Vanilla play calling what it really means.

[LVskinsfan]

Just out of curiosity, how do we actually know that this is the real meaning of the vanilla defense? Certainly see some logical, seemingly, conclusions being drawn here, but is this evidenced by more than just theory and conjecture?

That's what I was hoping I was communicating. Gregg Williams put together a game plan and implemented it, to include a lot of blitzing. Gregg Williams got some good practice of his own.

[SonnyRules]

Don't care if the plays are Vanilla, Chocolate, or Strawberry....just execute.

[gridironmike]

I wonder if Vince Lombardi worried about hiding his sweep plays in the preseason? Vanilla's butt. Execution is the key to any play. If you have the horses, you can run any play effectively.

[Taylor 36]

LV, you're absolutely correct on what the "vanilla offense" thing means.

Unfortunately my problem with such a concept is that running that vanilla offense in the only really useful training that happens in camp (preseason games) means that our offense will go into the first game of the season with NO useful experience running this offense. Oh yes, they'll have run the plays 150 times on the practice field, in shorts and maybe some pads. They'll have run it at half speed against a defense going half speed at some point during training camp. However, they will not have actually done it in the only set of circumstances that I believe means anything... live game play.

Somebody once said that the best plan in the world ceases being useful at the moment of first contact with the enemy. Someone else has said that the only true way to test the skill and toughness of a warrior is to force him to kill or die. I see sports the same way. I'm no fan of Allen Iverson, but he was right... they were talking about PRACTICE, with isn't worth what comes out the back end of my dog.

If practices are so worthless, why have them at all???:doh:

[triple6mafia]

I dont really care fpr the vanilla play calling excuse becuase other teams do the same thing and move the ball down the field. It definitely worries me some when our starting O cant put up points and I watch other teams just drive down the field with ease.

[LoudMouth12thMan]

Myself, I don't think I want to show other teams my weak points. That's just me though.

Exactly, and the people that tell you that we should be running our "real/full" offense are out of their tree. The fact is that a 2 route is a 2 route and an 6 is a 6 or an 8 is the same whether you mask it with a bunch of pre snap movement, delays out of the backfield or by a TE, or use play action or not. If you can't complete a pass in a basic play, you can't complete one when the routes, pre snap, and play in general is more in depth. So absolutely these guys are running through all the plays in camp, but we're not getting ready to play Miami per se', we're getting ready to play Pittsburgh in a pre season game. Whether we had a "vanilla" offensive gameplan or not doesn't matter to me. We should've faired a whole lot better than we did last Saturday, but we can make up some ground this weekend against a much tougher Defense. No one wants to give our reg. opponents more tape than they have to. Nice post and anyone who doesn't think so is a no football knowin' cowboy lover :paranoid: :jk:

HTTR

[joeknows]

as you musicians have heard 1000 times in your lives, "practice like you'll perform!!" if you give a half assed effort in practice, youll get the same thing in the games.

[Xameil]

As it was said before, in pre-season the team only prepares maybe 1 day for a team...i.e. studying the other teams strengths and weaknesses and selecting plays accordingly, whereas during the season they have all week to do that. Now is just for "knocking the rust off", and seeing what players are staying and which are going. Watch the majorty of the plays in all the games..all fairly simple run routes. It's the 3rd game where ther starters are getting set and ready.