Football
Rudolph Says Cowboys Will Play More Under Center In 2016 Which Could Mean a Lot
OSU starting quarterback Mason Rudolph recently told Fox Sports reporter Bruce Feldman that the Cowboys will play more under center in the coming season.
#OKState QB Mason Rudolph told me he played from under center about 15% of the time last year. He expects it may be up to 20-25% this year.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) July 20, 2016
So why is this a big deal? Well, the only reason that the Cowboys would go under center more is for the run game, and more specifically, the zone run game.
Let’s speculate — it probably isn’t only for the pass, as the only reason that they would go under center for the passing game would be if they were transitioning to a different passing scheme (e.g. west coast). So we’re left with the run game.
It’s unlikely that they’ll be trying to one back power and counter trey their way down the field, so if you exclude any gap scheme, you’re left with the inside and outside zone.
This conclusion makes a lot of sense if you think about it. Go back to last season when the Cowboys played Iowa State. They went under center for a good chunk of the game, and it actually helped the run game a good deal transitioning from the two back power to the one back outside zone.
Take this run by former Cowboy Raymond Taylor as an example:
Additionally, the quarterback-running back exchange is much more visual than in the shotgun, and that action sets up for deep shots down the field:
Whether this is a reality or all just speculation is currently unknown, but there’s a good chance that this is the reason. Does this mean that they are transitioning to more of a zone-dominant run scheme?
If they eventually increase the use of under center even more, will we see any incorporated misdirection or additional wrinkles? Rudolph’s comment might mean little to the average fan. But when you think about it, it could imply a whole number of things, specifically that the Cowboy staff is doing everything it can to create an offense even better than last season’s.
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