Games with Names - Highlight Reel: The Art of Coaching

Episode Date: June 15, 2025

In this week's Highlight Reel we're getting coaching stories and advice from Bill O’Brien, Ernie Adams, Josh McDaniels, and Matt Patricia. Support the show: http://www.gameswithnames.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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A brand new highlight reel starts now with a compilation of a couple of our favorite moments from the show. Let's go. Now we've got Josh McDaniels on developing young quarterbacks. Developing young quarterbacks. Can you, can you talk about that? You know, what's the process like? You were a huge part of help developing Tom Brady, right?

That's when you first came in 2000, 2001. You developed him and the other guys, but what it, developing a quarterback, what's that process like? Now, and who also makes that decision? Is it the head coach, is the offensive coordinator, is it the quarterback coach, or is it everyone's doing it their own? What's this process?

I think you have to have a plan, and that obviously starts from the head coach, his perspective, and you have to be able to agree on how you're gonna kind of unveil that thing to the player, and ultimately bring him along. You know, you were a young player that needed to make progress every step of the way. And this is no different, it's just there's so much

notoriety and so much attention on the quarterback position. So if they're not talking about your arm angle, they're talking about your footwork. If they're not talking about that, they're talking about your eyes or your read or how you navigated the pocket. And there's a lot of things that go into playing it well. But I, at the end of the day, I think you got to take the player where he's at, you know at when he comes in, whether that was Castle or Garoppolo or Stidham or Brissette or Mack, Aiden O'Connell. You've got to take the player where he's at. They're all at different spots.

They all have been taught different things. They've all digested different amounts of information. Some have played in different systems than yours. Some have played in maybe some that were a little bit more like yours. And you just gotta figure out, all right, what do they know? And what am I going to try to push forward

to get him to progress the quickest? I think I can get this and this done in OTAs. Okay, great. Cadence, play calls, footwork. All right, good. Then in training camp, you know, now I got to get them to see different coverages and understand defenses a little bit more. And protections.

You know, protections, you know, and then, you know, move forward, you know, ball security. And then the red zone's a different animal, and third down, and two-minute offense. So there's a lot of things that go into it, but I think it's just having a really good feel for where's the player at? You know, can't just keep throwing stuff at him. I always talk about it, they have a bucket. You guys all had a bucket,

and yours was a big bucket at the end. Like you could handle whatever we gave you. Well, when you take a young quarterback, it's more like a cup. You know, you gotta put some stuff in his cup and when it gets to the top, you gotta stop. You know what I mean? And then make sure that he has this and he can do it well.

And then okay, so then when he's ready for more, then you get him a bigger cup. And then hopefully he ends up with a bucket and you got a bunch of stuff in there that you can do well. But there's no shortcut. there's no shortcut to it. And I think knowing where the players at is really important. Yeah. Now, a lot of people have been talking about

systems in the NFL. You got the West Coast system, then you have like our system, the Charlie Weiss Patriot system. And they say that the the West Coast system is pretty much it protects the quarterback, the offensive lineman help with the protections. Everyone, you know, everyone with the quarterback, you go where the ball is supposed to go. It's step system for the receivers. Is it is it harder to develop a quarterback in our system? Because that's what people are trying to say than it's step system for the receivers. Is it harder to develop a quarterback in our system?

Because that's what people are trying to say than it is in the West Coast system. I think it depends on the way you look at that. If the goal is just to restrict the volume of responsibility that you place on him right away, then it certainly could be. If at the end of the day, your goal is to have him understand how to handle all the problems

and take care of those things that come up in the big games in order for him to help you win them, then maybe it's worth it. That was always our mindset is, basically what we're talking about here is, who's gonna do the stuff prior to the ball being snapped? All the quarterbacks have to do the same thing once the ball's in their hand.

They gotta understand what happened relative to the protection or the pressures. They have to read the coverage. They have to identify a guy that they think is open and make accurate throws and protect the ball. Like everybody does the same thing once the ball's snapped. Really what we're talking about is pre-snap responsibility. Pre-snap responsibility.

That's it. And so I always looked at it like a mountain. Like at the beginning, we're at the bottom, we're trying to climb it. And at the beginning, when you start talking to them about making the calls and setting the protections and dealing with the run game and all those things that we taught our players how to do,

it's harder because it's foreign. It's not that they don't understand it, it's just different. And so at the beginning, they're at the bottom of the mountain and you look up and you're like, God damn, that's a tall mountain. But I always felt like as we went through the first year, all right, you're bottom of the mountain, you look up and you're like, God damn, that's a tall mountain. But I always felt like as we went through the first year, all right, you're getting

up the mountain. You know it, I know it, we all know it. And then once you get to the top of the mountain, now there's nothing left to climb because you understand it. You understand how to manipulate the protection, how to solve your issues with blood zero and those kind of things. And just be able to do it at a high level. Because I always thought like, okay, Tom, everybody knows Tom's won a lot. Well, Tom did it that way.

