calling plays from the qb

[RooMorgans]

I play in the league with Jimmie (BMEFA). He is a valued league member and someone I enjoy hanging out with every month.

Reg hit on a key point perhaps by accident .

Originally Posted by Reg

I know in your style, you say at the start of the play, the QB has the ball. When you see a guy coming in to hit the QB, you stop the board and then say the RB has it.

Here, as I see it, is the separator when it comes to coaching, etc. And I don't suggest this in a mean way to anyone, it's a just a view of the game as I've seen it. Certainly Reg and Jimmie have been around it way longer than I have and trust and value their opinions.

But in our style, the optimal way to play is not to "wait for pressure" to call a play, though he's absolutely right, that's what most guys do. But it's not the way to be the most successful.

Let me 'splain. Even in our style, gameplanning and scheming your attack are vitally important. Everyone who plays me knows exactly what my offense is. It's bland. It's boring. And it's a far cry from the way I used to play in the old Browns' days. ... But I do it for a reason. It works. What you need to know about your team offensively are these things:

1) What your running backs will do with open field in front of them. Do they hang left, do they run in a semi-circle, will they go straight?

2) How fast will your receivers shed the coverage, given that most coaches play bag-and-tag with their corners?

3) At what angles will your quarterback run to best elude pressure?

Quarterback: I'm no coaching or football expert. Never would claim to be. But I know (for the most part) what my guys do. I know what angles Roethlisberger can run at to best optimize his strength. Such that my play call isn't predicated on the defensive getting in to make me hit the switch, but rather, I have "X" amount of seconds before Roethlisberger gets to this exact point on the field, and at that time, Receiver X and the back-side tailback should be open.

Running Backs: All things being equal, I know the best angle for my two tailbacks to take to get to a certain spot on the field. Knowing what everyone else does in the offense, I also know that if everyone gets to the right point, the strong side tailback is going to be open 6-10 yards down field. I trust this all will take place and I run my play. Sometimes it doesn't. That's football. Or sometimes (not often ) I miss the pass. It happens. That's football.

Receivers: Some plays, I don't want any receivers to get open. Others, I need a certain one to break off and go. Depends on the play. They may just be blockers so that the aforementioned tailback can get the corner and go. But barring the other team having bases I just can't contend with (which happens, that's EF), I know what they will need timewise to "slip" open. And on any given play, only one receiver ever needs to get open.

The bottom line of this long-winded post is this. The first step to moving from basic EF coach to the next level is to learn that calling plays comes before the snap, not when you are staring down the barrel of a blitzing looper and you need to hit the switch just to avoid a 14-yard sack. Coaches know I used to set my QB to spin every play, wait till pressure got close, see who was open and throw it. And I had success, because those Browns had great skill players and I could throw it around a little bit. But I couldn't ever call a run, or anything like that, because I didn't know how.

Now, to a little extent, I do. Now I find myself - and this is after 8 years of playing mind you ... EIGHT - beginning to trust things before they happen. Knowing that if everything goes as I think it should, such and such is going to open up and that's where I'm going. Or, if I set up a running play and it kinda looks like the defense might be set up such that it won't work - but the plays before that have shown your eyes different based on how the defensive players react - go with it. That trust takes a long time to build up. I'm not good at it yet. I'm just learning. But if you learn it, then you can excel at the type of system we play, and do very well at the declare the play system that Reg referenced, and there's nothing at all wrong with that system - I've played in leagues using both and enjoyed them all.

One other thing I'll put out there. The thing that helped me develop as a "coach" more than any other was the Strategy Divider. I know some coaches aren't down with it, and that's fine. No harm, no foul. But the first year I played in the Tidewater with Don Smith and all them and we used the Divider, I learned how to accomplish things I never thought I could do in terms of in-game coaching, etc. Mike Pratt will remember a game he and I played that season, Browns v. Chiefs - I ran the ball 6 straight plays, off guard and off tackle, went down and scored. He had a quizzical look on his face afterward and I asked him what was up.

"I'm not mad you ran on me ... I just can't believe YOU did it."

It takes practice with your players, lots of game rep, confidence, and trust.

If you have that, you'll soon find out that the other factors such as weight limits and what not don't really matter as much.

Ed

PS: Jimmie, the league weight max in BMEFA is 3.6, I believe (it might be 3.5, I'm not sure). They upped this year, though I'm still playing with my same 2.7 and 2.9 guys.

[Reginald Rutledge]

An old dog can learn new tricks too Ed! Great points. By the way, the Jimmie that started this post is actually Jim Jackson, not Jimmie from the BMEFA.

I printed your information off Ed. Very enlightening.

Reg

[RooMorgans]

Aha! I'm blind. I never looked at jimmie's location.

But I stand by all the good things I said about the Jimmie in our league.

Ed

[Coach K-LO]

Ed,

Excellent break down of the offensive execution that you practice.

I use some of those same concepts to make my plays happen. if you account for the defense (where they are coming from) you can open up even more offensive possibillities after they clear space