Friday, October 26, 2007

Scripting plays and No huddle

Many teams in the NFL like to script the opening offensive plays of a game. The idea is to use the week before the game to develop a sequence of plays that takes advantage of the opposing team's defensive weaknesses. The offense can be poised on the opening drives because it knows exactly what plays it will run and because the players have practiced those plays during the week.
It seems like a good idea, though I don't know if it has been proven to make a difference in the outcome of the games.

I've watched many games where the offense is said to be a following its game-openening script, but I have not seen many where the offense is going no huddle. The consensus is that no huddle helps offenses by giving defenses less time to prepare for the play. By moving quickly, the defense can't substitute players as well and becomes more tired and frazzled. The frenetic pace of no huddle can also unhinge the offense with the players going out of sync. That's why most teams don't run no huddle often, but those downsides should not occur with scripted opening drives. The players on offense will know all the plays that they are going to run, so there should be no confusion. Since defenses will still be disadvantaged by no huddle, it seems like going no huddle on the scripted plays is an obvious benefit for the offense. Why don't more teams do it?

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