Gregg Easterbrook: How Philly telegraphed Redskins 3rd and short and negated Cooley

[monarch34]

No team is immune from patterns. If we have overused this tendency, I would look for us to "show" this to TB and then go with something else that is unpredictable, in essence using the expectation of this pattern continuing to get an open look against TB. NFL teams scout their own tendencies much more often than any journalists do, so its a pretty good bet that our staff knows exactly how to use this to our advantage.

[Kounter Trey]

The flip side of all of this is that in the early going, defenses expected us to run Portis in goal line situations, making those short bootleg-left TD passes possible. Now that defenses are keying on that pass, however, lanes have opened up and Clinton's able to punch it in. I think this is an overall gain for the team--just remember how frustrating it was not to be able to run early on, but by the end of the season Clinton had double-digit TDs.

[skinsfanno9]

I do agree we probably got a tad predictable with the roll-out lefts, but this might be for a few reasons. Brunell really wasn't in top form last Sunday so Gibbs probably tried to keep it to what he does best. But also, Gibbs has a tendancy to take "known" plays, start them off the same way, and then do something completely different. Look for him to do this in a 3rd down situation. With any luck, everyone will gaurd Cooley, leaving the real intended target wide open.

[Kounter Trey]

Gibbs has a tendancy to take "known" plays, start them off the same way, and then do something completely different. Look for him to do this in a 3rd down situation. With any luck, everyone will gaurd Cooley, leaving the real intended target wide open.

Great point--this is why Gibbs' record in the latter part of both games and seasons is so stellar: he takes the expecations he's created and turns them on their head, leaving his opponents flummoxed. Look at how he went to the pass in the middle of the season, only to switch over to a ground attack later on. Maybe this is just happenstance, but so far nobody has been able to stop our rushing. Who knows? Maybe this is what Gibbs had in mind all along. (Tho I don't really imagine he intended to drop 3 in a row in the middle of the year....)

[Jumbo]

Its may be telegraphed, but you can only stop it by cheating to it: you'd need to roll your safety, your play-side backer and your mike. We get that action and Portis will pop the middle and get 6. Most teams would rather give you the easy first-down (and you still may mess up) for 4,5,6 yards (and now you still need to execute on the next couple of plays) than a 50 yard TD. I was just thinking, you'd probably end up running the risk of letting Moss get open on a deep post (or flag since I'm not sure where he'd be lined up) or the FB on a skinny post. In any case, he was open several times on that play and it was our failure to execute, nothing about the Eagles. I would like to see a team cheat to cover it and hit Moss on a deep route or have Portis pop it through where the Mike and SS would have been.

Aha! Caught you! Tell me you never post any thoughts that have run through my mind!

I just hope our poor unseeing coaches don't change a thing so the good luck fairies will keep stepping in to help us.

[ntotoro]

We have these so-called "patterns," yet somehow just keep winning games.

It's called "execution."

Funny how teams take one thing away from us, think we're hamstrung, then we just find another way to score. Every week we hear "Take away this, bla, bla, bla and the 'Skins can't score."

We've scored pretty nicely the last few games, I think.

[moondog]

it's a great play and has worked all year for us but obviously defenses are starting to wise up to it...i think we need to mix it up a little bit we have great running backs and a powerful o-line we could run it or use cooley as a decoy...but the fact we ran that play almost everytime on third and short other than the pass to sellers (which was basically the same play only a different guy) and they knew it was coming

[Ynot]

I think after the fake and roll out a throw back screen to Portis to the right would be great!!!

[Mr. Nostril]

Gregg Easterbrook is my favorite sports writer. He puts in all the good things about a humor column, but combines that with good in depth analysis. He has his idiosyncrasis that I don't like(For example, whenever he starts talking about teams punting too much, I just skip over that section. We get it Gregg, teams punt too much, not only have you made your case, I completely agree with you, but do you really have to dedicate a large section of your column every week to giving every single example), but overall he's a good writer and he's a quality writer who, who has quality content.

Granted, alot of the reason for this is that the overall quality of sports writers is very low.

[chet06]

Good thing for the coaches that they have Easterbrook's columns out there.

I mean, what do they know? They've only went 10-6, made it to the playoffs, and have won FIVE STRAIGHT.

Maybe Coach Gibbs can keep a cell phone with him on the sideline and can contact Easterbrook and get his opinion on what plays he should call.

gibbs did say that they took away some things from the offense. that was it.

