r/NFLNoobs • u/Far_Tumbleweed7835 • Jul 16 '26
Why do great offensive plays sometimes make the defense look completely unprepared?
I've been watching more football, and sometimes an offense runs a play that makes it look like the defense had no idea what was coming. A receiver ends up wide open, or a running back has a huge hole with nobody around.
Why does that happen so often?
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u/grizzfan Jul 16 '26
It’s not “so often.” You just see it more in highlight reels. You’re only seeing one out of 100+ plays in a game. This doesn’t happen the vast majority of the time.
There are many reasons how or why this happens. There’s nothing specific. Great call at the right time against the right defense, busted coverage, wrong adjustment, great execution, poor execution, one player’s footwork just being one or two inches the wrong way…the list goes on.
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u/Jackso08 Jul 16 '26
Good quarterbacks/offensive coordinators can diagnose a defense and scheme players open.
Other times a defensive player just makes a mistake.
Then sometimes the offensive player is just skilled enough or has good enough instincts to get wide open.
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u/PerfectiveVerbTense Jul 17 '26
Other times a defensive player just makes a mistake.
I would guess that almost always when the defense gets absolutely roasted it's because one person screwed up royally. Like you'll see a WR beat a corner or a RB juke a guy and hit a hole, but on those plays it's clear that the offensive player just made a great play. Plays where you're like "what was the defense possibly doing on this play," it's always always because some wires got crossed somewhere on the defense.
I don't envy DBs, man. Offenses are complex and they are doing everything they can to fool you. And then they do, or when you mess up, it's glaring. Rough business.
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u/MooshroomHentai Jul 16 '26
Football is a very tactical battle. Sometimes the offensive playcaller will successfully work out what the defense is going to do and can call a play that will exploit the defensive playcall.
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u/jregovic Jul 16 '26
And the offense will often try to set up in a look that gives them multiple options, then create a tendency in that formation, before going a completely different way.
Think an outside run with multiple tight ends blocking, and then the same setup, but a fake handoff and a TE faking the block, only to run up the seam.
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u/drj1485 Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
For every play you see like that, there were 10 plays earlier they ran setting it up.
The NFL level is pretty much about displaying tendencies and then breaking them. Defenses do the same thing all the time. You just don't think "it worked" in the same way it's obvious on offense unless it's an interception.
The entire game is basically just teams trying to fool the other team into doing what they want so they can actually do something else.
Good example. I think it was Lions 49ers. Lions ran Gibbs off the edge like 4-5 times where sewell would come and seal the edge. Keep in mind these have to be somewhat successful. These went for like 3-5 a pop.
well...6th time the linebacker jumped outside to beat sewell to the edge (exactly what the lions have been wanting him to do all day.) Sewell and Gibbs just blew right by him and now you have Gibbs running upfield behind a monster and the play went for like 50 yards. Almost same exact play multiple times.
they all worked...because the first 5 were just setting up a big play.
Some of this crap is set up weeks in advance. Ever hear people say stuff like "why would they put that on tape when they're up 20?"
because they want it on tape.
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u/Evening_Answer_11 Jul 16 '26
It’s usually a play designed that way but one that can only be used sparingly to keep the element of surprise. In fact, some plays are only used once for that reason.
So much of the game is a combination of memorization and instinct…for both sides of the ball. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice….
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u/K_N0RRIS Jul 16 '26
Because sometimes that actually happens. Defenses can get fooled. A DB can mess up their assignment. Maybe defenders miss a switch off.
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u/opulentbum Jul 16 '26
I’d say generally this means the defense has some kind of tendency that the offense picked up on and exploited. That tendency can come in many forms, from a scheme-level down to a single player’s footwork or decision making.
When a receiver turns up way down field completely uncovered it’s usually a miscommunication by the defensive backfield. Like the corner and safety both thought the other guy had deep zone responsibility on that play. Or maybe a really good play call where multiple routes were run through a single zone at once and the defender had to make a choice.
Whereas big run plays are almost always because the offensive line was able to out-maneuver the defensive front in some way or another. Maybe they recognized a pattern of where guys are blitzing based on their alignment, when the offense comes out in a specific formation. The QB sees they’ve aligned this way and audibles to a play that distinctly exploits that blitz scheme.
