My opinion is that it's a combination of arrogance and complacency. Our offensive system says that we are going to take what the defense gives us, that's it, that's all. Therefore, we don't need to find ways to run on a stacked box because we are going to throw when the defense gives us that. The problem is that this is not an offensive identity, it's an inflexible rule that allows the opposing defense to dictate what we are going to do and prevents us from designing a game plan around our best players.
But that's not our main problem. Our main problem is that we aren't actually taking what the defense gives us, regardless of what HCMG states in press conferences. We are attempting to smash into stacked boxes repeatedly, wasting downs, not sustaining drives, and he complains endlessly that we never established the run and couldn't possess the ball for more than 20 mins. More often than not, we do exactly the thing you shouldn't be doing in every scenario. Need to burn clock? Let's run up the middle twice for losses, each time snapping the ball with 20 seconds left on the play clock, then throw a low % pass for an incompletion on 3rd and long. Yeah, that makes sense... Need to get down the field quickly? Let's take the clock down to zero before snapping the ball.
- We run into stacked boxes too often.
- We run to the short side of the field too often.
- We don't adjust our schemes around our personnel.
- We often throw to the wide side of the field, to the sidelines
- We often throw deep shots down the sidelines and fades in the end zone that rarely have success
- We play the most experienced, most tired, or most injured player too often. [I recall a specific instance with Joe Randle where he ran like 4-5 straight times, and asked to come off the field. They wouldn't let him, then forced him to run into a stacked box on 3rd and short, where he was tackled for a loss and got injured. It was one of the dumbest things I've ever seen on a football field.]
- We seemingly don't have a 4-minute offense
- We seemingly don't have a 2-minute offense
The fact is, when Gundy says "We haven't changed things around here in 10 years.", he actually means it. We see it. We've run the same 6 plays on a loop since Monken left. He does this because he has found an approach that gives him the most money for the least effort. He clearly doesn't care about the fans. His priorities seem to be his ego, his hobbies, money, Cowboy Culture, and further down the list...winning football games, maybe, and only because the wins are required to maintain the aforementioned priorities.