flat in second half

I think it goes back to the quote "more games are lost than won."

Just my opinion, but if you're playing well enough to be in those games and maybe not always as talented then your guys are achieving and over-achieving in the first half. They're excited and playing at the speed and pace of the other squad. They may not even know that they're playing as well as they are. Then the break comes and it's difficult to get back into that rhythm and pace. But the other team is keeping up the pace long enough to grab momentum.

One thing you set caught me in this situation. We all tell our guys that it's still a 0-0 game. The more I've been thinking about it, the less I like saying it. A lot of guys come out in a 0-0 game and are nervous. By acknowledging sometimes that it's 0-0 I think we can get our guys to revert back to pregame jitters a bit. I've kind of stopped telling them that even if we're tied.

If we're up a few at half then I give the same talk as I would if we're up 14--that if the offense will get us a score, we'll go out and get a stop and we'll be able to blow it open. We talk to our guys a lot about "smelling blood". You've gotta smell a little blood and go for the kill. I think that in a tie situation you aren't going for the kill, you're trying to be the first one to get a leg up--you play safe which kids often equate "safe" with "cautious" which often means that they analyze every element of it which translates into playing slow.

If we're down a few points at half I like to give em the "right here right now" approach. That there's nothing left to worry about because if nothing changes then we lose. If we aren't willing to take that chance then we'll end up right where we are now. Make a stop, score a TD, get back to how it's supposed to be done.

I'm not criticizing what you all do at halftime. In no way am I implying that. But I've been looking at it from a different perspective and realize that I myself was buying into that. We are an aggressive football team. Defensively we are going to fly around and we will hit. But my first call of the game is always a very, VERY safe call. I am scared to death of getting beat deep for a score the first play of the game or the half. So my call is always safe. My guys know that we'll play safe the first play of the game, then if situation allows we'll blitz em hard the next play.

But my guys have learned that we'll fly around all first half, come in at halftime, talk about flying around, and then come out and have a safe call that sets a tone. Not anymore. Now we start the second half very, very aggressively. Let them be safe to start the half. We'll be dynamic.

But to get that it's like bazooka said, situational practice. When we do a red zone set I always start with a blitz. It's practice, if we get beat for a score in practice it doesn't hurt our playoff chances. I believe that we build a lot of our tenacity and drive in that daily red zone session.

I guess mostly this is just my philosophical thoughts on being tied.

how competitive are your practices?

What kind of control do you try to put on the tempo of the game ending the half & begining the half?

You'll notice college & pro games have a typical lull starting out both halves.

When I think about it....we are usually trying to build a cresendo before the game starts.......mental focus, hyped pre-game speeches, hey-let's-get-ready!........

then after halftime, it's "get fluids", "listen up", "pay attention"......blah blah..........now let's go on the field.

You don't have the same time to ramp the kids up (emotional)
You have a (semi) clear understanding of what's going to work and what you need to change (intellectual) - so a lot of the stuff that actually happens at half-time is anti-climactic because they've just spent themselves for 28 minutes, had a lot of great plays, exterted themselves to an extraordinary point......now we pat them on the back, and expect them to do it all over again(?)

Following up on AJ's comment, we had this problem 2 years ago and we switched our conditioning from the end of practice to the middle, before competitive team/situational period. Working competitive team practice after conditioning seemed to help the kids perform at a higher level after they were tired.

That's possible maybe even likely in a game that's been basically even for a half but not as likely when you have a 2-3 TD lead. Either that or they make some amazing adjustments and both stop you and get the O cranked up and running. It may be helpful to do a complete self scout on yourselves for both 1st half and second half as well as look at what your opponent did in the second half.