It’s the topic of an argument I’ve heard over and over – time of possession as an indicator of offensive success. The 2012 Rose Bowl was an opportunity to put this philosophical argument to the test. Wisconsin is a grind it out, hold on to the ball, time of possession team. Oregon could care less about the indicator. Wisconsin came into the game as the No. 22 team in the nation in this category at 31:58. Oregon was dead last at averaging 25:03. Wisconsin was fourth in the nation in scoring at 44.6 points per game, and Oregon was third at 46.2 ppg. These were two distinctly different styles of offense with contrasting philosophies of what holding on to the football means to offensive success. Wisconsin did indeed win the time of possession battle by over 10 minutes. However, Oregon won the game 45-38.
Does this prove the contention that time of possession doesn’t matter as an indicator of success? One game probably cannot put this argument to rest. I would offer that the answer is, “It depends.” There are many factors that go into this. Even Wisconsin offensive coordinator Paul Chryst admitted that time of possession can be a deceiving statistic, but what the offense really wants to do is move the football and score. Time of possession, therefore, becomes a by-product of being able to maintain the drive down the field.
I think you have to do a careful analysis from year-to-year on how your team is built. Do you have a defense that is more seasoned than your offense? Can they stop opponents from scoring on a regular basis? You certainly want your offense to complement your defense. Scoring fast all of the time may not be the best thing for your defense. This is something that can happen from game to game. There may be times when the defense has struggled or been on the field long in which a grind-it-out type of drive serves them well. Again, it depends on the offense’s capability. If personnel-wise you can’t grind it out, then there need to be other answers on how to use the personnel and formations you use, yet have the ability to slow play down and milk the clock for a while.
While we prefer the fastest style of attack that we can create, we value having tools to slow play down and help our defense. Scoring always helps a defense, but at times they need the offense to hold onto the ball so they can adjust and regroup. In our final game of 2011, our opponent drove the ball down field in 15 plays, taking 9:43 off the clock. Our intention on the ensuing drive was to use our slow-it-down tempo and take some time off the clock while our defense rested and regrouped. We did use those procedures but scored in 4 plays, only taking 1:37 off the clock. I looked over to our defensive coordinator and smiled and said, “I’m sorry.” The next offensive series we had more success in slowing it down, taking 14 plays to go 82 yards for the score and taking 8:02 off the clock. This happened at a critical time in the game.
We won the game 45-37. We lost the time of possession battle 26:10-33:50. We had some fast scoring drives – 1 play in 19 seconds, 4 plays in 1:26, 4 plays in 1:37, and 3 plays in 1:00. In those situations, we were operating with our fastest procedures. We also had some long scoring possessions – 15 plays in 7:40 and 14 plays in 8:20. I should point out that we were still multiple-tempo during the longer drives, but the use of slow-it-down tactics was more prevalent. We used our base tempo, huddle, and peek procedures, along with speeding play up here or there with some of our faster procedures. The whole idea was to keep the defense off balance. Having the ability to score fast, but also grind it out, provided what we needed in the game to get the win. Fortunately, with our use of multiple personnel ranging from 5 wide to 5 tight ends (to be explained in a future column), we can control the clock in the manner in which we see fit.
Our procedures run along the spectrum of being able to get a snap off within eight seconds of the ball being spotted to snapping it with a second or two left on the play clock. There is value for us to have that range of procedures. We know that on our schedule, there are teams which we don’t want to get into a scoring duel. In the same respect, if we can use tempo to get up early and then physically grind it out, we would like to do that also. Playing in northeast Ohio, weather always is a contingency for which we must plan. I’ve seen the goal post flags flying in opposite directions because of a wind tunnel effect created by our bowl-shaped stadium.
So to reiterate my answer on the topic of time of possession is, “It depends.” We always want to score. How we decide to operate to do it is something we are able to maintain control of through the operating procedures we have installed.
How do you slow it down? It’s not just by huddling. As I mentioned before, I’ve seen Boise State operate from a huddle and run at a pace that some no-huddle teams run. While we do huddle and believe that is a valuable tool to milk the clock, we know that the ability to control the clock lies in the coach’s hand. While we will always align and present a formation to a defense as fast as possible, I will hold my call while watching the play clock tick. We use this within our base tempo, and we usually notify our players prior to the series that we want them to get up to the ball and align, but we are not going to get the play call in immediately.
