HRNY4ZRNY Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 I would always defer because our defense is the heart of our team. You give them more confidence when you let them start. Zorn really bothered me last year always wanting the ball first. He needs to control himself. Everyone wants to go down the field and score. He wants it so bad that he doesnt realize the disadvantages to getting the ball first. I hope he realizes the Redskins need every single advantage possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan T. Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 At FedEx Field, the Redskins should defer if they win the coin toss, in large part because of the difference in crowd noise at the start of the game vs. the start of the second half. The reality is that crowd noise can be a disruptive force to an opposing offense -- but not at the beginning of the second half at FedEx. At FedEx the crowd noise at the start of the game is 10 times louder than it is at the start of the second half. That's just the way it is. A visiting team starting a drive at the beginning of the second half enjoys library-like quiet. So instead, force them to try to establish a rhythm with an insane amount of noise in their ears at the beginning of the game. Also, adrenaline is a better fuel for defensive players than offensive players, because of the nature of what they're called upon to do. I believe that the excitement and "psyching up" that comes with the opening of the game gives an advantage to defensive players over offensive players, in general. I do wish Zorn would reconsider his stance on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HRNY4ZRNY Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 If I see Zorn around town we are going to have a heart to heart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NastyBoy Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Our offense would go out first and have a cruddy drive and there morale went down instantly. Put our defense out there first and get a three and out and we already have the momentum. Zorn should show more confidence in his defense. Hes the head coach not the offensive coordinator. Good points. There are 2 reasons I defer 100 out of 100 times when winning the toss: 1. Play to your team's strengths. Defense is clearly our biggest winner right now, so let them go out there and set the tone and send a clear message that this is OUR house (when at home), and you're not going to have success here. On the road, send an equally important message by taking the wind out of the sails of the home team by stopping an opening drive in their building. I also like the idea of having possession after halftime adjustments. (That is assuming Zorn will actually make halftime adjustments next season!) I would put my defense on the field first every time. If I'm at home, I want my crowd up and into it, and when you're on D first they don't have to shut up and sit down. (I know, our crowd never seems to know the difference, but...)A defensive play, even if it's relatively minor like hurrying a QB into a bad pass can whip the crowd into a frenzy and really set the other team back on it's heels early. On the road, same thing. Put the other team on offense, make their crown have to sit on their hands and be quiet. Make a play, and they shut up tight in a hurry. ~Bang This is my second reason for preferring to defer. Very well said, Bang. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrfriedm Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 I would always take the ball to start the 2nd half. You have the entire first half to see what is working and what is not. Depending on the score of the game you know if you need to come out and start TOP game or if you need a quick score to get back into the game. There are so many reasons why I think that a smart coach will always defer to the second half of the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hail2skins Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 It would also be interesting to see historically the percentage of times the team on offense first has scored with that possession. For all the reasons given by people for deferring and thinking that somehow the defense is more ready, keep in mind that the reverse also may be true and it might give the offense a chance with the defense still guessing. For all the criticism of Zorn hree, I bet the majority of coaches this year took the ball if they won the flip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HRNY4ZRNY Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 It would also be interesting to see historically the percentage of times the team on offense first has scored with that possession.For all the reasons given by people for deferring and thinking that somehow the defense is more ready, keep in mind that the reverse also may be true and it might give the offense a chance with the defense still guessing. For all the criticism of Zorn hree, I bet the majority of coaches this year took the ball if they won the flip. I understand what u r saying but I dont care what other coaches do. I know about Fed ex field. Why couldnt someone just suggest it to him. It will help us more I guarantee it. Zorn at the end of the season admitted he doesnt believe in superstition but he did notice on our first possession of the game we would turn over the ball around the 3rd play of the game. Our Defense with the Fans going nuts could probably get a turn over if they were out first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMSSMJ7 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 I'm for whichever gets us the win! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walking Deadman Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Second Half. