Plays / Game | CoachHuey.com

planck
Senior Member

DL

Posts: 1,812

Plays / Game Mar 22, 2024 5:24:02 GMT -6 via mobile

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Post by planck on Mar 22, 2024 5:24:02 GMT -6

Looking for perspective on typical plays / game. I coach in a federation state (12 min quarters) with a 35 point mercy rule.

As a defensive guy, my barometer says if we're defending more than 60 plays / game, it's competitive-to-possible loss. I want to be under 50, around 40 were blowing a team out. Last year we were middling (missed the playoffs by a game) and averaged 58 / game, 522 overall.

But our offense averaged 71 plays / game (644 overall). We aren't a ball control team, generally speaking, but our drives are usually single digit plays then a score or a long scoring drive (16+ plays).

How unusual is this? It just strikes me as very odd.

None of us is as dumb as all of us.

Defcord
Executive Member

Posts: 3,118

Plays / Game Mar 22, 2024 7:00:48 GMT -6 tripsclosed likes this

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Post by Defcord on Mar 22, 2024 7:00:48 GMT -6

We tell our defense that they are going to play 60 plays a game. That is what we plan for.

I think in most cases at 60 the game has been competitive and could go either way.

When the game is around 30-40 it is a blow out one way or the other. Partially because the running clock, but also because the superior team scores much more quickly.

We play in a small school conference and see mostly Wing T teams so most games we are defending between 40-50 plays.

If I would turn our OC completely, loose we would probably be running a lot more plays. Last year was my first year at the school I am at and they traditionally won 2-4 games a year over the course of the last 20 years. Part of that was because they were bad on defense. So I asked our OC to slow it down so that we had to defend less plays and have a chance to win. We did it and we won 5 games for the first time in 15 years and only the second time in 20 years. If we can build depth and skill, I don't mind running more plays a game. But that's a different topic I suppose.

If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

"The only proof he needed for the existence of God was football"

cwaltsmith
Senior Member

In crunch time... Think of players not plays!!!!

Posts: 1,654

Plays / Game Mar 22, 2024 9:23:30 GMT -6

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Post by cwaltsmith on Mar 22, 2024 9:23:30 GMT -6

The number of plays that you defend will be determined greatly by what offense your team runs. And how good they are at it. If your running a no huddle hurry up then the game is gonna have more plays ... if you are a grind it out running team then you will face less. I worked for a coach that was DC for the team and he didn't want us throwing the ball bc he would have to defend more plays lol. A good avg is 55. I like to look at how many series they get instead of plays.

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