Brent, you had me at “use of play action!”.
Seriously, of the things that have irritated me about Georgia’s offense under Smart before this season, the de-emphasis/quasi-abandonment of play action is at the top. That Chaney and especially Coley elected to leave one of the best tools Georgia had in its bag was borderline malpractice, especially when you consider the backs they had to use to sell play action. I guess those sideline passes from Fromm were just too tempting to ignore.
If there’s any irony to this, it’s that Monken doesn’t have the same kind of backfield talent that his predecessors had, but is still committed to making play action work. In the land of the stubbornly blind, the realistic one-eyed coordinator is king.
Get The Picture 
Play action is devastating, and you don’t have to be David Greene as a ball handler to make it work. With our running back talent, the only time we shouldn’t run play action is in definite passing situations. Even then, it can be just enough to catch someone looking in the backfield.
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David Greene play action film should be on repeat in the QB room.
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His ball handling would make most NFL QBs jealous especially today’s QBs who generally aren’t good at it.
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Stet’s fake is pretty dang solid. He’s fooled the camera, and opposing tacklers, several times this season. He could pull off Greene’s lazy fake at the right time.
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I’m Aaron Murray and I approved this message.
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Isn’t the line kind of blurry these days between play action and RPO? I don’t know that technical stuff very well.
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Play action would be a pass regardless of what the defense is doing, right? RPO is QB choice. At least, that is my thought process on it.
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I’m no X’s and O’s expert, but I don’t think it’s that blurry. With play action, it’s a designed pass play 100% of the time with a fake handoff. With the RPO, it can be either run or pass based on how the defense reacts.
The above highlight looks like play-action to me because Stetson doesn’t put the football in the RB’s gut, and the RB doesn’t look like he’s prepared to take the handoff either. So it’s simply misdirection rather than an actual RPO.
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A lot of what differentiates play-action passing to an RPO is that the linemen are blocking run but not going downfield (to the 3 yard mark). In a play-action pass, the linemen are preparing to pass block. An RPO is designed to get the ball out quickly to keep the linemen from going downfield.
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Also, generally play action contemplates going from under center. If you’ve ever watched any of Mark Richts film sessions on youtube, anyone of his line of thinking is a HUGE believer in the value of the QB’s back being turned to the defense as crucial to the disguise of what’s happening. And it doesn’t even have to be a David Greene 44 flatback rooskie…. the QBs body retreating from under center to fake the handoff is a huge disguise in and of itself.
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or at least the pistol.
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My understanding of an RPO is that it is a single-read option based on what the middle linebacker does (or whoever else might be dropping to fill that void in the middle). If the linebacker comes up to fill, you hit the slant or skinny post in the space he vacated. If he hangs back, you hand off, and if you win the line of scrimmage, he’s an easy mark for a guard at the second level.
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The somewhat lack of early game running success has led to success with PA, which has lead led success in the running game later on. Defenses are keying the run, daring Bennett to beat them. Bennett is running the offense about as good as you could expect ANY QB to run it.
Another great benefit of PA is it gives room to avoid the batted passes and Bennett can also keep it.
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Steel on target, Senator. Admittedly I’m a layman; but, even I could see the deficiencies in the prior offensive schemes. I have no complaints and even agree when this O goes into Manball mode. The Dawgs should beat the shit out of every team scheduled and I don’t see a possible post season contender giving them much more than a scare.
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RR you’re messing with rat poison here.
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I would like to see a few more toss sweeps. But I really don’t care how Monken runs the offense…just scoring. And score even more on fu
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Agree, I think those sidelines are ripe for these backs…but that might vary from defensive scheme depending on the team we play…
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One of the beautiful things about PA is a QB that can really sell the fake. David Greene was superb at this, and he learned from Peyton Manning, who, as much as I hate to admit it, carried out some fakes that were Oscar worthy.
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David Greene was the Michelangelo of the play action
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How do you tell the difference between a play action and read option? I have always thought that in the case of the latter, there was a chance the quarterback Mike handed off depending on what the defense was doing. But, with a true play action, there’s no intent to run it. What am I missing?
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Fans of other schools that have only taken a snap shot of Georgia this year do not understand just how dangerous this offense can be. Monkey has schemed people open since he arrived in Athens. The difference is that he now has two QB’S that can execute it and a bevy of receivers that have been in the offense now.
Starting in Jax, Georgia will finally have enough healthy receivers to actually begin to create mismatches on the field. Something they have not enjoyed all season.
Oh, and something not talked about, but should be, is Cook’s improvement of running between the tackles. He has REALLY helped his draft stock this year.
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Never thought Fromm sold p/a very well.
Was that b/c he wouldn’t or not? Who knows?
Either way, you’re gonna get less of it.
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There’s play action and then there’s Play Action…
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