A lot of people talk about in football that there is a concept to be a successful offense you need "balance" or "run/pass balance".
I don't think this means
1. That you need to be roughly equal between your number of running plays and passing plays.
I don't even think this means
2. That you need a legitimate threat to both run and pass the ball -- though this definition to me is much preferable to the first one and I think it has utility.
I do think it means
3. That your offense needs to be multifaceted enough that opponents cannot stop you by doing the same thing over and over. You need either constraint plays or even a series of plays that are efficient enough to score points regardless of the run/pass balance. And if you have a superior player that they can key against, you need to spread the ball around to other players to counter that.
For a flexbone team this might mean running a counter option five times a game and getting all four players in your backfield at least 10 carries each. You can win a game this way without completing a pass. For an air raid team, it might mean seven competitions each to four different receivers running eight different pass concepts. You can win a game this way with 0 rushing yards. Not saying that is preferred, but it happens and fits within a concept of balance.
What does this mean for a Pitt team in 2018? I think we saw that against Duke and Syracuse. Our offense, oddly, was "balanced" despite so heavily being in the run column, because we were not so predictable or bad at executing that we could easily be stopped. The fly sweeps, inside zone runs, and the OCCASIONAL completed pass is enough for us to score 30-50 points against a lot of ACC opponents. But man this offense could be a lot more explosive if Pickett could stay in the pocket and complete a pass from it more frequently. A lot of our run game is basically 10 vs. 11, so at some point I do think the play action pass game and RPO stuff has to be more productive, because we will run into good defenses who take away both the inside zone as well as the fly sweep and then we'll need to do something else.
I would like to see the wildcat stuff (especially now that we have three or four backs who can run the ball) become more diverse as well. That's a way to spread the wealth in an 11 on 11 run play.
I don't think this means
1. That you need to be roughly equal between your number of running plays and passing plays.
I don't even think this means
2. That you need a legitimate threat to both run and pass the ball -- though this definition to me is much preferable to the first one and I think it has utility.
I do think it means
3. That your offense needs to be multifaceted enough that opponents cannot stop you by doing the same thing over and over. You need either constraint plays or even a series of plays that are efficient enough to score points regardless of the run/pass balance. And if you have a superior player that they can key against, you need to spread the ball around to other players to counter that.
For a flexbone team this might mean running a counter option five times a game and getting all four players in your backfield at least 10 carries each. You can win a game this way without completing a pass. For an air raid team, it might mean seven competitions each to four different receivers running eight different pass concepts. You can win a game this way with 0 rushing yards. Not saying that is preferred, but it happens and fits within a concept of balance.
What does this mean for a Pitt team in 2018? I think we saw that against Duke and Syracuse. Our offense, oddly, was "balanced" despite so heavily being in the run column, because we were not so predictable or bad at executing that we could easily be stopped. The fly sweeps, inside zone runs, and the OCCASIONAL completed pass is enough for us to score 30-50 points against a lot of ACC opponents. But man this offense could be a lot more explosive if Pickett could stay in the pocket and complete a pass from it more frequently. A lot of our run game is basically 10 vs. 11, so at some point I do think the play action pass game and RPO stuff has to be more productive, because we will run into good defenses who take away both the inside zone as well as the fly sweep and then we'll need to do something else.
I would like to see the wildcat stuff (especially now that we have three or four backs who can run the ball) become more diverse as well. That's a way to spread the wealth in an 11 on 11 run play.
