Merged: Insight into Sparano's more aggressive approach

[Vaark]

I too am concerned that he's gonna revert back to his "default" in crunch time unless he gets early behavior-altering positive reinforcement early on. I was alway in his corner, writing off his on field poor decision making as part of the learning experience. However for me the gild was off the lily when he bullheadedly defended Henning's anachronistic play design as sound, instead throwing his players under the bus for poor execution.

 

[jfleag61]

If you're an aggressive coach, people will already know you're aggressive. It isn't something you can hide.

Agreed...teams watch tape, so it doesn't take too many weeks into the season to see you have changed your style.

 

[Penthos]

Wow, for most of the entire offseason I read post after post of people bitching and moaning that our offense was too conservative, too slow, and that Sparano would NEVER CHANGE his is 3 yards and a cloud of dust philosophy. "Wanny 2.0" they said, and it would never change...

Now, after basically admitting in the paper that Parcells had his hands tied, after getting a new offensive coordinator who promised to be more agressive, after two preseason games which clearly showcased a more agressive offensive mentality, it's CLEAR Sparano has done EXACTLY what we all had hoped he would.

Yet, all this has done NOTHING to change the fact that HATERS on this site will always HATE. Its football, it's a game. You should be rejoicing instead of trying to find every excuse under the sun to be bitter and miserable. Just enjoy the fracking games instead of acting like a bunch of spoiled, petulant children whining because they didn't get a pony.

 

[jtoomuch]

I get your point, but Sean Payton opening the second half of the Superbowl with an onside kick was pretty crazy, too. You know, if it works it was a good idea.

I just hope this doesn't make him go coo-coo bananas on the field and do crazy things like go for 4th and 10s on our end of the field and whatnot. He needs to find the right balance. Being over-aggressive can really bite you in the arse - just ask Bill Belicheat when he went for it on 4th down against the colts on primetime TV and blew the game. Or even in the Superbowl in '08, when he went for it on 4th down AGAIN, when he could have easily went for a moderate difficulty field goal. It'd have been a 17-17 game!

Here's to many TD fist pumps in 2011!

 

[dcnr226]

I just think its great that we are getting to the point where or biggest problem on offense is Henne over throwing his receivers who are OPEN down field. Hartline, Moore, Gates..all have consistently pulled away from coverage

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[BlueFin]

The game really changed years ago, not last season...he's a little late to the party. What is a shame is it took the owner threatening his job to get him to wake up.

But we will see, they did it how they wanted too, stuck with the same quarterback, so the results fall squarely on their shoulders.

It seems he is now throwing all the blame on Parcells, but as I recall Parcells stepped down before last season started, and before that wasn't around much anyway.

So, Sparano could have gotten more aggressive last year if he had chosen too. Whats more troubling is the bumbling way he has not gotten a cohesive line accomplished in what is now going into his 4th season (Even though Jake Long and Vernon Carey were dropped into his lap). To many misses on player evaluation for a guy supposed to be an O-line guru.

 

[Wildbill3]

Not for nothin, but we heard this song and dance last year

honestly no we didn't. and even if they did say something about "opening it up" even in camp we were hearing things like... "I dont' worry about the other teams QB hurting us, I worry about our QB hurting us". We all knew it was going to be a slow proding offense last year. :rolleyes2:

 

[BigJP]

Tony's doing what good coaches do accepting the blame, throwing pride out the window and evolving. My hats off to the coach its not easy to change what you have been doing for yrs. especially when you truly believe thats how you win games in the nfl. To me that was Wanny and jimmy johnsons biggest problems not wanting to admit that type of gameplan wasnt cutting it anymore.

 

[BlueFin]

Tony's doing what good coaches do accepting the blame, throwing pride out the window and evolving. My hats off to the coach its not easy to change what you have been doing for yrs. especially when you truly believe thats how you win games in the nfl. To me that was Wanny and jimmy johnsons biggest problems not wanting to admit that type of gameplan wasnt cutting it anymore.

You must have missed the part where be blamed it on the guys he used to work for (before last season).

 

[ChambersWI]

honestly, the whole Harbaugh situation might end up being the best thing to ever happen to Sparano. It made him realize that he is not safe and he had to make huge changes if he wanted to remain a head coach in the league.

PLus, maybe I'm crazy, but I don't think Sparano's game planning was that poor. Now in game adjustments could be rough after the scripted plays were all called, and hopefully that changes this year.

 

[dolphone]

I've been as hard on Sparano as anybody.... but it's extremely difficult to change your philosophy as a coach, especially when that's all you know. You'll change a lot of things, but changing your philosophy requires changing what you believe in. It requires changing what you believe works and doesn't work.

You HAVE to adapt and change as a coach to last, there's no way around it. Shula had to... Bear Bryant had to... they've all had to do it at some point, or they'll get somebody who will.


