Off-Season Focus on In-Season Situational Football

Welcome to the modern age of the NFL where coaches who are on what we generously call the “cutting edge” are not just thinking outside the so-called box, but actually are building their own “box.”

Long gone are the days where plays in veteran mini camps, training camp and even in days leading up to a preseason game are run without a specific game-related situation.

Welcome to “situational football.”

Today’s NFL has so many restrictive collectively bargained elements regarding hours of meeting time, practice time, pads or no pads, etc. that a coach has to be so precise in how he invests every minute of his and his staff’s time.

Forget the days of yore at practice when the ball boy placed the ball on a spot on a hash mark and it stayed on that exact spot for multiple snaps, or often for an entire 15-minute period. If you remember, when watching news footage, the grass on the spot where the ball originally had been placed became brown dirt because cleats has torn up the sod, but these days are long gone.

The ball must move in practice just like it does on game day so that the players become acclimated to vertical and horizontal concepts as well as down-and-distance situations.

The tremendous advantage to this schematic format is not only are you acclimating the players but also providing the coaches with a mini-tutorial about what to anticipate on game day.

Bottom line, the more you rehearse the situations, the less chance for error, and, of course, the biggest benefit is that the players know what to expect.

There are no “Sunday surprises.”

There is never a situation where you are just playing football. Win the situation and increase your odds of winning the game!

The knowledge of today’s player, enhanced by their exposures to many electronic products featuring simulations, allows them to be able to construct in their own minds what the next play or few plays should be.

Bottom line, as football coaches, offensive coordinators, and even position coaches, it becomes our job as coaches to teach situational football.

Allowing players to work continually through possible situations, whether they culminate in success or failure, promotes confidence when facing these pressure-filled experiences on game day.

Too often, the talking gel heads on televised broadcasts seek to charm us with their knowledge of the game and to contribute their nuances on certain downs and distances; however, third downs need not be the only vital situation in which coaches need to be proactive in rehearsing.

Every snap in a game could have a significant importance in the outcome. If you can win the situation, it in turn may produce a positive outcome in the game.

So, it becomes a coach's responsibility to teach his players the importance of each and every situation.

Therefore, coaches, and specifically offensive coordinators, must build what I call scripts or lesson plans around categories which eventually could determine the outcome of the game.

Call it "Football 101."

Down and Distance Situations

Field Position Situations

Clock Situations

The situations, if installed correctly, are taught during an evening installation meeting and then re-enacted the next day in practice in the form of a competition.

Down and Distance Situations:

1st and 10

2nd and short (1-2 yards)

2nd and on-schedule (3-7 yards)

2nd and off-schedule (8+ yards)

3rd and 1

3rd and 2-3

3rd and 4-6

3rd and 7-10

3rd and 11+

The key for the offensive coordinator is to select which segments and situations he wishes to feature that particular day.

Those coaches who can best construct such a plan most likely are the ones whose players and teams will most benefit not only during a game but also over the course of a full season.

Now, please enjoy the game from a different perspective.

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