Tag Archives: Coaching

As the Season Takes Shape

20 Wednesday Oct 2021

Posted by in Gee's Thoughts

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In a week of mixed fortunes for Dan and my teams I am wondering what trends are going to hold as divisions begin to stabilise, and which are shaping up to be competitive as we get a better idea of who is good, bad and somewhere in the middle.

What I Saw

The first game played on Sunday that I saw was the Jacksonville Jaguars hosting the Miami Dolphins, which was a closer contest than some expected as the Jaguars eked out a 23-20 win thanks to a pair of late fifty-yard-plus field goals. For all the criticism of Tua Tagovailoa, he put in a solid performance working his way back from fractured, albeit with a bad interception and a poor third down incompletion where he could have simply scrambled for third down. What both Tagovailoa and the Dolphins most need right now is for him to get a run of games so he can settle and the team really find out what they have. As for the Jaguars, one win does not convince me that Urban Myer is going to make a success of the pros, and it’s probably more useful to remember the thin margins between the best and worst teams in the NFL. The whole idea that on any given Sunday any team can beat another one is a cliché for a reason and in a now seventeen-game season where scheduling plays a part and you don’t get to play every team home and away, random things have much less of a chance to work themselves out.

The other two games I watched this week blend into each other in week seven. I wrote on Sunday that if the Bengals want to build on the winning first quarter of the season, then they will need to beat the Lions. I was worried about the game given that the Lions had played everyone tough so far this season and we are really not very early into the experience of the Bengals under Zac Taylor having a winning record. It turns out that Dan’s faith in the Bengals was a better judgement in this case than my caution, as the Bengals ran out 34-11 winners and even had backup quarterback Brandon Allen in the game for the fourth quarter where he threw a solitary pass that added a touchdown to the score. The Lion’s head coach Dan Campbell had some interesting thoughts on quarterback Jared Goff, which were more nuanced than the, ‘I feel like he needs to step up more than he has. And I think he needs to help us just like everybody else.’ quote that most of us got a small digest on. There is an good blog post on that here if you are interested. The Lions rebuild was always going to be a long project and Dan Campbell has been something of a quote machine, but if his team responds to this first big defeat then they can still get something out of this season, but the longer the losing streak goes on the more pressure there is going to be, particularly as it’s not so long ago that the Lions had a winless season.

The final game I watched was the Ravens ominous 34-6 demolition of the LA Chargers. Now, watching this game with the Chargers on the road I thought a lot of the problem was that this was Justin Herbert’s first time playing the Ravens’ defence and they very strike me as a team that you can watch all the tape you like, it’s just different in the game. As long as the Chargers bounce back, then this is an understandable bump for a team who are 4-2 with a second-year quarterback and a rookie head coach. I generally like Brandon Staley’s aggressive approach to fourth down, and I understand the argument about needing to go for the win and be aggressive, but there where one or two occasions where the Chargers were deep enough in their own side of the field that punting surely had to be a better option. As for the Ravens, they have shown they can beat teams in multiple ways and are probably looking forward to hosting the Bengals this week in a contest that I hope the Bengals keep close, but I wouldn’t bet much more than that right now.

What I Heard

It’s been something of a scattered week for me, so right now I am feeling the opposite of what usually happens for this section. Rather than having heard things on the podcasts that I’ve noted down to write about or found things today that inspired me I’ve hit this section and gone blank on what I have listened to.

However, that doesn’t mean I don’t have anything to write about as there’s a new podcast that has hit my rotation this season that is not directly NFL related but is really interesting. The pod is called Make Defence Great Again, which setting political reference aside is very on brand for my football interests and it is fascinating to listen to the detail of coaching defence at the high school and college level. It’s this pod and it’s host Coach Vaas that has me rethinking how I am going to approach my offseason and diving into coaching tape or  perhaps some clinics/courses. That said, there is something for just listening to different people’s approaches even if I don’t have much of the vocabulary or technical knowledge getting to hear what both drives coaches or keeps them up at night is a lesson in of itself. If any of that sound of interest have a look at the host Coach Vass’ site for more details.

