The first REAL exposure I had to the coaching aspect of game planning came from my college coaches (Head Coach John Mackovic, OC/QB Coach Gene Dahlquist, WR Coach Cleve Bryant). Coach Mackovic was an assistant coach for Tom Landry, and much of the organizational philosophy derived from there. Each down and distance category in the open field was scrutinized, as well as field position considerations. The open field categories were
- RUN SITUATION RUNS AND PASSES
- PASS SITUATION RUNS AND PASSES
- DECEPTIVES
Run Situations consisted of 1st and ten, and 2nd and 6 or less, Pass Situations were 2nd and 7 or more, and 3rd and 3 or more (there are further divisions by distance to gain).
Field Position categories involved the SCORING ZONE and BACKED UP offense.
For this initial post, I'll write a bit in regard to the thought process used in regard to RUN SITUATION PASSES. As one breaks down an opponent's base defense, there are two main thoughtsin assembling patterns:
- QUICK RHYTHM, high percentage throws to stay "on schedule"
- EXPLOSIVE pass plays designed to create chunks of yardage
Both pure dropback and play action will be considered for both categories; one of the main tenets of "RUN SIT" passes is to take advantage of conflicting run/pass responsibilties that support defenders are given. While almost every offense I've seen runs some sort of NAKED or BOOT (Diagram 1), we've also a lot of success with the ZONE PASS (Diagram 2). Popularized by Peyton Manning's Colts teams, it features not only the ability to get vertical shots with the look of the outzide zone, but it adapts to multple personnel groups as well...
With the mindset of quick rhythm dropback passing, passes should represent the basics of a pass system: multi-purpose patterns that feature high-percentage completions vs. zone with built-in ADVANTAGE PRINCIPLES to attack overcomensation by the defense:
Diagram 5 uses the first advantage principle to punish a man-to-man defense, combined with the most basic concept and outlets: