Other Strategy, Playbooks, Schemes, Formations, Tactics, Coaching & Philosophy

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For those that like football, and can read:

http://smartfootball.com/book#sthash.z28JvF5u.TE9iTwOs.dpbs

Have not read it yet but his last book was really good. Probably appeals to alot of the Aussie nfl fans that dont know why teams run cover 3 or other schemes, given that 95% of us have never played a down of organised gridiron.
 
I'd like to see an OC implement the Double Wing...curious to see how that would work in the NFL.

Basically, the OL is in zero splits (as in no gap between each other)...normally they're a yard apart.

And it's all about misdirection then, as the D can't see what's going on at all. Many options you can do out of it.

Just as a package of plays to run here and there.


 

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GG.exe said:
I'd like to see an OC implement the Double Wing...curious to see how that would work in the NFL.

Basically, the OL is in zero splits (as in no gap between each other)...normally they're a yard apart.

And it's all about misdirection then, as the D can't see what's going on at all. Many options you can do out of it.

Just as a package of plays to run here and there.


Click to expand...

Double wing always looked vulnerable to OLB pressure, while playing stay at home contain for the 3 D lineman in a 3-4. The scheme will get a few good plays, before you get a free rusher and big hit on the QB / RB. NFL rushes are much faster and stronger and will bypass Tackles that don't have their feet set early enough.
Once you know your edge rushers will likely take away the pass, you can play short to intermediate zone coverages. These will hopefully contain running plays, sniff out screens and potentially intercept the ball.
I do like an offense playing the double wing, probably because I like a power running scheme. Many NFL teams have moved away from big D lineman and I am hoping someone exploits this with a power line with a power back (*hoping it's the Ravens but doubt they would while Flacco is around).
 
http://www.espn.com.au/american-foo...alcons-qb-matt-ryan-solves-today-nfl-defenses

Falcons QB Matt Ryan breaks down what defensive chaos looks like from his side

A DRENCHED AND exhausted Matt Ryan walks off the Falcons' steamy practice field and drops into his seat in the shade with an exaggerated groan. As if practicing in the Georgia heat weren't hard enough, the nine-year veteran and three-time Pro Bowl passer also had to contend with his own offensive coordinator in coverage. Kyle Shanahan nearly broke the internet when he jumped in front of a Ryan pass floating toward the end zone -- the ensuing "interception" was a preseason gift for the ever-ready army of trolls. (Relax, everyone, the coach was actually teaching his rookie tight end about route depth.)

Ryan laughed off the viral spiral. In 2015, even while struggling to grasp Shanahan's new scheme, he still ranked fifth in passing yards (4,591) and was the NFL's most accurate passer under pressure. Which is why we thought he'd be perfect to offer a tutorial on the current defensive evolution.


THE MAG: Here's a number that jumps out: In 2012, there were seven QBs with an average release time under 2.5 seconds. 
In 2015, there were almost triple that, 20. Is that what defenses have done, forced nearly everyone on offense to move faster?

RYAN: Pressure schemes are much different than they were nine years ago, no question about it. That pressure forces offenses to route-adjust and throw quicker and get the ball out of the QB's hands. For me, pressure is when they overload one part of your protection. If you're in five-man protection and you've got three guys blocking one way and two guys sliding the other and they figure out how to bring three guys to that short side? To me, that's pressure. That's the biggest thing that's changed. Nine years ago, if you had five-man protection and they brought five people, there wasn't enough design on defense for them to still get you. Now defenses are dropping out tackles and ends, bringing certain linebackers on certain sides, all this extra design to make the numbers not right from a quarterback's perspective. What you end up with is perceived pressure, which is just as bad. That part has been increasingly difficult and probably leads to why so many guys are getting the ball out quicker.

i


Part of that new "design" is specialty personnel packages on what seems like every down now.

In the past, it was all about third downs. Second downs, you never had to worry. Now you do. One of the areas that's changed is second-and-7 or second-and-long, where you're in a passing situation. Now you see a lot of specialty packages come out. It's much more prevalent. Early on in my career, we didn't even used to break down second-and-long. That's how much things have changed.

