Are the Browns about to get offensive?
Browns coach Pat Shurmur hinted at it during his introductory press conference and he made it official yesterday: he’s also going to be calling the plays on offensive on game days.
When Shurmur first talked about it, we were a little uncomfortable. Now that he’s made it official, we’re starting to worry that the offense could turn into a big enough mess on Sundays that we will actually miss Brian Daboll.
In his book, Take Your Eye off the Ball, author Pat Kirwin highlights how an offensive game plan evolves throughout the course of a game, writing that:
Game day is when the plan becomes practical, where a game plan gives way to the strategy of play-calling. And, as you might imagine, game plans change over the course of the game.
Coaches who run the West Coast offense like to script the first 15 plays. The players know what’s coming, they’re familiar with the plays and ready for them to be called, and they are going to run those 15 plays come hell or high water.
The part about scripting the opening plays is something we actually like, especially with a second-year quarterback in Colt McCoy running the offense. Having practiced those plays and knowing they are coming should help McCoy find his comfort level early on.
But what happens after those first 15 plays are exhausted? The game plan needs to evolve as the game goes based on what’s happening on the field. For example, if it’s 2nd-and-5, the offensive coordinator needs to consider:
- We’ve run the ball at this down and distance, but we haven’t thrown it yet, should we mix it up?
- The first two times we faced this down and distance, the defense blitzed. Which of the plays might work best against a blitz?
- Most of our plays for this down and distance avoid the defense’s best pass rusher, who’s now on the sidelines. Should we expand our plays to take advantage of that?
- Is the weather an issue?
- How much time is left in the half/game?
Those are just some possibilities for one play during a game. Then come the halftime adjustments:
(In the locker room the coaches go over) enough material to determine what adjustments are necessary and also lecture the players about what’s working and what isn’t. … Most coaches aren’t going to have emptied the bucket in the first half. There should always be a few plays … that will get unveiled in the second half.
The coordinators write up new play-call sheets. The key is to not rewrite the entire game plan. A coaching staff may be able to identify three new things to roll out; any more than that and they run the risk of confusing too many players. … All this happens in about four minutes.
The team that had the best game plan going into the game – and the team that makes the best adjustments in the locker room – is usually the one that comes out on top.
That’s a lot – and that’s just on the offensive side. The defense is doing the same and Shurmur has to make sure they are on top of things as well. Plus keep track of injuries, clock management, challenges and everything else that goes on during a game.
Is he going to be up to that – especially in his first year? We’re starting to have our doubts, but we’re willing to see how this plays out (not that we have much choice in the matter).
Shurmur said the team tried to hire an offensive coordinator – ”[We] made an effort to hire the very best guys we could, and I think that’s the way it shaped up this year,” he told the Beacon Journal. But we have to wonder how well that search went when it became clear the offensive coordinator role would not necessarily come with the play calling responsibilities.
Hopefully team president Mike Holmgren and special adviser Gil Haskell can school Shumur quickly on everything he needs to know before the season starts.
Because if not, things could get down right offensive when the Browns have the ball.
Red Right 88 