What is "Smash Mouth" Football ?? I don't consider "Smash Mouth" football to be a battle of Godzilla's with the one doing the most flailing winning the match. I don't consider "Smash Mouth" football to be the exclusive turf for the largest, slowest, angriest, and stupidist guys on the field to whomp the defense. I consider "Smash Mouth" football to be a well-oiled OL machine that hits the other guys first and hard, and dictates what happens on the play with persistence, leverage, and also some serious attitude. I consider "Smash Mouth" football to require the OL to enforce the terms of what happens on the line of scrimmage as a rule, rather than as an exception. There may be platoons of these guys (not whole lines, but maybe G-T 'modules') that spell each other to keep the effort and success consistently high during a fast-paced game. I consider "Smash Mouth" football to require absolutely stubborn intelligence, strength, and intensity -- not just angry brutishness which can't sustain. I consider "Smash Mouth" football well-considered violence, done to the other guy on a regular basis.
See those are just good sounding words. I'd rather put all the stuff you said in the beggining of the Offensive lines manuel or section in the playbook, and get down to what I want the system to be. Alot of playbooks are long because all the stuff you said is basically in the beggining of how you want your o-line to play. How you want them to prepare the intensity they show. Still, it doesn't describe anything in terms of how your running the ball. So smash mouth, as you mentioned it is more of a personality thing, but that's it. For instance we run power concept as our bread and butter, but we still have the traits you described. But if someone said, describe your running game, I wouldn't even mention smashmouth, I'd get into the more technical aspect of it. We run lots of power concept as our bread and butter, we run our share of Lead and ISO, and we also toss in "G" and center into our running game as well. Combine that with 2-3 RBs and that's how we are effective. So to me smash mouth just sounds cool, but doesn't tell me a whole lot.
Strategy and tactics have to be selected based on the actual strengths and weaknesses of the people we actually have on the roster. This is what I have said about Callahan in the past -- what strategies will he employ with the guys we actually have? It's no good to have a theory that doesn't fit your personnel. You have to come up with a package of strategies, tactics, and techniques that empower your actual linemen. It's not good enough to have a philosophy -- man to man blocking, or zone blocking. The personnel you have will dictate what can be effective and what cannot. Judging this is the key to the whole thing. What you have to have is a clear picture of the expected outcomes -- that's why I said what I said about what "Smash Mouth" football should deliver. There are a lot of ways to get there, depending on your personnel.
This is true, for us alone, we didn't do well under Tim Lewis because he tried to fit us in a system that wasn't meant for our personnel, and it was a big mess, hence him getting fired. But my overall opinion was with just the generic overall term, "smashmouth". You read it alot on different messageboards with the connotation being hit them hard at the point of attacking, alluding to man on man blocking screen. This is evident by how people later describe that "big" players are needed to fit this scheme. But you are correct, I agree, the scheme should fit the personnel. Now having said that, based on your o-line and what you ran last year, and the new additions, what do you see your team running? What did you run last year? We ran alot of power, few center, and G, basically overloading at the point of attack via pulling our linemen, center, and both guards. And that was our running game in a nut shell. Did you guys have a certain bread and or butter play you saw alot of last year?
raiderjoe, you have got to be one of the most unintelligent football people ever, your comments make no damn sense, and not to mention your spelling
RESPONSE to S + M =S Giants: What we saw last year was (a) missed blocks, (b) successful counters within the quarter to any hint of an efficient play, (c) the OL accepted the dictates of the Defense: First the running game was stopped. Next, the pass rush clipped off any time to find intermediate to long pattern receivers. Afterwards, as the opponents' score mounted and an obviously stymied running game was forceably abandoned, the pass rushing took over. Finally, the DBs were instructed to jump the short routes and ignore everything else. Pick sixes ended many a game. 4-12. 06 strategy and tactics didn't work with 07 personnel against an informed 07 schedule. One different LG did not a season lose, but the NYJ OL was not sufficiently synchronized to execute anything. You can look at individual statistics -- for Mangold or for D'Brick for instance -- and you see flashes. But all the 07 individual OL efforts were undermined by their lack of coherent cohesion. Starting over without finesse and complications, Callahan has to mold this team to block for some RBs who specialize in "running downhill", as they say. You have to whip the other guys. Now, how are we going to do that when, (a) the cast of characters has changed, and (b) their individual and collective capabilities have to be (i) discovered, (ii) recognized and then (iii) empowered...? This is a question for an offensive linemen's guru -- a la Mangini's choice of Callahan. This is way beyond the fan's pay grade. What I would say is, let's ask Bill.
That make sense, good post. It will interesting to see what you guys try running in the preseason games. That will be where your OC tries to run everything to see what's successful and what's not. I guess I would say focus on that and tape the game see how the plays are run. That's pretty much what I try to do and it helps alot. I am a college TE coach, and was interested in seeing what we ran. So I did game breakdowns throughout the season. Below are the various running plays in the eagles game. Doing this and mapping it out helps to see what your team runs, who is doing there job, and who sucks. Also, it's a good way to learn the game beyond a fan's perspective. Just some tips if you are indeed interested in figuring out the Xs and Os on what your team will run next season.
A bit late to comment on you post but.....did'nt you say the OL is not about individuals? How many screen passes did you see fool? Maybe 3 or 4. Definately no anywhere near double digits. Infact, I dont even remember any but thats just me.
