AllWorldTE
Well-known member
BOB is a big topic of conversation on this board, probably several others and on talk radio. I heard a lot of discussion about him on the radio today, most of which made little sense to me. Many people appear to be unhappy with his performance as OC. He has his defenders and his critics, the critics being more vehement.
I enter these discussions understanding that there are three individuals who are flash point guys on any football team. The head coach, the Offensive Coordinator and the Quarterback. The Defensive Coordinator will take heat sometimes as well but rarely the heat the OC takes because fans better understand the offensive side of the ball.
It's every fan's right to criticize (or defend) the head coach, the OC, the QB, whoever. This doesn't make the arguments, either way, most of which are based on little to no information, valid IMO. Some people just enjoy calling out the QB or the coach and aren't interested in anything more than that which is certainly their right, especially if doing so adds to their enjoyment of the sport. If you are one of those folks, reading this might not interest you.
Rather than jump around several threads posting responses to posts here & there, I figured I throw my thoughts out in this thread and see what happens. Hopefully reasonable discussion ensues. We do have two weeks to kill after all.
As a disclaimer, as some members know, I happen to be a high school football coach in the Foxboro area and I coordinate our offense. This does not make me the/an authority on all things NFL or football in general. I also "know" Bill O'Brien, meaning I've spent time with him talking football. I am not a friend or true acquaintance; I just took the opportunity to learn some ball from him (while he was coaching at Maryland) in the past and enjoyed the experience. I personally think he's doing a good job in the role. Is he the best OC ever? Hardly. Is the guy holding this team back? Hardly.
First off, I've learned a lot about coordinating an offense and offensive game planning from a whole series of coaches including guys from the high school, college and professional levels. I've read Brian Billick's book on game planning many times and have found many other NFL guys frequently re-enforcing his ideas, which came from Bill Wash, so I feel I'm on solid ground presenting some of his ideas here.
First off, an OC's job is to coordinate the offense. To quote Billick, that doesn't mean "offensive genius", "Guru" or "Mastermind." Coordinate means "to arrange in proper order, harmonious adjustment or interaction"
An OC must be able to interact with the offensive staff to take advantage of their talents while developing and implementing the offense & game plans. They must also keep in mind that even "the most brilliant game plans are useless unless they can be learned and executed by the players. To this end how you install and practice your game plan is almost as, if nor more important, that the selection of plays you come up with.
The OC must develop an offense that meets it's season long needs, that maximizes his player's abilities, and prepares them for the situations they will face during the season. Each game plan is a microcosm of this task.
They must:
Determine the size and scope of the offense
Outline situational offensive needs
Implementations of game plans
Determine game day needs
"Determining the size of your offensive package is the most fundamental function" of the OC.
Once the OC and his staff determine how big their offensive package is going to be, they need to determine the run/pass/draw/screen ratio. They must fit their package to their eventual game day needs:
Base Offense
3rd Down
Pre-Red zone
Red Zone
Special categories.
Getting further into developing a game plan isn't the point of the thread so I'll leave it at this. Basically BOB and his staff are given directives by the head coach to develop an offensive package for the season that will meet the teams' needs and that fits into BB's philosophy that he feels will put the team in the best position to be successful.
The OC and the staff must then game plan weekly for each team they will face. They will not carry their entire offense package into each game. They will come up with a plan that meets each situation by ratio. They don't want to carry twenty plays designed for 3rd & 1 when experience shows that they most often only face two or three 3rd & 1s per game for example. Every game plan will carry overages for special contingencies that amount to about 20-25% of the game plan.
The OC must keep in mind that the game plan must meet the its needs for each particular game while not being too large and cumbersome to install, teach and rep up at practice that week. Most of the play calls being made each week are not made on the sideline; they are made during the week by the coaching staff as they finalize the game plan. It is rarely called on the fly.
So BOB's job is to develop an offense and establish game plans, with his staff, that meet the philosophical needs of BB. BOB has to have a plan for every situation and the players have to be prepared to execute it. It's not always going to work. If it's not working w/regularity then there is either a talent problem, a coaching problem, or both.
The Patriots have been very successful on offense this season. Their game plans are working. They have lost three games to this point. Who knows if they will win anymore; they may, they may not. Either way, they have enjoyed great success on the offensive side of the ball. Are they prefect? No. I'm not suggesting they are.