[Tarpon75]

During Joe's first tenure everyone new the Skins were going to run counter to death.Who stopped it?How mant touchdowns do Cooley and Sellars have this year on that type of play?That being said,I think we pass a little bit too much on 3rd and short.

[Jumbo]

gibbs did say that they took away some things from the offense. that was it.

that's what i figured when he said that: he was talking mainly about cooley.

[Mackdaddydean]

1st and Goal, play action bootleg left....TD Sellers...SHUT IT!

wasnt really a bootleg...more like a play fake turn around and pass

[Darth Tater]

Aha! Caught you! Tell me you never post any thoughts that have run through my mind!

I just hope our poor unseeing coaches don't change a thing so the good luck fairies will keep stepping in to help us.

Sorry, guess I'm chanelling you tonight but didn't know it

:silly

[Darth Tater]

gibbs did say that they took away some things from the offense. that was it.

And now Gibbs must figure out what plays could counter what the Eagles did. Gruden (Kiffen really) will look at how the Eagles did it and either use a similar tactic or reject it as too risky (knowing that Gibbs will be looking for ways to counter the tactic). If the Bucs use a similar tactic to take away that play, do the counter measures that Gibbs designs work? Do the player execute them? Do they get the Bucs to stop using the Eagles' tactic?

[Carlito Sway]

*cough* run the ****ing ball on 3rd and short *cough*

Ibid.

[BlitzFiftySix]

Yeah, he's right. And I noticed Cooley was sitting on the bench late in the game. It seemed like he was losing his cool not being able to get open. Not like it was his fault, they just game planned us well against that play.

[Rogers22]

This is why the most common thing I yell at the tv during a skins game is: "Give the ball to Clinton Portis"

[jayray78]

jg knows what he is doing.

[mookie0720]

I'll take my chances with him running left and Cooley taking 3 defenders with him. Someone's gotta be open.

Not when there's only 2 guys in the route.

The play works just like playaction to the TE at the goal line always used to work on us. You know it's coming, it's just a matter of reacting the right way.

[aREDSKIN]

GE is such a ASS. He's been a Skins hater for such a long time. He clearly has issues when commenting about the skins. Just ignore him as with many in the media.

[themurf]

Easterbrook rhymes with bassclown.

[RDSKNFN_48]

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/9140954

Sweet 'N' Sour Team: Mark Brunell sure looked like his old self by firing beautiful, deep passes to Santana Moss and James Thrash, plus running on third-and-8 for a late conversion that nearly iced the Skins' playoff invitation. But Washington keeps rolling Brunell left (he's left-handed) on short-yardage downs, and it's fooling no one.

Philadelphia leading 17-7, Washington had third-and-1 on the Nesharim 6; Brunell play faked and rolled left, fooling no one, incompletion. Philadelphia leading 20-17, Washington facing third-and-3, Brunell play faked and rolled left, fooling no one, incompletion. Washington leading 24-20 with 3:25 remaining, facing third-and-3, Brunell play faked and rolled left, fooling no one, incompletion. All three plays were designed to go to H-back Chris Cooley, and all three times Eagles defenders, knowing what was coming, swarmed over Cooley.

Memo to Redskins coaches: Everybody in the free world expects Brunell to play fake and roll left on short-yardage downs. This was the single-most predictable action in the NFL this season, and Washington needs to fix the problem before the playoffs commence.

One thing though, Gibbs was not showing a thing in this game. I got tired of hearing this in the beginning of the year myself. About how he always hides what he does in the preseason and saves his game plan for what matters. But it's true, i watched his play calling in some games and it's very dramatic from week to week. Weather it be high octane or grind it in the dirt, you can see the difference when he plays lesser teams, depending on how the game is going, that he will call less aggressive plays. I almost think that he likes to look predictable, it's a ploy IMHO. He Knew, or hoped, we should come out with a win in philly, without giving future foe's alot to study. Game plan skinsfans, that's what JJG is all about...the plan, present and future.

[skinsmania123]

ONe thing about the Skins is the predictability factor. I do not think it is going to change. Can't call it a winning formula but I would imagine the coaches are going to keep the status quo cause we are in the playoffs.

[wshngtn1]

It's not about knowing what we're going to do, its about STOPPING what we're going to do. Sure, the Eagles stopped a couple of the rollouts, but we still ran OUR offense - no big surprises - and won.