Must Go Faster, Must Go Faster…
The “Blur” at Oregon. Houston with Case Keenum at the helm. Oklahoma State’s dominating offense. All are examples of how picking up the tempo can greatly improve a team’s offense.
Oregon, for example, averages about 15 seconds between the end of one play to the beginning of the next. As soon as the ballcarrier is brought down, they line up immediately and run the next play. The offense never huddles and the plays are called from the sideline. It works for them, as they’ve averaged 46.7 points per game and 498.3 yards per game.
But not huddling isn’t enough. Many teams that run the no-huddle still take too long to snap the ball. Missouri is a prime example of this. Oftentimes, even without making an audible (which James Franklin does quite often) the game clock will run down to less than 10 seconds, which should be frowned upon.
The sooner the next play is started, the less time the defense has to rest. Teams love to rotate defensive linemen (Missouri does that more than most teams), but if there’s not enough time between the plays, how is a team going to do that? The more exhausted a defensive line is, the less effort they tend to give. When that happens, the entire game opens up for the offense. The D-line doesn’t fire off as hard, so things are much easier for the offensive line, which even in a spread system is where the game is won and lost.
That brings me to my next point: the screen game. Screen passes get criticized way too often, but they really can be a very beneficial aspect to an offense. While high-risk, screens create opportunities to get a team’s best playmakers out in space, being helped out by offensive linemen.
I may sound like a broken record here, but screens can also be used to tire out defensive linemen. Most 6’3 320 men don’t like sprinting from one side of the field to the other, especially towards the end of the game. Of course, screens should still be used sparingly because of the high-risk nature, but they can be effective when used correctly.
In a perfect situation, a team takes it to the end of a game, runs screen passes and lines up on the ball immediately, and then keeps going. Scenarios like that can be deadly to a defense.
There is something to be said about the tradition “ground-and-pound, control-the-clock” offense that can be effective, but the game has changed, for better or worse. With new conditioning techniques, players are bigger, faster and stronger than ever before, and have more stamina. When an offense can tire out an elite defense, that’s when it gets opportunities to win games.