Andy Reid talks Game planning and the run game

[planetdoc]

http://www.milehighreport.com/2014/4...-chiefs-quotes

Originally Posted by Reid on Game planning

The most important offensive game decision comes after the 1st quarter when you've seen the defense's plan towards you and you look back on the three game plans you brought into the game and deciding which to go with. Waiting till half time could be too late so having your coaches already thinking by the 3rd or 4th drive about what the defense is doing and what game plan will be most effective against their devices is so important. The most successful coaches in any league are those that come prepared with backup plans that are grounded and being smart enough to adjust early on if needed. In-game coaching makes or breaks success.

When creating the game plans for a game on offense you never, never, ever, ever, is that enough? (laughter) Well you never plan for one player outside of the floating safety like you see in Earl Thomas up in Seattle and the middle linebacker who can cover. I remember when we faced against Lovie's (Smith) Bears we'd see great players but when we put that plan together we only focused on two players, the great Brian Urlacher and their safety Mike Adams. That's not to say their other stars didn't have talent or weren't a big part of the game, but they aren't game altering from a game plan stand point. When it comes down to it, planning for a corner or pass rusher is actually counter productive, by having our lineman or tight ends focus on one or two players as pass rushers it actually creates other opportunities for other players. By shifting your focus to only one aspect you let other opponents make plays. If a tight end is inexperienced and entirely focused on one player and then their blocking assignment changes, they are mentally unprepared and, more often then not, struggle. Same goes for focusing too much on a specific corner, if your signal caller is always looking for that corner instead of the real defensive signal callers, the mike and deep guy, his mind will natural look at that corner. They did a study of eye focus and when a quarterback is told to throw away from a specific corner, they actually kept shifting their gaze towards that player and had less time to go through their other routes and that lead to more mistakes.

Originally Posted by Reid on the run game

While many consider it dead, the iso(late) run is actually still around, it's just changed and if you ask a (offensive) line or running back coach and they will tell you they love the direction it's gone. While originally designed to use a big tail back (full back) to run in front of the main back, he would get past the defensive line and using experience and intelligence to select the defender to block that would boost the back into the open field. It was hugely successful until the need for another receiver was needed with the rise of the so called spread offense, a one tool player wasn't nearly as useful and while some teams still use those pure blocking full backs, and many use them successfully, many teams have moved away from them. But if you ask a coach, they'll tell you that the iso run is still a key part of any offense that values a run game, it just isn't obvious to those who only watch football instead of game planning it. The real change was that instead of a one tool full back it's shifted to tight ends and H-backs who can block and receiver, the full back isn't dead, it's just merged with the receiving tight end. If you talk to the tight end and line coaches of the teams with the most running success they all use their tight end as an iso blocker. Doesn't matter what scheme they run for blocking, even zone blocking. This only works with smart tight ends, if they can't properly identify who to block, they can make it worse, but the iso blocking scheme is still alive and well, don't be afraid to study to see if it would work with your team, discuss it with your coaches. Especially if you have two quality tight ends, this leads to an extremely flexible system that is potent as both run and pass formation.