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View Full Version : Malcolm Gladwell on the Broncos - use of no-huddle



Hawgdriver
05-13-2009, 06:00 PM
I came across this in a debate between Malcolm Gladwell (author of Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers) and Bill Simmons from ESPN. I think it's a good point, any thoughts?


Just as the team with the most reason to play the no-huddle in football is the Broncos. If you're the team accustomed to playing at altitude, you're crazy not to press that advantage by speeding up the pace of play).

The advantages I see to using no-huddle earlier in games:

Asymmetric conditioning advantage for Broncos - opposing defenses likely to get gassed
Simplified playbook for inexperienced team
Forces Orton (or Simms) into leadership role - gives opportunity for QB to use his smarts
Keeps defense off balance

It seems like Indy would always come into town and use the no-huddle to great effect late in games against a fatigued Broncos defense, why not take full advantage of it ourselves?

One caveat is that I think it would require a balanced attack--you still want to run down the game clock as much as possible to keep your defense off the field. I see that as the main disadvantage--if you have short no-huddle drives, your defense will spend more time on the field. A solution would be to run no-huddle enough to gas the opponent's defense, and then follow up with grinding drives that chew up chunks of clock time.

Thoughts?

Ravage!!!
05-13-2009, 06:54 PM
I think using the no-huddle, especially at the beginning of the game, would make a LOT of sense. Although the defenses on those first two drives are revved up and hard to play against, that third-fourth drive you can sustain long drives.. keeping the defense on the field and gassing to where they would have a hard time recovering.

Simple Jaded
05-13-2009, 08:01 PM
The new System is far too sophisticated and intricate to go No-Huddle any time soon, word is they're looking into hiring a team of former NASA scientists to streamline the staggering amount of raw data.......it's going to be Epic.......Championship.......

BroncoTech
05-13-2009, 08:09 PM
Every time I've seen us try anything like this in the past we only confused ourselves. Last year it was clear when Jay's headphones would go out the team was totally lost and not prepared for a field general at all. We don't have Peyton manning and our strength used to be you couldn't tell if we were going to run or pass on any given down or formation. When we were champions we kept the defense guessing.

Currently we don't know what our strengths are. Very perplexing on it's own but it's not an excuse to go off on some tangent trying to emulate the success of a quarterback that we don't have.

Right now I'd just be happy with a normal offense and a coherent defense.

horsepig
05-13-2009, 08:10 PM
The no huddle only works with teams that know each other very well. The idea that you can take a young team with a new system and use the no-huddle is bad. Ask Mike Leach.

Lonestar
05-13-2009, 08:20 PM
Every time I've seen us try anything like this in the past we only confused ourselves. Last year it was clear when Jay's headphones would go out the team was totally lost and not prepared for a field general at all. We don't have Peyton manning and our strength used to be you couldn't tell if we were going to run or pass on any given down or formation. When we were champions we kept the defense guessing.

Currently we don't know what our strengths are. Very perplexing on it's own but it's not an excuse to go off on some tangent trying to emulate the success of a quarterback that we don't have.

Right now I'd just be happy with a normal offense and a coherent defense.


and how do we know that Orton can't handle no huddle..

It is not like they are going to have the full play book up and running day one.. As we put more plays in and as they get to know each other it may be an option with a limited playbook weeks 3-6..

Hawgdriver
05-13-2009, 08:22 PM
I think if you can get two successful no-huddle drives together back to back, you're going to whup the other team. I see it mainly on the D-line, because the other players have to do basically the same thing (receivers and corners basically have to put out the same effort), but on the line the defense has to expend more energy to attack. By stringing plays to together rapid fire, you take away that recovery time between plays and force the line into the 'red zone' of cardiac effort for longer than they are comfortable. It takes a disproportionate amount of time to fully recover from that kind of exertion, and you can even get players to blow up if you keep at it.

It seems the no-huddle is the perfect weapon to take the most advantage of the acclimation effect. While there is something to be said for running a script, why don't we run a no-huddle script to open up each half? Don't let them sub, and make 'em puke. Keep them on O2 and panting between possessions. And if they send in a personnel group you can exploit (heavies or nickel/dime), go into no-huddle mid-drive that forces them to keep this package and allows you to capitalize on the mis-matches. Maybe you get 12 men on the field calls as a bonus.

If McDaniels is a smart guy, I'll bet we see some of this. I would like to see no-huddle as a go-to weapon more often.

Hawgdriver
05-13-2009, 08:25 PM
The new System is far too sophisticated and intricate to go No-Huddle any time soon, word is they're looking into hiring a team of former NASA scientists to streamline the staggering amount of raw data.......it's going to be Epic.......Championship.......

The jab on the Broncos aside, that's the biggest reason to avoid using it. Confusion or lack of execution on offense. But I don't see why you couldn't begin with a slimmer play selection when you practice the no-huddle this summer. It would be a lot to expect the new cast to be able to absorb so much in such a short time. It would likely take a few years to get it down to a...science.

Simple Jaded
05-13-2009, 09:53 PM
The jab on the Broncos aside, that's the biggest reason to avoid using it. Confusion or lack of execution on offense. But I don't see why you couldn't begin with a slimmer play selection when you practice the no-huddle this summer. It would be a lot to expect the new cast to be able to absorb so much in such a short time. It would likely take a few years to get it down to a...science.