What does that look like from the pocket?

It looks like nothing, and that's the challenge. It's now become about reading the defensive front, the way they're lining people up. But it doesn't look like it has any kind of structure to it. You've got five guys just walking around. That's one of the things you see more and more of: nobody with their hand in the dirt. So now you come to the line of scrimmage and on top of everything else you have 
to first identify who the bigs [defensive tackles] are, who the ends are and who the linebackers are. That's tough to do.

i


The idea of a classic matchup between a team's best edge rusher and your giant left tackle seems so antiquated. Then you realize that it was, like, five years ago.

That's so different now. Defenses have changed in how they move those guys around so much to try to find your weakest spot and put their best guy there to expose that. When I was getting into the league, you knew exactly where Julius Peppers was gonna line up. But now, with guys like J.J. Watt -- he could be lined up outside, he could be on the left side, he could be on the right side, it doesn't make a difference. He's an equal-opportunity pass rusher -- he goes after everybody from anywhere.

i


Watt is also part of this new trend of hybrid defensive players.

That's probably the biggest change: hybrid guys. Look at our rookies: De'Vondre Campbell [fourth-round pick from Minnesota]. You never used to see a linebacker like this, 6-4 and 232 and runs a 4.58. He flies. Back in the day, you'd never have a tight end on a linebacker in third-down situations. It was always a safety walking up. But now with a guy like Keanu Neal [6-0, 211-pound rookie safety, first-round pick from Florida], these guys are interchangeable. You slide him outside and then they've got you thinking, "OK, now we need to pass-protect for a linebacker." You're looking for the 'backer and then, instead, he covers the tight end and they bring a safety off the edge. They got me on that just the other day in practice.

Has it gotten to the point where defenses force you to study and prepare and think so much that you end up with paralysis at 
the line of scrimmage?

That's why it's so important now to throw everything out from the previous week. Delete everything from your memory and focus on just that next scheme -- that's the biggest thing now about being a quarterback. Every week it's different schemes, different pressures, different hybrids to worry about, so it'scontrol-alt-delete and on to the next defense and then control-alt-delete and on to the next one, for the entire season. If you start seeing ghosts from past games or past schemes, you're just back there thinking too much, like, "Is this this defense or that defense? Am I checking this play off this key or that key?" That's not what you want to happen.

Besides the mental pressure applied by the defense, there's pressure on fundamentals to be as efficient as possible, right?

The big thing in throwing now, you have to be able to throw from any platform because the timing of when things are open is really short and there's so many variables that affect your footwork. Your feet could be facing right, but things change or break down and now I need to throw left. My hips are facing this way, but, same thing, uh-oh, now I need to throw the other way. Footwork, flexibility, changing arm angles, all those things are very important now because you never really know how a pocket is going to shake out.

If you were teaching a young QB to face this next generation of defenses, where would you start?

See spots. That's my thing now. The older I've gotten, the more that's become my thing. Don't worry so much about where defenders should be or where they're supposed to be or all those kinds of things. Just see spots. And design most of your pass plays to be spot-read instead of coverage-based. Instead of getting loaded down thinking, "In this coverage, I'm going here; in that coverage, I'm going there." With so many hybrid players, so many variations of schemes and so much pressure up front and all the things that defenses can do, the way to combat all that is to see spots.

Aaron Rodgers told me the game moves so fast now, all you really can read are flashes of space and color. Is that what you mean?

Windows, yes. You start with a general idea of the coverage, but what's more important now is if you've got a post route that's going [to the deep middle], I need to be seeing this spot of the field, with 
this spacing, and if that window's not open within this certain timing, then you move on to that next spot and then to the next spot. You've got to feel it now more than ever.

Do these snapshots open and close like a camera lens? And can you prolong them?

Yes, so the key becomes doing things like having your head facing this way to fool the defense, but actually I'm looking at this lens over here, watching out of the corner of my eye to see if it opens, without showing the defense that's what I'm doing. Being able to move somebody to create that little bit of extra space needed to fit 
the ball in there, that's what's important for quarterbacks now. It's about kinesthetic awareness. Spatial awareness. The game moves so fast now, understanding space by reading body language is probably the most important thing.

