Can somebody please explain to me what's so overly complicated about Petersen's offense? It's one of things that's repeated so often that I'm wondering if it's just accepted dogma to the point where nobody's bothered to put real thought into it. I've only heard one credible source claim that the offense is complicated, and that was, I think, McGary after one of the inexplicable losses. And even that might have merely been in reference to that game's plan and not the overall picture.
To me, it looks like they run the same route concepts that every team runs. They run RPO. They run inside/outside zone and power. Mostly 12 personnel, sometimes 10. This is not groundbreaking. People complain about shifts and motion, but that really only fractionally complicates things while conveying a LOT of useful information to the offense.
I think the offense is actually quite brilliant in one way, which is favoring versatile athletes and changing plays at the LOS to take advantage of mismatched personnel groupings. The tight ends/H-backs are a big part of this. Guys like Chico in 2016 also (is he a back or a receiver?).
What I see as far as failings from the offense are far more fundamental. Plays are blown up usually when a guy just goes completely unblocked while one of the OL is blocking nobody. Or when receivers get zero separation, which is always. Almost every single team in football can execute a simple screen pass to the running back, but it's an instant cringe nearly every single time the Huskies have tried it under Petersen unless the running back makes a miraculous play. A screen pass is a screen pass, so it's not "The Offense" that makes, for some reason, the Huskies incapable of executing one. There's something else to it.
I see a formation/play that nobody would be surprised at all to see Oregon or Stanford or Arizona run, but it gets blown up because one of the OL is standing there looking for work, blocking nobody, while a DT and LB chase Browning around like a headless chicken. Is it offensive complexity that causes that?
I see a 3rd and long, Huskies put four out into the pattern on a basic concept that every team in the country has in their playbook. Blocking is fine, throw is fine, but defense is two-deep(ish), man-under, and no receiver has six inches of separation.
I saw a quarterback relying way too much on pre-snap read, leaving that read if it were taken away, and then not throwing the ball until AFTER he would see somebody break open, which is way too late 81% of the tim. Was this poor quarterback play or offensive philosophy?
So what is it? What is it specifically that makes Chris Petersen's Offense so much more complicated than everybody else's? A few examples would be great. Why is a crossing route concept from Washington rocket surgery but the exact same crossing route concept just basic air raid when the Cougs run it?
I have eyes, so I agree that the offense is fundamentally broken--it wasn't just Jake Browning, who was physically limited but not nearly as bad of a player as he's been given credit for here--but "it's too complicated" just seems too shallow. I think it's more likely a collection of very specific things that are breaking it, and they don't seem to be able to find and/or fix them.
