John T. Reed’s football coaching blog

I saw the end of the Pats-Cowboys game at the gym today. The Pats take-a-knee looked screwed up to me. Indeed, the Cowboys got to run one play at the end of their 13-9 loss. (completed pass but immediately tackled).Let’s look at the play-by-play of Pats last possession..1. Pats had 1st & 10 at Dallas 25 1:43 remaining Pats up 13-95yd run2. Dallas timeout at 1:40 at Dallas 20pass 12 yds at Dallas 83. 1st & goal at 8 1:334. Dallas timeout at 1:335. PATs take knee for -2 1:326. Dallas last timeout 1:327. 2nd down Pats lose 4 yds...

Email from a reader:Mr. Reed, I doubt I've ever emailed you, but I've long read and appreciated your work on youth football and clock management. With 1:55 to go, Iowa (down 15-13) had 1st and 10 at the Penn State 35. Running back Akrum Wadley burst into the clear and scored. He should've slid down inside the 5, forcing Penn State to burn their two remaining timeouts and kicking a chip-shot field goal with about :40 left. Instead, Penn State took over with 1:42 to go. They scored the winning touchdown with the clock at 0:04, on 4th and goal...

There is a long article on tackling in the current Sports Illustrated. That is a really important subject for defense coaches.   I devised a great youth defense if I do say so myself. (A bunch of testimonials from coaches say the same.) But all a great scheme does is deliver a defender to the ball carrier ASAP.   That is meaningless if he is not an effective tackler.   The salient thing about youth football tackling is that the tacklee will generally be a star football player in high school and maybe college. Some of the kids I coached...

The 5/1/17 Sports Illustrated has a letter to the editor that displays the kind of talk you often hear from fans and coaches. The writer says the losing Falcons coach should not have been so aggressive near the end of the Super Bowl in February. He said, “...playing conservatively offers may ways to win, while playing aggressively offers many ways to lose.”It’s a relatively rare intellectually-dishonest debate tactic:‘8. Sloganeering: Debater uses a slogan rather than using facts or logic. Slogans are vague sentences or phrases that derive their power from rhetorical devices like alliteration, repetition, cadence, or rhyming; Rich Dad...

Alabama lost the national NCAA championship game on 1/9/17 because they did not use all the play clock when they were ahead in the second half. Atlanta may have lost the national NFL championship game on 2/5/17 because they did not use all the play clock on two possessions when they were ahead in the second half. Alabama loss to Clemson On their last touchdown drive, Alabama got the ball @ 4:38 left in the game and ran six plays. Plays that are not incomplete or go out of bounds take right around 46 seconds if the team follows my...