New approach to Exhibition season? - New England Patriots Forums

***jczxohn1*** · 08-20-2006, 03:21 PM

IIRC, last year, BB made a point of saying we don't game plan for the exhibition season. More about evaluation, etc. This year, I've definitely heard the term sneak into press conferences. Asst coaches evaluation? Establish early winning attitude? Situational planning per anticipated opponent strengths?
Comments?

***Box_O_Rocks*** · 08-20-2006, 04:59 PM

Patriot training Sir!

He's taking the players back to fundamentals,why not the coaches? Last season was the first with his new coordinators, this season, he's just making sure their all on the same page.

***pats1*** · 08-20-2006, 05:11 PM

http://www.patriots.com/mediacenter/...=20303&pcid=85

Quote:

Q: Obviously, looking at a situation like this, when you do have a preseason game, you're going to take what you do against Atlanta, you don't play them during the regular season, but obviously that can prepare you guys for maybe a similar opponent who runs a defensive system or offensive system during the regular season.

BB: Right, but the problem you get into in the preseason games, again, it's nothing new, it just is what it is. Let's say your going to play three groups of guys: one offensive line, the second offensive line and a third offensive line, and one set of receivers, etcetera. If you really want to come up with some type of game plan thing in a game like that, you're only going to be playing it for maybe 15 plays. You would even have the opportunity play it for and then you want to play that with all three groups especially if it's something that you're not that familiar with. Or do you want to run the stuff that you've already been working on and give them a chance to go out there and execute that because at least they know what they're doing. Another problem when you scheme in preseason is, we set up this play and we catch them in something and it's a nice play, but it doesn't really tell you sometimes what the players can do because it was more of a play that worked against something that they were in versus sometimes you're almost better off running stuff that you know that they know what it's going to be, but lets just see whether you can block it or defended it or whatever the case is and not really try to trick anybody, but just try to line up and see whether your guys can block their guys, whether their guys can block your guys and do it more as a talent evaluation rather than a, 'Hey we know when they are in this front, if we run this counter play, we have a chance for a play.' We know that. So what does that prove, that we caught a couple of rookies in a bad position and got a nice play out of it? I don't if it really helps you evaluate your team. In some cases I think you can actually make mistakes that way because you see your guys making plays that, down the road, you may not be able to create those plays for them, now can they make them on their own. If they can't, you end up having a guy on your team that isn't as productive as maybe what you thought he was going to be, based on the circumstances that you put him in, not that he really accomplished on his own. And, again, vice versa. That works in reverse too. Sometimes a guy can look bad in preseason, a player could look bad because of something that, as a coaching staff, you haven't really prepared him well for, or we probably wouldn't normally be in this type of situation in this game, but because we were, he ends up looking bad. It's something that probably could be avoided and prevented had we been a little more game plan oriented. But it's hard. When you're getting three teams ready to play in a game, it's hard to do things and get all three groups ready, especially if it's anything that you're not pretty familiar with.

***jczxohn1*** · 08-20-2006, 08:42 PM

Nice catch, pats1. As the Cards fan on their forum said about Cassel coming in for 2 plays, "those guys (coaching-wise) are light years ahead of us."