2ND Half Play Calling In Black & White

[RedskinzOwnU]

Notice how the only drive that worked was the drive where we came out in 3 and 4 WR sets? This what I've been advocating. Attack the weakness of the defense and USE OUR TALENT. Don't force our maligned offensive line to power rush against a team that has a BAD SECONDARY. The bottom line is, regardless of whether it was a pass or a run, the play selection up to the final drive was extremely conservative. We should have seriously opened things up a lot earlier than we did. Probably in the 2nd drive of the 2nd half after the 1st one failed.

[GSF]

TK, are you trying to excuse the coaching staff from this defeat? I'm as big a Gibbs fan as anybody, but this loss is totally on the coaching staff. Gibbs has got to be the only coach in the NFL that tries to run out the clock at the beginning of the 3rd quarter. At this point, going into halftime with the lead is the worst thing that can happen b/c the coaching staff just shuts down.

I'm not talking about just the play calling, but the entire philosophy goes WAY too conservative. Run, run, pass to a back behind the line of scrimmage, and then play soft zone on defense so as "not to give up the big play". You wind up with a offense going 3 and out repeatedly, and a defense that lets the other team methodically work their way right down the field. A quarter or so of that and the defense is exhausted and it's over.

How many times did they even throw to the WRs in the second half not counting that last drive? 2 or 3 times?

Gibbs and Williams have to LET THE BOYS PLAY! This coaching not to lose garbage is just demoralizing.

On offense, they need to mix it up way more in the passing game. Yes we at least throw the occaisonal bomb now, but where's the midrange stuff? Where are the deep outs to Moss and El, and the 15 yard crosses to Cooley?

On defense, give up on playing cover 2 already, WE SUCK AT IT. Los doesn't get it, and neither does Taylor. I'm not saying these guys can't play, b/c they can, they're just not good zone players. Los and Springs are man corners. Our LBs are guys that excel around the line of scrimmage. Every time I see our safeties drop deep and our lbs drop back into coverage I cringe b/c you know what's coming, a completion into the soft spots of the zone. They played man against Philly and in the first half against the giants and did very well. They need to stick with it, again, let the boys play.

I am so dissappointed in Coach Gibbs right now and it's killing me. Man I hope he comes around, b/c those of you as old as me know, this aint the same Coach Gibbs.

[Xero21]

There were chances at :58 and :51 to get Portis in the game.

And yet we did not.

[Isifhan]

There is a line of thinking followed by some extremely successful coaches that you should be able to execute certain plays so well that it doesn't matter if the other team knows it's coming. That thinking has actually won us a Superbowl or two, if memory serves.

For three going on four seasons we have not been a team that can execute and make the "here's what's coming try and stop us" game work. There comes a time that you need to recognize that and as such scheme to find a way that does work. Telegraphing running plays by pulling out your first and second wide outs and inserting James Thrash and Puccillo is not scheming creatively. Find a way to create mismatches, we did not do that the second half of football yesterday and while the season is not by any means lost, if we don't fix it fast it could be over sooner than we think.

[pjfootballer]

First 4 possessions of the 2nd half:

4 Passes

7 Runs

0 sacks

3 punts and a turnover

Last 2 possessions:

12 passes

2 sacks

4 runs

1 punt and 1 turnover on downs.

What this proves is in Black and White, that the first 4 possessions were too conservative and the last 2 weren't, because we HAD to pass to tie the game. Also, running the ball on the last 2 downs was conservative and NOT the best play IMO, sans the coaches opinions.

Shows they didn't have confidence that JC could throw the ball into the endzone, like he did against Philly. He had to practically pull their arms behind their back to get them to let him try the one against the Eagles.

[pjfootballer]

We aren't going to throw it deep on every single play, and we're not going to go no-huddle passing on every down when we're up by a touchdown in the third quarter. Having 4 out of the 6 plays as passing plays is a pretty good balance that doesn't seem too conservative to me.

