Coaching Football Offense- How to Utilize Openers in your Offensive Game Plan

Offensive Scripting has been a round for a while and is a big part of game planning. The concept of scripting offensive plays came to the NFL with legendary 49ers head coach Bill Walsh. Walsh was a pioneer and one of the best minds in football. Entering each game, he would devise a 12- to 20-play script for his offense to follow. This was a very effective way to start a game, and helped the team in numerous ways. The fewer decisions to be made during the game, the better. It allowed him to isolate the first part of the game and help him come up with answers that would help him later in the game. Many great coordinators from Bruce Arians to Sean McVay to Kevin Stefanski all have a similar concept as it allows you to get a read on how teams will align to certain formations. That information would be used later in the game.

There is a misconception with scripting that you will call those 10 plays in order. That is not the case. Coaches have a list of plays that they come up with and choose from that list early in a game.

At the start of every game, Walsh would simply move down his list of plays until a specific situation came up that made him come of his script. Maybe a 3rd and 1 or 3rd and short situation arose, and he would deviate from it. Many coaches have a separate 3rd down call sheet for different situations. 3rd &1-2, 3rd & 3, 3rd & 4-6, 3rd & 7-9, 3rd & 10+ are the situations at the NFL Level.

The way it works is coaches would game plan and go through their list of plays for the week. They would choose a handful of run plays, pass plays and narrow it down to maybe 10 run and 10 pass with a few deep plays to beat teams over the top. They will also incorporate certain formations, shifts and motions into the script.

In today’s analytical world, you script for some of the following reasons:

1. Get some players involved early. Get some playmakers involved in the game and get the ball in their hands.

2. Get as many tendency reports early. Most importantly, find out how they will align and defend certain personnel packages and formations. Try to get a handle on what the defense will be running and adjusting to both front and coverage wise.

3. Find out their substitution patterns vs 10, 11, 12, 22 and other formations if you utilize them.

4. You get good at those plays and you practice them in your opener segment daily. Players get confidence in them and it can often lead to success early on in a game.

5. Ensure that what you saw the last few weeks holds up on the field. Are they doing something drastically different?

6. Set up a play for later use. Maybe you have a play action pass you want to run off a certain run action. You will set that play up and make sure the defense is in that coverage.

7. Evaluate how they will align to the following:
   -condensed sets

   -3x1 bunch or trops

   -stack formations

   -empty sets

   -unbalanced sets

   -certain motions; fast, cheetah, escort, jet, zip

8. See how your opponent will align to formation to the boundary

9. Attack weaknesses that you saw on film and in previous weeks

The preparation process that goes into it can’t be overlooked. It takes a group effort to come up with the script and you should do it for certain reasons.

Things you need to consider when scripting:

1. Understand the tendencies of your opponent’s coordinator. At the NFL Level, so many guys have coached against each other for years so getting 5-6 games against them isn’t hard. How do they handle your style of offense. Is your qb mobile? See how they play certain teams with a similar makeup if possible.

2. Self scout to determine your tendencies. Were you run-run, pass-run, what did you call after a completion or incompletion. There is so much data out there to get this information. You need to have some plays that break your tendencies early in a game. Maybe on 2nd and 4 you ran the same play 2 weeks in a row, make sure you run something different on that down.

3. Be ready for any wrinkles that may be thrown at you during the game. Be prepared to handle a new look thrown your way.

All in all, using openers have a great advantage in preparing for an opponent. It gets your players confident in those plays, but also gives you answers for how your opponent may align to certain formations. But, that being said, don’t be afraid to get off your script should you feel the need in a game.

I hope you enjoyed this article and thanks for reading it!