BSR Grand Prix

THE GAME PLAN

Be it Pee Wee, Pop Warner, high school, college or the NFL, to understand what's in your team's playbook profile, you need to figure out, understand and know your chosen team's overall offensive philosophy. What are you trying to do with the rock? By keeping this in mind, the plays in your playbook will begin to fit together and form a picture in your mind. You will understand what your doing a lot better.

Your responsibilities will differ greatly, depending on the style of offense you choose to run. A Bill Parcell's style offense relies on a smash mouth running offense; your first priority is not to make any mistakes. In this style the quarterback doesn't need to throw for big yards to win, he just has to take care of the football. An Al Davis style offense ala "Oakland Raiders" and their "vertical" offense with the long ball. A Bill Walsh offense needs a mobile quarterback, capable of understanding the complex "West Coast" system, and be willing to take what the defense gives him. This quarterback doesn't need a strong arm. It will take you a while to get fully comfortable with your chosen offensive
playbook profile.

With Bill Walsh's "West Coast Offense", well PS2's version of it, you want to apply constant pressure on your opponent's defense. The more pressure you apply the more success you will have. There are several teams using their version of the style and having success doing it. The Green Bay Packers and the KC Chiefs both run and or ran their own
versions of the WCO.

With the West Coast style you shouldn't go after particular players. Instead you want to attack parts or sections of the field; the left and right "flats" 5 to 10 yards off the line of scrimmage; medium right and medium left, approx. 15 to 20 yards deeper; and last but not least; the area underneath the linebackers which always has a lot of activity going on. The better defenses usually will control this area by simply blasting anybody who comes into it. Remember the Giants and Bills Super bowl game? The Giants were able to shut down the Bills best receiving weapon by knocking him silly as he came over the middle of the field. Causing him to be a no factor the remainder of the game.

The WCO has you attacking your opponent's defense at its WEAK spots and forces them to try to stop you. You want to go after a vulnerable area. You want to "flood" a zone, putting so many receivers and so many options in a certain area of the field that your opponent's defense couldn't possibly defend them all. Check this: Your attitude should be "Here is your weakness, what are you going to do about fixing it"?

When executed correctly, this style will put pressure all over the defense. Although this is a finesse scheme, it is noted as a "nickel-and-dime" offense that picks defenses apart with it's short passes. As for this "nickel-and-dime", no opponent wants his defense to be on the field for a long time, getting a "BEAT" down throughout the game. Executed to perfection it can be downright humiliating. I know because I get a kick out of watching them sweat. The complexity of the WCO will make your team a very difficult one to prepare for. Although you may think the WCO playbook profile is huge. You can moan and groan all you want and convince yourself there is no way you'll learn all of it. The bottom line is this you will never accomplish anything as a owner/player. You should look at it this way, once you get these down, how in the world are any of your opponent's defenses expect to know what's coming?

An idea made popular by Bill Walsh, was to script the first few plays before a game. He would script the first 25 plays because he felt some plays worked better when they were part of a progression. You can cross up your opponent by running out of a formation after you have passed out of it the last three times. Keep in mind you don't want to settle into any patterns.

One excellent way to throw off your opponent is to always execute a different play on first down. You don't want to tip off any tendencies to your opponent.

WHERE CAN WE MOVE IT?

Many times when you're on offense you neglect a very integral part of planning for the attack of an opponent's defense. Attacking the strengths of a defense is often just as important as attacking its weakness. Whether your opponent's defensive strengths lie in the alignment used, their personnel, or in specific maneuvers; if these strengths are not systematically attacked (at least on occasion), they will flow and eventually prevent the successful attack of the opponent's weakness.

Take for example a very strong, quick, opposing defensive tackle. No matter how good he is, there is a way to be at least respectably successful in attacking him. (If he penetrates hard, trap, draw, screen, or counter him, etc.) If he is not forced to stay at home, he will purse quickly and cover up the weaknesses you are attempting to attack. If your opponent moves this player, (Shifting, moves him off the LOS, etc.) You need to adjust and attack this guy ASAP. When he shifts him to one side attack the other side. If he backs him the line employ a lead bock play and exploit the fact he's off the ball.

Another example may be a very tough strong safety that covers his flat area well and puts strong outside pressure on the run. An excellent way to attack the strong safety is to flood the strong side flat and deep 1/3 roll out strong and block first contain. Now no matter what the strong safety does, it will be wrong. The following examples were given to prove that no matter how strong a defense is, it still must be attacked.