No one is saying throw 80 yard bombs on every play. It just seems like we either run, run, short pass. Or short pass, run, short pass. Occasionally we send it deep.

I just want to know why we're the only team in the NFL that can't complete a 20 yard pass. That's pretty much all we want. Some mid-range passes. A little run after the catch.

Also, the game plan stunk. After having flawless gameplans on offense against Miami and Philly, we didn't go after the Giants weakness. Over the middle deep and to the TE. TE's have been killing the Giants. 3 catches for 19 lousy yards. Be for real. One pass over the safety's head to Moss completed. No more tried. Only 1 more deep pass, but it was to the sidelines. We didn't have a good gameplan to attack the Giants weaknesses and that's on the coaching staff.

[pjfootballer]

Now this I totally agree with. The whole team just played flat-out bad. There was more going on there than bad play-calling.

I disagree. The defense held their vaunted offense to 10 points through 3 Quarters. They got tired when the offense was doing their 3 and outs. Too much time on the field. I'm actually surprised that we didn't give up more. Sign of a defense getting tired. Poor tackling, zone defenses and HB Blades actually got into the game. That means Fletcher was tired and he NEVER comes out.

[DjTj]

No one is saying throw 80 yard bombs on every play. It just seems like we either run, run, short pass. Or short pass, run, short pass. Occasionally we send it deep.

I just want to know why we're the only team in the NFL that can't complete a 20 yard pass. That's pretty much all we want. Some mid-range passes. A little run after the catch.

Also, the game plan stunk. After having flawless gameplans on offense against Miami and Philly, we didn't go after the Giants weakness. Over the middle deep and to the TE. TE's have been killing the Giants. 3 catches for 19 lousy yards. Be for real. One pass over the safety's head to Moss completed. No more tried. Only 1 more deep pass, but it was to the sidelines. We didn't have a good gameplan to attack the Giants weaknesses and that's on the coaching staff.

We simply don't have a big WR to catch those intermediate passes ... also, while Campbell's deep ball is beautiful, he tends to throw the ball high on those intermediate passes. I don't think it's really the coaches, but more that our personnel just isn't well-suited for an intermediate passing game. Cooley is really the only receiver that can catch those 10-15 yard passes and gain som YAC, but the Giants took him out of the game in the second half.

The Giants simply out-schemed us on Sunday. We were overconfident coming out of the locker room and stuck to the same gameplan we had in the first half. The Giants started to overload the right side of our line, and that prevented Cooley from releasing into the flat to take advantage of the LB's in coverage.

I think the gameplan we had going into the game was good, but we needed to adjust at halftime after the Giants were able to react. It's not a simple matter of "less conservative" or "more passing." I think we probably should have run up the middle more because the Giants were brining the pass rush out wide. We probably should have used Portis to block so we could free up Cooley to catch more passes. Unfortunately, we just got complacent, and hopefully we'll learn from this.

[Tulane Skins Fan]

Im sorry, but we are supposed to be a smashmouth team. We should have had at least 40 runs yesterday after taking that lead at halftime. Anyone here calling for more passes either did not pay attention to all the incompletes on first and second, and just does not understand that our best player is our rb and the running game is our bread and butter.

[zanggg]

may not come out lined up, but look @ JC's splits:

CMP ATT YDS CMP% YPA LNG TD INT SACK RAT ATT YDS AVG LNG TD

2 Wide Receivers 6 10 108 60.0 10.80 48 0 1 2.0 57.5 1 1 1.0 1 0

3 Wide Receivers 12 24 187 50.0 7.79 49 0 1 0.0 58.9 4 34 8.5 14 0

4+ Wide Receivers 10 14 136 71.4 9.71 54 1 1 0.0 96.1 2 33 16.5 20 0

See the 4wide? Time to take the training wheels off.

