December 14, 2008
Buffalo at New York Jets
I am going to watch the Buffalo Bills at the New York Jets. They should be a very interesting game, although be very hard to relate the youth football since the Jets have Farve who is arguably the best quarterback who’s ever played in the NFL. Going into this game, the Jets have been on a bit of a losing streak after looking dominant a couple weeks against New England, so will be interesting to see if they can find their groove before the playoffs start.
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We all know how much offense each side has and so should be very interesting game to watch. On the opening drive Farve comes out and he is slinging the ball all over the field. This alone makes it very hard to compare this to a youth football game since so many of the zone pass defenses are just not applicable to youthful football. Jones is outstanding back for the Jets and supplements Farve well. Now we’re seeing some offense as Farve goes on a delayed bootleg run and takes off for a 20 plus yard run. The old man still has legs running the bootleg downfield. What a fantastic play to run at the youth football level. The naked bootleg by your quarterback is unbelievable. What a beautiful play by faking the power and then running the naked bootleg backside.
All kind of momentum is going the Jets way and that’s a good way to start the game. Jets just scored and the score is 7-0. We will see how it goes but this is a fantastic start for the Jets who have been reeling as of late. I love to watch the kick off in the NFL They probably set the best wedges and all wedge blocks are fantastic for kick returns. The runner does to a pretty good job of staying within the wedge so it’ll be interesting to see how good the return is. It is interesting that the kick off wedge is a very hard block to teach in youth football It is hard extremely hard and takes a lot of time to get timing down. That plus a lot of people put their off second string, not their star players on special teams get playing time. I believe our attitude has always been just don’t turn the ball over. Early in the game this can be a big momentum changer. Usually when you get a couple touchdown lead in the NFL it doesn’t mean as much as does and youth football. Youth football, you’re pretty safe if you get up a couple of scores since it is hard to catch up. The Jets have the ball for the second time now, with about seven half minutes to go in the first quarter and were seeing typical Farve just throwing the ball all around and just throwing for another touchdown pass. Buffalo better get something rolling here on this next drive or they will get blown out of this game pretty quick.
Even the Jet defense is ready to go and is putting pressure on the Buffalo offense. There is about six minutes to go in half and Buffalo is putting up another fantastic drive. The Buffalo quarterback drops back and takes off straight up the middle scoring a touchdown. The Jets now lead 14 to 10 game. Buffalo is getting back in a game that looked like they’re ready to get blown out. They needed to learn to be patient and everything is not made on one play. Youth football coaching is a little different in that you do need to be patient but the games go by so fast you need to take advantage of every opportunity. That’s why all avoiding mistakes is so important in your coaching. In youth football stupid penalties will absolutely kill you. Jets have to punt the ball and do down to about the 15 yard line. Buffalo stepped out of bounds but what a great return by Buffalo. With great special teams they may possibly take the lead by halftime, which is amazingly this game started. It looked like the Jets were to going to blow them out and Buffalo has just taken the lead 17-14. Now the Jets get the ball again with a minute left in the half so we will see what they can do. From the 50 there is a hand off to Washington and look at him go. He takes off and it’s a 50 yard touchdown for the Jets. This game is unlike the saints vs Tampa Bay game we watched last week, where it was all defense in the first half. This score was really needed by the Jets so they could get back in this game and regain momentum going into halftime. We go to halftime and the scores 21 to 17 jets are leading.
Halftime
I love halftime adjustments. I believe our team is one of the best at making adjustments at the half to adapt to what’s going on in the current game situations. Obviously, we are nowhere near the NFL level when it comes to this, but that what’s makes watching these games so interesting is that you can look at halftime as to what you would do if you’re each coach. The Jets have to be happy to have regained momentum. I probably would think about running the football little bit more while keeping Farve under control. If I was coaching Buffalo I would say, we came back once before in this game and we can do it again. So let’s take this the opening third quarter series and change the momentum. Let’s get the Jets back on their heels. One of the greatest things you can do when now coaching youth sports at halftime is see what’s working and make sure you stick to it in the second half, or find a way to make it even better. On the flip side find out what’s really hurting you and find a way to plug it. Those are two main things you can do at halftime.
2nd Half
Buffalo has the ball to start the second half, and they look like they’re methodically start moved the ball downfield, which is nice. Hopefully they can avoid turnovers and a start to establish some momentum here. Buffalo has been stopped and punts it down the five which is a great punt. The Jets takeover and there goes Frave again throwing the ball from the end zone that they got close to a 50 yard gain. What a great catch by as receiver. Again as soon as we start to see some momentum from the Jets we get a stupid penalty and momentum is broken. Offensive line holding is the call. When teaching youth football blocking to linemen teach blocking make sure they do not hold. It is okay to block with your hands but you have to teach them not to hold the opponents jersey. What a momentum breaker. Now see the bad break for as good as the Jets have been playing a stupid penalty is as bad as the momentum has changed again. Buffalo has pretty good field position and runs the reverse. The reverse is actually a great youth football offensive play and should be in all youth football play books. Even better is the fake reverse which really fools the youth football defense. Lord knows why they run it here as it goes for a very minimal gain. But again here is a penalty so it all comes back. A Buffalo drive does stall out and the kick a field goal making the score 20 to 21. The Jets have a nice drive to start the fourth quarter and are able to add another field goal. So they are now leading the game 24-20. The Jets are kicking off and Buffalo takes the ball breaking through the wedge and off he goes to score a touchdown but the official throws a flag. Holding is the call and this is going to come back. What they thought was the go-ahead touchdown is killed again by a penalty. Remember when coaching youth football keep reminding the kids how devastating penalties can be. You have to make sure that they keep their positive attitude up at all time. I know it’s hard when a big play like this gets called back on a penalty but you need to tell them it’s a long game and keep positive. In the replay shows there was a hold and it really made a difference in the play. With nine minutes to go in the game they need to dominate the line. You never know what you get out of Farve but it is usually going to be very good are potentially very bad. You know they don’t even dream about handing the ball off, which I think is nuts.
I believe you need to get some breathing room before you do that. Field position is such a big thing in youth football. Very few opponents can put together long sustained drives. It needs to be a big part of our game plan each week. Buffalo drives down the field with 5:30 to go and they’ve taken the lead again on touchdown. Buffalo now leads 27 to 24. There’s two minutes to go and the Jets are losing 2427. A big sack comes by the Jets as the ball bounces up the Jets defender picks it up and scores a touchdown. This is why you must teach the kids never to give up. It looked like the Jets had blow this game and their defense comes up with a big and scores a touchdown.
I will state time and time again in these articles and in my books turnovers will kill you on every level especially in youth football. There is no reason why this quarterback didn’t just roll the ball away. And now he throws interception on his next series. It’s just unbelievable what you see these players do. So now the Jets have the ball and need to be able to run the clock. Buffalo has one last chance, trailing 27 to 31 and the game ends as another interception is thrown in the end zone.