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Freeze makes best playcall of Week 2 by sticking with run in red zone
By Ethan Levine
Published:
The Ole Miss run game failed to gain any traction in its Week 1 victory over Boise State, but head coach Hugh Freeze did not let one performance sway him away from the run in the red zone Saturday against Vanderbilt.
On the Rebels’ first play of the day inside the red zone – a first-and-10 from the Vandy 19 yard line midway through the first quarter – Freeze ran a counter to the left with Jaylen Walton that went for a touchdown. Take a look at the play in these SDS game highlights (it’s the first play shown in the video):
Walton is usually used as a scat back who can catch passes out of the backfield and attack defenses on the perimeter with his quickness and shifty moves. You saw those moves on the second half of the play, as Walton eluded a crowd of tacklers to break a scoreless tie at the time.
However, it was Freeze’s intelligent play-calling that made it all happen.
On the play, right guard Justin Bell (No. 68) pulls around to the left and seals off an inside running lane for Walton to pursue. Tight end Nicholas Parker, lined up as a fullback on the play, also pulls around from right to left and leads Walton through the hole to daylight.
Now go back to the start of the play, pause the video immediately before the snap, and take a look at how the Vanderbilt defense is lined up. The Commodores only have their usual seven men in the box on first down against the Rebels’ three-receiver set, likely assuming the Rebels would either throw the ball to one of their big, athletic targets in the red zone, or attack on the outside with Walton.
Instead, Freeze called for a run between the tackles, and the Commodores did not have the men in-place to make a tackle near the line of scrimmage.
The end of the run can be credited to nothing more than Walton’s impeccable speed and quickness, but even if he hadn’t broken what seemed like two-dozen tackles, he’d have still picked up a nice gain on the play. This is a credit to the play’s design, the situation in which it was called, and the execution on the field.
Freeze called the right play at the right time, Walton and the Ole Miss offense executed to perfection, and they were rewarded with six points on the scoreboard.
A former newspaper reporter who has roamed the southeastern United States for years covering football and eating way too many barbecue ribs, if there is such a thing.