Peyton did a lot too. Peyton won a lot, he did it that way. I know that Pat's in some way, shape or form able to handle some of those things as well. I just think having the quarterback never be responsible for any of that stuff. There's some downside to it. Other people might argue that that's not the case,

but I would say that there's pros and cons to both. I love the idea of having the quarterback able to understand it all. I really do. Here's a clip of Matt Patricia talking the art of the defensive coordinator. What's the art of the DC? What's your starting point of when you're preparing for a team? Are you looking at players, plays, or has it changed situationally for each team? How do you construct what you're going gonna plan for that week because you're a game plan coach,

it changes every week. How do you break that in? What's the art of coach, DC? Yeah, you know, it's interesting. So being at New England, obviously our fundamental background defense and philosophy, right, comes from the Giants, right, 1980s, bill at the Giants, those great defenses there.

And then you got to really understand So I had I had two playbooks, right? We had our playbook and then I had the Bible right I called it the Bible because that was everything like that I I was always keeping track of the history of where did all this stuff come from because I figured if you could understand Where it came from then we would know when to install it or when to use it So who made the Bible so I did, you know So who made the Bible? So I did, you know, just copy, copy, pull it together. Football.

Was that make you a prophet? Definitely. I mean, I am. I mean, I was named. I am Matthew. Okay, he's one of the prophets. Get out of here. So, so, so yeah, so eighties, right? And then you have the influence of our defense from Saban when Bill and Nick get together at Cleveland and how it morphs from cover two to cover three, little bit of cover five,

which was our two man, Nick with cover one, cover four. And then, so as we get to New England. Nick loves man. Loves it, right? So as we get to New England, you know, Romeo, Rack is there early, what that was, Mangini. And then Dean takes over and we go all into cover four, which was, you know, that was his baby.

And that was great for all those years too. When Dean left, you know, Bill wanted to get back to some more traditional stuff. The game was changing at this point and right around this timeline. And I really think offensively, Bill had a great vision of where the game should go. And it was getting away from the 11s

into the mixed 12s personnel groups and but at this time defensively we had gone back to a lot of base cover two cover three we had young players playing zone because we had zone you got more chances for turnovers you can see the quarterback you can see the throws good tack we're always good tacklers right good tackling defense and um so that's we had young guys so so that's what we were in this era. We had our mans for situational football, because you got to play man in situational football, red area, things like that.

And then really as our team developed, when we get into other games, you know, when we get a keep to leave, everything defensively changed. Everything changed. The keep is like one of my favorites ever, right? Walks in and he's like, Matty P, he's like, I got him, you figure out the rest of it. I'm like, cool. Like, you know, it was like, of my favorites ever. Walks in and he's like, Matty P. He's like, I got him.

You figure out the rest of it. I'm like, cool. It was like, so we changed. We morphed. We would always morph the defense based on the talent we had. At this time, we're also coming out of, this is actually the last year of a lot of base defense. So the next year after this, because of our 12 packages,

I went into big nickel. That's where Pat Chung really comes into, this is where Pat Chung saves us for a lot of years. He does not get enough credit for the evolution of what we went to and where we were for all those years after defensively. Devin also gets moved from corner and moved into safety after this because of where we were.

Devin's like rookie of the year. And why do you do that? Why do we change the defense? Because, because you're 12 personnel. So there's a lot of 12 personnel, which means there's two tight ends, but teams are still spreading people out. So the safety has to cover the tight end

who's a better out runner these days. So Patrick Chung being the physical type player that can play decent against bigger, or very good against bigger guys. Very physical. Great run instincts. So that's why Patrick Chung was so good because he was a covering safety.

He wasn't a big safety, which now all the safeties look like Patrick Chung, but at this time, you know, this is when safeties were fucking huge. Yeah, still big, still coming down hill. That's what I'm just giving context to, Matty P. Love the history. So defensively, our mentality in general

was how do we fit the defensive structure to the, so again, people are like, oh, you're a base cover two coach. And I'm like, well, I was when we needed to be. But you saw our playbook. We had every coverage known to man in that thing. And then some we made up. So, or fronts and variations. So, with that mentality of the defense, that was just our mentality every week.

What do we have to do? What do we have to play in order to win this game? Because that's all that really mattered. It was like, it doesn't matter what we do, how do we just win this game, complementary football, with the offense, with special teams, with defense, and who are the players we have to do that. And so it was always evolving, always changing.

But when you game plan an offense, for me, you know, started with the quarterback, how are we going to make this guy, you know, how are we going to play the game within the game against this guy? And then I went to the offensive line. You obviously identify who are the great players, who are the go-to guys you gotta stop,

who's the ball going to and what situations. Make sure you got those guys handled, make sure you got them covered. But game planning affecting the quarterback was through the offensive line. How do we get pressure in his face? Is he gonna step up, is he gonna bail, is he gonna move? Do we need to keep him in the pocket?