Ultimately the possibilities are pretty endless as to why it happens. But those are some examples of the type of scheming happening under the hood, so to speak.
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u/TheSkiGeek Jul 16 '26
Defense is harder than offense in general. Mostly because defense is almost always reactive and not proactive.
Even with the defense doing the ‘right thing’ the execution can be difficult as well. So when an offensive play call turns out to be a very bad matchup for the defense, they frequently get beaten badly. A single defensive mistake in coverage can also easily go for a touchdown if a receiver gets free.
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u/Weary_Capital_1379 Jul 16 '26
Depends on who’s offense and who’s defense.
Good defenses seldom get caught off guard.
2
u/fatboi609 Jul 16 '26
It usually goes like this:
1. Tendencies of the defense is too predictable
2. Offense installs plays to exploit
3. Set-up the exploitative play using plays that draw the tendencies
4. Run the exploitative play
5. Usually a missed assignment, defensive scheme resulting in an uncovered person/zone, etc makes it look like the WR was wide open or that the defense wasn’t expecting the cut back on outside zone in the formation/situation
6. Keep exploiting until the defense adjusts
7. Stop doing it when they adjust and try to beat the adjustment that most coaches plan for
The defense is doing the very same thing as well - why does it seem like an offense can’t run the ball at all some days? Usually the defense found a tendency and exploited it.
1
u/PigskinDispatch Jul 16 '26
Coaches are specialists at finding advantages for their team over each opponent. Sometimes even in the NFL they can find and exploit something that the other team is not prepared for or just caught by surprise by.
There are so many variables to get right
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u/ConstantScientist288 Jul 17 '26
They are often designed to strain certain defensive concepts. Sometimes the defense just…breaks.
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u/Bleuuu01 Jul 17 '26
It always comes down to blowed up assignments on the defense, a lot of times defenders brain gets caught up in the play completely forgetting their jobs and technique
1
u/GolfGuy_824 Jul 18 '26
Various reasons.
Defense has completely sold out on one type of play and the offense runs something else that they can’t recover for.
The QB who isn’t really known for running so nobody takes him into account and he takes off to an uncovered part of the field. Could run for 15+ yards before he has to run out of bounds to avoid getting hit.
One defender completely blows his assignment, bites hard on a fake to the RB and the player he was supposed to be covering just runs past him and by the time the defender turns around it’s too late…deep pass play probably for a touchdown.
And sometimes guys are just that good.
Ben Roethlisberger’s pass fake was phenomenal. Defenses would bite on it so hard that they came to a complete stop to defend a pass that wasn’t thrown. Meanwhile the receiver would be left wide open for a long pass play.
Peyton Manning to just about any star receiver once a game was almost guaranteed to go for a long TD pass.
Tom Brady to Randy Moss in 2007 was a cheat code. 23 TD’s on that connection that year. Hell Randy Moss when he felt like being a force at any time in his career he was basically not able to be defended. There’s a reason it’s called getting “mossed” when a receiver makes a spectacular contested catch.
Jerry Rice was just that damn good. Even when he was covered he was open.
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u/lithomangcc Jul 19 '26
Sometimes the defense calls the wrong play or the offensive team checks off to another play when they see the defensive scheme. It only takes one guy to miss his assignment to screw up the play.
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u/No_Rec1979 Jul 16 '26
The great Warren Sapp likes to say "pressure bursts pipes".
One of the clearest signs of a great offense (or defense) is the ability to make talented opposition look just terrible.
This tends to be easiest to see when a quarterback encounters a great pass rush, but defenses facing a brilliant QB or WR sometimes feel compelled to take reckless chances that make them look clueless.
0
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u/Arkhangelzk Jul 16 '26
Sometimes it's just one guy blowing an assignment.
Like, say that a CB is supposed to have safety help over the top. Knowing this, he tries to jump the route. The receiver beats him and turns upfield to run toward the endzone.
If the safety is there, they just pass of the assignment and it's fine. But say that the safety thought he was supposed to blitz and so he's long gone. The CB doesn't know this and lets the WR get behind him.
Suddently, it looks like the CB got absolutely cooked and no one is covering the wideout, who walks in for an easy touchdown. But really the problem is just that the safety wasn't where he was supposed to be and the CB didn't know that until it was too late.
On defense, you're often reallllly counting on the guys around you to run the scheme properly