Public enemy #1 for the Skins this year has been...

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by GMScud

I'm amazed that I am only the 4th person to vote for play calling as public enemy #1. We could be 5-0 easily despite the O-line injuries if Saunders and the rest of the staff could remove their head from their ass in the 2nd half. Some of play calling has been downright comical. Too many cooks in the kitchen, and I think it's starting to rear it's ugly head.

The plays themselves aren't the problem, excluding some typical "what the f was that Al" 3rd and short play calling. Saunders on the whole does a good job mixing it up and keeping the defense on it's heels throughout the game. His situational play calling is utter shit, but again, this makes only about one iota of difference in the outcome of the game.

Course, the situational play calling wouldn't look nearly as bad in the short run if 1) we could block for the runner, or 2) the quarterback could hit an open receiver 7 yards away.

I am worried about how Saunders and Gibbs never seem to be able to be on the same page regarding 3rd vs 4th down calls. Now, this isn't a problem at all, only because Al doesn't usually consider down and distance when picking his play. But Gibbs is making the decision whether or not to go for it on 4th AFTER Saunders has called in the 3rd down play. On 99% of teams, this would really hurt the offenses' chance of converting. But again, Saunders already makes awful situational calls, so in this case it doesn't matter.

To me, the only way to rectify this is for Gibbs to call both the 3rd and 4th down play on a situation where the clock is an issue.

I don't think Coaches can do a whole lot to help their team out, and our coaches certainly are not. I guess the playcalling being generally unpredictable balances out the predictably awful short yardage playcalling so we really don't have a big disadvantage in the coaching staff relative to other teams.

Anyway, while the coaches do a lot of frustrating moves in-game, they are pretty much about par for the league. There are a lot of bad coaches in this league, and neither Gibbs, nor Saunders, nor Williams is a bad coach at all. It's just that I know theres a lot of things they could be doing better, and it's finally starting to frustrate me a bit.