Do we want him out of the pocket? Is he a scramble or does he extend? All of those, you gotta answer all of those questions. As you go through the game plan process. And then, you know, you got run game, you got all of that in there. What packages are you going to play? How are you going to call the game?

You know, so a lot of games I would have, you know, I had different call sheets. So had the main, our main call sheet that everybody had. And then I would have adjustment call sheets, you know, and then I either have them or, you know, people ask me what time. So I always had a notebook in, you know, and I either have them or, you know, people ask me what time, so I always had a notebook in, you know, always wore a hoodie, always had pockets.

And number two pencil, you got one? Yeah, yeah, there we go, yeah, good Ticonderoga. Ticonderoga deal. Of course, right? But I always had, but I always had notebooks with paper, you know, and I would rewrite different scripts, different series coming up, you know, like we'd come to the sign, like, hey, Jules,

next third down call is going to be this, next first down is going to be called, be ready to go in on second down and long, second and short like we come inside and be like, hey Jules, next third down call's gonna be this, next first down's gonna be called, be ready to go in on second down and long, second and short we're gonna stay base, and I would write all of those out so that everybody had that during the game. Now Bill O'Brien on coaching Tom Brady. To have the opportunity to coach,

you know, obviously what we believe is the greatest quarterback of all time. When he first, he was out on the West Coast and he came back for OTAs that year, 09, the year we drafted here. Yeah. I'll never forget this, he came in my office, he said, look, I want to be coached.

He's like, look, don't waste my time, but I want to be coached. And he was right about that and I learned a lot about how he wanted to be coached, what he wanted to know. I can remember one of my first meetings, I was so prepared, I had this book of computer reports, and I gave him this, I'm like, Tom, look at this book, and he's like,

what is this? I want one sheet. I want one sheet that tells me, boom, boom, boom, first, second down, third down, boom, fronts, pressures, red area, backed up, the whole thing. And I was like, oh my God. But from that point, I did the one sheet and I used that one sheet to this day for quarterbacks.

Because he wanted to be able to think quickly. He didn't want a big computer report. He was a guy that, if you showed him that you could work with him, you could take in his input and show him that you could work together him, like you could take in his input and show him that you could work together to formulate a really good offense, like then you were gonna have a great relationship. And I think that's why he and I got along so well,

because we had our ideas, and then he would come in on Tuesdays with his ideas, and we would put those ideas into with ours, and I would put it all together. And then each night I would have to email it to him. And so I don't know if Josh, I think Josh probably did do the same thing, but he went to bed early.

So if it was like Tuesday night for Wednesday morning, here's the game plan by 8 p.m. Here's the game plan for third down by 8 p.m. on Wednesday, for red area, 8 p.m. on Thursday, you know what I mean mean for the next day but that forced you to work get your work done and be prepared and then he would email back with hey I love this play I love this play I don't really like this play hey what do you think about this play and it was just that type of

relationship you know and coaching them was it was awesome. That's really cool to hear you know and people don't realize that Tom loves being coached. I mean, Billy O was probably so overwhelmed jumping into that thing, because when I got there, they already had three Super Bowls. They were already the Patriots, and that was like,

and I remember seeing him throw for the first day, and I was like, man, this motherfucker can throw. He hit the right- That's a beautiful sight. Next up, we've got Ernie Adams on defensive schemes against high powered offenses. We did a really good job adjusting

from that regular season game to the Super Bowl against us. I think they weren't really, I don't think they were expecting to play us. They only had a week. So they kind of went in a little bit the same way. They did the regular season game, which we were ready for. Yeah. Do what they do.

Do what they do. And they, listen, they're good, they figured it out, they started hitting the sun. So, you know, the pass up the seam, what do we always call that? Pass up the seam. How about ram pass? A ram pass?

A ram pass. How many times you heard this talk about ram pass? Everybody knew ram pass. Yeah, that's defensive. Yeah, for the, Scott Wright. Yeah, that's definitive. Scott Wright 525, half post swing. I mean, it was like staple. Well, they started to run a ramp pass against it

and they had a step on us a couple of times and they ran it like five times from five different formations, different personnel groups. And you know, they came back and tied the game up. And then we went back and won it again. But the Colts in 0-3, I think the final score of the game was 26-3. And the only reason it wasn't a zero

was because we dropped an interception in the end zone that we should have had. And they kicked the field goal. So we held them the three points. And then Super Bowl 53 against the Rams in 2018. We hold them to three points So that was you know, those to me were three five hundred point teams five hundred five hundred point teams Though I mean those were masterpieces and what I remember That old three game that you're gonna talk to tie about, after the game they had, you know,

on the whatever network was doing it, one of their guests for the game was Mike Shanahan, coach of the Broncos. And I mean, he, his team had been shooed up by the Colts. I mean, they got massacred by the Colts. And Mike Shanahan went on and said, I can't believe I just saw what I saw. Which I took as a real, you know,

that's like a real comp, you know, a real compliment from somebody who really knows this is something special right here. Yeah. But you know, I will say part of that was because I knew in the middle of November it was gonna come down, to us playing the Colts. Yeah. So that was what it was then. That's what it was. And you know what, spent like I made,

it didn't matter if we were playing, you know, the Jets in a regular season game, I made a point to spend an hour a day at least. One hour a day. Studying the Colts. So, you know, just in the middle, just, just to make sure. Now what's the study? Just watching the game? Watching the game. Logging it? Logging it.

