Week 6: A Closer Look With Mark Miller

This past weekend I witnessed two games that involved one team getting out to a fast start only to have the other team come back and win, at times even dominating. Friday night our radio game was Jackson at Perry. The Panthers looked good early with typical Perry ball control offense that staked them to a lead. However, Jackson found their rhythm and had great several drives of their own to eventually win the game. On Sunday I watched the Browns where again their first drive was picture perfect. After that,
not so good as they struggled to move the ball and score consistently – they went on and lost the game. Why is it teams look like they have it figured out early and then they struggle mightily to have the same success the rest of the game? I have been a part of teams that have had the same problem and as a result have given it a lot of thought. As with most tough questions, the answer is not just one thing but many that can cause a team to start off great and then tank.

I think the biggest answer is that some teams make adjustments during the game that turn their fortunes around and other teams don’t adjust as well. You will see many coaches make adjustments at halftime and the team you see in the second half doesn’t even resemble the team you saw it the first half. Other coaches are even better and can adjust in the midst of a game. Many veteran, successful coaches have learned to do that. It sure helps to have good assistant coaches, especially the guys in the
press box. They can see “the big picture” from up high and relay information to the head coach or coordinators on the field so they can instruct the players to do things differently than they may have practiced all week.

Another reason may be the better team is shocked into playing harder when they fall behind early. Penalties, turnovers and mistakes in general can thwart a team’s early success and once they fix those problems they play better. Some underdogs come up with a great gameplan that allows them early success but eventually the better team catches on. For example, I was helping coach high school football in 1999. We were preparing to play the best team in the league that played man-to-man defense all the time. They had two big, fast corners that could cover the wide outs and they blitzed everyone else – they were really good! During the week I devised two trick plays that were designed to work vs. man coverage. The first play of the game went for an 84 yard TD. We got the ball back on a fumble and our 2 nd play went for a 51 yard TD. We were up 14-0 over our archrival. Our fans, players and coaches were giddy with excitement. I went over to the head coach and said, “The bag of tricks is
empty”. We lost 52-14. So you see, many different things can cause what many people call “momentum” to change. Lou Holtz says there is no such thing as momentum – it is attitude that allows for success, or failure, to continue, not momentum.

This Friday we have another game that will go a long way towards determining the Federal League Champ for this year – Hoover at McKinley. Talk to you again soon.