We're into neurology and subconscious processing. I mean, when QBs get together, do you guys lament the good old simple days, like five years ago?

We are under constant barrage in the pocket now. Facing it requires a certain feel, a sixth sense. Because the minute you're looking at the edge rush and not downfield, you're toast. That's what separates quarterbacks now, the ability to process all that information in a millisecond, make a good decision based off that snapshot and then to physically be able to get the ball to where you want it to go.

I just realized we haven't even gotten to all the physical challenges of playing QB yet.

Exactly.
 
Numerous coaches told ESPN's Adam Caplan that Chip Kelly's offense was the "easiest to prepare for" in the NFL last season.

Caplan's remark came in response to an article penned by Smart Football's Chris Brown breaking down Kelly's offense and why it is "fundamentally broken," a must-read accessible at the link below. Brown noted that Kelly has failed to adjust to NFL nuances, among many other flaws. Kelly's offenses got progressively worse in Philadelphia and the 2016 version looked putrid this preseason. Currently sporting the NFL's worst assembly of skill-position players, Kelly is facing an uphill climb in San Francisco, to put it mildly.

Source: The Ringer
 
With HDTV and other high definition cameras I'd expect that NFL teams would be doing this kind of stuff all the time


Click on the tweet and read the whole thread, quite a few plays decoded
 
Sven said:
With HDTV and other high definition cameras I'd expect that NFL teams would be doing this kind of stuff all the time


Click on the tweet and read the whole thread, quite a few plays decoded
Click to expand...
Only 1 pass play on the 3rd and 12+. 2 runs with 1 being a draw.

Play sheets dont mean much if you dont know the terminology. and some keywords might be fakes just to mess with coaches who might know some of the words.

If it was a playbook that a camera saw coaches would be livid.
 

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I guess whatever the Eagles did in the NFC Champ game will be the blueprint for quieting the Viking's D, anyone know what they did? I thought there would be some analysis online somewhere but can't see any.
 
RPOs are such a small portion of our offence. Saying RPOs was the only key to beating the Vikings is just incorrect.

This is from the Athletic (which is a fantastic site, but has a subscription).

Long, and missing videos because they are hosted on their site and won't embed here, but still a good read.

https://theathletic.com/221464?shared_by=225601

Doug Pederson and Frank Reich have a routine. On the night before each game, they meet for about 60 to 90 minutes to go over the Eagles' offensive game plan.

“We have the call sheet in front of us,” Reich explained. “He has his first 15 [plays] that he's come up with. We always — it's kind of become a running joke about: How good are the first 15? It's fun.”

Said Pederson, “We just kind of go back through everything one last time. And for the most part, we're just kind of sitting and telling stories, just kind of reminiscing about the season, maybe the week we just had or something like that. But it's just a review of the plan and make sure that we're set on whatever our openers are for that particular game, make sure we're all set and just kind of go over everything one more time.”

The Eagles beat the Vikings, 38-7, on Sunday. But the victory was really secured during the week — from Tuesday to Saturday, when the coaches came up with a brilliant game plan against a unit that led the NFL in scoring defense (15.8 points per game) and boasted one of the best third-down defenses in NFL history.

After the game, veteran wide receiver Torrey Smith stood at his locker and was asked about the job that the Eagles' offensive coaching staff had done.

“The whole staff in general, they just prepare very well,” Smith said. “There’s never a game that we go in where we don’t feel like we have an answer for whatever they may bring. And that’s a credit to them. I look at our staff. To me, we have a bunch of head coaches that just happen to be on the same team. And so you have guys with that kind of experience, just their knowledge of the game and understanding our personnel, they put us in great position.”

The film is littered with examples of what Smith was talking about.

