That Balanced O
October 17, 2014George Steinbrenner, Jerry Lucas, and the NBA in Cleveland?
October 17, 2014Mike Pettine’s meet-up with the media yesterday shined a little bit of light on how he operates as a head coach with his coordinators. I assumed a lot of what Pettine said about how he operates, but it’s always fun to get a bit of insight into it.
On if he and Shanahan go over play calls during the week:
“We spend some time together. It’s more a little bit early in the week. Then we meet as coordinators on Tuesday night, and basically get together and share the plan, ‘This is who we’re playing. This is what we’re up against. This is the plan. These are the two or three things we’re going to try to get done.’ We’ll go over the depth chart, who the projected inactive are and sometimes the game plan will have an effect on that. Then, for (special teams coordinator) Chris Tabor, he needs to know, ‘Who do I need to get ready? Who do I need to train as just-in-case guys?’ We do that every Tuesday so all of us get a pretty good feel for the plan and all three phases. Then, I’ll visit with Kyle, specifically. Then, I’ll get in the offensive meetings and listen to some of their installation. Then, I have a pretty good feel by the end of the week about the plan.”
All seems very straight forward. No big surprises here, and actually not a ton of insight. What about actual plays? Does Mike Pettine actually call any plays? The Browns defense had their best performance of the year versus the Steelers. Here is what they did to improve:
On if he has made any big offensive play calls:
“No, only the (QB) Johnny (Manziel) play that failed (laughs). That was mine. Other than that, I’ve suggested a few. Hopefully by the end of the year I can get a few in because there are some that – even if I’m not saying, ‘Hey, run it,’ – I’ll just tell him, ‘Hey, what you’re doing here, this causes major problems defensively.’ That’s where I think I can contribute. I’m not going to go over and micromanage and try to get stuff in there. If there’s something I see I’ll certainly bring it up.”
So, Mike Pettine’s feedback for Kyle Shanahan is to tell him, from a defensive perspective, just how his offensive playcalls are messing with the opposing defense. That sounds about right. I also really do enjoy that Mike Pettine seems to not be micro-managing or getting out of his lane and pretending he can be an offensive coordinator. At the same time, he doesn’t seem to be disengaged at any points during the game the way it seemed Pat Shurmur was.
On if ‘unpredictable’ is the best compliment you could give to an offensive coordinator:
“It’s up there. I think that he always wants to be kind of in those 50-50 play calls. First-and-10, it’s 50-50. If you’re gaining four yards or more on first down, then you can still be in those unpredictable downs on second down. That, to me, is a function of when you run the ball well, you can get in those. If you get stuffed on a run on first down the odds are pretty good that you’re going to be throwing it on second down. Those are all the things, the follow-up plays that we study defensively – second down after a stuffed run, second-and-10 after an incomplete pass. Now, a lot of coordinators will come back and run or it’s a ‘get back on track’ mentality, ‘Hey, we need to get the third down to be manageable.’ It’s going to be something quick, a screen, a boot. I think he does real well in those situations and putting the offense into the point where defensively you just have to play balanced. Anytime you can get a team where you’ve got them in a high tendency one way or the other you can really tee off.”
Is it any wonder that the Browns went through so many quarterbacks last year? Talk about one-dimensional and allowing a team to just tee off. The Browns were impossibly pass-heavy a year ago. That’s the perfect compliment for Kyle Shanahan right now. His tendency is to not have any specific tendency. His play-calling is such that the Browns could run or pass on pretty much every single play. While they have used receiver sweeps and some other more gimmicky looks, on the whole, they’ve been successful with very traditional looks on offense whether they’re running or passing.
I’ve made no secret of my love for Kyle Shanahan’s offense, and it seems that Mike Pettine is enjoying it even more than we are.
3 Comments
Whatever is happening keep it up especially this week!
Thanks Craig. I haven’t had time to read my normal Browns allotment this week and I would have missed some good stuff with this presser.
Biggest key to me: If there’s something I see I’ll certainly bring it up.
I know that sounds obvious and “duh” but it is actually pretty big. Having a HC who can go to the OC and instruct what he is seeing on the field w/o micromanaging things or getting into an ego-war is actually pretty tough. I don’t know the extent that it actually happens, but I hope that it is a few times a game.
I’ve read that Shanahan is kind of an ego maniac as well, so Pettine’s probably best served staying in his lane. The Shanahan Hoyer combo is really a match made in heaven though, their chemistry is awesome.