That Pistol Thing is Working
The situation: Three minutes into the opening quarter Saturday night, the Buckeyes with the ball at the Wisconsin 33 yard line staring down a 2nd and 5. Hartline and Robiskie are split right with Ballard lined up on the left side of the line. Pryor is lined up in a short shotgun with Beanie to his right and Boom behind him.
Pryor and Boom begin to move right with a read to an inside handoff to Beanie. When Pryor spies the end and linebacker staying home to contain him, he releases the ball to Wells who receives excellent blocking from his line, beats one guy at the second level and then bursts into the secondary before riding a stiff-arm the final five yards to paydirt.
I weep every time I see a replay of this.
Now we’ve piled on the offensive strategy and playcalling at times, but you have to hand it to the Buckeye staff for putting their own twist on the standard Pistol package. It is Ohio State, so they substituted the 3rd receiver for an extra running back and have lined him up next to the quarterback (more dust!).
Tressel and Bollman have also introduced a read option wrinkle into the formation and when the personnel running that read are two former Army All-American Bowl MVPs, the results can be deadly.
Pryor has the option as to whether to make the inside handoff or to keep the ball for himself or a pitch to Boom around the end. If the outside linebacker and end bite hard on the inside action, Pryor’s going wide side with a pretty good young runner available for the pitch. If that side of the defense stays home, the Buckeyes find themselves with Beanie Wells along with six blockers attacking seven defenders.
The read isn’t perfect yet — it was a confused read handoff out of the shotgun that resulted in a near turnover at the beginning of the go-ahead drive Saturday night — but you can imagine why this play is a defensive coordinator’s nightmare.
They have to respect Pryor’s speed around the edge. They’re coaching their outside guys to watch for that and to sit on it, but this leaves the rest of the of the box to take on Wells and his hogs. When Beanie starts to chew up yardage there, the defense will have to commit safeties and other elements towards stopping that, leaving the corner open for Pryor or Boom.
And we’re not even talking about throwing out of it yet. If the safeties play up to stop the rushing options, the receivers should find themselves in man coverage which is where that whole I’m-running-no-I’m-not-I’m-throwing-go-deep! things comes into play. Routes into the man coverage, sideline patterns to take advantage of the roll, tight end drags and some of the aforementioned run, then throw bombs. It may be a few before Pryor gets to where he can execute all of those options, but you know Tress has something through the air tucked away for Michigan (and probably a little somethin’-somethin’ for Penn State).
A lot of these same principles apply to both a traditional option and the read out of the shotgun. Pryor allows you to do all of these things with an expectation of doing them well. With Beanie back there, it almost isn’t fair.
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Come on, Saine–get healthy!
Saine at 100% full-speed would REALLY make this formation unfair.
It’s definitely a scary thing. These guys better be running these plays in their sleep if they wanna execute successfully. I see a possible increase in fumbles with this scheme, but worth the risk considering we have two of the most explosive backfield players together.
BTW how awesome is it that Beanie called out Pryor before the final drive? I need to find a recording of that somewhere, audio/visual whatever. It just sounds like something out of a movie.
Dan, you might wanna check the expiration date on that Saine Kool-Aid. Speed isn’t a factor when you can’t find the seams to run.
I love the formation, and I love the fact that the coaching staff is evolving its thinking, but why did they go away from what worked on the opening drive?
After that opening drive, OSU went back to alot I-formation and not alot of read-option…. it was working and they went away from it. It is frustrating from a fan’s perspective much like going away from the run that was working againt Florida (TD from Pittman that brought the game to 21-14… and then they went away from the run) and LSU (TD Wells 7-0 and then they went away from it).
Pryor and Wells are the 2 best players on the field on ANY Saturday. Keep the ball in their hands most of the time and OSU wins. Yes, we must be successful passing the ball to keep defenses honest, but the pistol (read option) appears to be the road to salvation for this year’s version of the Buckeyes. A side benefit is that it also seems to take the pressure off the offensive lineman not having to hold blocks for so long at the line…..
“but why did they go away from what worked on the opening drive?”
Frustrating? Yes. Necessary though. Terrelle has to be game ready in all facets of the offense. Practice is great, but executing in a game is totaly different. Put all of our eggs in one basket and the Buckeyes are overly predictable. Even if it works very well one game it may be stopped stone cold the next. This obviously doesn’t explain the past NC games, but is more than applicable to the development of TPs skills as a quarterback.
that formation is tits
This formation is better than tits Dave, tits only give you two nice options, this formation gives you three.
(I may have just lost my heterosexual street cred with that one)
Brotherbuck– you make good points and you are most likely correct… my only issue is that the Pony gets us 7 and then only 3 more for the rest of the first half after changing to a more conventional offense… gotta get points on the board against better teams.
Basically, it’s a triple option. Only instead of a fullback, the first option is the best RB in the country.