What I Think

Now we are into the second quarter of the season I am curious to see how the teams develop in the coming weeks. The Indianapolis Colts have had a rough start to the season, but are only two games back from the Titans (who are beginning to accrue injury concerns themselves) and while I’m not predicting that the Colts will definitely fight back to win the division, they are not as out of it as the 2-4 record might have you believe. The Detroit Lions may be the worst team in the league by wins and losses, and ultimately, they are what counts as the NFL is a results business, but their DVOA ranking of twenty-sixth is not nothing either and I wonder how they might progress over the coming weeks.

As for the winning teams, the Bills wobbled on Monday night, leaving the AFC race slightly murkier, whilst the NFC has four teams with five wins who are trying to keep up with the unbeaten Cardinals. No one knows what injuries, Covid-19 or flat bad luck could derail any team’s chances but if feels like in the NFC at least we are getting a sense of who the real contenders are.

What I Know

There will be focus on Jared Goff’s return to LA with the Lions, and I don’t think anybody will expect the Lions to win. It does appear to me however, that Goff is a quarterback who needs the right elements around him to succeed. That shouldn’t be sniffed at as he has played in a Super Bowl – but the difference in the Rams this season amply demonstrates why teams are so desperate to find not just a good quarterback, but a real difference maker.

What I Hope

I really hope the Bengals can make it competitive against the Ravens this week. I can live with a loss if they play well, and with the Bengals ranked a lofty thirteenth by DVOA a fan can at least dream of winning this weekend, even if they dare not hope for a win.

What a Coach wants, What a Team Needs?

12 Sunday Aug 2018

Posted by in Pre-Season

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18-08-12 Hue Jackson

Image Credit: wikipedia.org

We have our first week of pre-season football. I’ve watched the first episode of Hard Knocks and more importantly I have seen Andrew Luck throw passes in game for the first time since January 1st 2017.

My offseason was dominated by getting a book published so it was only a couple of weeks ago that I finally watched the Dallas Cowboys’ All or Nothing series and when you combine that with Hard Knocks then I have naturally started to think about coaching.

“You get what you demand,
you encourage what you tolerate.”

Tom Landry

This is a quote that I was already familiar with but caught my eye as a reminder in one of the meeting rooms at the Cowboys facility and is one of those things that I think is just as apt for management in a business as it is in sports.

One of the surest things in management is that a player or employee will spot an inauthentic approach from a manager or coach, but there is more than one way to demand what you want or excellence.

There was a really interesting discussion about this week’s Hard Knock on The Ringer’s GM Street podcast as Michael Lombardi explained his problems with Hue Jackson’s approach to getting his team ready. This largely focussed around a coach’s table discussion that had started with the training staff informing Jackson who would and wouldn’t be practising that day. There are several members of that coaching staff with Super Bowl experience who questioning whether players who had not achieved anything in the NFL should be getting days off when there was so much to do, and one coach who was asking for them to be dressed and make it look like the reps decision came from the coach. Jackson listened and was firm about not wanting to get players injured and tried to establish that he understood their position but the view was different from his chair and they moved on.

I can’t give the insight on how it affects the coaching staff having never been in an NFL building yet alone on a football coaching staff so go listen to the pod but it did set me thinking. What Lombardi’s concern was about not only keeping the coaching staff together, but how to breed toughness in a team.

I think there are multiple ways to do this. It doesn’t have to be about shouting and rah-rah speeches. Toughness can be quietly getting on with your job under difficult circumstances. Certainly Hue Jackson was trying to demonstrate that when he told some of his coaches in a film session that his mother had just died and then went straight back to discussing the tape. It was hard to watch him trying to pull himself together after the front office staff had gathered round to support him having lost both his brother and his mother in the space of two weeks. An hour later he is back on the training field and working with his team.

This is where we circle back to how he is coaching. It is undeniable that Bill Belichick is a great football coach and he has a particular way of doing things that is built around a culture of fear and negative reinforcement but that’s not the only way to do it. What Pete Carrol has done in Seattle is still built around competition but there is a completely different approach and presentation with his positivity and encouragement for players to be vocal and themselves. In Hard Knocks you got to see the very different way that Gregg Williams runs his room to Jackson and I’m sure there are players that will thrive with that approach and those on who that approach will grate.

In a lot of ways American football is still a very conservative game but how long coaches can maintain some of the old school approaches in the face of modern training methods and as players change I don’t know.

