Fantastic read at MMQB - A QB and his gameplan

[KB_fan]

I had a bit of freetime this a.m. and enjoyed catching up on the two-part article series at MMQB from earlier in the week... and in-depth look at what goes in to developing a game plan prior to Sunday's game, and what it takes a QB to learn it.  The case study is Carson Palmer and the Cardinals in preparation for their game against the Browns.

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/11/17/nfl-carson-palmer-arizona-cardinals-inside-game-plan

a few excerpts:

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“I know quarterbacks who can look at a formation once, a play once, the concept once, and they’ve got it,” Palmer says as he hand-writes a formation into a notepad. “Not me. I’ve got to study it over and over until I get it. It’s hard work, play after play.”

Multiply that times 171. That’s how many plays Arians will have in the offensive game plan for Cleveland. For each, there is a formation to learn, a personnel combination to learn, defensive tendencies to study—this with a virtual-reality headset that Palmer dons, making him look like a spaceman—plus details about what would cause Palmer to change the play at the line, and what to change into. And if the call is a pass play, Palmer must know his progression. Which receiver is his first option? Second? Third? Fourth?

Consider the difficulty of this week. The Cardinals are coming off a Monday night game against a team, Baltimore, that they hadn’t faced since before Arians and Palmer were united in Arizona in 2013. This week they will play a team neither man has faced since 2012, when the Browns had a different coach, two different coordinators and a mostly different roster.

 

[...]
 

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“You just never know,” Palmer says. “That’s really the beauty of football. You spend all this money and take all this time to try to figure out what the defense is going to do. We’re even using virtual reality now. All the resources that get taken up—amazing. You think you have a great idea, but in the end, so many times, you’re just guessing, and you guess wrong.”

Enough excitement for Tuesday night. Before he goes to bed, Palmer will have to commit to memory 14 different protections he’d use Sunday to try to keep the Browns out of his hair.

Fourteen protections. And that was only for first-down calls.

 

 

Part 2 then focuses on translating the game plan into reality on the field given unexpected circumstances.

http://mmqb.si.com/2015/11/18/nfl-carson-palmer-arizona-cardinals-inside-game-plan-part-ii-cleveland-browns

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As I digested the week and the game and the story I’d reported, I kept coming back to this: Arizona has a coaching staff that works feverishly in a short week to build the game plan; the average NFL head coach and staff, collectively, make something in the range of $12 million. There’s a pro personnel department that scouts the previous Browns games and works all night Sunday to have an in-depth, collated scouting report on the desk of every coach by 6:30 a.m. Monday. There’s an analytics element, with a staffer working that side. There’s the estimated $300,000 cost for the STRIVR virtual reality system, new this year. There are 171 plays in the game plan, not one of them because of someone’s “gut feeling” or because “this worked last week.” No. There’s football science to every single play.

Now, what were the big factors in Arizona’s 34-20 victory over Cleveland? I might argue there were two: the wind, and Joe Haden’s hamstring. The Cardinals, putting together the game plan, didn’t say on Tuesday, “That place is a wind farm, so we better not put as many downfield shots into the game plan.” As usual Arizona had six Home Runs, the usual number, in its plan … and called three during the game. But Palmer had to fight the wind constantly, and it changed the way he threw the ball as the game progressed; the fact that he conquered the swirling winds to throw for 374 yards and four touchdowns tells me he’s not a robot or a football wonk beholden to his study materials—he’s a smart guy who knows how to adjust to the prevailing conditions of the day.

And what’s the thing you do in a pickup football game after school? You come back to the huddle and tell the quarterback, “Throw it to me! I can totally beat my cover guy!” That’s what Floyd said to Palmer and Arians. The coach and QB trusted him, and Palmer hit Floyd for the touchdown that turned the tide of the game.

“The wind and a hamstring,” Arizona GM Steve Keim said when I ran my Rube Goldberg theorem by him. “That defines what an inexact science the game is.”

So I’m left to think about how compelling and wonderful the strategy is, and I cannot imagine a quarterback being better prepared for a game than Palmer was for this one. But also, I am left to think how utterly and inescapably unpredictable the sport of football is—and how that makes it so appealing.

 

 

[KJ89]

I read the first part earlier. Good stuff. 

[Mr. Scot]

Big contrast with the oversimplified approach of a guy like Chip Kelly, who we recently read about having something like only nine basic runs in his attack.

My worry with a coach like Arians, though, is the same I had when Chudzinski was OC here and had a 900 page playbook.

There does sometimes come a point where you're overthinking it and you're in danger of outsmarting yourself.

I remember reading an article a while back (I forget by who, Greg Cosell maybe) that talked about the Patriots offensive approach actually being simpler than many would think. They emphasize flawless execution of every little thing, which tends to be how they beat people.

I guess I'd prefer our offense be more complicated than Chip Kelly's but not so much as that of Bruce Arians.

[KB_fan]

I'm glad others have appreciated this article too.  It was really a fascinating read for those of us like myself who've never played football and don't know much about the development of a game plan.

I debated about posting it here as it's not specificially Panthers-relevant.  But given that Arizona could well be the team we might face in the NFCCG, it gave it some added interest, along the lines of "know thine enemy."

[Mr. Scot]

FYI: It's a good article for those of us who did play and are steeped in the game, too.