*** update – timeouts. WASTED constantly. If anyone on my team calls a time out in the first quarter, they will be vanquished to special teams on the practice squad. Any team who doesn’t have at least 2 timeouts saved up for the last 2 minutes deserves to lose. I am still mad at Jake Plummer losing the Rose Bowl for ASU some 20 or 25 years ago because of no timeouts left. Of course, I could be remembering that wrong.
Two ways I would fix my football team. There are a couple things I notice in every NFL game I watch – terrible qb protection, and terrible tackling.
Terrible QB protection – with the exception of the Patriots, no team protects their QB. They don’t even seem to bother. I joke that Tom Brady could read a paperback in his pocket. The analysts say shit like ‘Tom Brady doing the dink and dunk tight end passes… moves right down the field.’ That is because Brady gets time to do all his reads. EVERY QB could and would do that if they had the time. Most QBs get to do about 1 or 2 reads… then they run for their lives and hope comes gets open. Except Aaron Rodgers. He gets to do NO reads. His protection has been so terrible for the last 10 years that as soon as he gets the ball; he has to run for his life. Somehow, though, he has made it his own thing.
My point being, if I had an offense, everything they did would revolve about QB protection. Not routes or runners. My team might spend all 10 guys just to protect the QB.
Terrible tackling – Ok, that problem solved. Here is the next big problem – no one is tackling. There is a legit reason for it. Teams don’t tackle in practice at all, ever. There are two reasons for this- 1) they don’t want they players to get hurt in something dumb like practice, and 2) the CBA (collective bargaining agreement) put in place after the last (near) strike dictated that teams could only do 2 practices a week in full pads. This is why tackling is terrible when you watch, because they literally don’t practice tackling.
Big surprise; I am fine with that. Football is so incredibly dangerous for these players (CTE, GTS) that I get why they don’t tackle much. It doesn’t make great tv, but it’s likely best. What do we do with this, then? Strip the fucking football! Listen, you got your arms around the guy, you aren’t bringing him down because you are a pussy who never learned to tackle… so strip that ball. Every time. The coaches likely want and expect you to tackle anyone you can touch. Just like receivers have a rule ‘if you can touch the ball, you can catch the ball’. Well, your little powderpuff fatties don’t know how to tackle. Teach them to strip the ball, every time. Look at this guy, he gets it. He isn’t even pretending to try and tackle… he is just going for that ball.
I am Correct 