Laskey run revisited...

**dressedcheeseside** · 03-07-2013 04:16 PM

Helluva was right, there was a gaping hole for Laskey and he took everything that was there for the taking. I still think Laskey has a pretty quick first step and once he got into the secondary, there wasn't a whole lot he could do but run straight and take all that was infront of him. I'll give Helluva the nod on this one.

But, this play was blocked amazingly well and it was a great call. It also demonstrates how variable our offense can be just by switching up the blocking assignments. The casual fan only sees a dive. The more studious fan sees the cross block that sets it all up.

Beno (LT) and Mason (LG) switch men and it opens up a huge lane in the left b gap. The playside MLB follows the motion and the backside MLB gets screened by Finch. (Notice no cut blocks by the OL other than Uzzi, who I notice cuts a lot, but that's on the backside of the play.)

Laskey shows good burst and pretty good speed, imo, getting to the second level before the lane collapses. It's more a testament to great playcall (blocking assignment more than actual play) and blocking than great running. Notice USC has 8 in the box and we still gut them with the dive. Execution and doing the little things right get you big plays even if you don't have "big" players. (Meaning Laskey not Dwyer)

We ran this same play with Sims for a nice gain 2 or 3 plays earlier with different blocking assignments (no cross block) and it got good results, too, but not this good.

(51:07 real time, 51:29 slow mo, really shows the blocking assignments and huge lane)

**HelluvaMGTmjr** · 05:16 PM

I think we got a little lucky that the backside DB was taken out inadvertently by the Godhigh block on the Safety, otherwise it would have been about a 10 yarder or what if the playside ILB doesn't bite so hard on the toss that never was and stays home? Does AB block him instead of the Safety? But definitely it worked out well. Laskey did exactly what he was supposed to do.

**stylee** · 03-07-2013 06:04 PM

Good point about the ILB flying outside. That guy could have stopped it at 4 yards but was preoccupied elsewhere.

We were running our Rocket Toss series all game, as longestday has helped us see with his video. I guess USC never adjusted to the counters we were using, or were told that they HAD to get outside to stop it. If the latter is the case, it means they were confident that their defensive interior could handle our O-Line. And they were wrong.... we got down and dirty and just beat them up. The dude on Uzzi was pretty good but you've got to be impressed with how we performed, overall.

The play in question is an interesting little wrinkle on Rocket. Usually, our BB goes to the opposite side of the field on Rocket (the idea being that no RB will ever be fast enough to actually lead block for a motioning A-Back who catches the ball outside of the tackle box, so why not just get him out of the way). This is how Sims got so open on his TD catch... he went to the opposite side and no one paid attention to him because we never do anything with the BB on Rocket.

The Laskey run (and Sims had some on the same play) is one in which the BB goes to the side we're motioning to with a little delay step. That probably should have alerted the USC 'backers but I guess they were so concerned with the AB they didn't notice. He then goes through the X block in the B-Gap. Nice job by Mason and Jackson to stun those d-linemen. Also worth mentioning is Uzzi's scoop/cut block on the backside - because he executes it well, it frees Finch up to get downfield.

**AllGT** · 03-07-2013 06:30 PM

I still get a kick at how awkwardly close Tracey Wolfson was standing next to CPJ...like she was trying to keep warm.

Anyhow...it's going make certain people mad if Laskey is our starting BB next year! Sims will be gone, and if Travis Custis and Donovan Wilson (who's slated to start out at AB anyhow) get redshirted, there won't be much after Laskey if Snoddy and Perkins don't take "the next step". I thought Laskey did well considering he spent his first year at DB/WR, and he only had the Spring and Fall camp to get acclimated to BB. I'm actually looking forward to seeing his progression now that he's committed full time to BB. Also, I think Sims will break 1,000 easy this year if he stays healthy. He certainly looked like a different BB towards the end of the season when his leg finally fully healed.

**longestday** · 03-07-2013 06:38 PM

They were stopping the rocket toss very well. However, the alternate rocket toss plays where working very well for us. Dives and counters dives did well too. The outside was closed on the options and counter options. They shut down the out side and gave up the inside.

Tevin did get one big run on the option though. But, we turned over the ball on downs several times by trying to go back to the outside after being successful on the inside.

**stylee** · 03-07-2013 08:12 PM

Originally Posted by longestday

They were stopping the rocket toss very well. However, the alternate rocket toss plays where working very well for us.

The setup is interesting to me, because Laskey ripped that run in the 4th quarter. USC knew they were shutting down Rocket and that we were getting yardage off of Rocket fakes... but they seemed to be absolutely committed to cheating to the outside on Rocket motion. Either a lack of adjustments or a conscious commitment to letting the defensive line handle it.

**dressedcheeseside** · 03-07-2013 08:23 PM

Originally Posted by stylee

The setup is interesting to me, because Laskey ripped that run in the 4th quarter. USC knew they were shutting down Rocket and that we were getting yardage off of Rocket fakes... but they seemed to be absolutely committed to cheating to the outside on Rocket motion. Either a lack of adjustments or a conscious commitment to letting the defensive line handle it.

Wasn't BYU cheating to the outside with their MLB's too, yet they shut us down inside as well?

**stylee** · 03-07-2013 08:51 PM

Yes and no, if memory serves me correctly.
Their ILBs were cheating some but they weren't cheating to that degree. They didn't need to because we couldn't block the OLBs on the perimeter at all, and our guards weren't a threat to the ILBs... our Gs couldn't block their ILBs in space at all. So they could afford to sit back a little bit.

It was our first 3-4 of the year, so maybe that explains some of it. We handled Maryland's 3-4 pretty easily after that. And, to be honest, our line did pretty okay against UGA.

**HelluvaMGTmjr** · 03-08-2013 07:27 AM

Originally Posted by AllGT

Anyhow...it's going make certain people mad if Laskey is our starting BB next year! Sims will be gone, and if Travis Custis and Donovan Wilson (who's slated to start out at AB anyhow) get redshirted, there won't be much after Laskey if Snoddy and Perkins don't take "the next step". I thought Laskey did well considering he spent his first year at DB/WR, and he only had the Spring and Fall camp to get acclimated to BB. I'm actually looking forward to seeing his progression now that he's committed full time to BB. Also, I think Sims will break 1,000 easy this year if he stays healthy. He certainly looked like a different BB towards the end of the season when his leg finally fully healed.

I think Sims starts this year if he stays healthy and then hopefully Custis steps up. We need our 4* BBs to pan out. Sims did look like a different player at the end of the year. Maybe he puts it altogether this year.

**dressedcheeseside** · 03-08-2013 07:49 AM

Originally Posted by HelluvaMGTmjr

I think Sims starts this year if he stays healthy and then hopefully Custis steps up. We need our 4* BBs to pan out. Sims did look like a different player at the end of the year. Maybe he puts it altogether this year.

Custis is still gonna have to beat out Laskey as well. That's gonna be hard to do given the time constraints. He very well may end up redshirting which won't necessarily be a bad thing. If he does beat out Laskey, it means we have a real gem in the making. Remember, Vad with all his athletic upside coundn't unseat the experienced incumbant. Knowing what to do and where to go trumps pure athleticism unless the athletic guy is a complete freak. Kallon, a true physical freak couldn't beat out bad DL's in front of him last year.

Who knows, Laskey may have gained 15 lbs or so and may be a load to stop. He was already hard to tackle.

Laskey run revisited...

LinkBack

Thread Tools

Display

Laskey run revisited...

Posting Permissions