Setting up play calls

[UTE98]

So I listen to a bit of sports talk radio here in Denver. One guy I love to hear talk is Mark Schlereth, that guy gives great insight and information.

Recently his topic of the week has been play calling, especially concerning the offensive line. I’m not as smart as he is but I’ll try to convey what he has been emphasizing.

You want the OLine to continue to block a zone play, so you keep running the zone play right, you run it right, and each time you block it the same way. Then the third, fourth or fifth time you block the zone run the same way as if you’re going right but your RB takes it left. Basically he is saying you set up the defense to act like Pavlov’s dogs. They are getting blocked this one way so they naturally play that play. then you use that automatic reaction to get them to put themselves out of position which makes the zone play left so much easier to run because the defense is out of position.

When i saw the double reverse on Saturday night I couldn’t help but think, how did Ludwig think he set up the defense to put themselves out of position? You don’t just run left, then automatically run left, toss it on the first reverse then toss it for a second reverse. You’re basically playing into the defenses hands at that point. You haven’t got them on roller skates yet by running a normal reverse, and you probably should have run the ball left a couple more times. Then you hit them with the reverse which gains yards due to the defense being out of position by playing the run to the left off tackle. then once you’ve run the reverse and gained a ton of yards you’ve got the defense on their heels when you line up in that play. They don’t know whether to default to the run left, key on the reverse, or what to do. At that point your road graders just push the DL on roller skates and you plow ahead for yards. 

So basically you do what OSU did, you keep setting up plays which leads to the defense getting out of position. Then you run for forty-eleven yards on every play. That is why the Ben Moa play works, you keep running up the middle on short yardage situations. Then at the end zone, the LBs suck up to defend the run and you slip a TE into the end zone into the space vacated by the LBs do a quick jump pass and tadaaa 6 points.

[idahoute]

I thought the same thing on the double reverse when it happened. Stupid backyard play without any forethought or strategic setup.

[2008 National Champ]

It is absolutely bum-puzzling the way Ludwig calls plays. If you go back and watch the Sugar Bowl, that was the best game plan I’ve seen him put in place. He kept to the normal Whitt plan of using the entire play clock but kept the D from subbing by not huddling and lining up in the same formation as the previous play as quickly as possible. The whole offense would then look to the sideline to get the play and then shift. That is commonplace now but no one was doing that in ’08.

Fast forward to today and watch the substitution patterns. 1st down with 13 personnel and Thomas will be a run 90% of the time. Get three or less yards, in comes receivers and Bernard; Covey runs jet motion and the ball will be thrown to the flat, usually Kuithe or Covey but sometimes Bernard on the swing. If he calls a pass on first down that is either incomplete or gets few yards, you can count on inside zone the next play with run personnel in the game usually out of a bunch formation.

Bear in mind, I usually assign about 25% of the credit to the actual play called and 75% to the execution. I don’t think Ludwig is necessarily a bad play caller, especially if they finally show a replay and you get to see something other than the QB. That’s when you can tell if the play call had a chance to be successful.

Look at the last drive against OSU. He kept the same personnel on the field and was able to work with a little tempo. OSU was not able to key on anything for the first time in the game and Utah moved the ball at will.,, Until he slowed things down and started changing personnel. Suddenly, the drive stopped and they had to kick the field goal.

You can run any play out of any formation. And if you show that you are willing to do that, it is a force multiplier for your offense. When you tip you hand based on personnel and/or down and distance, you help the defense. And a guy with 15 years of calling plays should know better.