Overrated: The Pistol Formation….Underrated: Beanie pushing a guy 5 yards with one arm into the endzone.
In all fairness, the Pistol is cool, I just can’t get over Beanie’s ability to push people around like he does.
This post is a good example of why I love the option, and always will. Take your five-wides, your shotguns, your run-and-shoots and your Greatest Show on Turf. I’ll always take a ground game that puts the defense on the horns of a dilemma - in this case, three horns, or even four or five, if a play fake and a bootleg throw is called for. This is a mess for a defense to read.
Still, it takes a good while for a program to “institutionalize” the option, and run it so that it’s second nature - Flip’s fumble comment addresses this - but I like where Bollman and Tressel are going with this. If we can find some consistency in the passing game, and get wideouts to show up every play, game in and game out - we can start scoring.
I thought OSU would go 9-3 this year. I still think that, but after this weekend, I can see them winning out for the first time since June, and if they do that, and end up winning their bowl game, this might be the single best coaching job Tressel’s done since he’s been at OSU.
Beanie’s stiff arm should immediately be put into the College Football Hall of Fame.
“Still, it takes a good while for a program to “institutionalize” the option, and run it so that it’s second nature.”
I can install an option attack in 180 days, guaranteed!!!!
This formation has dangerous written all over it - If Beanie keeps doing that the option out of this is going to net huge gains.
Talk about your hetero street-cred, Buckeyeski….I had to explain to my wife why I had a 3/4 chub at the end of that TD run.
I mean that stiff-arm is just N-A-S-T-Y. I hate watching that LSU MNC game, but that might be my all-time fav stiff arm, where the LSU guy looks like a 7th-grader playing against the varsity.
You guys are missing the point here. By the end of this season, our offense will be able to run any play for any position. Let’s remember that Troy Smith was on a very short leash after taking over for Justin Zwick in 2004, until M******n. Tressel threw eveything but the kitchen sink out there in a rout of The team up north. Smith ended up with over 300 yrds passing and over 130 yrds rushing in that game if I remember right. Knowing Tressel, lok for a lot of base formations and unimaginative playcalling until Meatchicken comes to town. We may not be showing these plays now, but watching Pryor it’s clear he has all of the mental and physical skills to run any play in the book right now, but no sense in showing that too early. I have more concern over our recievers ability to get seperation and then catch the ball. It seems to me Robo and Hartline can’t get open, and Small can’t catch Time to get the new guys in and used to playing before we get to the Penn St, Illinios, and scUM portion of our schedules.
by the end of the season? How bout in a few weeks when the nittany(what does that even mean?) lions come to town?
I want it all now!
There is no question, I should be playing more
don’t be too afraid of Penn State… look at who they have played– they have not played a tough team yet. The toughest game was Illinois and they got them at home…. the Lions have nothad a TOUGH road test yet and they have not won at OSU since they joined the conference–they are a paper tiger. Michigan state scares me much more.
Sat, Aug 30th, 2008 Coastal_Carolina 12:00 PM Beaver Stadium W (66 - 10)
Sat, Sep 6th, 2008 Oregon_State 03:30 PM Beaver Stadium W (45 - 14)
Sat, Sep 13th, 2008 at Syracuse 03:30 PM Carrier Dome W (55 - 13)
Sat, Sep 20th, 2008 Temple 12:00 PM Beaver Stadium W (45 - 3)
Sat, Sep 27th, 2008 Illinois 08:00 PM Beaver Stadium W (38 - 24)
Sat, Oct 4th, 2008 at Purdue 12:00 PM Ross-Ade Stadium W (20 - 6)
Michigan St scares me, but Penn St also scares me too. I am glad we get them at home, because they are definitely a better team than we are. we have a chance only because we get them at home, IMO
buckeyeblowoutwin, don’t be scared. Get jacked! To see whether or not Pryor and Wells take over a game is exciting! It’s going to be electric to see how this kid handles the pressure of yet another night game in the Big Ten.
I think Illinois scares me the most. I like the Chris Ault formation not big on the Buckeye pistol formation we got a long run out of the Buckeye but it did not work the rest of the game. I think Chris Ault formation with Pryor in the shotgun and Beanie next to him is bad ass. When you put two running back back there it only gives you two WR who are not game breakers, plus in the pistol formation Herron is like five yards behind the line of scrimmage. I think if you watch both formations the Ault formation is the better and it gives you more of threat to throw and keeps the safeties half way honest. I think when healthy Beanie might be the most talented back during my time of watching the Bucks, he really made that TD run look too easy because i should be seing alot more replays on TV he punked that kid out like he was half his age and he always shows up when the lights are bright. Here’s to hoping we can have Beanie for one more year with Pryor. I hope Ringer gets to meet Holman in a hole this Saturday, I think Holman, Jenkins and Gibson are the only players who got that mean nasty attitude on defense right now.
