Post by Chris Clement on Jun 12, 2010 10:45:00 GMT -6
So, here's the background: I coach 9-man football, 11-12 yr olds. There are 18 kids on the roster, but by the time you skim off the players that aren't, shall we say, relevant, I only have about about 12. Players under 100 lbs wear flags, players over 125 lbs can't tackle the flag-wearing kids, they have to pull off the flags (yes, stupid, but it's not my call)
My defense runs on four players: My 2 ILB's, an OLB and a DL. We have our playoff day coming up next sunday (June 20), semi-finals and finals in the same day.
All three other teams base their entire offense around their one main RB, so I put in a package where (sometimes, on my call) my defense would shuffle a bit and my OLB would play straight man, and I explained that on every play he should encourage the other team's RB to go home and not feel like playing any more. The weakness of this call was having my MLB play 2 gaps (usually both A, sometimes both B gaps when I gamble). Now this OLB is possibly out with a broken hand. So I have three possible solutions.
1: Put my main RB in on defense, play him straight man on their RB all game. I'd have to call aggressive stuff to try and force turnovers to keep his plays down.
Advantage: My RB is <125 lbs, so he can tackle any player. The team we play in the semis does not have flags on their RB, but the likely team we will play in the finals does, so we can hit him. Also, he's fast enough and a similar body shape to reasonably sub in (though he doesn't have quite the Assassin mentality)
Disadvantage: It locks me into this one defense, and most of our offense is driven by this player, and after 2 ironman games in a row, I have my doubts about his stamina.
2: Put my great DL on him. He's the league's best athlete, but he has to play on the line because he weighs 128 instead of 125, so I'd have him line up outside the TE technically "on the line," but this team goes strong side 80% of the time and he'd be right in position. I'd put in another DL to fill his normal place on the line.
Advantage: he can clobber this runningback in the semis, and he's the fastest player in the league, it gives us a lot more size to clog everything, this team is going off-tackle 60% of the time. It will probably completely stone this team in the semis
Disadvantage: he probably will be no good to me in the final (over 125, their RB is under 100), so I will need to find a new solution in between games (not much time). Also, he is a dominant force on the line, I don't want to lose his ability to force fumbled snaps. And I'm still stuck in the same defensive call.
3: Straight substitution of my backup LB and play my base defense all game.
Advantage: This defense has been working all season for us (3 TD's allowed, but we've scored 2 in 4 games and getting better by the week) and the base defense would not require anything out of this backup beyond pure contain. He is light enough to hit anyone, he just doesn't hit that hard.
Disadvantage: he's not very good. At all. He's always moving in the right direction, but he doesn't really get his nose in there with the violence I'd expect. And now I'm stuck in my base defense. And his attitude stinks (half the reason he's my backup)
I considered changing it so I could put another of my key LB's on the RB, but that leaves me a hole elsewhere, so it's back to where I started.
Any thoughts?
My defense runs on four players: My 2 ILB's, an OLB and a DL. We have our playoff day coming up next sunday (June 20), semi-finals and finals in the same day.
All three other teams base their entire offense around their one main RB, so I put in a package where (sometimes, on my call) my defense would shuffle a bit and my OLB would play straight man, and I explained that on every play he should encourage the other team's RB to go home and not feel like playing any more. The weakness of this call was having my MLB play 2 gaps (usually both A, sometimes both B gaps when I gamble). Now this OLB is possibly out with a broken hand. So I have three possible solutions.
1: Put my main RB in on defense, play him straight man on their RB all game. I'd have to call aggressive stuff to try and force turnovers to keep his plays down.
Advantage: My RB is <125 lbs, so he can tackle any player. The team we play in the semis does not have flags on their RB, but the likely team we will play in the finals does, so we can hit him. Also, he's fast enough and a similar body shape to reasonably sub in (though he doesn't have quite the Assassin mentality)
Disadvantage: It locks me into this one defense, and most of our offense is driven by this player, and after 2 ironman games in a row, I have my doubts about his stamina.
2: Put my great DL on him. He's the league's best athlete, but he has to play on the line because he weighs 128 instead of 125, so I'd have him line up outside the TE technically "on the line," but this team goes strong side 80% of the time and he'd be right in position. I'd put in another DL to fill his normal place on the line.
Advantage: he can clobber this runningback in the semis, and he's the fastest player in the league, it gives us a lot more size to clog everything, this team is going off-tackle 60% of the time. It will probably completely stone this team in the semis
Disadvantage: he probably will be no good to me in the final (over 125, their RB is under 100), so I will need to find a new solution in between games (not much time). Also, he is a dominant force on the line, I don't want to lose his ability to force fumbled snaps. And I'm still stuck in the same defensive call.
3: Straight substitution of my backup LB and play my base defense all game.
Advantage: This defense has been working all season for us (3 TD's allowed, but we've scored 2 in 4 games and getting better by the week) and the base defense would not require anything out of this backup beyond pure contain. He is light enough to hit anyone, he just doesn't hit that hard.
Disadvantage: he's not very good. At all. He's always moving in the right direction, but he doesn't really get his nose in there with the violence I'd expect. And now I'm stuck in my base defense. And his attitude stinks (half the reason he's my backup)
I considered changing it so I could put another of my key LB's on the RB, but that leaves me a hole elsewhere, so it's back to where I started.
Any thoughts?