would be useful. I wouldn't be surprised to see him get a couple trick plays here, and that's what worries me. This is the type of situation where we get cute, and die. We made our mint in the Mularkey era with the occasional gimmick, maybe one a game, go to two of these, and it's something people expect. And Randle El right now, is what people would expect.

I also don't like the angle Randle El typically takes on reverses, he seems to run almost a perfect semi-circle, which means he's too far back at the time when the defense realizes what's up. Contrast this with Hines, who used to run a far less deep reverse, which was usually far more effective than anything 82's generated on that play. And if I remember correctly, the worst example of this recently was Halloween against the same Ravens.

This week would be perfect for the crazy trick play only designed to get force the Ravens to call a time out. Put Randle El and Ward in the backfield, Miller and Max Starks as tight ends, Parker or Polamalu on the wing. Something so blatantly completely insane that the defense for it doesn't exist, and the other team has no choice but to call a time out to deal with it.

Otherwise, I think the best course of action this week is grind, grind, grind. Run, run, run, switch out and put the next runner in. If you pass, play the safe, quick routes. The key here is keeping ahead, making few mistakes, and protect your possible losses if a mistake happens. Ugly but effective.