[zanggg]

Also - note YPA when ahead:

CMP ATT YDS CMP% YPA LNG TD INT SACK RAT ATT YDS AVG LNG TD

Ahead 15 29 165 51.7 5.69 49 1 0 1.0 80.4 6 27 4.5 14 0

Behind 14 26 209 53.8 8.04 49 1 0 3.0 93.3 3 22 7.3 20 0

Tied 15 29 247 51.7 8.52 54 0 3 1.0 41.1 5 31 6.2 13 0

We need to attack. Being way too conservative.

[AKM311]

Portis had 3 carries in the 2nd half. That is the only stat that kills me during this entire game. Bottom line is, he needs to get the ball more, IMO. We lost yesterday, because the offense could not sustain drives. It was pure execution with a mix of some bad play calls. But no one is perfect, but if we could have just picked up maybe 3-4 more first downs and had a better field position, we would have won the game.

I just think Portis needs to get more than 14 carries against the last ranked defense.

[Jimbo]

Im sorry, but we are supposed to be a smashmouth team. We should have had at least 40 runs yesterday after taking that lead at halftime. Anyone here calling for more passes either did not pay attention to all the incompletes on first and second, and just does not understand that our best player is our rb and the running game is our bread and butter.

In order to run the ball 40 times you have to get a lot of first downs. We didn't get them in the 2nd half because or poor execution and play-calling. In the 3rd quarter we only threw once on first down and that was a swing pass to Portis that lost 4 yards.

The Giants figured we'd mostly run and play conservatively on first down with a lead and they were correct. The running game was NOT THERE in the second half because the Giant defense was stacking the box. We should have come out in the 3rd quarter throwing downfield on first down to keep them guessing. Then the running plays would have worked better and we could have balanced things out.

The fact that we didn't have a first down in the 2nd half until we were behind proves this.

[pjfootballer]

We simply don't have a big WR to catch those intermediate passes ... also, while Campbell's deep ball is beautiful, he tends to throw the ball high on those intermediate passes. I don't think it's really the coaches, but more that our personnel just isn't well-suited for an intermediate passing game. Cooley is really the only receiver that can catch those 10-15 yard passes and gain som YAC, but the Giants took him out of the game in the second half.

The Giants simply out-schemed us on Sunday. We were overconfident coming out of the locker room and stuck to the same gameplan we had in the first half. The Giants started to overload the right side of our line, and that prevented Cooley from releasing into the flat to take advantage of the LB's in coverage.

I think the gameplan we had going into the game was good, but we needed to adjust at halftime after the Giants were able to react. It's not a simple matter of "less conservative" or "more passing." I think we probably should have run up the middle more because the Giants were brining the pass rush out wide. We probably should have used Portis to block so we could free up Cooley to catch more passes. Unfortunately, we just got complacent, and hopefully we'll learn from this.

I can live with that explaination. I was really getting pissed seeing Cooley trying to block Strahan 1 on 1. Terrible pass blocking scheme. That's a mismatch. I'd also like to see Cooley go in motion more. He seems to get a better head of steam/separation when he does that.

[pjfootballer]

Funny how Gibbs was the master at halftime adjustments. Now the other coaches are taking him to school with it and he doesn't respond.

[GSF]

We simply don't have a big WR to catch those intermediate passes ... also, while Campbell's deep ball is beautiful, he tends to throw the ball high on those intermediate passes. I don't think it's really the coaches, but more that our personnel just isn't well-suited for an intermediate passing game. Cooley is really the only receiver that can catch those 10-15 yard passes and gain som YAC, but the Giants took him out of the game in the second half.

TJ, I've always considered you to be one of the smartest posters on ES, but read that back to yourself and tell me that it doesn't sound a little, well, rediculous. We're not going to have an intermediate passing game b/c we don't have a big receiver? If that's the case then we better figure something out b/c we can't just go with screens and bombs.

The truth is that ARE, Cooley, and Moss are all very good on those intermediate routes. We have never had an intermediate passing game since Gibbs' return b/c they're the most risky passing plays. Short passes are rarely picked off, and if you're picked off on a bomb, well that's kinda like a punt.

