Superbowl - Another Great Example...
Wow, what a great Super Bowl! I was moderately rooting for the Colts, but am extremely happy for the Saints after watching them win an awesome game!
Several things stood out to me (and to many other national analysts it seems as well):
-The Colts went super conservative at times in play calling, especially trying to force the run when it had stopped working. They were forcing the run with one of the best quarterbacks of all time in his prime taking the snaps??
-The Colts made several poor coaching decisions (play calling in the red zone, going for the long field goal, conservative GP throughout most of the game)
-The Saints absolutely had the more aggressive game plan. They had coached their defensive backs to jump routes, they blitzed and blitzed, they were aggressive in passing, they went for multiple risky plays (i.e.- on-sides kick).
To me, this game was a classic representation of Tressel (= Colts) against the other top coached teams in college football. Never in a million years would Tress approach a game like Sean Payton did for the Saints. Tress wouldn't even take on 10% of Payton's game plan style from the Super Bowl.
My point is that the game has changed in both college and the pros. Unless you have a world class, shut-down defense (against both pass and run) that is heads and tails better than any other offense in their league (college or NFL), an ultra conservative game plan doesn't work in this day and age of football. I don't think you need to be quite as aggressive as Sean Payton to win, but it seems to help in this day and age.
It's pretty clear that the Saints clearly out coached the Colts in this one. When is the last time that we thought Tressel out coached someone in a big time game? Especially against someone that was ranked significantly higher than the Buckeyes? NEVER.
Several things stood out to me (and to many other national analysts it seems as well):
-The Colts went super conservative at times in play calling, especially trying to force the run when it had stopped working. They were forcing the run with one of the best quarterbacks of all time in his prime taking the snaps??
-The Colts made several poor coaching decisions (play calling in the red zone, going for the long field goal, conservative GP throughout most of the game)
-The Saints absolutely had the more aggressive game plan. They had coached their defensive backs to jump routes, they blitzed and blitzed, they were aggressive in passing, they went for multiple risky plays (i.e.- on-sides kick).
To me, this game was a classic representation of Tressel (= Colts) against the other top coached teams in college football. Never in a million years would Tress approach a game like Sean Payton did for the Saints. Tress wouldn't even take on 10% of Payton's game plan style from the Super Bowl.
My point is that the game has changed in both college and the pros. Unless you have a world class, shut-down defense (against both pass and run) that is heads and tails better than any other offense in their league (college or NFL), an ultra conservative game plan doesn't work in this day and age of football. I don't think you need to be quite as aggressive as Sean Payton to win, but it seems to help in this day and age.
It's pretty clear that the Saints clearly out coached the Colts in this one. When is the last time that we thought Tressel out coached someone in a big time game? Especially against someone that was ranked significantly higher than the Buckeyes? NEVER.
Wow. Have I ever been away too long. I seem to have missed a couple of posts these past months.
You make an interesting point in linking how the Colts approached the game conservatively (until it was too late) and how the Saints staff felt they had to go on the attack on both sides of the ball.
I think most here know that I agree that the game has changed both at the college level and the pros, I just never really made the connection before. I think it comes down to parity. No longer is there an embarrassment of riches of talent, be it pro or college. The NFL instituted salary caps and voila, the rich teams can no longer stock Pro Bowlers three deep at every position. The college equivalent is of course the 85 scholarships rule (in Div1). Traditional top programs can no longer pile up 4 and 5 star recruits at every position and afford to have them sit the bench for two years gaining strength, size and experience. Moreover, as we all know, many top players choose to forego junior or senior seasons to go pro early, further leaking talent. As a result, so called "lesser" schools are now able to attract previously unattainable talent and field some good teams. Boise State is a sterling example of this.
But something else is at play here too. Not only do these non-BCS schools now have some top talent, they also attract young, aggressive and innovative coaches who, like Sean Payton, don't mind coming out with guns blazing. Their philosophy: Win in a blaze of glory or go down in a hail of bullets, either way it's gonna be exciting. The thing is, they can now pull off some BIG upsets in the process. So if you're an Ohio State, Alabama, Florida or an Oklahoma you've got to adapt. You can't always out athlete them any more so you have to out-think them or out-coach them. Once again, this is the crux of our beef with Coach T. He still thinks he can out-athlete his opponents or worse, out-effort them. Clearly, 80% of the time this works but (again) what about that other 20% who match you up very well? Time and time again, Coach T has shown he can't adapt and out-coach that top 20%.
Is this nit picking? Maybe. But I've asked this before and I'll ask it again. As a Buckeye fan are you OK with losing two out of ten? Ohio State is a top program and a desirable place to get an education and play football. But we only need look at Michigan to see how quickly it can unravel and how precipitous the fall from grace can be. Alabama sold it's soul to the devil to get back it's former glory and USC is well on it's way to a disaster. We owe our beloved Buckeyes a little forethought and due diligence to keep that from happening and don't for a second think it can't. BigBlue didn't think it could happen there either.
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A lot of people are blaming Manny, but the fact is the Saints just altogether outplayed them. Great game though, but pretty disappointed as a Colts fan in the end. I thought for sure we would win.
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Maybe now, finally, the Colts coach can understand the importance of playing to win, instead of "saving" his starters from injury by sitting them before the game was won. I hope he learned something about setting the tone and having winning momentum, instead of "healthy" starters. The Colts didn't play to win because their coach robbed them of a winning mentality during the regular season. The Colts' coach needs to get his losing mentality out of the way of the team next year.
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