I said this in the O-line thread to the dismay of a couple posters and I will repeat it here. We are going to need to be able to run IZ for this offense to be all that is needs to be. Like @CHIEF is saying, go back and look at the play by play the last two weeks in the second half and what you will see is two defenses that adjusted to OZ and outside of a couple popped runs, shut it down. So right now what you have is a hodge-podge of plays that do not work with one another, giving us no built in constraint plays to fool defenses. Our passing plays aren't built off OZ, because there is not a whole lot of play action you can run off OZ. So teams aren't fooled when we drop back to pass. Couple that with the fact that the O-line is letting people through unblocked on a consistent basis and you have what's been happening in our second halves.
It goes like this. We come out firing on all cylinders. Defenses start taking away the run game, getting us in long yardage situations. We cannot pass block long enough to punish them for playing inside of 10 yards. The QB hits all game start to affect the QB's clock, speeding him up, and taking him out of rhythm. That's what we saw against Arkansas, and any other game we struggled in. So what should be a pitch and catch screen pass to our most dynamic WR on 2nd and 1 with the defender 12 yards away, ends up being an errant pass thrown towards the LOS, right into the charging DB. Next play the QB is rattled on an easy Zone Read play where the DE immediately crashes down to tackle 5, and the outside(where the QB should go) would've been an easy first down, but rattled QB goes inside right into the back of his own line, loss of 2. 4th and 3, we drop back but rattled QBs eyes immediately come down to see the rush and he starts running not noticing Brewer just standing there for an easy flip for a 1st. Could we have called a handoff and got the 1st there? Sure, hindsight is always 20/20, but if those don't work we are here wondering why we didn't run a screen.
If you are going back and watching the games with the emotion taken out this is what you are seeing. An O-line that doesn't hold up, which is causing all the other facets of the game to fold over the course of a contest. DO NOT OVERTHINK IT. Football is complimentary both negative and positive. Keep QBs clean and throws get made. QBs who get hit start making mistakes. Run the ball and the passing game opens up. Hold onto the ball on offense and your defense tends to play well for 4 qtrs. Most of these truths are as old as time.