But it is old school football
Who’s playing fullback?
I think there’s a trust issue in play. I never worried about 3rd & anything under 20 with SOS. The 20-yard out route was always there and they’d routinely hit it. Penalties didn’t kill drives. Seemed like nothing killed drives.
Mertz is proving highly efficient within 15 yards. They stretched the field horizontally pretty well against Ut. The more that works it should open deeper routes, but I’m not sure Mertz sees or is willing to risk those when the sure thing is right there. And I’m not convinced Douglas, Faziars or Burke can get open deep. Pearsall can and hopefully Mizell and Jean will emerge soon. Maybe tonight.
And Billy loves efficiency. He wants to see step A perfected before moving to B. But we’ve got to threaten deeper to create space for the running game and underneath playmakers like Wilson or the athletic TEs.