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Tempo new priority in practice
Jeff Walcoff, Staff Writer
08.03.2007
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There have been a couple new features of Browns training camp practices in 2007 thanks to an ambitious coaching style on the part of the team's new offense.

At the edge of the practice field each day is a play clock, just as you would see during a live contest. Meanwhile on the sidelines, quarterbacks coach Rip Scherer dons a headset -- something a coach would normally only use during an actual game.

They're both installations of new offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski. His idea is to prepare the team best for its upcoming season by bringing as many aspects of the game to the practice field as possible.

In this case, rather than simply informing his quarterback of the play, he tells it to Scherer, who relays it through his headset into the quarterback's helmet speaker. Then, the offense is given a limited time to get off the play.

"If you don't work on these types of things, then when you get into a game the clock owns you and it affects how guys think under pressure," Chudzinski said. "So it's just something to try and acclimatize them for those sorts of situations."

The team, especially the quarterbacks, has welcomed the change. While they're now challenged during practice far more than usual, they know they'll be better off come the season if they get used to game tempo now.

"We're trying to get up on the ball, get the play off and get to the line of scrimmage with as much time as we can to shift and motion and confuse the defense," quarterback Derek Anderson said. "They've got 14 seconds on the clock for us now. When we get into the game and we have a real play clock it'll seem like a lot longer for us hopefully."

It's especially important to take part in this exercise because of the large amount of pre-snap reads and movement made in Chudzinski's offense. The offense moves players around before the snap to create mismatches and confuse the defense.

"It keeps the defense guessing because they can't say, 'In this formation they're going to run this play,'" offensive lineman Lennie Friedman said. "It keeps them guessing."

But more pre-snap movement means more time needed at the line to make those moves. And more time needed means everything needs to be quicker -- from the relaying of the play to the quarterback to the breaking of the huddle to getting set at the line.

To prepare for this, it's logical that timing and tempo would be integrated into practice simply to get the players used to the pace needed to get these things done.

"We're trying to get to the line so we can get our calls out and have the defense set on us instead of giving them all day to do it," Friedman said. "You have to be on top of your game and know your plays and not have any doubt so when you get up there you're prepared."

Tight end Steve Heiden explained the eventual benefits.

"It tires down the defense and wears them out," he said."When you get in the rhythm of the game you can definitely tell they are a little more tired than we are. The speeding up of everything is going to help the consistencies and the atmosphere of the huddle."

Even beyond simply preparing for running the new offense, the clock and headset communication are part of an effort to increase the tempo of practice so it's upbeat, fast-paced, and more efficient.

"Chud has brought an up-tempo game," Heiden said. "That's what camp is all about and it's going to help us down the road."

In the end, Chudzinski, head coach Romeo Crennel, and the rest of the club hope it translates to better, more efficient workouts, better concentration, and, eventually, better results on the field.

"The whole idea of practice is to make things as much like the game as you can get them," Chudzinski said. "This is more like a game condition than a leisurely pace. The effort is to try to make it like a game-like situation in terms of the communication that needs to happen."



I have to say I'm shocked this hasn't been a part of the regimen all along in every camp with every team. With as many problems as we've had with the game clock in the past, this is definitely a welcome addition. Also, I like what I'm hearing about all the shifting... we might be able to force the defenses into more man-coverage and get them out of their zones.... I would think that should soften things up a little.

I listened to Anderson talk about this in his interview posted on the main board.

I was thinking this might force teams into more zones, which is ideal with guys like Winslow and Joe J, roaming over the middle into soft spots.

'Bout time.


I for one, am sick of seeing stupid-ass "delay-of-game" penaties. If the new up-tempo approach does nothing else, it will give us at least +15-40 yards of field position per game over previous years......



...at this point, even that would be a big improvement. Keeping D's on their toes would be icing on the cake.


.02

How bout it? Seems like it's stupid not to do this.

It's simple things like this and the attention to detail that make me think Chud's offense is going to be the anti-matter to Carthon's crap. Hopefully it translates to the scoreboard and the win column too.

I'm surprised no one has said...

shouldnt the head coach think of ideas like this.. and not the Offensive coordinator.. lol

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I have to say I'm shocked this hasn't been a part of the regimen all along in every camp with every team. With as many problems as we've had with the game clock in the past, this is definitely a welcome addition.

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Absolutely.

It's been posted on here many times by myself and others that it seemed as if there was no sense of urgency on the part of the players. They often acted as if they had all of the time in the world to get a play off....

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Also, I like what I'm hearing about all the shifting... we might be able to force the defenses into more man-coverage and get them out of their zones.... I would think that should soften things up a little.

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It takes away the "predictableness" that has been associated with our O the last 2 years.

It could be a beautiful thing.

this is a great idea, might pay off early in the season as well because they should be game tempo ready. Now throw in the ability to do some audibles along with that and we might actually see a pro offense on the field.

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this is a great idea, might pay off early in the season as well because they should be game tempo ready.

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Exactly....hit the ground running, not out of sync as we were in the opener last year. We should see a difference (somewhat) in the 3rd preseason game I would hope.

I like this, about time we get with the program of " the tempo", go Chud, go Browns..

I'm giddy today..

Hooray for an OC who knows what he's doing!! Great idea Chud.

Btw - nobody mentioned this. It appears Chud will be upstairs in the booth calling the plays and Scherer on the head phone on the sidelines sending them in.

I like that. Chud can see a lot more in the booth rather than getting feedback of a defensive situation and be one play off on attacking it. Most times you get one shot at mistakes. This way Chud can see it, calculate and send in the play right then and there to attack it. Even if it was done fast in the past our OC would have to spend valuable seconds to assess that info and delay in calling their play in.

JMHO

And run the stuff in the pre-season.

Screw this stuff about not wanting to show the offense....unless not wanting to show the offense for the first 6 weeks of the season is the goal.

We have to win the first game or get out the forks and stick them into the team.

Remember last year when Patrick McManaman of the Akron Beacon Journal was observing the Browns offense during the preseason. He was worried how pathetic and anemic it looked. 90% of the posters on here jumped all over him,saying Carthon was holding back......well Pat Mac was right. The Browns offense was 11 guys not in sync.
If anything the Browns offense should be more diversified this year and crisper.
Even in the preseason I wouldn't be suprised to see the Browns take some shots downfield especially with Tim Carter and Josh Cribbs past 40 yards.
I wonder how much "no-huddle" will be incorportated

Good point...I agree.

Every year the O looks bad in preseason and people talk about hiding something.

Sorry, that is a joke.

I can see holding back a few trick plays or something like that, but to think we are just running some vanilla O and running line plunge after line plunge is stupid, no matter if we are fooling ourself or are in fact doing that.

To answer your question, I don't know if no huddle is something the new guy does or not....guess we will find out in a week or two.

Shep, I just read your sig.

My GOD, but you've got it bad!

J/C
Have you guys seen the piece on the '03 Patriots on NFL tv
Belichek had them spending one practice a week on situations
the guys were like what the h@#l we doing this for...that was yr I think he took the safety & won the ballgame.....which we shoulda done ....but NO we kicked a 7 YARD punt instead...............and LOST the game
Thanks Butch
I'm w/ you Peen our offense has stunk so bad ...let's just get one going... Then we'll worry about someone besides US ...stopping it