What the, you know, and the thing was, they would get, everybody was trying to play them and cover three and cover one, and they killed them running up the seams. Yeah. I mean, you- Dallas Clark? Oh my God, it was a slaughter. And so I said, you can't. Dallas Clark? Oh my God, it was a slaughter.

And so I said, we can't do this. We need to go in and play cover four. We cannot get shoot up in the seams. And Romeo Cronel, our defensive coordinator, is one of my favorite people. So when do you want to play cover three? Never, not against this team. Just don't do it.

They will kill you. Okay. Never, not against this team, just don't do it. They will kill you. Okay, and that's what, that's kind of what teams would do to us because of Gronk and the seams. So I go, this is maybe two years ago, and I'm watching a Monday night game, and I'm watching the simulcast with Eli and Peyton Manning, and somebody's playing cover four,

and Peyton Manning goes, yeah, cover four. I don't really like my incuts and my seams against that. And I'm sitting there thinking, yes, that's why we played it. Yeah. Next up, we've got Josh McAnhaals outlining his mindset when he calls trick plays. These little details, is that like,

to factor in with your play calling, is that innate? Is that something with reps? Like, where do you pick up those little details, is that like to factor in with your play calling? Is that innate? Is that something with reps? Like where do you pick up those little details when it comes into your craft of play calling? Um, I think it's just probably experience, you know? I don't like, I think when you're coming off the sideline and like the defense is kind of ready for almost anything, you know, like I don't think that's a great time to like spring your craziest play on them all the time. I think it's almost like you run a play, you run a second play, oh you got a first down. So they're kind of like, all right, they're just driving the ball. They're just trying to do the same stuff they've been doing, you know, throwing the ball here,

dinkin' dunk, which is what I wanted them to be thinking. And they got, so we get a first down and we're into a drive. The defensive coordinator, he knows we're not going fast. He's into his drive now. You know what I mean? Meaning? Meaning, Deans, you know, you kind of get into a rhythm of the drive itself.

Each drive is different. And so we, first down play, huddle, second down play, first down, go back to the huddle. You know what I mean? So now Dean's in his rhythm too. And so again, it just, I thought that was a better way to do it honestly than go out there and be desperate and try to hurry up and get to it.

And you know, people don't realize these, you know, I don't know how it's in other places, but there's a department that studies and gives everyone around the league what they're doing to our coaches, and they look at it, these guys study it, so that you know, you could always see when it's the best opportunity.

He's probably seen this situation go down, may not be the specific trick play, but a different trick play that a team off of a big play makes another big play, feels desperate. So these guys, they're always watching the game. And that's how they get their experiences, not only through coaching it, but watching other coaches. The great coaches will use their experiences and implicate it

into their own. And I've made, I've called enough plays and made enough mistakes when I was younger, you know, to like, all right, well that sucked. You know what I mean? Like, that totally wasn't the right time to do that, you know? And you just, I think learning through your failings as you're, as you're going is a helpful thing. So you have a little bit of wisdom, you know, after you've put enough pelt on the wall, you know, where now you kind of know

like, that's, I remember not to do that because of this game and I tried it and it backfired, you know, and the other thing I would say about this is, and you would attest to this, we practice those things and we didn't act like they were so special that it was impossible for us to succeed at them. I treated those things almost like a play action pass. Like a flea flicker or a double, like if you rep it enough, what's the difference?

Other than the ball handling and like. But I trusted you enough and we'd rep it enough, what's the difference? Like other than the ball handling and like. But I trusted you enough and we'd rep it enough where I was like, I didn't call it and go like this. Yeah. Like what's gonna happen? I called it going, as long as the defense is gonna give it to us, I've seen us execute this many times. Look at it, he's got this smile like yeah,

tell him how many times I hit it in practice. I think I overthrew him three or four times She'd you're proud you were gloves too, right? Yeah Cuz he always shits on quarterbacks when they wear their gloves. Yeah, but I'm not gonna take my glove off Well, that's why that's the thing is you take it off then these guys know Baltimore might have perceptive enough to 100% Here he took his fucking Jackson Baltimore might have been perceptive enough to go 100% here. He took his fucking glove off. This guy Michael Jackson. Yeah.

Out there, Glovel is like Vlad Guerrero. Come on now. Yeah, but to Coach's point, I think that's cool that it's not one of these super trick plays and crazy things, because we did the AFC championship in Arrowhead with Ernie, and there was a flea flicker on that drive in OT. Like just a regular play. That's a testament to that.