HOMAN.
Antoine Winfield just returned a blocked Saints field goal and returned it for a TD.
Crazy, wasn’t it?! That ball bounced right into his hands. His endzone celebration was great, too…I think ‘Toine is an all time top-10 favorite buckeye of mine.
That would be a good post, actually. We’ll have to explore that sometime. You know everybody would have an opinion. Say if we did top 10 buckeyes since 1980 or by decade or somethin’…
Winfield is freaking incredible….sacks brees and takes ball from him in one motion. amazing play
And now Winfield has a fumble recovery! Beast!
I couldn’t keep my list under 10 - Krenzel, Spielman, ED-DIE, Pace, Hawk, Carpenter, Troy, Beanie, Big Daddy, Stringer, Santonio, Teddy, Gonzo, Vrabel, Springs, Winfield…. that’d be tough.
I know..that’s the beauty of it - make you really think to cut the list to 10…It would take me days to decide…
antoine winfield is blowing dudes up. go bucks.
Good call Chris should do a top ten Bucks all time list, also should do a list of the 10 least like Buckeye players
10. Joey Galloway
9. Antione Winfield (got a feeling he is going to be 11w NFL buckeye of the week)
8. A. Katzenmoyer
7. Orlando Pace
6. Chris Carter
5. Terry Glenn
4. Mike Doss
3. Chris Wells
2. Chris Speilman
1. Eddie George
That’s a pretty impressive list…I think Spielman would be #1 for me but I’m not positive. It’s either Spielman or Ben Person.
1) Troy - no one has done what he did against Michigan in a career since the two-timmer
2) George - another heisman, I guess it isn’t a coincidence
3) Kieth
4) Boston
5) Hawk
6) Krenzel
7) Jenkins - too many big plays in the most amazing season ever
8) Spielman
9) Pace
10 Tovar - don’t ask me, he was the man when I was a kid
since i’ve been following the buckeyes for 15 years or so (i’m 23, and really only seriously once i started college), it’s pretty easy to make a “favorites” list, although i’ll just keep it to five.
1. AJ HAWK (so easy, he was just the epitome of OSU football)
2. Krenzel (toughest football player i’ve ever seen)
3. Beanie (great guy, a warrior, and generally just a freight train from hell. he’ll probably be #1 or #2 by the time he graduates)
4. Troy Smith (wolverine killer, NC loss holds him back)
5. Mike Nugent (mr. automatic, nothing brought me more glee than seeing us line up at the 35 or 40 and seeing the other team wondering what the hell we were doing)
We should hold off on the lists until the post.
But to celebrate Winfield’s night, I nominate a post title: The Ballad of Antoine Winfield
‘Toine is so fun to watch. Dude loves the game, is a great cover guy and one of the most fearless run-support corners in the history of life.
You are dating yourselves with these lists.
One word: Tatum
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ve definitely been known to “date myself” on occasion.
I think any list without Speils at least in the top 2 is a joke…sorry guys! That guy not only was a lights out player, but emboides everything that is Buckeye Football.
I think it would be interesting to do it by coach and then some how match the teams up together. Seeing a Hayes, Bruce, Cooper and Tressel all time list and then seeing how they matched up with each other based on talent on the field would be amazing! Maybe a tournament (Seeds: 1. Hayes 2. Tressel 3. Bruce 4. Cooper)
It would have to be broken down in some way. Buckeye Grove isn’t a GROVE for nothing! Hell, the Dispatch did a “Best Buckeye by Number” a few years ago and even that was an impressive list of 99 names.
Also:
Did anyone catch the Dan Potokar interview on Friday? I heard it was on CBS and the kid seemed rather up beat and optimistic! If you know of a link, please share… or if you saw it, can you give an update?
to add to the Potokar interview… A girl that I work with is friends with his mom and she said that he is getting married in July, that alone has to mean that things are looking better for him.
The Pistol is a formation is great and it is sick with TP and BW. The problem is with JT calling the plays after we run the first two SCRIPTED series. It is not hard to stop an offense when they (we) are predictble.
“Say if we did top 10 buckeyes since 1980 or by decade or somethin’…”
I’d limit it to players you actually *saw* play, in person. If you don’t do that, you don’t have room for just ten players.
Forget Weanie, just imagine if I were in the backfield running this!!!
Anyone find it funny that Pryor chose Ohio State to run a pro-set offense (i.e. one he thinks would better prepare him for the NFL) instead of running a spread option at Michigan, and now Ohio State is sticking him in an option offense?
we’d be dumb not to have pryor run the option. it’d be a complete wast of his talents to take his running ability off the table like we eventually did with Troy Smith
We’re not running the option offense, Nebraska teams of old and Paul Johnson runs the option offense, we run the option as a play, not as a offensive philosophy.