From what I gather, there are a few specific overriding criticisms that seem to come up a lot by BOB's detractors. IMO, a lot of the criticisms are based on what amount to fallacies that I personally have a hard time taking seriously. I heard one of the morning hosts on 98.5 making an argument this morning which sounded great but was based totally on an non-existent situation. He was using something that doesn't exist as the basis of his argument, which is why I couldn't take his opinion seriously.
I'll address some of the complaints I've heard recently and my thoughts on them. Feel free to comment on them, dispute them, trash them or simply call me an asshole if you wish. Its entirely possible I have no idea what I'm talking about.
Play calling:
I've heard many people talking about how predictable BOB's play calling is. In my experience, that usually means that you get a good feel if the Pats are going to run the ball or pass the ball. I'm certain many can predict with pretty good accuracy whether they are going to pass or run. Even a blindfolded chimp has an even chance of guessing it right. If you watch this team every week, you have a far better chance of guessing right (if you've been paying attention).
The Pats' offense operates on a 60/40 pass to run ratio. Without taking any other factors into account, if you say "It's a pass" prior to every snap, you'll be hitting on 60% of your predictions. Dionne Warwick would be thrilled. If you've been paying attention and recognize the Pats' personnel groups and formations, you'll be downright Nostradamus like in your predictions. Every time you see them in empty, predict a pass, every time you see a heavy group and alignment, predict run. In everything else, simply predict a pass. You'll be right about 80% of the time and your friends will be astounded!
Seriously, if you're an interested fan, you can predict run or pass at an amazing clip but do you know what, that has nothing to do with BOB. Almost every offensive system is the same. I used to like watching Mike Leach's Air Raid teams at Texas Tech. I could put a blindfold on and predict run or pass at an 80% rate because his teams threw the ball 80% of the time. Football's a pretty simple game.
For the Pats to be less predictable, they could easily become so. Eliminate personnel groups and formations (use three each instead of the multitude we see now). Develop an offense based on a 50/50 run/pass ration and stick to that ratio in all situations. This would eliminate predictability. But you know what, that chimp would still have a 50/50 shot of guessing right and the Pats' offense wouldn't be what it is.
If you prefer that philosophy on offense rather that what the Pats are doing, don't put it on BOB. This is Belichick's philosophy. BOB may agree with it or not but it's BB's team. It's what he wants when they build the offensive package in the off-season. If you are like Dwight S, you'd prefer a less predictable power run game/play action based offense like the one the Chargers ran back in 2006. That's fine. It's personal preference. There is no right or wrong. But blaming the lack of your preferred offensive philosophy on BOB's "play calling" is wrong. The ratio is based on BB's directives. Week to week or situationally, sure you could say, a little more or less run in this game was the way to go but in general, this is not a play-calling issue. Wanting BOB removed because he doesn't call enough runs totally ignores why that is.
The predictable play-calling issue fails to go beyond run or pass. What run? What pass? I'd be willing to bet that the guy I heard on the radio today calling out BOB for predictability could call out run or pass with some accuracy but what're the chances he could call out what type of run or pass? I'm betting his accuracy rate would be pretty low.
Another so-called play calling issue that comes up is when a play doesn't go I frequently hear somebody say is was due to poor play calling. Really? That's always the reason? It's never an execution problem, the defense never makes a nice play, it's always the "poor play calling". When a play goes, it was a great call! It might be the same call in the same situation, the first time it goes (great call!), three games later it doesn't (bad call!).
Maybe if the Pats had All-Pros at every spot but they don't. They are not going to win every physical battle every time.
I've seen some complaints about the play calling on the goal line the other day. Was it bad play calling because they didn't score? They called a run that got blown up when Marcus Cannon used improper technique on his assignment. Should BOB have asked Scar during their goal line game plan meeting, is Cannon personally going to shit the bed if I call this play? They installed the play in their game plan, they prepared for and practiced it and when they called it, Cannon didn't get it done. Poor play call! Later on they called a run on the goal line where Bennie broke tackles and got in....great call!
I've heard people complaining that they should run the ball more on the goal line but when they do and it doesn't go...bad call!
Another goal line play was an audible by Tom Brady. He changed the play call to a pass, looking to hit Welk on a quick out against man coverage. Brady has been hitting that play on the goal line since the Charlie Weiss days (great call!). Here, he checks to it but Ocho didn't execute the rub the play calls for to get Welk free so Brady didn't throw it (great recognition by Brady BTW) so obviously this was a bad call!
