PokerSteve Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 Let's talk about situational football. How do you handle a situation in which your decision must come in seconds, and must encompass all the myriad pertinent details of the moment ~ down, distance, time on the clock, time outs remaining, and maybe more ~ and of course it must be the right decision or you lose the game, the season, the playoffs, maybe even the Super Bowl. This is based off an article in The Athletic that has a great deal of merit. It's about the obsession Philadelphia Eagles HC Nick Sirianni has about situational football. To make sure his team makes the right decision in these critical moments, he holds Situational Meetings. These meetings include all the coaches and players. Sirianni will ask a coach or a player what they would do in a certain situation with a specific set of circumstances. They only have a few seconds to respond. The pressure isn't quite at the level of making that same decision during a game, but its nonetheless very intense. "It's honestly one of the most stressful parts of the week," says Eagles DC Jonathan Gannon of the Situational Meetings held on Saturdays. He's talking about Sirianni's habit of using the Socratic Method ~ learning through a dialogue between teacher and students. He will randomly put his coaches, or players, on the spot with a tough question. There's no data to review or time to vacillate. There is also another form of these situational awareness drills during their Wednesday Walkthrough, making sure everybody knows what they need to do in different moments when the focus must be on executing the right move, not deciding what the right move is. I'm sure the Falcons and all teams discuss critical situations for all the obvious fourth down situations for both offense and defense, but I'm not sure any team devotes the time and attention to all the myriad crucial situations that can come up in a game like Sirianni, his coaches and players. Up to this point in Smith's maturation as HC, he's primarily been trying to get the bigger details right. Bringing in the right guys, getting the offense geared more toward the run game than the pass game. Now going into year three, is this the right time for Smith and his coaches to start emphasizing the smaller details? Or do you think Smith and his staff are already doing much the same thing? Are there specific instances where it didn't appear we were ready with the right play in a big moment this past season, or did Smith and DC Pees mostly get things right in clutch moments? Your thoughts and comments are welcomed. https://theathletic.com/4174415/2023/02/10/eagles-super-bowl-nick-sirianni-situational-meetings/?source=weeklyemail&campaign=602288 Killing Floor, Falcons_Frenzy and SwampyMux12 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwampyMux12 Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 Interesting... Knowing your players will not do dumb things in big moments is a big part of the equation. How many times have we seen (not only our team, but all around the league) one dumb play losing a game. Look no further than the AFC championship game. The Bengals LB hits Mahomes out of bounds and sets up an easy GW fg. Without that play, maybe it goes to OT? kiwifalcon and PokerSteve 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PokerSteve Posted February 14 Author Share Posted February 14 6 hours ago, SwampyMux12 said: Interesting... Knowing your players will not do dumb things in big moments is a big part of the equation. How many times have we seen (not only our team, but all around the league) one dumb play losing a game. Look no further than the AFC championship game. The Bengals LB hits Mahomes out of bounds and sets up an easy GW fg. Without that play, maybe it goes to OT? Exactly, and basically the same thing played out in the SB ~ final moments of the game, 35-35. Looks like Chiefs are going to get a FG and Eagles will have time to answer. Then Bradberry gets a little grabby on Smith-Schuster. At that point in the game, many were calling for the refs to just stay out of it, but they made the call. Game Chiefs. Not saying the Eagles would've tied or won the game with no penalty, but they would've had a chance. The penalty also effectively crushed Sirianni's dream of his coaches and players being mentally prepared to make the right decision in critical moments as the article above talked about. Bradberry's penalty crossed the line between aggressive and stupid. If he'd kept the Sirianni Creed uppermost in his mind, I don't think he would've crossed that fatal line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
autigerfan Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 I think it is a great excercise that should help improve decision making and overall decisiveness. It's always easy for fans and the media to split hairs and dissect calls that go wrong. Sometimes you make the right decision but get a bad outcome. Such is life. PokerSteve 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Falcons_Frenzy Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 Sounds like a pretty good exercise honestly. However I want to have some fun with it so here goes nothing. I guess he should of asked them if they would defend a play that burned them once for a TD differently. Oh wait. The answer was no lol. He probably should ask them if they would risk getting a penalty away from the play that would all but seal their loss in the Super Bowl. This was a yes. Maybe ask Hurts if he could throw the ball farther on the final play would he? Got to believe this is a yes. PokerSteve 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killing Floor Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 On 2/12/2023 at 10:21 AM, PokerSteve said: do you think Smith and his staff are already doing much the same thing? Are there specific instances where it didn't appear we were ready with the right play in a big moment this past season The Butt Pass occurred game 10. The quarterback change occurred game 14. 1 score game, past 2 minute warning, Edwards is the target in the end zone. Kyle Pitts was the highest drafted receiver/TE, used primarily as a blocker in the pass game. Swayzee and PokerSteve 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PokerSteve Posted February 17 Author Share Posted February 17 3 hours ago, Killing Floor said: The Butt Pass occurred game 10. The quarterback change occurred game 14. 1 score game, past 2 minute warning, Edwards is the target in the end zone. Kyle Pitts was the highest drafted receiver/TE, used primarily as a blocker in the pass game. This is among the worst mistakes of Smith's HC tenure. I know Mariota couldn't pass, but basically putting Pitts in as a blocker and just leaving him there seemed almost punitive. It certainly further constrained the offense's already limited fire power. Did the press ever ask him about Pitts being re-tasked as a blocker? I don't seem to recall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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