Flip's game plans and playcalling so far

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We are definitely missing Sparano. 

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@TBro said:
Flip is a great interview and says all the right things. Comes off as a highly intelligent offensive guru. 
However, his schemes and playcalling so far have been lackluster at best. We definitely have had
some great moments like the Packers game, but far too often this offense is stagnant. 

Here are a few of my concerns:

Zero balance-Throw out the stats for the Bills game due to giving up 17 points in the 1st quarter, and
the run/pass balance that we are used to seeing from this team is non-existent. 
84 passing attempts the first two games vs 50 rushing attempts is making this team predictable and
one-dimensional.  That's a 60/40 mix before you throw in the Bills game. 

There is nowhere to run. Our backs are getting hit at or behind the line on just about every rushing attempt
so any yardage they make seems to be based purely on individual effort and athletic talent. Right now our rushing
attack is dysfunctional. A two yard gain for most teams is a gimme. Not with this line and the schemes we are
running. 

Calling third down plays where the routes are short of the sticks. RAC is great when it happens, but that is
not a high percentage play on a third down conversion when corners are playing tight coverage. 

TE's are missing from the passing game. We heard all offseason how Flip loves to use the TE's. Out of 138
passing attempts this year for Cousins, our TE's have only been targeted 18 times. When Reiff was struggling
to block Jerry Hughes, why not put a TE on that side to chip him and release for a quick pass? I think I saw
one attempt to provide help to Reiff with a TE and it ended up in a blown assignment. 

Cousins holding the ball too long. There is equal blame to go around on this one but some of the route designs
to push the ball downfield are forcing Cousins to hold on to the ball too long waiting for things to develop with
a line that is struggling with consistent protection. One of his fumbles was a direct result of Cousins holding on
to the ball too long which was a huge game changing mistake that can't happen. 

Obviously this offense is a work in progress. With a new coordinator and QB, we are using the regular season
as a testing ground to implement his full system that was not unveiled in the pre-season.  My concern is that
by the time we settle in on who will be our offensive line moving forward, and Flip and the team figures out
what works in his system, this season will be lost in a very competitive NFC. All of that may not matter if Zimmer
continues to have his super stars on defense not show up for games, get outcoached, and get back to becoming
a cohesive shut down unit this teams needs them to be. I guess we will see if they can right the ship against the
Rams and Eagles to prove if they are for real this year. 

Great post

[Guest]

I have to agree with OP on almost everything as well. It's only 3 games but I'm shocked we aren't seeing more short passes and dump offs to running backs, especially when Dalvin was healthy. Felt like we got him some catches early in the 49er game then abandoned that completely. No clue why.
Cousins was definitely holding the ball too long in the Bills game and parts of the Packer game, so I think some short passes would really help that.
But yes, the #1 biggest problem I see is we can't run the football. The RBs have zero holes to run through and I'm not particularly hopeful this is going to change in LA this week. Even more reason to work some short passes in.
Hopefully Flip has more in store than what we've seen. Shurmur last year was mostly great I thought.

[Guest]

A lot of people were high on him coming, like we signed a world beater of an OC, but really he was 3rd in command behind Pederson (offensive minded head coach) and the OC. His highest position has been QB coach prior to here.

That says, his play calling needs to and hopefully will evolve. Much like Bradford's first year here, our O-Line is porous, and we need to get the ball out quicker (dink and dunk is a term many here have hated over the years, but it would keep Cousins upright). I'm  hoping a healthy Elfline will tighten up the line a bit.

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Shurmur was the the best OC they have had in years. I'm not overly impressed with Flip so far, but I think his hands are tied with another year of horrible O-line play. If they can't block, nothing he calls is going to work very well. He could dink and dunk, but I don't think that would work very well now that the defense isn't what it used to be.
Shurmur was able to adapt the offense to Keenum's strengths. It remains to be seen if Flip can make it work with Cousins. Unless they get enough blocking to establish a running game, I don't see Flip having much success.

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@JoDakota said:
A lot of people were high on him coming, like we signed a world beater of an OC, but really he was 3rd in command behind Pederson (offensive minded head coach) and the OC. His highest position has been QB coach prior to here.

That says, his play calling needs to and hopefully will evolve. Much like Bradford's first year here, our O-Line is porous, and we need to get the ball out quicker (dink and dunk is a term many here have hated over the years, but it would keep Cousins upright). I'm  hoping a healthy Elfline will tighten up the line a bit.

JoDakota,
He did serve as OC in Cleveland for one season when Mike Pettine the Packers D Coordinator was the head coach. That didn't end well for either one of them. However, I get your point that he has very little experience calling plays and being in charge of the game plan like he is now. Pederson is the mastermind of the Philly Offense and still has all of the play calling duties. I think Flip is learning on the job and it definitely shows in what we have seen so far. Watching someone like McVay scheme and call plays is like a night and day difference compared to Flip. I don't think he or this coaching staff truly know what the offensive identity of this team is yet. This is a different year with different personnel so we are still in discovery mode. Hopefully it won't be too far into the season before they figure it out because if we go 1-3-1 heading into week 6 we will need to run off 4 straight including a home win against the Saints to get back into the playoff race. With road games still to come at the Jets, Chicago, Detroit, Patriots, and Seahawks, we have a very daunting task if the issues we are seeing on both sides of the ball continue to persist. With the Griffin distraction, it's not looking very good at the moment but we had the same adversity last year when Bradford went down and look how that turned out. You just never know. 

[Guest]

I will say with as little interest as Zimmer shows in offense I was more confident with an experienced play caller at OC. Didn't work out with Norv but Pat did great. This offense is still a work in progress I believe. Last season Pat had a head start because he was interim for 11 weeks in 2016 and had more experience. I'm still giving Flip a chance to get his thing going.

[Guest]

I thought he was exceptional against the Eagles. 

[Guest]

give Flip more time and an improved OL (aka play oNeill and Isodora please!!) and this offense will become premier. 

Imagine a NFL averaga OL and an effective Dalvin?  Top 5 offense

just waiting on that defense to return to form 

[Guest]

He has been much better the past two games. I was pleased with runs that Rock Thomas had in the first half. That seemed to catch the Eagles off guard. Flip was getting so much chunk yardage in the air, he abandoned the running game in the 2nd half. I still think our Tight Ends need to be a bigger threat. To me, that is still a lacking area besides the running game that needs to be fixed to truly give them a balanced offense. We could have used the Tight Ends in the Red Zone today. That was disappointing that we drove the ball at will until we reached the Red Zone.