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Originally Posted by PGaither84 |
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I agree with what has been said, and if I may, I would like to help give a detailed reply.
Have an identity
More to the point, have a core run concept/scheme.
Please allow me to talk defense in order to talk offense. Monte Kiffin was a legendary defensive coach in the NFL. He gave a clinic in the late 80's while still working with the Vikings. In this clinic, which was transcribed and recorded into a PDF, you can find the following where he speaks on the importance of stopping the run and how they did it.
"You have to stop the run first."
"If you can't stop the run, teams will never pass."
Well, the same is true on offense. There is the expression, "You throw to score and you run to win".
Let us take the "way-back machine" in time to visit he legend himself, Vince Lombardi, shall we? In the clip below, he teaches the Power Sweep. Watch between 1:07 and 1:59 where, in his own words, he talks about the importance of having a staple play/concept/identity. He goes on to teach the Power Sweep, which is not as relevant as the main point we are making here.
Formations
I will quote Bill Walsh from his QB manual:
Nothing more, nothing less.
NFL playbooks tend to follow a consistent structure, wherein they list the formations a team will use early in the playbook and later on will show plays/concepts with rules and how they look from different formations and against different defensive looks.
For example, SMASH. This is a core football concept which you will find in many formations in many playbooks, even when it is not named SMASH (though many are) as it might be the backside concept to compliment another play. Regardless, the point is that a team will teach Smash and use formations to give them an advantage for it to work.
What does this mean? How do I apply this?
1. Learn as much as you can about real football and real football concepts/plays.
2. Spend time in the lab (practice mode) learning the details of various playbooks and find one or more that you like.
3. Learn your audibles. Do not call a play which shows up as an audible from that formation... as you can always audible to it.
4. Usually, you come out with a pass where you want to beat cover 1 or cover 3 with the safety high in the middle of the field and are ready to beat that look.
5. If they come out with two safeties high and the middle open, feel free to kill to run (audible to run), or kill to something which beats that look.
NOTE: Good defenses will show one look pre-snap and roll to another look. For example, the Monte Kiffin play I began with shows a "Middle of Field Open" (MoFO) look, but rolls the Strong safety to the deep third and the Weak/Free safety is asked to fly and fill against any weak run action, contain a QB keeper, and flow to the curl/flat as the play develops. This allows the defense to try and stop the run with only 7 in the box by being fundamentally sound in their gap assignments.
Find concepts you like. Then find formations which help you execute those concepts.
My personal preference is the West Coast Zone Run scheme.
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Thanks for the reply and great breakdown. To follow along with your example. Defensively I've usually ran a cover 3 defense and play a specialty coverage on 3rd down(ex: man on 3rd and short.) This
article is pretty close to what I run(the Saban defensive section).
On defense I feel pretty comfortable. Generally I'd call a base cover 3 concept like cover3 sky on 1st. on 2nd down call another cover 3 concept depending on if its long or normal yardage situation. If it 2nd and 9 something like cover 3 buzz. If its 2nd and 5 maybe cover 3 match or zone blitz. On 3rd down some type of man or alternate coverage like cover 2/4 in long yardage situations.
As far as formation its easy on defense I just match up personnel and then choose a front that puts defenders in the gaps I want to defend.
One offense I have tried many different ways to call plays and I settled on a mix of box count reads and certain concepts for certain down and distances. But unlike defense I can't just choose a formation based on my opponents personnel and line players up to take away gaps. This is where I'm stuck I need a sound reason to call each formation. Not just well I want to run "play x" and its only found in "formation shotgun ace trips" so I have to run that formation.
I would like it to be more like "my opponent is running this defense or formation so I need to counter with shotgun ace trips formation because it gives me a better chance against his defense". Or I need to run formation shotgun doubles because it will give me more spacing and helps me to run this passing concept better.
Kinda of like this
article. Ex how when they get single high look they choose ends over. Its not a random choice it was a deliberate counter to what to defense was doing.