“He needs to be challenged intellectually so he doesn’t get bored,” Jim Mora told Peter King. “He’s a millennial. He wants to know why. Millennials, once they know why, they’re good. Josh has a lot of interests in life. If you can hold his concentration level and focus only on football for a few years, he will set the world on fire. He has so much ability, and he’s a really good kid.”

This was Jim Mora talking about the Arizona Cardinals’ rookie quarterback Josh Rosen ahead of the draft and whilst I don’t think the culture of football will change overnight, it has to and will continue to adapt as the game changes and players evolve.

The interesting interaction between Hue Jackson and rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield is a case in point. Jackson was asking about what time he got in and was comparing it to Tyrod Taylor. It was something that Michael Lombardi commented on that Jackson didn’t demand Mayfield came in at 05:30 and whilst no, he didn’t demand he did set a seed. I don’t know which way would be more effective, it depends on the player and how they feel about their coach. Only time will tell.

Hue Jackson has a 1-31 record in the last two seasons so it is not like he is starting from a position of strength but he has been in the league a long time. He has to be true to his beliefs but in the world of sport, those beliefs get tested against one thing, the results of the football team. It won’t matter that he’s dealing with multiple bereavements, or that he turned a comment about jumping into a lake if his team failed to win a game last season into a cleansing ritual in aid of his foundation that is trying to support efforts to combat human trafficking in Cleveland. What matters as far as the team is concerned is results. He has a new GM that didn’t pick him so if Jackson doesn’t win more games this season it is hard to see him staying on as head coach.

There’s a lot of nuance to coaching and you can only do so much without the right level of talent, but in sports your record is your record despite all the things that go into it. The pre-season is about preparing your team for the regular season, although a lot of coaches are as concerned about getting their team to the start of the season healthy. The ultimate decider on how well you balanced those needs is your record, but that ignores if you quarterback missteps and tears his knees up. There is plenty of luck involved for a team and whilst we build some coaches up and tear others down, they are only human and even in a game as built around coaching as the American football, you can only control so much. However, you have to have a lot of trust or faith in the bank to get you through a rough patch and for Hue Jackson, time is running out for him to get results.

The Tao of The Wrong Football

06 Sunday Aug 2017

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Training camps have started and with the Hall of Fame game out of the way, preseason football starts in earnest in the coming week.

Dan and I have been podcasting roughly every other week for a while now, and this blog has been bubbling under since April , but if I don’t get it written soon then it won’t happen so embracing Andrew Brandt’s maxim that deadlines spur action, let’s talk a little bit about our plans for the upcoming season.

The idea for this blog post was hatched over a pub table as we started to make plans for the new season, and it is slightly scary that this was already nearly four months ago. I’m now heading into my fourth season of blogging about the NFL and I have always tried to find ways to improve as a writer and make the blog better. Dan was involved from the start through our pick competition and after a season and a half came to me with the idea of us doing a podcast, which I was very happy to do as long as it was his baby and so Dan became a podcast producer.

I like to take time off during the offseason to refresh, and so whilst still following the draft and free agency, I lay off the writing although if I can I’ll read some books about coaching/American Football. One of the books that left a lasting impression on me was Pete Carroll’s Win Forever – as it crystallised one of the things that I had come to believe about successful sports teams. I do not believe there is only one way to run an NFL franchise that can bring you success, but I do think it is important that there is a coherent approach, and it is surprising how often it feels like there isn’t one guiding a team. In his book Carroll lays out how he came to believe it is vitally important for a coach to set down his coaching philosophy so you can explain it and enact it, and he takes you through his and invites you to come up with one of your own.

I could never get mine down below the twenty-five word target, which given some of my posts on here and the fact that I write novels, perhaps should not be a surprise. But it did set me thinking.

So, whilst talking about our plans for the new season, how to balance the work involved with our day jobs and other hobbies, I thought we should try to flesh out the guiding philosophy of the site.

In the about page of the site, that was pretty much written when the site was setup back in 2014, I set out the goals as follows:

“This site shall be a place of reasoned arguments, opinions, and factual writing unless things go very wrong for the Bengals. There will be traditional film study and analytics, as both have things to offer the football fan, and it gives me the opportunity to be wholly wrong in more than one area.”

This has not changed in three seasons and whilst is still a reasonable place to start, the way that I write on this site as I’ve tried to improve what I do and make it more manageable with the rest of my life has definitely evolved.

