In this series, I will examine what it will take for the UCLA Football team to make a title run in 2017. I start by looking at overall game management.
Hey Bruin Fans! I am Pete Kang and this is my first article as a contributor for FanSided and Go Joe Bruin. We’re going to try to have some fun and talk some UCLA Football – a million years before A&M rolls into Rose Bowl. Buckle Up!
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This is the first in a series I call ‘Checklist for a title run in 2017’ where I examine what the Bruins need to do next season to be successful. I hope you enjoy.
Down, Distance and Game Clock Management
It takes offense, defense and special teams to dominate this sport. How? On offense, Down and Distance must remain unencumbered. No team can afford to be consistently in 3rd and long, meaning 10+ yards to go situations.
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Obviously, this points to the opposing defense and their goal of imposing their will on Down and Distance. When the offense loses 2 or more plays in a row, then that usually means we start singing -a punting we will go. Terrible song!!
It all starts with the coaches calling the right plays. This means plays that are keeping the defense off balance, an unpredictable style if you will, which is aided greatly if there are a few players with versatile skill sets, that allow for player packages to remain static, meaning fewer substitutions while numerous formations and most pre-snap motion options remain available to help keep the opposing defense in head scratching, guess mode.
Personally, my favorite set consists of two flankers and a slot, with a TE to block or receive and a 205+ lb running back to block, run or receive. Also, I’d like a heady gunslinger with five boars up front. -Whistle blows- Penalty. Pete! For Digression.
On the Defense
And yes, all of this leads to long, backbreaking drives that keep the opposition’s defense on the field, unable to substitute, which leads to defensive players “blowing air” with their hands on their hips and committing wonderful personal foul penalties. That’s domination! But if a quick strike is there, then by all means, sir, “yo, you better make that money!”, because that, too, is domination.
One sustains momentum and drains electrolytes, while the latter, creates more of a chain reaction effect on the sidelines and in the paying seats. It’s basically a mandate for everyone in the stadium and at home to Stand Up!!
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Both result in the other team losing hope, which is the lighthouse during the Tempest. Do you see it? Can’t? Games over bro! As focus wanes with every roar from the opposing fans, tempers flare, and all important execution goes to crap!
Defensively, the name of the game is React!! The offense always and forever will have a decided advantage over the defense simply because the offense knows exactly what each of their players is going to do, or at least supposed to do in order for the play to succeed.
The defense, on the other hand, must simply react to what’s in front of them. This is the reason why instinct, as a player trait, is discussed far more often when evaluating defensive prospects, whereas technique carries more weight when analyzing offensive players.
From the moment the defense steps onto the field, Down and Distance is their duty. Watching plenty of game tape to recognize tendencies in the offensive will help immensely with players’ reaction time. Ultimately, we want the opposing offense in 3rd and long situations as often as possible.
The defense must fly to the ball in a disciplined fury and get the opposing offense off of the field, which means the defense rests! In most cases, this scenario results in a short field for our offense and a consistently long field for the opposing QB and OC to negotiate, while having to deal with a rested defense which turns the dial towards kill-QB-only mode with each unsuccessful outing for the opposing offense resulting in a 3 and out, or worse. It usually gets much worse. Snowballs rolling down a steep hill come to mind.
For example…
Let me help you visualize this with on field activity: 1. Pick 6, followed by a 2. sack-fumble-usually a big boy rumbles for 6 or gets tackled at the 3 yard line-heehee like that visual? Yeah, slow running backs get tackled at the 1-yard line, and 280-300 lbs. front 4 defensive dudes running for their lives with the rock trying to get paidirt, usually get tumbled at the three.
3. Human Beat Box followed by a -Woody Hayes cloud of dust- Touchdown!! Followed by 4. another sack/fumble recovery at the opposing 17 yard line- followed by a quick strike from Rosen to whomever for, you guessed it, 17 yards and 6 points. These are just a few of the ways that that defenses can help dominate Down and Distance and help demoralize the 60-minute-enemy from it-don’t-matter-where-son! Scoreboard! Game!
So, managing Down and Distance on both sides of the ball is smart football. I mean not the worst idea ever right? In factuality, it’s exactly how a team wins this game of inches. They don’t want the throne. Not until they can see it! They’ll take the inch that gets them to the doorstep. A Wonka style ticket to THE SHOW!! I mean… you have to get to the throne room before you can sit down.
This is the biggest truth that I perceive in my life! I learn things all the time from my comrades in the Go Joe Bruin writers’ clan and from everyone around me, even my 2 yr old son, Benji. With that having been said, I’m doubling down on the importance of Down and Distance as not only a framework to coach the players mindset during the game, but something more akin to that one thread that threatens to unravel the entire fabric of a game plan. For any team’s offense and defense, it’s a completely symbiotic relationship. They’re just scratching each other’s back til the final whistle blows. Scoreboard! Bruins!! But there’s a third side.
The Special Part of the Game
Special Teams are, well, Special!! How special? After the 1996 NFL regular season, the Green Bay Packers won Brett Favre’s only Super Bowl. Even though Favre won the League MVP that year, there was some strange talk during the season about Desmond Howard, who was a 3rd or 4th option in the passing game, but was a block of C-4 playing for Green Bay’s special teams! That year, the Packers, starting field position was far superior to that of any other team in the league.
There is no better way to assess a coaching staff’s performance than to pay attention to in game adjustments and end of half 2, 3 and 4 minute drills.
It was because of Desmond Howard. It’s no secret that Howard won the Super Bowl 31 MVP award after a superlative game changing effort with Special Teams as well as a TD reception on offense.
Please, let’s just go ahead and agree that the Green Bay Packers of Super Bowl 31 would not have competed the way that they did that season, without Howard dominating Down and Distance for the Packers. He was the MVP that season, not Favre! Don’t shoot!!
Yes, I had to use an example from the pros to illustrate this truism. It’s just another moment when we are reminded of something we already know, which is the immense impact that special teams can have on a game, as well as an entire season. Down and Distance is supreme. End of game clock management.
Next: Early grades for the 2018 UCLA Football recruiting class
There is no better way to assess a coaching staff’s performance than to pay attention to in game adjustments and end of half 2, 3 and 4 minute drills. Nuff said. The End