Balance means equally well, not equally often

In football, you hear coaches, fans and media members talking about a balanced offense as it pertains to running and passing the ball.

The question is, do they mean equally often or equally well?

When a football team relies on the run to gain yardage, some people like to assume that team is not adept at throwing the ball. The same holds true in reverse. It’s as if there’s no in-between.

My belief is that too many fans, at all levels of football —with a shallow knowledge of the game — see the idea of “balanced offense” as throwing the ball, say, 25 times as well as running 25 times or throwing for an equal number of yards (plus or minus a few) as rushing.

I would contend that being balanced is not about how often you do both (run and pass) or what is the yardage distribution between run and pass — it’s about how well or efficiently you do both.

For instance, let’s say a team runs 25 times for 130 yards. That’s five yards and change per carry. Let’s also say they threw 25 times and completed 10 passes — that’s under 50 percent. That’s not a balanced offense.

It means you were good at one but stunk at the other.

Example No. 2, let’s say a team rushes 50 times for 275 yards and completes 7 of 10 passes. Too me, that’s balanced because they did both well.

As Nebraska football has reported to fall camp, I am hearing a little too much with regard to “what is Nebraska’s identity?” It’s simple, they are a running team. Just because they pass from time-to-time does not make them a passing team as opposed to a running team.

Being “multiple” as head coach Bo Pelini and Tim Beck suggest they want to be does not mean they are confused or don’t have an identity. It just means their idea of balanced is both phases, run and pass, being effective weapons. The ability to force a defense to play you honestly (defend both run and pass) is the key to a successful offense. Teams with poor offensive showings usually have no balance and the defense loads up to stop one phase.  

Since the NFL has become so quarterback-driven, the idea of “run to set up the pass” is an outmoded idea. Are you listening, Mike Singletary?

At that level of football, the philosophy is centered on “pass to get the lead, run to seal the win.”

The college game, however, has more of a mixture of such philosophy because there are teams that run a pro-style offense with dropback passers, and there are teams that run offenses that involve the quarterback running the ball.

As for the high school game, the run sets up the pass because after all, a high school team running a West Coast Offense will be the exception not the norm.

So how does this pertain to Nebraska for 2012? The Huskers also have their best group of receivers and tight ends since the Bill Callahan days, and quarterback Taylor Martinez is supposedly better at decisions and accuracy but you also have an All-American starting at tailback in Rex Burkhead, with two quality backups (Ameer Abdullah ad Braylon Heard). The tiebreaker is this, of the first four games Nebraska plays, the average of last year’s defenses of those teams is ranked 69th in passing and 66th in rushing (Passing: 92nd Southern Mississippi, 87nd UCLA, 53rd Arkansas St, 44^th) On the running side (Southern Mississippi, 25th; UCLA 14^th; Arkansas St. 120th).

I’m not suggesting those to be games where you suddenly morph into the Don Coryell-era San Diego Chargers but use those games as a means of “pass to set up run.”

I don't think there is going to be a drastic change to the amount of passes thrown, but more receptions. It won’t be the 70% completion rate that Martinez has established as a goal but a better passing game with an already good ground game turns into points. There will be at least minimal improvement to the defense, and I still see a lot of running to run the clock out. I think the biggest change is the use of more running backs other than Burkhead.