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“Tom Herman’s Biggest Impact Will Be Felt in the Passing Game. As discussed above, the running game will largely reflect Meyer’s persona and background. But Tom Herman’s impact as offensive coordinator will certainly be noticeable in the passing game. It will particularly be felt in two ways: with the horizontal screen game and with combining concepts in the drop back pass game.
Herman’s offenses have always been based around attacking defenses with a combination of the inside run game changed up with quick wide receiver screens. As with the QB read and option, this prevents a defense’s backside defenders from involving themselves in the run game. As such, either the offense will have a numbers advantage for their base run plays or—if the defense cheats—easy yards on the outside with bubble or flash screens.
Herman’s impact will also be felt with tweaks to Meyer’s base passing game. Specifically, Herman has ‘combined concepts’ together for the Buckeye passing game. The basic premise is to put different route combinations to each side of the field that attack different coverage schemes, thus providing the quarterback options depending upon what coverage the defense shows. Meyer and Herman smartly do so by mixing an outside route combination with a middle crossing route, thereby preventing the defense from having unoccupied roving pass defenders.” [Fulton/Eleven Warriors]
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“I am not completely sure of the circumstances that we used to determine when to make this adjustment, but I believe it had something to do with our playcalls and that it was not a response to personnel or formation changes by the offense.
Walking the LB out puts him in better position to edge rush or to cover TEs or RBs out of the backfield with outside leverage. Of the few plays where we walked a LB out and I have coaches’ film, we blitzed a few times and we played either Cover-1 or Cover-3 other times.” [Rufio/Dawgs By Nature]
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“To be fair, preseason results ultimately doesn’t matter. The last time the Browns played in Detroit, Jake Delhomme finished 20-for-25 with 152 yards and a touchdown. In last year’s Great Lakes Classic at Cleveland, Colt McCoy was 10-for-18 for 96 yards and three touchdowns.
“We’re looking for (Weeden) to go out there and execute and be generally efficient,” Shurmur said. “And then take a lead of that huddle and direct us in to the end zone.”
“Nobody is going to play the whole game, what you want is to go in and be generally efficient. You don’t want penalties, you want to get lined up right, not too many men in the huddle, you want to see the quarterback be able to call the play, execute. It’s the same thing on defense, get lined up properly, defeat the blocks, address the gaps, tackle the ball carrier and when they drop back to pass, I want to see come pass rush.” [Delco/The OBR]
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Grading the Cavaliers’ post-season- “They have done almost nothing, save for the divisive selection of Dion Waiters with the No. 4 pick in the draft, and that’s fine. There is a long list of bad teams with cap room that have used it for the sake of using it and regretted it almost immediately, like Will Ferrell jumping into the bear pit. Signing C.J. Miles made sense because Cleveland is desperate for wing production after Omri Casspi’s disappointing season, but none of the Cavs’ transactions moves the needle.
The Cavaliers are going to be cheap and bad (again) with their current roster, but they have a pile of extra first-round picks and the ability to obtain another one pretty easily by trading center Anderson Varejao. They also have one of the league’s best young players in Kyrie Irving, the rare point guard who combines elite shooting with sound distribution skills, and enough cap space to take on Lakers center Andrew Bynum as a facilitator in a Dwight Howard trade. That cap space isn’t going anywhere, but as the Mavericks found out last month in the Deron Williams sweepstakes, free agency isn’t a fail-safe when a star’s incumbent team can offer more money and an extra year. That’s what will make the Cavs interesting to watch over the next year: Will they stay patient, watch Tristan Thompson’s development and collect another high lottery pick? Or will they essentially use their cap space via trade, dealing for a star who may or may not fit well with Irving’s pick-and-roll game? These are the choices that define the course of a franchise.” [Lowe/Point Forward]
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Hardesty getting ready for the season- “Hardesty’s work came at LeCharles Bentley’s O-Line Academy, a facility in Avon run by the former Saints and Browns center whose career was cut short by a staph infection. Bentley usually doesn’t take backs — among the linemen in his group are Jason Pinkston, Shawn Lauvao and Oneill Cousins of the Browns — but in Hardesty’s case he made an exception.
“I know what it’s like when things don’t go exactly as planned,” Bentley said. “A lot of people don’t understand what you’re going through from a mental, physical and emotional standpoint. I just kind of related to it, and to him.” [McManamon/FSO]