It was more of a jab at people that think the Broncos are better off with the Wicked Smart Kyle Orton because the system is so complex, even though it took Orton 4 years to adapt to the Pro Game.

But I agree, the Broncos are installing a new system, and every NFL system is complex, also, the Broncos are breaking in a first time Head Coach who is naturally spreading himself much thinner than he's ever been before.......it's true the Broncos would be an ideal No-Huddle team because of Geography, but I don't think that's the goal just yet.......

Dirk
05-14-2009, 06:43 AM
Hard to say if the offense is going to be "gelling" enough to run the no huddle often.

I mean it is an effective way to keep the opposing defenses guessing. It worked very well for Kelly and the Bills back in the day and they would have won championships if they would have done it in the SBs they were in. Instead they opted to try and play ball control in the SBs.

I think that for the Broncos to have success, they will need to water down the offense some until they get up to speed. Not unlike the Steelers did with Big Ben.

Lonestar
05-14-2009, 03:55 PM
It was more of a jab at people that think the Broncos are better off with the Wicked Smart Kyle Orton because the system is so complex, even though it took Orton 4 years to adapt to the Pro Game.

But I agree, the Broncos are installing a new system, and every NFL system is complex, also, the Broncos are breaking in a first time Head Coach who is naturally spreading himself much thinner than he's ever been before.......it's true the Broncos would be an ideal No-Huddle team because of Geography, but I don't think that's the goal just yet.......

sounds to me the Josh is spreading himself here and there in mini camps and allowing the Coaching staff to do what they are paid to do..

I know your not fan of the change but just because mikey would not allow it to happen does not mean that our players can't learn it as PART of the playbook..

What the hell is the difference in making the play call at the LOS or in a huddle. The players ALL need to know what they re doing one way or the other.. IF they do not know the plays at the LOS, they most likely will not know them in the huddle either.. Pray tell me the difference

It allows the QB to make some decisions Opposed to mike calling in each and every play..

Hawgdriver
05-14-2009, 11:11 PM
What the hell is the difference in making the play call at the LOS or in a huddle. The players ALL need to know what they re doing one way or the other.. IF they do not know the plays at the LOS, they most likely will not know them in the huddle either.. Pray tell me the difference

You know there are reasons. For one, communication is better in the huddle. All players can say, "huh?".

Here is another reason. Good execution in anything, but especially football requires failsafe habit patterns. Any combat-oriented military dude that has seen action is thankful for all the horses beaten to death. You drill a million times so you can execute in all conditions. No-huddle breaks down those habit patterns. You have less time to mentally rehearse before the play, and you are fatigued. Concentrating when your heart and lungs are saying, 'wtf are you doing to me?' is always much harder. You can't do it with every play because you just can't practice enough to get that good in a year. But you could do it with a few plays this year. You could begin the habit pattern with a small playlist for the no-huddle.

Let me see some no-huddle this year, and not just at the end of halves.

MOtorboat
05-14-2009, 11:22 PM
You know there are reasons. For one, communication is better in the huddle. All players can say, "huh?".

Here is another reason. Good execution in anything, but especially football requires failsafe habit patterns. Any combat-oriented military dude that has seen action is thankful for all the horses beaten to death. You drill a million times so you can execute in all conditions. No-huddle breaks down those habit patterns. You have less time to mentally rehearse before the play, and you are fatigued. Concentrating when your heart and lungs are saying, 'wtf are you doing to me?' is always much harder. You can't do it with every play because you just can't practice enough to get that good in a year. But you could do it with a few plays this year. You could begin the habit pattern with a small playlist for the no-huddle.

Let me see some no-huddle this year, and not just at the end of halves.

Haha...lol, because New England and Indianapolis fail because they use the shotgun, no huddle...good argument, btw...

Lonestar
05-15-2009, 03:14 AM
You know there are reasons. For one, communication is better in the huddle. All players can say, "huh?".

Here is another reason. Good execution in anything, but especially football requires failsafe habit patterns. Any combat-oriented military dude that has seen action is thankful for all the horses beaten to death. You drill a million times so you can execute in all conditions. No-huddle breaks down those habit patterns. You have less time to mentally rehearse before the play, and you are fatigued. Concentrating when your heart and lungs are saying, 'wtf are you doing to me?' is always much harder. You can't do it with every play because you just can't practice enough to get that good in a year. But you could do it with a few plays this year. You could begin the habit pattern with a small playlist for the no-huddle.

Let me see some no-huddle this year, and not just at the end of halves.

I agree that there are those points .. BUT the same logic can be used on the defensive side of the LOS.. They are in even worse shape, unable to make defensive calls to counter what we are throwing at them, their brains are screaming WTF, it is MILE HIGH here and these morons over there look fresh as daisies..

After firing jay so to speak there is no one on this squad that remotely thinks their job is safe.. if they have not figured that out yet and with having 27-28 hungry rookies on the field, then they are to stupid to make Joshes cut..

We get an extra OTA this year to practice/learn the playbook and you can bet your BUTT that they all KNOW their jobs are on the line so those that want to play are sleeping with there play books and they are commiting them to memory..

Will we see it alot this year MAYBE, but if they have their ducks lined up but the first part of the season getting all the drills in they need, they would IMHO be dumb not to use it..

WARHORSE
05-15-2009, 11:42 AM
Running the no huddle early on would come with concerns in communication, but Im sure the no huddle will be used soon enough.


I believe the no huddle is very effective, especially when its done at unconventional times.