First quarter, 2:18

One of the hallmarks of the Vikings' defense is their double A-gap package. Mike Zimmer likes to stand his linebackers up in the A-gaps (the gaps between the center and each guard) before the snap. Sometimes, one of them blitzes. Sometimes, both do. And sometimes, both drop into coverage. With the game tied at 7 and the Eagles facing a 3rd-and-10 from the Minnesota 47, the Vikings showed the double A-gap look.

But the Eagles had a plan.

“We watched a lot of film,” said right tackle Lane Johnson after the game, in between sips from a can of Coors Light. “We knew that when they do their double-A schemes, the person that you point to is the guy that they’re gonna bring, so we’d point the opposite and let those guys drop out. So kind of reverse psychology on ‘em.”


The Eagles blocked this up perfectly, and Nick Foles found Zach Ertz for a first down.

“The guy you point to is typically the guy you slide to, so what they do, let’s say this happens the normal way, [Jason] Kelce points to [Eric] Kendricks (54). So then he’s blocking Kendricks. Then [Anthony] Barr (55) blitzes because he’s the running back’s guy, and he gets right in Foles’ face. There’s a couple options of what teams can do in this situation, so instead, [Kelce] points to Kendricks, and then he goes the other way.”

Foles was brilliant against the blitz in this game, completing 12 of 13 passes for 165 yards when the Vikings rushed five or more. On this play, Corey Clement did a great job picking up Harrison Smith, with an assist from Foles.

“Foles was pretty much in command of what was happening,” Schwartz said. “If you watch this play, he’s pointing out there. He knows what’s happening right now. He just looked comfortable.”

The signs of a well-prepared team were evident early on.

First quarter, 0:17

Eagles running backs ran 26 times for 114 yards against the Vikings. Those aren't eye-popping numbers. But the film showed an offensive line that was dominant for much of the game.

“The Eagles offensive line completely rolled up the Vikings on any double team blocks — especially early on,” Schwartz said.

This was a run-pass option (RPO) that the Eagles used on first down. Pederson has gone to these often with Foles at quarterback. He can either hand the ball off or get rid of it quickly, depending on what the defense is showing.

It's a way to simplify things for Foles and get the ball out of his hands quickly.

Note: All play diagrams are courtesy of Flinn

rpo2_0124182-1024x736.png


Barr (55) was in the box before the snap, leaving a window for Foles to hit Alshon Jeffery for a 9-yard gain. The offensive line was run blocking all the way, and Brandon Brooks and Johnson blew the Vikings' defensive linemen off the ball.

Reich played in the league from 1985 to 1998. He was asked earlier this week about whether he wishes he had some of the current tools available to him when he was a quarterback.

“What has evolved is the RPO game [which] was nonexistent when I played,” Reich said. “And everybody thinks RPO, they think young, athletic college quarterback, and that's not what the RPO game is all centered around. It's centered around accurate throwing, good decision-making and good execution. When we use it, Nick has shown a great aptitude of doing that very well.”

Second quarter, 13:42

The Eagles capped off this drive with an 11-yard LeGarrette Blount touchdown run. Their run schemes are diverse, and the coaches have done a smart job of calling the right runs against the right defenses all season long. On this particular play, the setup was what stood out to Schwartz.

“This wham is set up so well. You want to run wham to the shade [nose tackle],” Schwartz said. “What they do is they motion Ertz over to get the defensive front they want because they know they’ll flip the shades. So they flip the shades. Now you have the nose where you want him. And now, when [Trey] Burton (88) motions in like that, it’s a balanced formation.

“It’s so well blocked. Burton does just enough. You don’t have to kill the guy. The block here is Mack Hollins (10). If he doesn’t make this block, it’s a tackle for loss. People are going to say, ‘It’s a block in the back.’ Get over it. It’s not really. He hits him on the side first and continues to run his feet. When you have a wide receiver who can do this, this is special.”

Hollins, a rookie, has shown up as a blocker all season long. But he's been specifically impactful the last two weeks.

“Brooks (79) is moving him right out of the hole. Kelce (62) has his hands perfectly inside, gets his hat to the right place. First he does a great job of avoiding 92 by ripping underneath. He immediately gets his hat to the right place. He’s running his feet. His hands are inside. Brooks is doing the same. It’s just blocked so well, man. The Eagles have done this all season long.”