Like somebody else said, it's time to take off the training wheels and LET THE BOYS PLAY! I'd much rather see them go down swinging and learn from their mistakes then die the slow death that is the overly conservative game plan.

[Tulane Skins Fan]

In order to run the ball 40 times you have to get a lot of first downs. We didn't get them in the 2nd half because or poor execution and play-calling. In the 3rd quarter we only threw once on first down and that was a swing pass to Portis that lost 4 yards.

The Giants figured we'd mostly run and play conservatively on first down with a lead and they were correct. The running game was NOT THERE in the second half because the Giant defense was stacking the box. We should have come out in the 3rd quarter throwing downfield on first down to keep them guessing. Then the running plays would have worked better and we could have balanced things out.

The fact that we didn't have a first down in the 2nd half until we were behind proves this.

just look at the first post and tell me we didnt throw enough. just look at the calls

[GSF]

Funny how Gibbs was the master at halftime adjustments. Now the other coaches are taking him to school with it and he doesn't respond.

That's the strangest part of all of this to me. Gibbs used to keep it pretty close to the vest in the first half, and then come out swinging in the second half. Gibbs' idea of halftime adjustments these days is just try to run out the clock. I don't get it.

[Thirtyfive2seven]

First 4 possessions of the 2nd half:

4 Passes

7 Runs

0 sacks

3 punts and a turnover

Last 2 possessions:

12 passes

2 sacks

4 runs

1 punt and 1 turnover on downs.

What this proves is in Black and White, that the first 4 possessions were too conservative and the last 2 weren't, because we HAD to pass to tie the game. Also, running the ball on the last 2 downs was conservative and NOT the best play IMO, sans the coaches opinions.

Shows they didn't have confidence that JC could throw the ball into the endzone, like he did against Philly. He had to practically pull their arms behind their back to get them to let him try the one against the Eagles.

I don't know dude, were the Giants not playing Prevent defense after the score was 24-17??

I think that can attribute to A LOT of those yards and success.

[ArmchairRedskin]

If you ask me, the offense looked lacksadaisacal out there the second half. It looked like they weren't going full speed. No fire. I'm not sure what was going on, but to me the energy level seemed really low.

[dfos81]

This may sound like a homer statement but it holds true. "We let'em off the hook"! We dropped easy passes, some were we had nothing but daylight ahead.

J.C. had 1 easy dump off to portis I belive, and it would've got us 10+ yds, but Campbell gets hit in the back on his blind side and the ball almost gets fumbled!

So many woulda, coulda, shouldas and we had that team down and out and we LET'EM OFF THE HOOK!

They ARE WHO WE THOUGHT WERE and we let'em off the hook :doh:

Our team better carry this bitter feeling of letting them come back and NOT let it happen again!

We had Campbell hitting players to get us downfield on the final drive.

Put it in JC's hands Joe and let him make the play w/ his legs or arm.

He deserved it after getting us out of the 4th and longs. Instead we run 2 of the same running plays w/o Portis in.

If Portis would've came in, you know the D would've been playing THE RUN and thats when you playaction BOOTLEG W/ JC and get Cooley and Moss running a sprint right, and giving J.C. the option to run it if the D is too tight on Moss, Cooley, etc.

I know the coaches have got to know this, if I do :whoknows:

[Bacon]

Campbell

YPA: 5.6

Longest completion: 49 yards

Anything wrong with this picture?

[Brandon Lloyd Christmas]

6 plays in the 3rd quarter. 6.plays.

[ArmchairRedskin]

We have got to do something about the chaos that ensues once we get close to the goal line in time critical situations. What the hell is it with us shooting ourselves in the foot down there?

[Bacon]

6 plays in the 3rd quarter. 6.plays.

And yet people are blaming the offense for losing the game for us... :doh: