December 15, 2008
Cleveland at Philadelphia. Monday night football
Tonight we’re watching the Cleveland Browns and the Philadelphia Eagles. Philadelphia has won the coin toss and is decided to receive the football. As we have stated in previous posts, we do not believe this is the right decision to make. It is our belief that is best to defer to the second half. In youth football is very important to their field position. So we believed by deferring it gives you many options. The opening drive is very impressive by Philadelphia as they mixup the pass in the run. The Eagles are doing a nice job of controlling the ball all putting together a nice sustained drive. On third and three from the 15 yard line, the Philadelphia Eagles go into a run and shoot formation, where Mcnabb throws a fade pattern and scores a touchdown. The Philadelphia quarterback recognized the man-to-man coverage and threw perfect pattern. We believe the run and shoot is one of the best formations to run in youth football but you want to make sure that you’re doing this with older kids and not the very young kids. When coaching the very young kids, the youth blocking schemes are extremely tough to do so to run and shoot is a very hard offense at that level. As the children get older, in seventh and eighth grade, you can run more complex blocking schemes and install a run and shoot offense.
We are now watching the first possession of the Cleveland Browns after giving up that touchdown to Philadelphia. The Browns offense has been a disaster all year scoring just one touchdown in the last four games. Their offense is very similar to what you find them a lot a youth teams. The second play in the series they’re using the wildcat formation and also known as the single wing. The single wing is one of the best offenses you can use for the very young youth football teams. When coaching youth football, the single wing gives you excellent power running. Cleveland is actually putting together a pretty nice drive as they just completed a 20 yard pass to Edwards. The Cleveland Browns did get down to the red zone, but failed to score touchdowns, and they have to settle for field goal. This is a very common event and youth football, where you just all inside the red zone. One of the major differences as there is no kicking game at the youth level so, you almost always go for it on fourth down. So now we have 7-3 lead for Philadelphia and Cleveland is kicking the ball back to them. Philadelphia’s second possession is again another great drive their already down under the red zone with two minutes in 30 seconds to go on the first quarter. They are inside the 10 yard line and Mcnabb has thrown a pass that just got tipped up by defensive linemen and was almost picked off in the end zone. On third and goal McNabb is rushed and throws an incomplete pass so Philadelphia must settle for a field-goal attempt. The field goal is good and Philadelphia now leads 10-3.
The first quarter has ended with Philadelphia, with 10 points and Cleveland were three points. To recap, this first quarter from a youth football coaching point of view, if I were the Philadelphia coach I would be extremely happy with the diversity we are showing an offense and the tough defense we’ve been playing so far. I would want make sure that we continue to protect the football do not have any turnovers. As I have stated many times before, it is turnovers and penalties that kill youth football teams. If I were the Cleveland coach I would be relatively happy that we move the ball in our first drive, but very concerned about our defense as our opponent is just going through us very easily.
2nd Quarter
The second try for Cleveland was actually nowhere and they need to punt. There is always a debate between youth football coaches on whether or not to punt. It is our opinion to always play strong defense and have good field position and so we are big believers in punting. Cleveland has just made a 51 yard punt. Now is when the game starts to get scary for Cleveland since their defense has not stopped Philadelphia at all and they have to go on defense again. This third drive of the Philadelphia Eagles is looking just like the first two where they are absolutely moving the ball at will. Philadelphia once again has the first and goal from inside the 10 yard line. On third and goal, we see Philadelphia go into the wildcat formation, which really is just a single wing but they do not have any luck, and they thrown an interception in the end zone. It never ceases to amaze me to see a coach who has one thing working and then for no reason seem to change it and watch a blowup in his face. Philadelphia has been doing a great job of running the football and letting McNabb throw short passes. Why do you take the ball out of his hands and take a risk? This is the NFL and you should not see mistakes like this. When coaching youth football you’ll see this as one of the most common mistakes. Coaches in youth football seem to just run plays because they have them in the playbook and ignore what seems to actually be working for them. This was a very costly turnover, because instead of blowing open the game you give momentum to the Cleveland Browns. Momentum is one of the main keys. No sooner do I speak these words, and I watched the Cleveland quarterback throw an interception that is returned for a touchdown. Momentum builds confidence and confidence is king in sports. We now see Philadelphia with a first and goal from the two with 18 seconds left in the half. Philadelphia is really looking to blow the game wide open. I watch in horror as McNabb throws an interception in the end zone that looks like it’s going to be returned for a touchdown by the Cleveland defense. What a stupid play to run at the end of the half. Bypassing to the flat you take a huge chance that it can be picked off and returned for a touchdown. Luckily Cleveland’s player is tackled before he can go all the way. Not a very good way to end the half, if you’re a Philadelphia.