Blount finished off the run by running over safety Andrew Sendejo. And the Eagles took a 14-7 lead.

Second quarter, 2:00

After the Eagles' regular-season finale, one of the first things that Pederson did was watch old film of Foles. He needed to find something to get his quarterback on track. What made him comfortable? When was he at his best?

It's easy to forget now, but Foles was a disaster down the stretch during the regular season. His confidence looked shot. Before the playoffs, Foles completed just 56.4 percent of his attempts and averaged 5.3 YPA.

One play that Pederson has called on often the past two weeks is mesh-wheel, an Eagles staple during the Chip Kelly era when Foles threw 27 touchdowns and two interceptions in 2013.

mesh_wheel_clement012418-1024x727.png


This ended up being one of the key plays in the game. The Eagles were up 14-7 with two minutes left in the first half and faced a 3rd-and-6. The Vikings were bringing a blitz so Foles knew he had to get rid of the ball quickly.

The one-on-one matchup ended up being undrafted free agent Corey Clement against Pro Bowl linebacker Anthony Barr.

The Eagles won their matchups with Barr all game long. Clement's effort (BYOB stands for Be Your Own Blocker) got the Eagles a first down and extended their drive.

One thing that stood out with Foles all game long was he knew when to get rid of the ball and when he had time to hold on to it.

“He knew when it wasn’t gonna be picked up, and he knew when it was picked up that he was gonna have the time to be able to [extend plays],” Kelce said. “Know who the offensive line has, trust that we’re gonna be able to get it done, and when we don’t have ‘em — because you’re not gonna pick up everything — be ready to get the ball out.”

Second quarter, 1:18

All season, the biggest difference between Foles and Carson Wentz has seemed obvious. Wentz made a living extending plays and doing damage outside the structure of the offense. With Foles, it often felt like the longer he held on to the ball, the more likely it was that something bad was going to happen.

But that wasn't the case on his 53-yard touchdown to Jeffery.

“This play is kind of a hallmark of the Eagles season where guys just keep working, they keep straining,” Schwartz said. “The protection by [Halapoulivaati] Vaitai is not the best initially. [Everson] Griffen’s hands are inside. He’s walking him back. But he resets his hands. He gets his hands inside again. He gets his feet back inside of him. Is it a slight pressure? Sure. But this could have been a lot worse. He stops his momentum.

“What also makes it not worse is that Kelce is doing his job. Brandon Brooks comes back to help Kelce. It’s kind of like doing two jobs. He’s like, ‘OK, I pushed over one guy, boom. Let me close the door.’ And that allows Foles to hit a wide open Jeffery for a touchdown.”

Vaitai has been considered the weak link of the Eagles' offensive line ever since Jason Peters went down. But his improvement is obvious, and in the biggest game of the season, Vaitai delivered his best performance.

Third quarter, 10:13

After the game, Foles was asked what his reaction was when Pederson called the flea flicker.

“I think you just try not to smile,” Foles said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever run a flea-flicker. It was my first time so I just tried not to smile. Any time you’re a quarterback and you can have a play like that, it’s pretty exciting. Sometimes they go really bad. I’m just glad it worked and we were able to get a touchdown out of it.”

flea_0124181-1024x790.png


Reich said he knew during the Saturday night meeting with Pederson that he was going to call the flea flicker, even though it didn't look all that great in practice.

In the end, it wasn't that the trick play got Smith wide open. It was players making plays. Foles made maybe his best throw of the game, and Smith made an excellent catch. But the Eagles didn't get conservative. The call gave them a chance at another big play.

“[Pederson] said to me [Saturday] night, 'My whole goal in play-calling this game is: be aggressive, keep them off-balance, use all the little things that we have, [and] do the unexpected,” Reich explained. “And then together we talked about, 'Let's be aggressive but not reckless.' And that’s the fine line, and that's the art of it. And he did a phenomenal job.”