Another factor in the bad play calling game is the tendency to remember the negatives over the positives. Why did that fool BOB call a Draw on 2nd & 15...what an asshole, that NEVER works!!!! They should have passed the ball there. I heard this argument today.
Well lets see, on 2nd & 15 the goal is to get back on schedule to put yourself in position to gain a first down. You could throw a pass down the field every time this situation comes up but that effing chimp would have a field day. You can screen here, quick pass, drop back pass, Draw, play pass off the Draw, a whole shit load of things. Should the Draw be eliminated from the play calling menu in this situation? Never use it because it NEVER works, ever! I'm willing to bet the Draw in that situation has been a positive play at some rate better than NEVER for the Pats. So was it a bad call because it NEVER works or because it didn't work this time? If we dump the Draw we also have to dump the PA Pass off the Draw too because they work off each other. Too bad because Hernandez scored on a play pass off Draw action the other day.
How much offense would be left if every play that didn't work at a 100% success rate was eliminated from ever being used again? If there is a play with a 100% success rate, please get it to me. I'd like to make use of it.
Speaking of eliminating plays, many people hate the Toss the Pats' run. That's fine you can hate the play but most of the time they say they hate it because it NEVER works...NEVER! Well, I've seen it go. I saw it go with Ridley the other day. I've seen it go with Bennie and Woody too. How often does it really not go? Less than NEVER at the very least. There are only so many run plays that exist. In addition to the Toss, the Pats' base run game consists of Inside Zone, Outside Zone and One Back Power with some specialty plays on the menu as well. I've seen each of those plays not go many times. I saw each get stuffed just the other day. Is it bad play calling? If BOB can't call any of these runs because they don't go at a 100% rate, what's he going to call?
Hey, BOB isn't perfect. Who the hell is? His calls aren't always great. Sometimes you make a call and the defense is prepared for it. Sometimes your call has no chance to work because of this. That's when you see audibles, time outs etc. I'm just saying that the tired ol' "poor play calling" mantra is pretty much based on nothing. Find me an OC who never makes a bad call?
I'll continue my manifesto in another post if anyone is interested. I'm not trying to call anyone out as I know many fans enjoy this part of the game. I was on the road today and just heard too much of it that made no sense to me. Please don't be offended.
I enter these discussions understanding that there are three individuals who are flash point guys on any football team. The head coach, the Offensive Coordinator and the Quarterback. The Defensive Coordinator will take heat sometimes as well but rarely the heat the OC takes because fans better understand the offensive side of the ball.
It's every fan's right to criticize (or defend) the head coach, the OC, the QB, whoever. This doesn't make the arguments, either way, most of which are based on little to no information, valid IMO. Some people just enjoy calling out the QB or the coach and aren't interested in anything more than that which is certainly their right, especially if doing so adds to their enjoyment of the sport. If you are one of those folks, reading this might not interest you.
Rather than jump around several threads posting responses to posts here & there, I figured I throw my thoughts out in this thread and see what happens. Hopefully reasonable discussion ensues. We do have two weeks to kill after all.
As a disclaimer, as some members know, I happen to be a high school football coach in the Foxboro area and I coordinate our offense. This does not make me the/an authority on all things NFL or football in general. I also "know" Bill O'Brien, meaning I've spent time with him talking football. I am not a friend or true acquaintance; I just took the opportunity to learn some ball from him (while he was coaching at Maryland) in the past and enjoyed the experience. I personally think he's doing a good job in the role. Is he the best OC ever? Hardly. Is the guy holding this team back? Hardly.
First off, I've learned a lot about coordinating an offense and offensive game planning from a whole series of coaches including guys from the high school, college and professional levels. I've read Brian Billick's book on game planning many times and have found many other NFL guys frequently re-enforcing his ideas, which came from Bill Wash, so I feel I'm on solid ground presenting some of his ideas here.
First off, an OC's job is to coordinate the offense. To quote Billick, that doesn't mean "offensive genius", "Guru" or "Mastermind." Coordinate means "to arrange in proper order, harmonious adjustment or interaction"
An OC must be able to interact with the offensive staff to take advantage of their talents while developing and implementing the offense & game plans. They must also keep in mind that even "the most brilliant game plans are useless unless they can be learned and executed by the players. To this end how you install and practice your game plan is almost as, if nor more important, that the selection of plays you come up with.
