Theismann calls Skins' system "horrific"

[Sarge]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/2009/11/theismann_calls_skins_system_h.html

I'm having a hard time figuring out whether Joe Theismann thinks the Redskins' play-calling system is good, bad or medium. I guess the system has its positives and its negatives, its supporters and its detractors, its highlights and its lowlights. And sometimes you just never know who's on which downward sloping side of the team's play-calling trapezoid.

So, Joe, do you want to clarify your position, maybe?

"It's horrific!" he said on his ESPN 980 show Monday morning. "Horrific! Terrible! Stupid! Dumb! Everybody's got something that they're responsible for. It's like having three people run an organization, and not one person capable of making one decision. You have one person in charge of the passing game, you have one person in charge of the running game. That is the most absurd, ridiculous thing I've ever seen, and we see the results of that when you see the Redskins burn timeouts....

 

[Neophyte]

I can see his point and frankly, I agree with him. Play calling in the NFL is like chess between the two teams and there is no way to play chess with three guys moving pieces on one side. You can get any consistent strategy going.

I remember an article about Gibbs play calling during his first run here. It was amazing. The intricacies of it stunned me. How he would call specific things in the first and second qtrs to set up stuff for the 3rd and 4th. Running out of a given look 3, 4 or 5 times so the defense got used to it and then hitting them with a play action deep ball or vice versa. Calling specific routes for receivers over and over again only the change it up on the defense after they adjusted for it. Sometimes calling plays out of certain formations one week with an eye to what he could the following week because the next opponent would be seeing the tape of this week.

The best play callers in the NFL are game changers by themselves and can do wonders with even medium talent. I see no way to do it and use early plays to set up later plays consistently if you have 2 or 3 guys in charge of portions of it. I know Lewis is the over all guy, deciding if it will be a pass or run and calling the passing plays himself but if he isn't calling them all how can he use a running play to set up a later passing play or a passing play to set up the later run?

I see Joe's point completely. And even though I see some progress in the play calling here now, I take that as more of an indictment of Zorn's play calling before the change.

 

[Bulldog]

Zorn has never provided the kind of leadership and direction necessary. Part of that is meddling by others, but you only get that when you are perceived as weak and vulnerable.

Campbell is not a WCO qb and the Redskins didn't have the kind of quicker, athletic linemen WCO teams like Denver and Green Bay went after when those programs were successful.

Which means that either Zorn is an idiot OR he merely said what he had to in order to get the HC job here and now is living with the consequences.
Posted via BGO Mobile Device

 

[Billfishead]

I have to disagree with you Bulldog. There has only been 1 coach Snyder hasn't meddled with that we know of and that's Joe Gibbs. I don't believe that every other coach during this regime has been weak, vulnerable maybe, but only after constant meddling from Snyder.

As far as Zorn being an idiot for taking the job, I don't think so. If you believe in yourself and your abilities, when an opportunity arises you take it. If your weak and vulnerable, you don't.

 

[EatSleepRedskin]

Schottenheimer didn't allow much meddling.

That's why he's lasted just 1 year as the Redskins' coach.