Third quarter, 5:00

Part of being a great schemer and play-caller is knowing what you've already shown on film. Against the Falcons in the divisional round, Pederson brought out a Wing T scheme that got Agholor free for a 21-yard run. It was a great call at the perfect time and something the Eagles had not used previously this season.

Against the Vikings, Pederson played off of that for another third-down conversion in the third quarter.

nakedboot_012418-1024x745.png


It was the same look as Agholor's run, but instead of handing the ball off, Pederson called a naked bootleg. Foles calmly found Ertz for a 6-yard completion on 3rd-and-4.

After the game, Eagles players marveled at the job Pederson did putting them in position to succeed. One of Pederson's strengths is he just wants good ideas and doesn't seem to care where they come from.

“I think that he’s just got a great knack for not only calling plays, but listening to other guys,” Kelce said. “I’ve played with coaches before that sometimes think they have all the answers and it’s all about them. Doug does a great job, I think, of listening to his coaches, players. Having faith that they’re giving him good information on what they think is there. And then at the same time, he’s got an incredible knack of being able to call certain plays in certain situations.”

Added Reich, “Coach [Pederson] has literally put together the best staff that you can possibly imagine, and that's how we work. We work as a staff together. It's fun to do it that way. It's fun when it's 'we.' It's fun when we've got a head coach who shares that responsibility and who is — and as the role of offensive coordinator, that's what you do: you coordinate. You take all the great resources that you have as far as the staff and our head coach, and you pile your ideas together, and then you've got to narrow them down, and that's what we do. And we get a lot of good input from a lot of different ways, and that's fun. I mean, it's fun to work with the guys we work with and have the players that run those plays.”

Ertz said the grouping of Pederson, Reich and quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo has been invaluable.

“We’ve got three guys that have offensive coordinator backgrounds,” he said. “Three guys that are able to go into the lab and formulate a game plan that puts us in situations to be successful. As players, that’s all you can ask for. It’s up to us to go out there and execute. And obviously we’ve got a lot of good players, but we’ve got amazing coaches as well.”

Fourth quarter, 14:15

Wentz spent the NFC championship game on the sideline. TV cameras often caught him checking out the tablet on the bench with Foles or cheering on his teammates.

But there's a reason why Wentz walked over to Pederson, gave him a fist-bump and let out a big smile after Jeffery's second touchdown of the game. The score came on Wentz's play, one that was in his playbook at North Dakota State and one that he convinced the Eagles coaches to install early in the season.

“Every time we score on his play, the smile's going to light up,” Reich said. “It was just executed very well. Doug called it at the perfect time.”

ndsuPre_0124181-1024x813.png


During Wentz's final year at North Dakota State, the Bison scored on this play in their championship game. As soon as Wentz got to the sideline, he called his offensive coordinator and told him they should go back to the play later in the game. Wentz explained that he would just add a shift or a motion to make it look different.

That's what they did, and it worked again.

And that's what the Eagles did against the Vikings.

ndsuPost_012418-1024x687.png


“That play’s been a staple of our offense,” Ertz said. “Obviously, you’ve got a guy like Alshon that’s able to high-point a ball like he can, makes it even tougher to stop. That’s a reason we bring a guy like that in. Two touchdowns in the NFC championship. He’s definitely eased the load on me and everyone else on offense. And his selflessness has rubbed off on the rest of us. I’m glad he’s on our team for a long time.”

In the end, the Eagles won their second straight playoff game as an underdog. With their backup quarterback, they piled up 456 yards, went 10-for-14 on third down and scored on five of their first seven possessions. It was a brilliant performance by players and coaches and should leave no doubt about Pederson's brilliance as a schemer and play-caller.

Now the Eagles get to see if they can do it one more time and bring Philadelphia its first Super Bowl title.

“He does a great job of deciding when to call each thing, but our staff is unbelievable at game-planning and putting us in position, no matter if it’s the run game, the pass game, the screen game, whatever it may be,” Foles said. “The attention to detail is unbelievable, and we go into a game feeling 100 percent confident because of our staff and the work and long hours that they put in to get the game plan to us so that we can go out and execute. That’s big for an athlete when you can go out there and trust everything
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