15 Offensive Tips To Win Football Games

Winning football games is hard. Its hard for the coaches, its hard for the players and the entire program. Winning football games is also more than just X's and O's, it's about discipline, focus, execution, mental toughness, football IQ, and physical toughness.

As the season is starting this week for many teams across the country, here are a few points to consider to help you win more football games!

1: CONDITIONING

By now, your teams should be conditioned. Aggressive conditioning is not for "in season" practice. You should be ready. In the 4th QTR, in a tight game, the most conditioned team is the team that has the best chance of winning. You MUST be the toughest and most conditioned team on the field.

Tip - during your practices ensure they are uptempo. NO WALKING on the field. Every rep, every drill, etc. must be at tempo and speed unless you need to coach something up. Use your reps to get conditioning in. Practice like you play and play like you practice.

Tip #2 - Your WR's should be the most conditioned players on the team. They MUST run every route on ever play as if they are getting the ball. Dropping off or slacking because you are tired is unacceptable for an elite team. NO PLAYS OFF!

2: DISCIPLINE

Ensure your team and players are disciplined. No stupid mistakes. Hold players accountable. Ensure they coached up and in control of their emotions. This goes for coaches as well. Nothing hurts a team more than going backwards or repetitive penalties. DISCIPLINE! Discipline and mental toughness go hand in hand.

3: KISS

Keep it simple stupid. Over complication will kill a team. Whether its your call sheet, practice plan, game plan, substitutions, etc. keep it simple. This ensures execution and limits miscommunication. No one won a critical football game from a complicated system.

4: COMMUNICATION

HC...ensure you have established how your coaches communicate with the players AND with each other. Especially on game day. Nothing adds confusion faster than poor communication discipline. If your a coach on the headset's, KNOW when to speak and when to shut up. The HC, DC, OC can't make effective decisions if people are chiming in unsolicited. But if asked, be ready with a solution.

Further, nothing stresses out, discourages or frustrates players faster than other coaches criticizing or correcting players they are not responsible for i.e. a D Line Coach criticizing the QB, etc. Praising...great! Otherwise, stay in your lane and DO YOUR JOB.

5: REP YOUR TRANSITIONS

In practice, practice transitions from Offense to Pun, Defense to Punt Return...all in game speed. Ensuring you practice the little things like personnel changes will help your team take advantage of the clock, or situations. A team can get totally out of whack if it doesn't manage its transitions and personnel.

6: 3 PHASES OF THE GAME

Building on #5, to many teams give too little attention to Special Teams or situations. Great football teams practice and hone ALL 3 phases of the game. Being proficient in all 3 phases opens up opportunities. Opportunities that can be capitalized on. The teams that win the most excel in all three phases of the game

7: OFFENSIVE MISDIRECTION

Properly executed misdirection can be the difference between big plays, first downs and TD's or being stuffed. RPO, motion, shuffle, counters, orbits, etc can help confuse defenses. You can still run the same play by adding motion, etc. and not lose any effectiveness in the play execution. Be creative, but be damn sure you account for numbers.

8: WINNING THE OSCAR

Sell, sell, sell! Running RPO, fake handoffs, options, etc. will only work IF your players sell their role. Bad fake hand offs, bad counters, etc. are a killer to your offense! Your players MUST SELL the hell out of the play. I want to see your RB's tackled on fake hand offs. I want to see DE's bite hard on the QB selling a keep versus a give. Whether its a WR, RB, or QB, they MUST sell their part otherwise, the play and disguise or misdirection wont work. Don't settle for half assed performances. This should be hammered home in practice.

9: FORMATION

You can run 10+ great plays from multiple formations and be good to go. Use formations to confuse the defense. It is a simple way to manipulate the defense to behave a certain way. Formation changes can also put more numbers to a problem spot. Got a pesky OLB or DE, use a WR to crack down on him from Trips, etc. or have the TE chip block, etc. Be creative and deliberate on how you use formations. You can also set up an offensive series with simple formations to set up and deliver a desired outcome. Think Coach Chip Kelly.