A huddle can be defined as a brief, efficient business meeting. If what is said in a huddle is confusing or two wordy, it’s time to go back to how you set up your terminology and calls structure and streamline it (see May 1 column). In moving to operating from a no- huddle system, I learned much about being efficient with language. The more words necessary to make a call, the more difficult it is to signal in efficiently, and more opportunity for errors are created. The process of learning to operate from no-huddle made us much more efficient in our play call structure. Lately, I’ve been reading about one word play calls to communicate all information. This obviously is very efficient, though I am unsure of its practicality.
Last spring, when we put a huddle back into our offense for the first time in practice in five years, our players looked at each other with confusion. We had to explain to them how to align, they had to listen, and say “break”, and it was funny to them. They understood why we were installing it and what we would use it for. We do like to have a huddle for certain critical situations. If aligning as fast as possible isn’t a consideration for a third and long or critical red zone play, we can huddle and let our players get together to communicate key information to each other. Huddling is not just a tool to slow it down. We can relay important information that we cannot necessarily get to each other at the line of scrimmage.
Also, we’ve used the huddle to help tricks and deceptive plays. In the following video, our TE #10 hides behind the guard as we break the huddle and quickly hides his jersey number as he aligns at tackle. The tackle aligns at TE in an unbalanced look but we quickly shift to empty before the defense can gain recognition. The tackle is covered and runs a bubble and the TE, from a tackle alignment, runs a seam and goes uncovered through the defense for the touchdown. Huddling and movement definitely helped us with this play.
Obviously, huddling can slow play down and help consume the clock. We have a procedure which tells our quarterback to hold the huddle until 15 seconds remaining on the play clock. In this procedure, our thought is we want to keep a drive moving, but since we are snapping the ball with next to no time left on the clock, we don’t want the defense to align, make their calls and adjustments and be settled in to what they want to do. We don’t want to go to the line and show the defense our formations, let them get their alignment and calls made, and recognize and process the information we are giving with personnel and formation. Using shifts and motions out of the huddle are valuable because we get back to doing what we do when we are running at our fastest tempos – we make the defense adjust and process quickly. The less time they have to settle in, the better. This is obviously a procedure that has value in a four minute situation, but it can be used at any time during the course of a game when the thought is to use up the clock. I’d like to point out that Boise State’s use of the huddle is done in conjunction with a lot of movement. They force a defense to quickly recognize and adjust much like a fast paced, no-huddle offense.
Finally, the last procedure for discussion is a “peek” tempo in which the offense gets the formation and play aligns quickly, executes a false cadence, gets confirmation of the play or a new play from the sideline, and snaps the ball. The tempo for this kind of procedure certainly can remain fast. The danger for an offense is the longer they take with their procedure, the more time a defense has the chance to adjust. In speaking with coaches this off season, defensive adjustment and change against teams peeking to the sideline is something many defensive coordinators are going to use. The mentality will become, they peek – we peek. The call from the press box may no longer be the correct call based on the defense also making an adjustment. In operating often with this procedure in 2010, I expected every game that my defensive counterpart would audible his defense and adjust the look. This didn’t happen in that season, but we did see some teams use those adjustments in 2011. As always, offensive coordinators will develop weapons to stay a step ahead of the defense. One popular answer within the peek procedure seems to be the fake peek. The offense gets a call, looks to the sideline as if they are going to get a new call and immediately turns back, sets and snaps the ball. Whether operating fast or slow, it’s about having the tools in your offense to stay one step ahead.
This isn’t meant to be a case for slowing the game down and using a huddle. While we carry two huddle tempos in our procedures, we use those for a clearly defined set of situations. The point of this discussion is to point out that having the ability to slow the tempo down and help or complement your defense can be valuable to an offense. Remember, this is a team game, and managing the game should be a consideration. It’s something that needs to be discussed prior to and throughout the season, and certainly should be a part of in-game strategy.
Multiple tempo keeps the defense off balance. They don’t know what to expect. Your procedures should account for those times when you do want to slow it down. It can be a procedure in no-huddle, it can be controlled by the coach, or it can be done by utilizing a huddle. Like anything in your offense, the procedures you use should be practiced and perfected. It’s up to the coach to do the work up front to streamline the system so that your procedures and concepts are tightly integrated and work well together.
Our next post will continue the discussion of tempo and procedures with the focus being on tools and procedures to operate at the fastest pace possible. Please post your comments and questions.