Sparano has to buy into the philosophy more than any player does. Sparano has to find a way to score more points in order to leave himself more of a margin for error. Sh*t gets tight in this league... and you need all the buffer you can get.

Don't think that Sparano is the only coach that's ever had to look himself in the mirror and realize that sticking his toe into something that's unfamiliar to him is his only chance at survival, it's not the case.

The problem for Sparano is that his area of "expertise", and/or trade as a coach isn't something that he can fall back on when things get going in the wrong direction. If you're a master playcaller, or can coach and develope quarterbacks in this league, it provides you a lot more of that buffer I'm talking about rather than just being an ol' line coach by trade. Sparano is the type of coach that has to rely more on his staff and those around him to fix things, and especially when things are going wrong at the most important position on the field. I'm willing to be Mike Nolan knows exactly what I'm talking about, and how Sparano feels.

This worries me. More aggresive playcalling, particularly with a QB like Henne, will translate into more turnovers.

What happens when (if) Henne throws a pick-6 to kill a game, or throws 5 INTs in a game? Do you go back to "safety"? Or do you push forward, accept that things like that are going to happen from time to time, and move on?

For reference, there's the Green Bay Packers and Brett Favre. Before his MVPs and Superbowl, there were these stats:

W/L Att Cmp Yds TD INT
8-5 302 471 3227 18 13
9-7 318 522 3303 19 24
9-7 363 582 3882 33 14

Obviously that 3rd season is very impressive, but on the way there there was the 1993 season, where Favre threw a bunch of INTs and his completion percentage decreased dramatically, from 64.1 in '92 to 60.9. That INT% is the 3rd highest in his career, below 2005 and his awful 2010 season.

The important thing is that Holmgren stuck to his guns, and eventually things got better. Favre bounced back from 3-INT (KC, CHI) and even 4-INT games (DET) to have good games (the tour-de-force he put on the Lions right after the W17 debacle was the most impressive), but it never would've happened if Holmgren panicked and sent him to the bench - or worse, changed his playcalling, effectively neutering his QB. I just hope Sparano has the same fortitude to hold firm.

 

[Miami1]

Its good to see him admit it and attempt to change the offense. Problem is, like some people said above, in crunchtime, his gut and 1st instinct will tell him to be conservative. Other problem is, when the fans realize it before the head coach does, thats a big problem! This also proves in my opinion, being Tony and Jeff were pawns of Parcells...That Bill was still living in the late 80's - early 90's with his vision of building a football team.


I hope Tony allows the offense to really open up this year, and does what he is promising. The only way Henne will be able to grow as a QB, is if you throw him in the fire and put the pressure on him to lead some scoring drives, 2 minute offenses, etc.

 

[zach attach]

Fianlly an admission! Now we can move forward and correct ur behavior from last year. Good luck Tony, and one more thing. We're watching..(Enter ominous music here)

 

[Canadianfishfan]

To be quite honest.. Sparano has made the necessary changed in each year he's faced it. He's changed the DC last year, the OC this year. Like the guy does see the light. I just don't think anyone predicted we'd be a 7-9 team, especially when Ross wants a winning "product" on the field to fill seats.

Sparano isn't eloquent. he isn't the flashy sexy name, but the guy has cut ties with his buddies in order to deliver. He's coached up the crap talent that Ireland gives him.

I bet if we go 8-8 this year Sparano stays.

 

[BlueFin]

This worries me. More aggresive playcalling, particularly with a QB like Henne, will translate into more turnovers.

What happens when (if) Henne throws a pick-6 to kill a game, or throws 5 INTs in a game? Do you go back to "safety"? Or do you push forward, accept that things like that are going to happen from time to time, and move on?

For reference, there's the Green Bay Packers and Brett Favre. Before his MVPs and Superbowl, there were these stats:

W/L Att Cmp Yds TD INT
8-5 302 471 3227 18 13
9-7 318 522 3303 19 24
9-7 363 582 3882 33 14

Obviously that 3rd season is very impressive, but on the way there there was the 1993 season, where Favre threw a bunch of INTs and his completion percentage decreased dramatically, from 64.1 in '92 to 60.9. That INT% is the 3rd highest in his career, below 2005 and his awful 2010 season.

The important thing is that Holmgren stuck to his guns, and eventually things got better. Favre bounced back from 3-INT (KC, CHI) and even 4-INT games (DET) to have good games (the tour-de-force he put on the Lions right after the W17 debacle was the most impressive), but it never would've happened if Holmgren panicked and sent him to the bench - or worse, changed his playcalling, effectively neutering his QB. I just hope Sparano has the same fortitude to hold firm.

It depends on the consistency, if the guy consistently doesn't get it done, you have to change quarterbacks.

The best QB's throw a pic now and then, but they don't throw more interceptions than touchdowns.....as Chad has done. That is where he has to improve, he has to make the plays that win games, not lose them.