Tag: red zone

Throw Out The Stats

Five ways to judge a defense.

“Some teams will play 55 snaps today. I think we defended 17 possessions, 110 (snaps), so we just played two ball games… That’s why the yardage thing is so irrelevant.”

– Glenn Spencer/DC, Oklahoma St. | via Kyle Fredrickson, NewsOK.com.

It’s time for defensive coaches everywhere to start changing the way they view modern defensive football. The “spread movement” is real, and it is not going away. The spread scheme, though vast in its styles has one basic principle, create one-on-one matchups by using the entire width of the field. Adding tempo to spread schemes creates more possessions and opportunities to score points. It is not uncommon for college teams to run 90+ offensive plays in a game or a high school offense to reach 75-80+ plays. As the amount of snaps being played in a game increase, it puts more pressure on the defense to line up correctly and play every snap. Most teams in the Big 12 will play a half game or more each week compared to its SEC counterparts. As Glenn Spencer stated in the quote above, the yardage stat is becoming less relevant than ever before. To gauge how great a defense is in the modern football era defensive coaches and pundits everywhere need to readjust the standards for what makes a great defense.

Five Points of Emphasis

Points Per Possession

Conditioning against tempo teams is a premium for the defensive side of the ball. More possessions create more opportunities for points, thus more opportunity for mistakes. Spread teams operate by creating one-on-one matchups and “spreading” the field to create space. As more spread teams implement tempo and gain more possessions, the old stats of yards per game and points per game become irrelevant. If a team gives up 28 points and defends 8 possessions (3.5 PPP), are they better than a defense that gives up 35 points but defends 15 possessions (2.3 PPP)? Defensive coaches need to be less infatuated with yards and points. The only points that matter are the ones needed to win a game. The PPP stat evens out teams that play spread versus teams that play traditional huddle-up offenses. If looking at the PPP stat, one can better determine the strength of the defense because it focuses on how many drives turn into scoring drives. A drive is a drive, the difference is how many did a team defend, and did it give up some points? A good number for a defense is anything under 2 points, elite is under 1.5. Continue reading “Throw Out The Stats”

Weekly Defensive Practice Plan

Have a plan and execute!

Having a set routine throughout the year alleviates the stress of creating a practice plan every week. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel every on a weekly. Even if an opponent’s scheme changes drastically from week to week, it is in the best interest of the staff and players to keep a consistent thought process throughout the season and build towards “Game Day.” When creating a weekly schedule a defensive coach should approach it much like teaching a class.

The early part of the practice week should be focused on getting to know the opponent’s base plays and formations while reviewing how the defense’s base alignments and calls line up against an opponent’s scheme. Towards the middle of the week is when the pressures and “stop calls” designed to shut down a particular offense are worked, and later in the week slow it down and review before the final test – Friday Night. There should be a build up of knowledge, all built off the foundation – the base defense.

Each day should also be set aside for a certain theme (1st down, 3rd down, Red Zone, etc), all accumulating on the Thursday walkthrough (think of it as the review before the test). By Wednesday there should be no more tweaking of the call sheet. The worst thing a coach can do is create doubt by changing alignments or add calls the day before the game. The only thing that should be changed is the elimination of calls that the staff doesn’t trust or the players couldn’t execute during the week. Below is a sample work week for a defense. Continue reading “Weekly Defensive Practice Plan”

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