For the most part, a QB isn’t calling the plays. There is a radio receiver in his helmet and the plays are called by the coaches (usually the offensive coordinator) on the sideline. The QB then relays the call to the rest of the players in the huddle.
But good quarterbacks often call an “audible” as they approach the line of scrimmage or when seeing what the defense is doing. They relay that to the rest of the offense via verbal signals that change the original play or point out advantageous matchups that can be exploited.
Also, during a passing play the QB has a series of receiver options, usually in ranked order, that he goes through and must decide which he will throw to. You’ll often hear about a “check down” where a short throw goes to a relatively safe open receiver near the line of scrimmage. The QB is making split second decisions about who’s open and where the defenders are before deciding who to throw to or to just throw it away.
I meant “play” in the sense of the linked, discrete events leading up to the desired conclusion (I take it “play” means something else in the US).
How much autonomy does the QB have in making decisions?. From what I can see, he will need to do much more on-field decision making than the equivalents in soccer or even rugby.
Your assessment is spot on. The QB is probably the most important player on any team sport. If you have a great QB, you can overcome a lot of other weaknesses. If you have a crap QB, you will have difficulty winning regardless of how good the rest of the team is.
Take a look at the Indianapolis Colts from 2010 to 2012. Peyton Manning had been their QB for several years and was widely regarded as one of the best ever. In 2010 the Colts’ record was 10-6. The following year, Peyton was hurt and missed the whole season. Very little changed other than the QB, but their record in 2011 was 2-14. Then, they acquired through the draft Andrew Luck, considered to be one of the top QB prospects since Manning, himself. In 2012, he leads basically the same squad as 2010 and 2011 to a record of 11-5.
In football, a “play” is defined as the time between the ball is snapped until the ball carrier is tackled, goes out of bounds, scores, or an incomplete pass is made. At that point the ball is dead, and everyone resets & prepares for the next play. A series of plays can be called a drive, usually if it lasts for a while and results in a score, hence the name of the video.
Some QBs do indeed call their own plays. Helmet radios were not in use in 1987, so plays were either signalled in, a player entering the game brought the play with him (it’s common in football to change out a few players between every single play), or the QB called the plays himself. But yes, QBs can and do change the play right before it starts if it looks like the defense is ready for what they’re planning.
It’s fairly rare in the current NFL for a QB to call his own plays (whereas, a generation ago, it was fairly common). In nearly every case, the offensive coordinator, or the head coach, uses the radio to send in each called play. Experienced QBs, in whom their coaches have a great deal of trust (such as Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, or, before his retirement, Peyton Manning) will be given more leeway to make their own decisions, but the general approach is “the coaches call the play, and the QB runs what the coaches call.”
That said, the called plays will often contain options, based on what the QB (and his fellow offensive players, particularly the receivers) see that the defense is doing, before the ball is snapped. The key in this sort of situation is that everyone needs to see the same thing, and make the same adjustment to the play – for example, a receiver might be expected to run a certain type of route if the defense is doing A, but a different route if the defense is doing B.
If you see a QB’s throw wind up nowhere near a receiver, what has often happened is that the QB has seen one thing in the defense, and assumes that the receiver will run a particular route, but the receiver saw something different, and didn’t run the route that the QB expected.
Even more so if your other players happen to complement your quarterback well. Villanova U, for instance, is usually pretty lackluster in football, but there was one magical year of overlap between having a strong passing quarterback and an excellent receiver, and the pair of them managed to take us some ways into the playoffs.
And you had to go and mention The Drive. <grumble grumble>
EDIT: Oh, and the pitcher in baseball just might have the same degree of importance as the quarterback in football, but certainly the QB is pretty important.
The pitcher only plays every 5th game, the QB is there for half the snaps of every game. A really good goalie in hockey can take a team to a championship (see the 2011 Bruins) if he peaks at the right time.
Well, any particular (starting) pitcher is only there for every fifth game, at least. So, one particular star pitcher (be he a starter or reliever) still only impacts a minority of his team’s play, but the role of the pitcher, in general, is a very large one.
What was the defending side trying to do in the linked video? They don’t seem to try and counter attack, they just seem to try and stop the advance. Which to my completely gridiron illiterate brain seems dumb, the Quarterback seems to have an instinctive knack for making good passes.Or can a team who does not have possession not score? Or was it tactics?
The defending team (the Browns) were protecting a seven-point lead, and the offensive team (the Broncos) got the ball with 5:32 left in the game. The only bad outcome for the Browns would have been giving up a touchdown; any other result (giving up a field goal, forcing Denver to turn the ball over) would likely have sealed a win for the Browns.
