Finding a weakness

Athletic competition is interesting because it focuses on building to a team’s strengths but during competition a team tries to find the other team’s weakness. Once that weakness is found it will be exploited. It also seems that when that team that has been doing good comes up against an opponent that finds those weaknesses then every team they face after that will try the same tactics and if the team doesn’t change their game then their life will become miserable.

Now I’m not going to pinpoint any coaches or teams but if you have a favorite team that is underperforming with mostly the same personnel then you can fill in the blank.

I do think it is amusing when teams that have decided to bolt to another conference and think they will make their exit with a conference championship in their back pocket only to see them become an also ran with a couple of conference losses. Yes, I think that when a team spends money on big name coaches and can recruit top talent easily within 25 miles of their campus and have issues stopping any team’s offense it seems too good to be true.

Other teams have trouble keeping their offense on the field and making first downs putting more pressure on a tired defense. That’s not the defense’s fault when the offense doesn’t do their job. Add to that the hurry up offense aspect and now you have defensive guys coming back on the field before they can catch their breath and if there isn’t a lot of depth it’s a recipe for failure.

We all love the pass happy offenses but if a team can’t run the ball for first downs or TDs close to the goal line then it’s tough to wear down an opponent’s defense. That doesn’t mean that a team needs to change its offense an go to a triple option but at least have a game plan where gaining four yards when needed is feasible. Or utilize a tight end for third down receptions that need just a few yards.

Another thing that bothers me is when it is 3rd down and two yards to go why does the offensive coordinator dial up a pass play that is 20-30 yards downfield? Do that on second down and either run for a first down or play action pass to the tight end or a running back and gain three or four yards and keep the ball in your possession.

There should always be several plays to call for short yardage situations; at the goal line and for two point conversions. College and pro teams have a lot of coaches and some of them are in the coziness high above the field and someone should be thinking about what would work in those situations and it always seems that by the time the team makes a decision the team needs to call a timeout. This of course means that the team isn’t as prepared as they thought they were. I don’t have a problem with a timeout that also burns a little clock if needed. But it seems that too many times there is a lot of confusion with players in motion and not knowing where they need to be lined up it just doesn’t look good and the team looks discombobulated and a fan just has this feeling that something bad will happen and it usually does.

The answer is simply more preparation during the week of practice by setting up three plays as needed for these situations. I know a lot of coaches want to use the plays they are using all of the time but now and then a team needs to throw in a wrinkle or two to keep the defense off guard. I guess if you have Georgia of Alabama talent you wouldn’t need to do anything different but most teams aren’t that lucky and when that happens the team will need to exploit the other team’s weakness. I know it sounds simple and it can be if the team is truly prepared and confident.

— Dale Anderson is a sports columnist from Ritzville. To contact him, email [email protected].