Simplifying a complex world

Sporting News, The, May 26, 2003 by Dan Pompei

In an era when appliance instruction are as thick and ponderous as the yellow pages, it is heartening to see that some things work better when they are simpler. Even in the NFL, where almost every play is a brain strain, some teams have found they can accomplish more by attempting less.

After the Raiders lost four straight last season, coach Bill Callahan and coordinator Chuck Bresnahan minimized the adjustments their defenders were making on the field so the players could think less and react more quickly. The result was a defensive turnaround that enabled the team to win nine of its last 10 games before the Super Bowl.

In the Giants' first seven games, they scored seven offensive touchdowns and won three games. Coach Jim Fassel cut back on the offensive motion and shifting, which he thought was making his players tentative and hindering quarterback Kerry Collins' ability to make presnap reads because defensive players always were moving in response to the Giants' motion Fassel also took over the play-calling and emphasized pass protection, and from then on the Giants averaged 25.7 points and won seven of their final nine regular-season games. In their playoff loss to the 49ers, they scored 38 points.

At this time of year, coaches usually are adding to their playbook, but they should be subtracting. Most offensive coordinators load up on motions, shifts, personnel groupings and formations as if they were starving men at a buffet. Even Callahan, who is espousing defensive simplicity, says "The more the merrier on offense." And his philosophy of coming up with new ways to get matchup advantages obviously has worked for him and others.

Callahan has the luxury of working with highly experienced players, including a quarterback in Rich Gannon who prepares as well as any in the league. The Rams have an ideal situation in which the coach, Mike Martz, is an offensive visionary, and the quarterback, Kurt Warner, can handle a heavy mental load. But many NFL coaches do their offense a disservice by expecting their players to retain as much as Callahan's and Martz's.

"You can only do what your players can handle," Chiefs offensive coordinator Al Saunders says. "If the quarterback can't handle it, you can't do it. Trent Green became much better last year because he was able to handle so much more than the previous year.

"And there are coaches who can't handle the volume, who struggle with being creative week after week. It's easier to say, 'This is what we do, and we're going to get better at these particular areas,' than come up with new and creative ideas every week."

The best offensive coaches can make a game plan seem simple to their players and confusing to opponents. But any coach who pushes the mental limits of his players occasionally will exceed them.

Fassel would prefer to have an offense his players can understand than one that will impress other coaches because of its complexity. "There are guys who like to go to coaching clinics and confuse all the (opposing) coaches," Fassel says. "Well, their quarterbacks are confused, too. I want to take this complex thing we do an, give it to the quarterback so he says, 'I can do that.' We can be sophisticated without being complex."

One reason some teams are stressing simplicity is roster turnover. If a system isn't easy enough for newly acquired players to grasp it in a three- or four-month offseason, its value is diminished. With that in mind, new Jaguars offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave is presenting his players with a condensed version of the West Coast offense, with simplified concepts and streamlined language.

Although the defenses of the Eagles, Bills and Titans remain quite complex, there is a trend of simplicity on that side of the ball, too. The Chiefs' offense often gives defenses a look not previously shown. But defenses respond by simplifying--either playing a conservative cover 2 so they don't have to worry about all the shifting and motion, or pressuring the passer and playing man-to-man.

The best defense in the NFL in 2002, the one that won the Super Bowl, was the simplest. The Buccaneers don't use a lot of fancy blitzes or try to outthink offenses. They basically line up the same way almost every play and are ready for any possibility because each player has his assignments down cold.

"As you look at the top defenses across the league, you find teams that are one-front or maybe two-front oriented and very simplistic in the coverage element," Callahan says. "It's coming down to having the ability to execute your system on defense versus everything you're going to see on offense. With the multiplicity of offenses in formations and movements and shifts, I think you have to be able to have simplistic responses to what you're going to encounter. You can get too complicated and outcoach yourself."

There are limits to how much a mind can expand, especially when a helmet is involved.

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