So I took the notes I had used to try to craft a philosophy having read Carroll’s book and started to adapt them to the blog. I also asked Dan to make a list of his personal characteristics, which turned out to be not too dissimilar to mine:

Gee: competitive, obsessive, patient, engineer, drummer, writer, goal orientated, scientific approach

Dan: driven, competitive, persevering, improvement oriented, fanatical, organised.

It probably makes sense given our shared interests in football and music, our time spent together in bands, and the similarities in the above lists that during our time working together on the podcast there has been hard work, but never been any conflict. There has been plenty of constructive criticism, but nothing coming close to an argument.

Using the above lists I fleshed out the other notes I had been taking and having worked it through with Dan, I will now lay them out for you.

“In an infinite universe, all things are possible, but anything worth doing is too complex to guarantee success so all you can do is commit to the best possible process to optimise your outcome.”

It is not quite Bill Walsh’s book title, The Score Takes Care of Itself, but I love physics and I wanted to stress the universalness of the guiding philosophy.

Dan put in his list of characteristics improvement orientated, and I very much believe in practice and the idea that you improve through multiple incremental steps. This is something you will often hear mentioned by sports teams with a technical focus such as British cycling, but for me it is also born out of being an engineer and trying to take a scientific approach to things.

As an IT engineer, when you have a strange new problem to solve, you don’t just dive in and start randomly changing things. You have to do your research and then work through the problem systematically, changing one thing at a time so you can eliminate possibilities and identify the true source of the problem. I think this approach to diagnostics and problem solving can pretty much be applied to anything.

I also think it is important to focus on what you can control, i.e. the content and how you produce it. So we will focus on continuing to assess and improve what we do so the site does not stand still but keeps moving forward.

So if this is the guiding philosophy, how do we do this and what are we actually aiming for?

The aims are fairly straightforward:

  1. To entertain and inform
  2. We will not be afraid to be wrong or tackle big issues, but we will not lecture
  3. Endeavour to tell the whole story and embrace nuance.

Mostly these speak for themselves, but I will expand a little as these aims are born out of something I wanted to embrace about blogging. I have never set out to chase traffic, this site was setup to help me get better at writing by giving me a structured outlet to practice, but this also meant I was free to write how I wanted. You will probably have heard me talk about the hot take culture on the podcast, but in case you have not I dislike it intensely. There is nothing wrong with taking a position, in fact there is no point in endlessly hedging and saying nothing, but this should be a position you genuinely believe in rather than an a point made to artificially create an argument between two people or generate traffic. Life is infinitely complex, and this can be reflected in sport, and so should in my opinion be reflected in thoughtful commentary, which can still be fun!

It also doesn’t hurt to demonstrate that it is possible to disagree respectfully and to engage in thoughtful discussion rather than dismiss out of hand any point you disagree with. A cursory look round the internet might show how seldom this idea is observed these days.

Given these aims, what are the rules that we put in place to ensure this happens? Well in truth, given the way we work that comes down to two things:

  1. Produce the best content you can
  2. Own your role and trust in each other

Rule one works because we are both trying to improve what we do with a guiding philosophy born out of an existing approach rather than trying to apply an external idea we’ve borrowed and trying to make fit. Stated on its own, rule one is meaningless, but within the context of what I have laid out it is all that is required. Essentially it is a reminder.

Rule two was born out of necessity, but is also grounded in something I’ve come to believe through over twenty years of playing in bands. When Dan came to me about the podcast, I had to be practical as I was already watching games and writing a blog whilst leading a busy life and not wanting to be disowned by my partner. I wanted to try it, but I made sure to let Dan know that it had to be his project. He writes the notes and plans the pod, edits our separate recordings into a coherent conversation and sorts out distribution. We collaborate on news stories in terms of discussing stories, but he basically runs the show and does a great job.

The best bands I have been in have been based around everyone having an equal say, and using the best idea no matter whose it was. This only works if you take care of what you are meant to, and trust the others to do the same.

Circling back to football, it is also how a team has to operate as on every play, elven people are working together to carry out a set sequence of actions, which works best if everybody focuses on their own role and trust the others to do the same i.e. teamwork. The rule should speak for itself, but it is good to have the reminder.

So there you have it, the Tao of The Wrong Football.