Defenses in that sort of situation often employ what is referred to as a “prevent” defense (a term that’s widely hated by fans) – you’re willing to give up shorter gains, while focusing on doing what you can to not give up a big, game-changing play. It’s generally considered to be a conservative approach, and when it fails, fans feel that the defense was too passive.
Yes, another approach would be to aggressively try to force a turnover (via interception or fumble), but that approach is a “high risk / high reward” strategy, as, in focusing on turnovers, defenders can open themselves up to letting the ballcarrier loose for a bigger gain. Typically, teams only get that aggressive on defense when they’re losing, late in the game, and are desperate to get the ball back.
Also, the Broncos quarterback, John Elway, was one of the NFL’s greatest QBs. He was at the height of his abilities in 1987, and The Drive is considered to be one of the all-time virtuoso performances by a QB.
In general, there are only two ways that a team on defense can directly score during a play:
Forcing a turnover (a fumble or interception), and then bringing the ball all the way into the end zone for a touchdown. If the defensive team forces a turnover, but the defender with the ball isn’t able to score, the play ends, and that team will then put their offense on the field.
Scoring a safety (usually, by tackling the opposing ball carrier in his own end zone), which gives the defensive team two points.
Thanks. In the video, this Elway person seems to be in total control and dominated and dictated the gameplay throughout the near 10 minutes of the “drive”. In soccer and rugby, no one would be permitted to dictate gameplay for so long, the opposition would start to foul them.
I had thought the reason for this could be
i) The nature of the sport
ii) The conservative play of the defending side
iii) The skills of the player in question.
From your post, it seems a mixture of all three.
I will say this, class is class; even when you don’t really understand a sport and its intricacies, you can still see and appreciate such a skilled player.
One of the assumptions behind “prevent” defense play is that, as the offensive team gets closer and closer to the defending team’s goal, the chance to complete a pass becomes less, since the space into which receivers can run is smaller. So as the ball advances, the defense perforce stiffens, and the expected result is either a field goal, or a turn over on downs (when the offensive team cannot afford to try the field goal because it won’t be enough to win or extend the game).
It should also be noted that quarterbacks don’t always manage to complete all their passes during late-game drives. If you miss one or two of them, you can end your game quite suddenly. In 1987, the NFL was still adapting to the passing-first philosophy introduced by (among other teams) the 49ers early in the decade, and most quarterbacks failed at the attempt to complete such drives. So much so that the ability of quarterbacks like Elway and Montana to successfully complete such efforts was the stuff of legend. (Says the Bengals fan who still remembers thinking that the decision to set up a field goal in Super Bowl XXIII to go ahead was stupid, giving Montana all the time he needed to win :mad: ).
A great QB doesn’t guarantee a great team but a team with a lousy QB is almost guaranteed to be bad. He’s easily the most important player on any given team and usually the highest-paid.
This year, the only team to get to the playoffs without a good QB was Houston. They have a really good defense to compensate and were in a weak division so were the best of a bad bunch and managed to make it in basically by default.
They even got to the second round of the playoffs… Because their opponent’s QB was hurt and had to use a backup.
OK, I (who have been watching football for 50+ years) too have a question. This occurred to me when someone, I forget who, scored a safety in the playoffs.
When the team giving up the safety has to kick the ball to the other team, can they try an onside kick? This is a “free kick,” right?
In addition, the free kick after a safety is done as a punt, rather than a placekick. A punter may not have the same level of control on the kick location that a placekicker would (due to the extra variable of having to drop the ball). In addition, the free kick is a pretty rare play (only 20 safeties were scored across the NFL last season), and so, the opportunity / need for an “onside free kick” is also very rare. Thus, it’s a play that most teams wouldn’t bother to spend time practicing.
Wow. I had no idea that this sort of onside kick existed. Looking that up also led me to this 71-yard free kick field goal attempt which I didn’t know existed either.
Note to the OP: this is getting into quite esoteric rules. You don’t need to know this. In fact, I doubt 1 or 2% of American football fans know this, and I might be generous there.
I knew about the “free kick for a field goal after a fair catch” rule, but then, I’m an NFL nerd, and a kicking-game nerd in particular. Yes, it’s an incredibly rare play.
This is correct, and it’s because the rules for punts are different from the rules for free kicks. On a punt, once the punter has kicked the ball, the kicking team may not recover the ball unless and until the receiving team has touched it.