I think it's a nice discrepancy. And it was like a comfort level for you as the play caller. Like I don't feel like I'm about to mess the game up because I've watched us and I trust our guys enough and trust you guys to do it. And you don't either. You're not thinking like, oh God, he called a flea flicker. You're just like, it is what it is.

Next up, Matt Patricia on utilizing go-to players during go-to plays. I was always looking at the offensive guys again and saying, who could play defense? Yeah. Not all offensive guys can play defense. But once you were kind of on the team, all that stuff that you went through,

I was like, that's the guy that can do it. So I always had in my head, I was like, at some point he's going to play DB for us. Which is so crazy for two reasons. I remember when I was getting worked out, Pittsburgh worked me out as a safety in a corner when I was coming out of Kent. And then the second thing when you told me

about the Troy Brown stuff stuff and like you said, oh, I finally got someone that I could do this with. When I first got drafted to New England, my agent, Don Yee. Yeah, Don. Don goes to me and he goes, I have a vision, you're the next Troy Brown. I just, the team's gonna,

it's gonna be hard for them to cut you because you're gonna, because that was the thing going into this. They had seven receivers my rookie year. Eight receivers, they traded for a guy. They had Randy Moss West. One of the guys was a special teams captain, Sam Aiken. So like the roster spot was like hard.

You can't get that spot. But my agent was just always say, it's gonna be hard for them to cut you because you could do a lot. You could do a lot. You were a ball-playing Jesse. It's crazy you said that. Fucking Don's a smart dude.

But yeah, it was. And Josh Boyer, he was great at all that stuff too. So Josh was like, and I think he was in that same mentality. Josh was. And he saw the same thing. So it was Jules was going to play defense. We were going to go through it. I remember Troy saying, a long time ago, I was Jules was going to play defense. We were going to go through it. You know, I remember Troy saying, I was like, long time ago, I was like, Troy, how did you,

he's like, well, I know most of the routes. He's like, I run all these routes. So I know everything inside. Conceptually. Yeah. And situationally, that's what I would do. And then situationally, so you knew the same, and then situationally, you knew what we wanted

to do defensively, and I knew you'd learn it in a very short amount of time. So, because I remember what I would do, Bill and you guys would always say, well Bill, I would listen in the team meeting. Yep. And Bill would always say, gotta have it situations.

The third downs, the four point plays. Yeah. They throw gotta have it routes to gotta have it players. Yeah, go to guys. So if you fucking study the gotta have it route to gotta have it players. Yeah, go to guys. So if you fucking study the gotta have it route. Give you the list. On that straight third down. Yep.

And then you study the gotta have it player. Like all I would do is just hold on for dear life for the first five yards, because I knew guys hated it. And then just play to your leverage. Coming up next, Ernie Adams on analytics. Do you get fed up with hearing this bullshit analytics talk? Well, you know what?

Or is it like, I'm the analytic godfather. You know, for instance, there's a... Ernie Adams, analytics, I am analytics. You know, like for instance. Amen. If something... More than two against the Colts, we went for it. As analytics, Ernie before analytics.

Yeah, but there was, if something, if somebody's got something that makes sense, David Romer was an economist at the University of California. I mean, his wife was a critical part of, some presidential administrations. And he wrote the paper on why on fourth and goal from the one, you really want to go for it. Well, I read the paper and you know what?

This makes sense. So it's like analytics is one thing, but if it's good analytics, it's going to make sense. For instance, you know, this whole thing that came up, the Super Bowl that was just played, and I have been waiting for this situation for three years. Somebody, when they changed the rule on overtime, this is totally different.

And to be honest with you, they flipped the 49ers win the toss. And my text, I sent the bill right then. I said, this is the first time in the National Football League history, the right call on winning the coin toss is we want to kick. Now, you know, we remember the playoff game, we get, no, the overtime game

in the regular season against Denver. Wind. We took the wind. We, you know, this wasn't a case of, you know, we want the wind at our back. We would take the chance on giving the ball to Peyton Manning, we just felt it was outweighed by, we're playing in this for three hours,

we can see what the wind is. We know the important thing is having it at our back. Well, the Super Bowl with Kansas City and San Francisco, it's inside, there is no wind. But to me, the call is we want to kick, we want to go on defense first. And the big reason it came up when Kansas City got the ball, you know what you need and you know,

when you're in four down territory all the way, because it comes up fourth down, you can go for it. Well, if you know you're going to be going for it on fourth down, that changes the way you can call the game on first, second, and third down. And to me, that's the biggest, you know, that's the biggest reason. And it's interesting is I had never,

I mean, yes, Kyle Shanahan said, okay, if it comes to a third possession, you know, in those, we score, we kick a field goal, you kick a field goal, I get the ball the third time. All right, then I can win it with a field goal. I hadn't really thought of it that way and that's certainly a valid point, but I think it's overweight by the fact

if I'd rather have the ball second, so I know what I need. But to me, analytics is if it makes, does it make good sense? You know, there's gotta be a valid reason behind it, not just the computer told me to do, and I don't care what sports you're in, you know, it's like the whole thing,

three point shots in basketball. Okay, well yeah, it makes, you know, it's points per possession. So if you've got somebody who can, you know, shoot 40% shooting threes, go ahead and shoot threes. Got it. It's analytics, but on the court, it actually makes sense. I like that.

