Posted 03 October 2012 - 10:33 AM
The read option works in college for two reasons:
1. All but the very top 10% of college players are far slower than their NFL counterparts.
2. The hash marks in college are farther apart (40' between) and the wide side of the field is much larger, allowing for more room to extend the play. NFL hashmarks are so much closer (18'6" between) to the center of the field that an overload rarely works- it's difficult to go unbalanced, and the read option requires an unbalanced blocking scheme- someone needs to pull.
The read option will not work against the Seachickens- their defense is very fast, even more so than the rest of the league where the read option is quickly becoming the Panthers achilles heel.
Marshawn Lynch gets stronger as the game goes on and is very well known and respected for usually getting more yards late than early in games. Only if they're behind does his running take a back seat, but if they need to kill clock, he's the workhorse that will pound out first down after first down.