The OC must develop an offense that meets it's season long needs, that maximizes his player's abilities, and prepares them for the situations they will face during the season. Each game plan is a microcosm of this task.
They must:
Determine the size and scope of the offense
Outline situational offensive needs
Implementations of game plans
Determine game day needs
"Determining the size of your offensive package is the most fundamental function" of the OC.
Once the OC and his staff determine how big their offensive package is going to be, they need to determine the run/pass/draw/screen ratio. They must fit their package to their eventual game day needs:
Base Offense
3rd Down
Pre-Red zone
Red Zone
Special categories.
Getting further into developing a game plan isn't the point of the thread so I'll leave it at this. Basically BOB and his staff are given directives by the head coach to develop an offensive package for the season that will meet the teams' needs and that fits into BB's philosophy that he feels will put the team in the best position to be successful.
The OC and the staff must then game plan weekly for each team they will face. They will not carry their entire offense package into each game. They will come up with a plan that meets each situation by ratio. They don't want to carry twenty plays designed for 3rd & 1 when experience shows that they most often only face two or three 3rd & 1s per game for example. Every game plan will carry overages for special contingencies that amount to about 20-25% of the game plan.
The OC must keep in mind that the game plan must meet the its needs for each particular game while not being too large and cumbersome to install, teach and rep up at practice that week. Most of the play calls being made each week are not made on the sideline; they are made during the week by the coaching staff as they finalize the game plan. It is rarely called on the fly.
So BOB's job is to develop an offense and establish game plans, with his staff, that meet the philosophical needs of BB. BOB has to have a plan for every situation and the players have to be prepared to execute it. It's not always going to work. If it's not working w/regularity then there is either a talent problem, a coaching problem, or both.
The Patriots have been very successful on offense this season. Their game plans are working. They have lost three games to this point. Who knows if they will win anymore; they may, they may not. Either way, they have enjoyed great success on the offensive side of the ball. Are they prefect? No. I'm not suggesting they are.
From what I gather, there are a few specific overriding criticisms that seem to come up a lot by BOB's detractors. IMO, a lot of the criticisms are based on what amount to fallacies that I personally have a hard time taking seriously. I heard one of the morning hosts on 98.5 making an argument this morning which sounded great but was based totally on an non-existent situation. He was using something that doesn't exist as the basis of his argument, which is why I couldn't take his opinion seriously.
I'll address some of the complaints I've heard recently and my thoughts on them. Feel free to comment on them, dispute them, trash them or simply call me an asshole if you wish. Its entirely possible I have no idea what I'm talking about.
Play calling:
I've heard many people talking about how predictable BOB's play calling is. In my experience, that usually means that you get a good feel if the Pats are going to run the ball or pass the ball. I'm certain many can predict with pretty good accuracy whether they are going to pass or run. Even a blindfolded chimp has an even chance of guessing it right. If you watch this team every week, you have a far better chance of guessing right (if you've been paying attention).
The Pats' offense operates on a 60/40 pass to run ratio. Without taking any other factors into account, if you say "It's a pass" prior to every snap, you'll be hitting on 60% of your predictions. Dionne Warwick would be thrilled. If you've been paying attention and recognize the Pats' personnel groups and formations, you'll be downright Nostradamus like in your predictions. Every time you see them in empty, predict a pass, every time you see a heavy group and alignment, predict run. In everything else, simply predict a pass. You'll be right about 80% of the time and your friends will be astounded!
Seriously, if you're an interested fan, you can predict run or pass at an amazing clip but do you know what, that has nothing to do with BOB. Almost every offensive system is the same. I used to like watching Mike Leach's Air Raid teams at Texas Tech. I could put a blindfold on and predict run or pass at an 80% rate because his teams threw the ball 80% of the time. Football's a pretty simple game.
For the Pats to be less predictable, they could easily become so. Eliminate personnel groups and formations (use three each instead of the multitude we see now). Develop an offense based on a 50/50 run/pass ration and stick to that ratio in all situations. This would eliminate predictability. But you know what, that chimp would still have a 50/50 shot of guessing right and the Pats' offense wouldn't be what it is.