It's like, okay. Earnal Enix. Well, like talking about, because it's been, I think analytics probably would be used more in baseball than in football. But the book I mentioned that Buzz Bissinger wrote about the Cardinals, and he's talking about their pitching coach,

Dave Duncan, the notes he keeps. Well, that's great analytics right there. Because you can actually give that to a baseball player, and you can apply it and use it. But again, it's like, there's nothing as practical as a good theory, if the theory works, it's going to be practical, do it. So David Romer wrote the book on why you should go for

a fourth and one, and this makes real sense. So there must've been 10 times it came up for us, fourth and goal and the one, but what do you want to do? Call your best play. And we got stopped up at one time, we got stopped up at Buffalo. Okay, what do you want to do? Call your best play. And we got stopped up at, one time we got stopped up at Buffalo. Okay, well it's the national football league, they're not all going to work.

You know, but it's like, you know, we had, this just absolutely killed me. We're playing the Ravens in 2019. We're going into game eight, no. And we get the ball. I had a bad fumble that game. Okay, well, yeah, that's going to happen too. But you know, we get the ball. I had a bad fumble that game. Okay, well, yeah, that's gonna happen too. But you know, we get the ball right towards the end.

It's fourth and goal in the one, end of the half. And you know, it's like Josh didn't have a play he really felt good with. If you don't have a play you feel good, well, we'll kick the field goal. But you know, I really, that was like, you know, that killed me. Because I know I really wanna go for it I know I really want to go for it,

but I don't want to go for it if the offensive coordinator who's one of the best in the business doesn't have a play he likes, I don't want to go run a play just to run a play. Next up, Bill O'Brien on play calling for the four overtime Alabama Auburn game. The legendary four overtime Iron Bowl. Yeah, that was a great game. That was crazy. Anything could happen in a rivalry game. Oh know iron bowl. Yeah, that was great. That was crazy anything could happen rivalry game

Oh my god, I know what they're ranked the Arbonne wasn't even right there Forget it was like it was ten to three in that game and we had not done anything Yeah Auburn's defense it was at Auburn, which is a tough place. We got the ball back on our Because Auburn screwed up the four-minute. Yeah, that kid ran out of bounds. So they had to punt We got the ball back on our own two yard line, and Nick, I'll never forget Nick on the headset, was like, Bill, we got to do something here. And I was like, yep, yes, we do.

It was about a minute and 10 left. And we went 98 yards, Bryce Young, and sent it into overtime. And then we had a lot, you would have loved it, because in college, after the first overtime, you have to go for two if you score. And so it was all of those Patriot bunch, like boom, boom, boom.

I saw that. And they were just. We hit like three or four of them. And then it carried over to this game where you guys used a lot of those bunches, the Rams, the Rifles, the Texas. Yep, two lane. Two lane, two in, which it makes this legendary

Georgia defense have to communicate think fast Is that what were you doing in the middle? You were starting fast to try to slow down that D lineman you were you guys were playing with tempo Was that the game plan going in this thing? Yeah, I think I felt for us in this game You know, we Nick did a great job of this team of his teams being in great condition We you know much like the Patriots there was a lot of conditioning in Alabama. I felt like we were in better condition in that game than we were than Georgia was. You know, we were able to go fast and Georgia was very big up front, very talented.

But maybe we could, you know, get him huffing and puffing a little bit and be able to, you know, sneak a couple of plays in there on him. And that was the game plan going in. Josh McDaniels is up next diving into preparing for an offense when facing Ed Reed and Ray Lewis. I know this game didn't have Ray or Ed but can you talk to the listener about having to try to prepare against those two guys? Yeah, that's I'm sure like when you talk about a defensive coordinator trying to get ready for Manning or Brady, you know those guys that were really intelligent

and could play the game in their mind too, that's what that felt like when you were getting ready to play Reed, Lewis, Suggs to me. There's not that many teams that I've coached against where I would say that there was the volume of players that they had at one time that were as instrumental in terms of knowing what was coming, seeing the formation, over playing tendencies, being able to adjust, getting their teammates in the right position. It was really hard to, you know, cause as a coach, you want to prepare your team as best you can.

You also want to try to scheme some success. So it's not like, hey, you know, good luck, Jules, you know, get out there and get them on every play. Like there's definitely plays where it's like, all right, Jules, you're gonna have to come through here. And you came through, you know, a ton. It's just, you want to try to help your players as much as you can by giving them something that's like,

okay, this is gonna work. And it's gonna not trick the defense, but there's gonna be an element, a little foreshadowing. There's gonna be a little, you know, a little, you know, where it's simpler to have some success. and it was hard against them It just wasn't that was not simple. Yeah, it wasn't simple. I just remember any time we'd play

Ed Reed or Bray Lewis Bill would show like a 20 play cut up on just both of those there'd be a 30 minute Team presentation it like to start the day of just a highlight of these two. This guy will fucking blow you up. Like just that kind of shit. Oh, cover three, that's what you thought. And like Edward agreed to be in the second, you know what I mean?

