Little Things - Escaping the Quicksand
By Adam Knoll | January 09, 2010 at 11:20 PM EST | No Comments
Going over the games from last year in one’s mind, you can never pin-point one thing that unravels an entire unit. It’s always multiple things, combined that sinks a club in a game, or a season. Traced back, however, one can find the root of the problems, and it normally is a universal dilemma, a common theme that sets up for recurring mistakes. The problem we had last season, and the one that we absolutely cannot duplicate this season, is the One Mistake per Play Axiom.
The game of football is simple to understand, easy to like, and almost impossible to master. Cliché’s and common knowledge spring up like crab grass and it is frustrating trying to nail down the perfect combination; Have to pound the rock, defense wins championships, need to convert on third downs, win the special teams battle, no big plays, get big plays, don’t commit mistakes, create turnovers, win the trenches, don’t turn the ball over…whew. However, nobody mentions the One Mistake per Play Axiom, which could easily be defined as this:
During any game, a significant stretch of time occurs in which every play at least one (1) assignment, play call, skill or other form of duty fails.
There were entire strings of offensive series’ that would go backward, or fail to produce a single first down. I cannot explain how we could, on successive series’ go backwards on first down, gain 11 yards on second down, and not be able to move the ball two feet on third down. I can remember offhand at least 6 times when we failed to pick up a 4th and 1.
We didn’t know how to block down, or out, they didn’t get low, or pay attention to the quick 175 pound D-Linemen that we saw. I, personally, failed to locate blitzes at times; although I learned how to get the ball off quick last season, I didn’t audible at times when I should have, which lead to busted plays. Sometimes our receivers would drop balls at inopportune moments, or fail to block for a back. Backs would miss pick up blocks and fail to burst through the line (opting to dance at the LOS instead). There was a point when we had 7 RB’s in our rotation, 7!
We did not cope well with adjustments last year, continually letting the same defense control anything we did because we were too stubborn to change things. Our TE play last year was non-existent, catching around only 12 balls all year and failing to ignite a running game. Our passing formations turned out to be our best running formations; equally as confusing was how a running formation turned out to be our best overall formation, even when behind by multiple scores. We didn’t play to our strengths while letting other teams play to thiers.
Some call it quicksand, I call it hell. It really is hard to imagine something going wrong every play, but it happens, and sometimes happens for prolonged periods of time. It is imperative to limit such instances. This season will be more fundamental in that everyone will know what their job is at all times, however, it is still true that if just one thing goes wrong, a play can, and will, fail. This is why we are looking for certain types of players for certain situations; we need players who understand the way a game can unfold. No one is perfect, mistakes WILL happen. A player will get beat here or there, after all, the man across from you has a job too. Yet, it’s not letting it snowball; it’s fighting through the tough times and slowing down the descent that marks a good team.
We have the talent to be a good team, we have to handle our assignments however to be one.
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