10: DEEP PASSING

To many players and coaches are always looking for the big deep ball. This is a bad habit to coach your QB to always look for the deep route. QB's should be focused on moving the ball. Period. There is nothing wrong with check downs. The New England Patriots won a lot of Super Bowls with check downs.

Remember, check downs lead to first downs. First downs lead to touch downs. Touch downs lead to wins! If the deep route is there. Great, but be more focused on moving the football and controlling the clock. Nothing bad comes from controlling the Football. Coaching your QB to go through his reads and progressions will pay dividends. To many coaches coach their QB's to simply look for the open guy or only have 1 or 2 reads. This is disastrous. Every play must be deliberative. Every player must have a job to do that has a desired outcome. The QB must be coached up to go through their full reads. The check down isn't always the last resort read.

11: BLOCK TO THE WHISTLE

Every offensive player MUST block to the whistle. If I had a dime for every time I have said this or heard another coach yell it, blocking to the whistle MUST BE done. I guarantee you that the player that let off his block, his guy will be the guy who makes the tackle. I want to see WR's blocking (especially WR's) block to the whistle on run plays, linemen blocking players into the sideline or pancaking their opponent, etc.

12: VASE

I always coached the defense AND offensive line to engage in VASE - Violence, Aggression, Speed and Execution. This is the key to domination at the LOS. Offensive Line domination delivers protection for your QB, holes for your RB's, time for your WR's to run their route. Defensively, it is also the key to making the opponents offense miserable leading to mistakes that can be capitalized on!

13: PLAY TO YOUR LEVEL

I have seen top championship levels teams play weaker teams and end playing down to the weaker teams level. Wanna know what happens? Injuries, mistakes, poor discipline, loss and more.

ALWAYS play to your standard (please tell me you have a standard!) and level no matter who you are playing. If you want to be a team of excellence, you MUST execute to your standard. Anything less is for losers.

14: GAME DAY WALK THROUGH

Ensure your walk through's are used effectively. Don't just go through the motions. Use this time to address any issues, reenforce coaching points, keys, situations, etc. I have seen some teams use this time to dial in, others not so much and yes, they lose.

This is an opportunity to dial in and coach up. Just remember to not over load your players with unnecessary information.

Also a quick not on pre-game warm ups. Skip the BS and focus. Every drill, rep, etc. should be focused and purposeful. I have seen some teams come out with a DJ carrying a boom box blasting music, another team come out with a sledge hammer, another came out with some weak pathetic intimidation BS running by our sidelines, and others with other distractions. Guess what? They still lost. Gimmicks don't win football games. Disciplined, focused and teams that execute do.

15: HYDRATION

Yup, wanna win games? You can't have your stud players coming out and not available because they are cramped up. I have seen and had my own top players not hydrate enough and pay the price for the themselves and the team when we needed them. Who's at fault? The player? The Coaches? The AT? All of the above!

You as a coach must remind and demand your players are properly hydrating 48 hours before a game, the day of, house before kick off and during the game. Work with your coaches and AT's to ensure your players are educated and actually hydrating. Your players safety is YOUR responsibility. Further, dehydration is more than cramping. Serious dehydration and electrolyte imbalance is a life threatening condition. Nip it in the bud.

Lastly, ensure your players have a good meal before games to fuel their performance. Not some sugar crap, but real nutrition. Subs, PB&J, etc. Have your managers and AT's have all the right things for hydration and recovery. Pickles, Mustard, Gatorade, etc.

At SOFI stadium in the Ram's locker room, right before you walk out onto the field there are shelves with food and snacks for the players. NO, its not exotic supplements, etc. its turkey sandwiches, PB&J, chocolate milk, Gatorade, water, beet juice, pickles, fruit, and more. Oranges from the Mom's at half time is NOT ENOUGH!

Elite players fuel their bodies to perform 4 quarters and give 100%, 100% of the time!

Wanna win more football games? Consider implementing the above. Hope these help! They have worked for me throughout 19 years of coaching and winning lots and lots of football games.

Coach Frederick