Halftime analysis
In youth football it is very important to make halftime adjustments depending on how the first half is gone. If you are the Cleveland coach you are just happy that you’re still in this game. You’re only in this game because of the stupid playcalling by Philadelphia and turnovers in the end zone. This is not on a common to youth football, were you see a lot of coaches making a lot of stupid calls. All you can hope for is you get the ball the second half, and you can put some kind of drive together score touchdown and get back in this game. If you are the Philadelphia coach you are going to really be upset in the locker room. I’m sure the halftime speech given by the Philadelphia coach would not be appropriate for the young men in youth football. You have to be careful as the children are very young, and you do not want to discourage them to where they will quit. You need to tell your team to continue doing what we are defense and take care of the football on offense.
3rd Quarter
The amazing part as his third quarter starts is the stats completely favor Philadelphia, but because of two stupid turnovers in the end zone Cleveland still has a chance in this game. One thing you want to continue to tell your youth football team is that stats do not determine the game, but the score does. Cleveland comes out in the third quarter, and after what looks promising, the drive stalls and Cleveland must punt. Cleveland punts the ball into the end zone and it is a touchback. You must make sure that your youth punter punts the ball out of bounds or away from the opposing player. Making an open field tackle is one of the hardest thing for youth players to do and when their best players returning the ball. You are playing with fire by kicking direct to him. Philadelphia’s put together a wonderful drive again, and they find themselves on the 10 yard line, going in. Let’s see if we can make it three turnovers in the red zone. McNabb is sacked and the Eagles must kick a field goal, which is good and the score is now 20-3. What is amazing is that the Browns have gone 14 quarters without scoring a touchdown and in this game just received their first penalty with two minutes to go on the third quarter. I have had youth teams in the past that have been just as anemic on offense, and that’s why it’s so is important to make sure that your youth football teams have strong defense. If you can keep the opponent from scoring at least have a chance in every game. Philadelphia is again putting together a nice drive. The third quarter has just ended and Philadelphia continues to lead 20-3. Philadelphia’s once again approaching the red zone so lets see if they can finish off a drive with a touchdown.
4th Quarter
Philadelphia starts the fourth quarter again by stalling out, and they must try for another field goal. The field goal is good, and the lead is now 23-3. We’re in the fourth quarter now and Cleveland is attempting to mount a drive against the Philadelphia defense. We’re watching Cleveland trying to run the single wing offense or the Wildcat formation as they call it the NFL, and they are just pathetic, no matter what the try to run. The Cleveland Browns are playing with their third string quarterback so, we do need to cut them a little slack. The quarterback is one position that you can rarely afford to lose. He is your big-play maker in the NFL and college while in youth football he is usually a leader you count on to turn the ball over. Cleveland has just thrown another interception. One of the things we always try to do with our youth football teams is make one of the older more mature kids, who is a leader play the quarterback position. The Eagles once again have a first down on the 10 yard line so let’s see how they do. McNabb has just thrown a touchdown pass and the score is now 30-3. The announcers have just made a very interesting observation and that when your team is down as bad as Cleveland is the coaches really review the tape to see which players are not quitting. As a youth football coach it is very important to know which of your players, you can depend on during good as well as bad times. With 11 minutes to go on the game, the rain has just started to come down pretty heavy. Cleveland comes out again in the single wing formation. Cleveland continues in the flash Formation as they call it and are desperately trying to run some offense. Cleveland once again has gone three and out, and they must punt to Philadelphia. Philadelphia now has put the back up quarterback in to finish this game. Cobb drops back in his first play from scrimmage, gets the ball tipped, it is intercepted by Cleveland and returned for a touchdown. The Cleveland defender does a flip into the end zone, which I like to call hot dogging. What nerve do you have as your team is getting blown up by 20 points, to be hot dogging. While coaching your Pop Warner or peewee youth football team you make sure that there is no hot dogging done by any individual player. All this does is show individualism and selfishness and does nothing to help the team. Now the score the game is 30-10 Philadelphia. One of the nice things in youth football is when you get a big lead like this you get a chance to play your backup players. Most of the time you’ll switch your linemen and let them play in the backfield and make your backfield go and play some offensive line. It’s always fun to watch your lineman carry the ball. It is also good for the players to change roles, so the backs can appreciate the lineman. The game ends when the final score of Philadelphia 30 Cleveland 10.
Conclusion as it relates to Youth Football Coaching
Tonight’s game is a perfect reminder that no matter how weak your opponent is you must take every opponent serious. In the case of the Philadelphia Eagles, they were extremely fortunate to have some turnovers, not cost them in this game. Usually in Pee-wee or Pop Warner football you’re in big trouble if you have turnovers especially in the red zone. The key for Philadelphia is they continued to play great defense, while the offense struggled through parts of the game. If you have a very weak youth football team like the Cleveland Browns you must use as much positive reinforcement, as you can to try to keep the kids attention span. You need to set small and attainable goals.