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How many defensive plays would be typical?

Often, I see the D looking to the sideline and then the presnap lineup is the same as always.  I realize they are getting coverages which don't happen until post snap.

I figure an overly complicated defense can lead to missed assignments.

We got a couple of bird feeders for the back patio this year. 

Hummingbirds are assholes. 

We had three hummers at our house in Cincy.  I THINK they were related as they would rarely fight each other, they'd usually take turns.  I would often sit with a book near their feeder and they didn't much like me, they'd hover 5 feet away as if I was supposed to move.  The finally got used to me and ignored me.

The wife was hoping to attract some here but I didn't know if they'd get up this high, but one has found her flowers.  One is a bright red large flower the hummer seems to like, I forget the name of the plant, something tropical as it has to come in in winter.  Hibiscus is what it is.  My brain isn't quite a dead as I thought.



She also has a plumeria from Hawaii that is growing nicely, but small flowers.

the type of QB Frost wants

he and the stogie smoking QB guru call them, "quick blinkers"

So anyway, less remains more. Your base is your best plays, not your most tired. And if your vanilla is ineffective, that should be more concerning than less.

Thanks for the opus, BAB. I enjoyed that. And the closer, I think, is what fans are getting at when they complain -- not whether the base is often called but whether the base is any good. 

[Edit]

Ah! there are two more aspects I'd like to see you touch upon: timing of play calls (in which ways it matters) and pattern-breaking.

Thanks for the opus, BAB. I enjoyed that. And the closer, I think, is what fans are getting at when they complain -- not whether the base is often called but whether the base is any good.

I thought this was also well discussed in the Smartfootball post... 

Basically they say that the idea of going to constraint plays is what you do when the defense is cheating to take your base away.

However, if the other team is just better than you, and they can beat your base offense with base defense, well then constraint plays aren't going to help. It'll beat those too. 

Your base "not being any good" could be due to a lot of reasons...

At the college level, a big one isn't even offensive design but practice time and execution. I consider this to be a lot of the problem with the Purdue team under Hazell/Shoop. Shoop had an incredibly complex playbook. Maybe it was even really good. But I think most of the reason the offense sucked was not because his offensive concepts were faulty, but because the playbook was too complex and the team couldn't adequately practice it enough to make it automatic. You don't need to worry about the defense beating you if you can't even execute it yourself.

This was one of the big things that Leach did. He simplified everything. He would often teach his receivers their route trees only from the left side of the offense or the right side. Yeah, it led to less misdirection, but it made sure they made effective use of practice. It was one of the big things that Chip Kelly did. The "hurry up" offensive pace meant that they could get more actual play reps in during active practice hours than other teams. It then had a benefit on game day too, but it was a very simple offense executed well because it could be practiced more thoroughly in limited hours than others.

The Badgers get this. They have an identity. They are going to run the ball down your throat until you stop it. It's not a complicated offense. It's mostly the same concepts. But it's well-practiced and well-executed. And outside of a handful of helmet teams, NOBODY can stop it without loading the box and selling out against the run. They don't want or care about throwing the ball, but once a team starts selling out against the run, they'll burn you with the pass. It's one of the perfect teams IMHO to show the base/constraint interplay. 

Ah, another thing I'd like to cover:

Putting a defender in conflict -- acknowledging when a defender's responsibilities cannot be simultaneously performed, then make him pick one which can often mean make him pick incorrectly.