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squidley Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 I have always liked to defer and kickoff first....think about it, if you are down in the start of the second half you get the ball, and if you are ahead then you have a chance to score more points. I consider it a win-win situation. HAIL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HRNY4ZRNY Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 Not so horny for zorny on that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HEavyJumbo85 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 you always want the ball in the 2nd half, unless your offense is amazing at the start of games and your defense couldn't stop the 2008 Redskins offense(ha). The crowd factor is a good reason. The crowd is always pumped at the start of games and get can your defense fired up. Also in the 2nd half, the crowd is slow to get back to their seats and the energy suffers, that's the perfect time to let your offense(who hopefully has gotten into a decent rhythm by now) go to work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lar0n Landry Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 always kick 1st whether home or away until our offense proves they score more frequently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fede Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 Personally I like getting the ball during the second half. My preference stems from the idea that at the end of the half if you manage to score then you carry momentum into the second half. It is deflating when you score at the end of a half and the opposing team comes out of the locker room and scores on you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CounterTrey75 Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 Always defer IMO. If we end the half on a solid drive, we have an opportunity to continue the momentum in the 2nd half. If the opposing team ends the half with momentum, we have an opportunity to kill it in the 2nd half. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spear Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 Zorn is just a dummy about a lot of things. When you're receiving the ball to open the 2nd half, there's a 50/50 chance that you also had the last meaningful possession of the 1st half. Back-to-back possessions, when your offense should be hitting its stride, can often mean the difference between winning and losing in this league. It's basically the same as recovering an onside kick. Taking the ball to begin the game -- running scripted plays that are designed more to "feel out" the defense than aggressively exploit it -- isn't worth the risk of having those 2 consecutive drives go to the opponent. Even in the unlikely event that we score a TD on that opening drive, the other team has plenty of time to make up the deficit. And often the psychological effect on a team after scoring on their opening possession is one of overconfidence. They might start to slack off and lose focus, struggling to score for the remainder of the game. The last two Super Bowls have taught us that it's not about who has the ball first, it's about who has the ball last (with enough time on the clock to realistically complete a drive). Unfortunately for us, the blood supply to our head coach's brain is being choked off by Phiten necklaces and is too damaged to ever comprehend this simple logic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hail2skins Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 Before the start of the 2008 season when the new rule of deferring went into effect, Pat Kirwan of NFL.com looked at the success rate of the opening drives in both halves of the 2007 season. Thoughts? http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d80aa2b38&template=with-video&confirm=true Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HRNY4ZRNY Posted February 10, 2009 Author Share Posted February 10, 2009 Before the start of the 2008 season when the new rule of deferring went into effect, Pat Kirwan of NFL.com looked at the success rate of the opening drives in both halves of the 2007 season. Thoughts?http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d80aa2b38&template=with-video&confirm=true good stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan T. Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 Before the start of the 2008 season when the new rule of deferring went into effect, Pat Kirwan of NFL.com looked at the success rate of the opening drives in both halves of the 2007 season. Thoughts?http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d80aa2b38&template=with-video&confirm=true I wish Kirwan factored in home team vs. visiting team in these numbers. How successful were opening first half drives for a visiting team vs. a home team? Same question for second half drives. My guess is that visiting teams have a lower success rate on opening first half drives than they do on opening second half drives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paloosa Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 In my opinion I would take the ball because you want to get on top early. With all the scoring troubles this team has it just makes sense to that and not because the fans are still on the concourse at half time. Every time we scored first on the first drive of the game we scored over 25 points and every time we let the other team score on their first drive we scored less than 20 points a game. So that says a lot about the way your team plays. The defense gave up a lot of scoring drives to our opponents on their first drive instead of being in the lead we were always playing from behind. So ask yourself this. Do you want to play with a lead or play from behind? Many times this team had to play from a 10 to 14 point deficit before their offense even got into their opponents territory. So again would you want to play from in front of your opponent or behind your opponent? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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