Why Doesn't "Gibbs' Football" Work for the Redskins?

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by Paintrain

The 'run it down their throats' wasn't just specific to last week, it's a general notion that 'Gibbs football' is a smashmouth, run it 30-40+ times a game philospohy..

Aikman said last week that they won 3 Super Bowls in Dallas running Gibbs offense.. Vermiel won a Super Bowl in St. Louis with it with the Greatest Show on Turf. Mike Martz runs concepts of it, Saunders has run it for years.. It's all the Coryell system. We know it works, but the difference is how he does it now..

One core concept of 'Gibbs football' is get an early lead and control the clock with the running game.. That's what all of the coaches above did, and Gibbs has tried to do also since he's been back, but the difference is 'getting the lead' today means you have to have a 3 TD cushion before running the ball repeatedly to control the clock.. We've seen too many leads pissed away by conservative, predictable play calling in close (less than 3 TD) games.. Remember 11 loses with a 2nd half lead, 12 loses with an 11 point or more lead, both worst in the NFL since 2004.. That's not coincidence, it's a trend that indicates a flawed philosophy..

Why we seem to collectively lose aggressiveness (on offense and defense mind you) in the 2nd half in games that we lead is beyond me.. The 'let's not take any chances' approach to football is a recipe for failure in the NFL..

NFL routes have guys going deep on every play. The Quarterback has to decide when he's got a matchup that makes the throw worth the risk.

Last year we didn't throw downfield as much as the average team did, and we blamed the Quarterback. This year we are throwing downfield often, having some success, and people still have a problem with it. We just can't handle the fact that it's a low percentage throw. 28% leaguewide. That means if you throw one deep ball in every quarter, you are only likely to complete one deep ball. In general, throwing the ball down the field is a negative value offensive strategy. There are times where an NFL defense will give you a great matchup downfield that you should take advatage of, teams do this all the time. But chew on this: if a deep completion is such a great thing (and it is), and sometimes you get good matchups to throw it (which you do), and it STILL hurts your team more times than not, why would you ever want to do it MORE?!?!?! If you force the deep ball into tight coverage, you are more likely to be intercepted than to have a completion.

We have taken advantage of some good matchups in the deep game this year. We've probably been a bit too aggressive with it, but we've done pretty well. Our offense has been really balanced so far. Our running game has not been efficient. So to agree with those who have said this before, I WOULD take some pressure off this running game and throw the ball more. But that doesn't mean we need Campbell to throw the ball all over the place. Some screens, short passes, bootlegs would do a lot to take pressure off the running game. We don't have to do any 4 wide crap or the sort. I would try the running game, and if its not getting 4 yards an attempt, I'd run it less. If it is, I'd run it more.

Of course, thats what the coaches did Sunday, and people are still all up ons.