If you prefer that philosophy on offense rather that what the Pats are doing, don't put it on BOB. This is Belichick's philosophy. BOB may agree with it or not but it's BB's team. It's what he wants when they build the offensive package in the off-season. If you are like Dwight S, you'd prefer a less predictable power run game/play action based offense like the one the Chargers ran back in 2006. That's fine. It's personal preference. There is no right or wrong. But blaming the lack of your preferred offensive philosophy on BOB's "play calling" is wrong. The ratio is based on BB's directives. Week to week or situationally, sure you could say, a little more or less run in this game was the way to go but in general, this is not a play-calling issue. Wanting BOB removed because he doesn't call enough runs totally ignores why that is.
The predictable play-calling issue fails to go beyond run or pass. What run? What pass? I'd be willing to bet that the guy I heard on the radio today calling out BOB for predictability could call out run or pass with some accuracy but what're the chances he could call out what type of run or pass? I'm betting his accuracy rate would be pretty low.
Another so-called play calling issue that comes up is when a play doesn't go I frequently hear somebody say is was due to poor play calling. Really? That's always the reason? It's never an execution problem, the defense never makes a nice play, it's always the "poor play calling". When a play goes, it was a great call! It might be the same call in the same situation, the first time it goes (great call!), three games later it doesn't (bad call!).
Maybe if the Pats had All-Pros at every spot but they don't. They are not going to win every physical battle every time.
I've seen some complaints about the play calling on the goal line the other day. Was it bad play calling because they didn't score? They called a run that got blown up when Marcus Cannon used improper technique on his assignment. Should BOB have asked Scar during their goal line game plan meeting, is Cannon personally going to shit the bed if I call this play? They installed the play in their game plan, they prepared for and practiced it and when they called it, Cannon didn't get it done. Poor play call! Later on they called a run on the goal line where Bennie broke tackles and got in....great call!
I've heard people complaining that they should run the ball more on the goal line but when they do and it doesn't go...bad call!
Another goal line play was an audible by Tom Brady. He changed the play call to a pass, looking to hit Welk on a quick out against man coverage. Brady has been hitting that play on the goal line since the Charlie Weiss days (great call!). Here, he checks to it but Ocho didn't execute the rub the play calls for to get Welk free so Brady didn't throw it (great recognition by Brady BTW) so obviously this was a bad call!
Another factor in the bad play calling game is the tendency to remember the negatives over the positives. Why did that fool BOB call a Draw on 2nd & 15...what an asshole, that NEVER works!!!! They should have passed the ball there. I heard this argument today.
Well lets see, on 2nd & 15 the goal is to get back on schedule to put yourself in position to gain a first down. You could throw a pass down the field every time this situation comes up but that effing chimp would have a field day. You can screen here, quick pass, drop back pass, Draw, play pass off the Draw, a whole shit load of things. Should the Draw be eliminated from the play calling menu in this situation? Never use it because it NEVER works, ever! I'm willing to bet the Draw in that situation has been a positive play at some rate better than NEVER for the Pats. So was it a bad call because it NEVER works or because it didn't work this time? If we dump the Draw we also have to dump the PA Pass off the Draw too because they work off each other. Too bad because Hernandez scored on a play pass off Draw action the other day.
How much offense would be left if every play that didn't work at a 100% success rate was eliminated from ever being used again? If there is a play with a 100% success rate, please get it to me. I'd like to make use of it.
Speaking of eliminating plays, many people hate the Toss the Pats' run. That's fine you can hate the play but most of the time they say they hate it because it NEVER works...NEVER! Well, I've seen it go. I saw it go with Ridley the other day. I've seen it go with Bennie and Woody too. How often does it really not go? Less than NEVER at the very least. There are only so many run plays that exist. In addition to the Toss, the Pats' base run game consists of Inside Zone, Outside Zone and One Back Power with some specialty plays on the menu as well. I've seen each of those plays not go many times. I saw each get stuffed just the other day. Is it bad play calling? If BOB can't call any of these runs because they don't go at a 100% rate, what's he going to call?
Hey, BOB isn't perfect. Who the hell is? His calls aren't always great. Sometimes you make a call and the defense is prepared for it. Sometimes your call has no chance to work because of this. That's when you see audibles, time outs etc. I'm just saying that the tired ol' "poor play calling" mantra is pretty much based on nothing. Find me an OC who never makes a bad call?
I'll continue my manifesto in another post if anyone is interested. I'm not trying to call anyone out as I know many fans enjoy this part of the game. I was on the road today and just heard too much of it that made no sense to me. Please don't be offended.
I could have used this in the BoB leaving thread
woohoo
