ELI5: What is the logic of "scripted plays" and why are they so effective against us?
One of the explanations I've seen on the board for the early struggles against ND and NW has been "they clearly scripted their first few drives" and we were not ready for it.
Can someone explain exactly what this means? I've been hearing for years that many coaches script out their first 15-20 plays before then calling plays on the fly, but it's never made much sense to me. Shouldn't every play come down to contextual decisions? And why can our defense supposedly not adjust to this?
October 2nd, 2018 at 11:13 AM ^
For NU, Jon Jansen said that we hadn't seen much of what they were doing in the first quarter on tape. I think that's the appeal. Script + add in specific plays that target your opponent's weaknesses. As described on the podcast, we're often the team other teams pull out all the stops for.
October 2nd, 2018 at 11:42 AM ^
Also Northwestern had a bye week before us, so more time to prepare something new to throw at us.
October 2nd, 2018 at 11:41 AM ^
The defense has been the strong point during the entire duration of the Harbaugh era. Don Brown's been particularly good at shutting teams down in the 2nd half. I will never understand why people are worried about the defense when the offense continues to be the weak spot.
October 2nd, 2018 at 1:23 PM ^
Most people aren't really worried about our defense, but some of us are a little concerned about these apparently scripted plays that tend to work against the defense early in games.
I mean, that could be the difference between winning and losing against the tougher teams we'll play later on in the season.
October 2nd, 2018 at 12:43 PM ^
It's a Bill Walsh innovation. The idea behind it is after days of gameplanning you're able to spot tendencies and the drill your players on a script of plays that beat those tendencies to open the game. It's not just "hey I've already decided what the first 15 plays are as a play caller." It's "let's drill this opening set so we execute it flawlessly against the problems they have we spotted."
It's become a standard across football. You can't script the whole thing because you've got to be nimble to respond to their response to what you're doing. The idea around scripting the first 15-20 plays is that it'll take them that long to figure out what you're doing to futz with them and that's when you start playing it by feel.
October 2nd, 2018 at 3:28 PM ^
Yes, back when Bill Walsh was the coaching genius in the public's eye, Joe Montana was the greatest QB of all time, pick plays were not yet completely outlawed, and the West Coast Offense was a new term, scripting entered the general football watcher's general terminology.
The earlier posts have covered the pros and cons of the idea. It also helps to have Jerry Rice and John Taylor as the wide outs. Roger Craig a 1000 yard rusher and 1000 yard receiver, and a very good defense.
Every year in the Super Bowl - one team will fool the other one or diagnose a weakness and exploit it and the victimized team are not pushovers and chumps so it will happen. Each team can mount a surge.
Against Nebraska, the Huskers had one really good chance that the tip pass interception stopped and after then it was down hill. Playing at home and full of enthusiasm, Northwestern put up a good initial surge but after that it was a question of whether the referees or the Wolverines would stop themselves because it was clear the UM would score.
October 2nd, 2018 at 2:11 PM ^
There is also a long-view/short-view element to scripting that might account for why teams with less overall talent sometimes seem to "script" Michigan well on their first few drives, while Michigan doesn't seem to noticeably "script" others during that same time, quite as much.
Teams with less talent might take a short view of scripting, trying to do wholly new things that counter the opponent's tendencies; they're looking for surprise things that hit big and quickly, on their early drives. They rep these hard all week and hope to execute them well, but know that the defense will adjust quickly and, once they do, their offense is back to its base stuff, which the superior opponent has prepped for and can probably handle. The goal is to stake themselves to an early lead that they can hold onto... maybe get momentum going in their direction (a la Northwestern) with the hope that the momentum will propel them to an upset. They also know that if they don't hit on these, they might get face tanked really quick (a la Western). If you spent 30% of your practice week repping your first two series, and you get stoned, now you're back to your base stuff, which is exactly what your opponent has been prepping for. It's a risk/reward view that a decided underdog might be willing to take.
Teams with superior talent like to play a low variance game and thus may not use their scripted plays in the same way. While a whole new play hitting for a big gainer would be awesome, the "superior" team will save that for a rival and decide to use their scripted plays to establish new keys and intricacies for the opponent to react to that, they hope, will pay dividends throughout the game and into the 4th quarter. The superior team may not rep these plays as much because it's not so much about executing them perfectly as it is about establishing something new in the heads of an overmatched opponent, only to go back to their "bread and butter" stuff later in the game, perhaps with some wrinkles that play off of the stuff they established while "on script."
For the superior team the early script may not be so much about taking those big shots at chunk plays as it is about methodically establishing new wrinkles that will mess with run fits, etc., which you can then exploit at the right time later with the stuff you rep all the time and do well.
October 2nd, 2018 at 3:44 PM ^
I think it's a question of resources. College-level teams seem to be able to develop strong scripts for 2-3 opponents per season. I think it's pretty obvious that last year we put our scripting resources into Wisconsin and Ohio State. Sparty always put theirs into the matchup with us, to the extent where I wouldn't be surprised if that's the reason they always look so weak at the beginning of the year.
October 2nd, 2018 at 3:51 PM ^
There are some great comments that explain it pretty well, but my two cents is that scripted plays work well against us because Don Brown's defense is heavily man-coverage/pressure, and with enough prep time, an offense can script plays that will dictate the defense at the beginning of the game.
Every defense has general rules for how to approach different personnels and formations, and defenders are taught what to key on to decide how they will react to each play. As a few have said Don Brown likes to bring 5 man pressures, and if you do your homework you can pretty much predict how our defense will respond to specific personnel and formations (namely, who the fifth rusher is going to be and whether he's coming from the field or boundary), thus, giving your offense an advantage.
In doing so, an offense will give you a personnel/formation you have seen on film and have practiced against, they will apply your rules to predict how your defense will respond, and then create a wrinkle that will confuse your defenders just enough to create the opportunity for a positive play. You then have one of your coaches up in the booth watching the defense to see if they are reacting how you thought they were going to, if they are, you continue with your script.
This will work for the first few series, but give Don Brown and his assistants enough time to draw up the adjustments, and coach up their players on the sidelines, and they will shut you down.
October 2nd, 2018 at 10:52 PM ^
Uh... because we don’t do anything different. Ever.