Like. His favorite thing to say to us was that they don't need to play split safety defense because they just play post safety and Ed covers both sides of the field. And it may, it like got in your head as it like, I'm like, you know, as a coach, you're like, oh man, like, can we throw it back there?

No, ever. You know what I mean? Like, I don't remember Tom, like we'd have conversations and it was always part of the conversation. But that's a tribute to the greatness of the player. Yeah. Because when you're looking at him going, he can cover everything back there,

and you're thinking about that, that makes you question whether or not you can do something. Oh, yeah. Bill loved Ed Reed, didn't he? Like, just loved him. Loved him. Where does he rank on the all-time Mount Rushmore of, like, guys that weren't Patriots that Bill loved?

High. I was going to say, as a fan, I would always hear that. That weren't Patriots that he didn't coach? Right, right. There's a caveat there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because Lawrence Taylor. Because if you thought that Lawrence Taylor would be at the top.

There is no Mount Rushmore. Okay. There's Lawrence and then there's the mountain. Yeah. That's the... Ed Reed. Ed Reed is at... He's out there.

He's in the Mount Rushmore. Heck yeah. 100%. Is there anybody else in there? Yeah, I mean, Ed was, Ed was such a- He liked Troy, he liked Troy. He liked Palomalu. He liked Palomalu.

They were different players. Ed Reed was a completely different player than Troy. You know, we ended, well hell, we ended up with a lot of the guys that he loved. Rodney, Junior. It was like, if we loved them enough, we would try to get him. Like Randy. Like I'm just saying, like there was a lot of players. Ocho. He loved Ocho.

All the mic dub clips with them talking shit through each other pregame. Oh, that's fucking awesome. Oh yeah. Ocho's, yeah, he's something. But that's what happened. I love that. Like, you know, like you you you like them enough Next up Ernie Adams on anticipation beating reaction. We're playing the Dolphins It's probably around

2011 so because Brian Brian day ball Of course was he was with us for a number of years, was the offensive coordinator. And I said, what's Brian gonna do? And they had the throwback to the quarterback off the shotgun. So we ran that in practice and people were all, what the hell, what's this? Well, they ran exactly that play in the game. And the fact that we had seen it meant that we could react

to it just in time to you know, to make the play on defense because the stuff is happening so fast, if you got to think, oh, it just went by me. You got to, you know, you got to be able to anticipate. In fact, one of the great lines for coaching football was somebody I have tremendous respect for, Tom Landry, who would say, anticipation beats reaction every time.

You know, think ahead of that, you know, hey, we know this is the situation, this is what we gotta watch out for, and that just makes a world of difference to just being out there playing, oh my God, the play just went by me. You've seen a lot of guys, they're always half a step late,

and that just, that doesn't work. That's what I try to explain to people. Like when they ask, what was your guys day to day like? And I'd be like, oh, we'd walk through plays. We'd walk through the walkthroughs. Then we'd go to a built-in drill for that specific play. Take it to a seven on seven, then do a team. And we'd have all these reps and you'd run 30 new plays,

but you'd rep them four or five times, and guys would bitch and complain, bitch and complain. But then when it came to game day, like Ernie said, it's in your subconscious, it's built in your subconscious, so you react and you've seen the play, it becomes deja vu. On this technique, this happens, oh, I see this guy.

I saw it in practice, I saw it on the walkthrough, and it allows you to play fast. And that's something that I always tell everyone. What made our teams was our practice and our ability to really take those meetings. I mean, that's hard to get, you know, 30 guys to really buy in and go over plays and plays and plays. But that's what made us us.

That's what made us us. And I think probably our best 90 minutes of football was Super Bowl 51 against the Falcons. Bill O'Brien up next talking about coaching the SEC Championship under Nick Saban. You're the offensive coordinator. You put in the Falcons. Bill O'Brien up next talking about coaching the SEC Championship under Nick Saban. You're the offensive coordinator, you put in the game plan. We're going to, A, you probably present to Nick,

we're probably, we got to go fast to slow this D-line down, make them communicate with a lot of our formations, our bunches. When it's a slow first quarter, are you making adjustments to the game plan, or are you just sticking with the game plan you guys are executing better. Yeah, no, we had to adjust.

