Normally I package the highlights of the transcripts into one post, but today there was a specific nugget in OC Kevin Gilbride’s presser today that I wanted to highlight individually… his so-called scripting of the play calls in the first quarter of each game.
Check out the “bombshell” after the jump…
OC Kevin Gilbride
"Q: Could you talk about how you’ve been unable to score a touchdown on the first drive lately and haven’t scored a touchdown in the first half in the last three games? Is that frustrating? Is there a common thread there?A: No. In a word, no, but a couple of things have happened. One, we’ve started games – five of them have been with turnovers and that obviously diminishes your chances to score, but if you look at six of them, we’ve come back to score on the next drive, so part of it is – whether we’re too hyped up, we made a mistakes, turned the ball over, maybe didn’t anticipate one thing they did defensively. Certainly you want to score, that’s the obvious objective, but secondly, how much information can I can glean from what we’re showing because we’re going to use a lot of different things to try to find out or get a sense of how they’re going to try to defend this personnel grouping, this formation and then that serves us pretty well down the road and it’s been pretty beneficial. Certainly the number one objective is to score a touchdown, but certainly a very important part is to try to get a sense of what they’re doing defensively, schematically, and then be able to adjust and do the things necessary to win and score some points and we’ve been pretty good at that.Q: Do you normally script your first few plays?A: Yeah.Q: How many usually?A: 15 is usually the starting point and then we’ll pull off of it if I’ve accomplished what we needed to see – we’ll pull off and adjust immediately. Sometimes I get a feel. Seattle for example, we got a sense right away what they were doing so we pulled off right after the fumble with Kevin, but came back to score four or five touchdowns in a row after that.Q: So those 15 plays are to see the defenses?A: That has always been an objective and most coaches – you try to score a touchdown, there’s no question that’s an objective, but you’re also trying to gather as much information so you can make the necessary adjustments so that you can score enough points to win the game."
Now, we all have surmized over the years that the Giants, er Gilbride, has had a game plan he’s developed – and if all goes according to plan things usually turn out fine. Even great sometimes, like the Seattle game – which in fact he brings up in this particular presser today. But when things DON’T go right, is it ok to simply throw out a set amount of plays knowing that you’re just getting a feel for the defense and their game plan? For adjustments’ sake, I understand the philosophy.
But in actuallity, we know there has been an overwhelming lack of adjustment from the Giants offense in the past, under Gilbride, that has been so apparent throughout games in the past – and frankly I have a hard time accepting the philosophy on all fronts.
It gets into coaching philosophy no matter what, but leave a comment and let me know where you stand on it. To me it’s the lack of execution as it relates to tossing out scripted plays knowing they may not be effective that gets my goat on this.
[The Full Transcript is here at Giants.com]