It was it actually was 10 nothing. They get they went up 10 nothing. But the second quarter you guys there was fireworks. Yeah, it was fireworks. We did adjust we went to my recollection is we did we were going to struggle to run the ball. So we put the ball basically in Bryce's hands and we had like I said, two good receivers good tight end. And even the backs out of the back for were good in the passing game

So you could check it down to them and they were gonna make yards So we we we knew like look man We're gonna have to really throw the football here to win this game. We hit taffy for like an 80 yard touchdown Yeah, so we had to clear out with the toggle with the free route and we hit the free route I think for 80 yard touchdown to Jamo Jamison Williams I think it was so and then we came in at halftime we said hey they're sitting on some of the taffy's at the bunch yeah yeah the cross yeah was he the second guy or the first guy he was the he was the toggle runner okay

he was the top guy Wow so then we there's no one near him they blew it it was a communication thing once again with those bunches motion to it yeah yeah and then in the second half we knew we could double move them so we said if we saw cover for we were gonna give JMO a curl go because the safety was jumping the hell out of the curl yeah and so Bryce he pumped him and he ran a curl go and he threw it and we had like a 60 yard I think it was a 55 yard bomb to Jay. Yeah in the third quarter Yeah, I think that was the first drive of this of the third of the second half and that was that kind of helped us A big that was a big time play. Yeah

So how are you guys what's the halftime like with with the saving are you guys in this? You know halftime in the in college is a little bit longer, you know Yeah, it's probably more like 15, 20 minutes, whereas in the pros it's what, eight? 12. 12. So. Unless you're in the Super Bowl or it's 22.

Yeah, then where it's longer, yeah, then you can take a nap. Yeah. But yeah, so, yeah, we definitely came in and, you know, Nick's very intense, so he was like, look, what are we doing, how are we gonna do this? But Nick also sees the game, and I can remember distinctly he's saying like, hey look was like, look, what are we doing? How are we going to do this? But Nick also sees the game, and I can remember distinctly he's saying,

hey look, we're going to have to throw the ball to win this game. And so we just made sure we had our best passes ready to go. We had a couple new wrinkles we put in at halftime, like hey, we're going to run this this way. And these kids, the kids that were playing for us were very, very smart football players. So they're like, no problem coach, we got that.

That's kind of what halftime was like. And then once you guys go out and score and have that big play In the third quarter to start it off. That's when you that momentum started kicking over there. I was a play caller How do you are you just like keep it going because you guys started, you know, there was a pick six You guys are starting to blow them out Now what was the mentality in the play calling like are we trying to run this thing down or are we trying to fucking score? When you got into the fourth quarter of this game, like that pick six, after that pick six, that was Jordan Battle.

Yeah, he Jordan Battle. He took that back. I think after that, when it was 38-17, I think, you know, Nick was in control of that. He would tell us like, hey, let's, you know, milk the clock and hand the ball off and see if we can get, you know, at least run it twice and then try to get it on third down with a pass

Maybe Matt Patrissa is up next talking about strategy versus Mike Shanahan 2006. We're playing Denver. We had the China Bowl. There's there's It's painted on the field, you know that all of it. We had jerseys in Chinese business card. You went to China It was crazy. We were going to China. Okay that game we played Denver. And I remember that game specifically cause we're playing Mike Shanahan and we're ready for the zone team. We're ready for the zones. And so all week I've got Bruin Jr. and my linebackers, you know, and I'm telling them like,

look, we're going to creep the line of scrimmage. You know, we used to play base defense, you know, three, four. We're going to move up to two and a half yards off the line because we got to go press these guards right now. We got to get them off of the defensive line, Vince and those guys, Ty. And we got to get downhill. Well, Mike. We got to get them off of the defensive line, Vince and those guys, Ty. And we got to get downhill. Well, Mike went to the whole power gap, duo run game,

and it was all down blocks. What is power gap duo run game? So all kind of the same deal, right? Good question, good question. Depends on the side of the box. Zone is if you're getting everyone trying to move sideways and you use space. Everyone's moving in the same direction.

Now we go to the gap. What is that? The duo or the power. It's double teams everywhere? Double teams all along the stretch. We're trying to move bodies. So we go to the gap, the duo or the power. Double teams everywhere? Double teams all along. We're trying to move bodies. So we're two on one. So it's 300 pounds versus 300. It's 600 versus 300. Okay. Yeah. 600 versus 300. So we're moving the line of scrimmage. Love it. So instead of pressing the line of scrimmage, we actually, linebacker wise, we got to stack. We got to get over the top, pull the double teams off. Well, Junior, you know, who was kind of, we were

in the system. He's running through. And so we got gashed in the run, pull the double teams off. Well, Junior, you know, who was kind of, we were in the system, he's running through. And so we got gashed in the run game. I mean, I think we won, we got gashed. And so now we got to go in Monday to Bill's office and we got to go through the tape and it was not pretty. It was not good. We had, it was a very long meeting.

I've got Junior Sayow, Teddy Bruski, myself, Bill killing us because we couldn't fit the runs, power. It's not zone. We practiced zone all week, you know, ready for the shanahan stretch. Thanks for listening. Remember to tune in every Tuesday for a brand new episode and every Sunday for another Games with Names highlight. Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation.

I'm also the girl behind voiceover, the movement that exploded in 2024. You might hear that term and think it's about celibacy, but to me, voiceover is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's flexible, it's customizable, and it's a personal process. Singleness is not a waiting room.

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