Redskins: Gruden Focuses on Football 101

Early on in head coach Jay Gruden’s time here in the DMV, he was preaching fundamentals to his coaches and his team. In fact, in one of his press conferences this past spring, Gruden was asked about his approach to being a head coach. Even then, he was talking about a focus on technique.

“We have got to stay on [the players],” he said, “and make sure they’re disciplined and not jumping off-sides and running to the ball on defense and offensively finishing blocks and finishing runs and running the routes at the right depth. There’s a lot of coaching going on in there.”

Now, eight months after he was hired, the team and the city are about to find out if getting back to the basics is something that could really help this team go from one that can only win three games in a season (in 2013) to perhaps seven or ten.

Based on the improvements seen in the tackling of the Washington Redskins’ defense in the first two preseason games, it looks like the sermons are paying dividends. In this past Monday’s preseason game number two versus the Cleveland Browns, the better tackling by the defense was evident and the statistics bear this out. For instance, in the 2013 preseason, there were 48 total solo tackles made by the team in four games. Already in 2014 after only two contests, there have been 36. And, in the 2013 preseason — again, four games — there were three sacks for 13 yards. So far, in 2014 the team has logged six sacks. Just in this past Cleveland game, the team got five of them, two by starting linebacker Ryan Kerrigan. In the first preseason game against the New England Patriots, starter Brian Orakpo logged a sack. There is every indication that the 2014 defense will be better than last year’s.

The offense is definitely better on paper and, while the preseason doesn’t mean anything towards the final record, statistics can help with evaluation. Versus the Browns, the Redskins only punted the ball twice. There was the unfortunate fumble and the three interceptions, but the offense moved the ball and scored on six possessions. There was all-around good execution by the skill position players. A lot of that is due to the way the coaches are coaching them.

“I still think you want to make sure you continue on an upward trend and make sure you don’t take any steps backwards,” Gruden said yesterday. “Sometimes I feel like we have those days where people are lethargic and they dismiss the fundamentals of football, and that’s why we have a great coaching staff. They stay on them every minute they’re out here. They work with them on their pad level, their fundamentals, their hand placements, their drops, or route depths… all of that. [It’s] very important. That’s what the most important job in coaching is — coaching the fundamentals of football. Any coach can draw up plays on a chalkboard, but coaching them to do it the right way is the most important part. Right now, I feel good about where we are from that standpoint; we just have to keep working on them.”

Fundamentals are, well, a fundamental element of the game of football. The repetition of moves over and over again in drills and practices translates onto the football field in the heat of battle. That’s the type of thing players are talking about when they say the speed of the game has slowed and they are out on the field reacting as opposed to thinking.

From the rookies on the team to the wily veterans, practicing and refining technique is important to success on game day. It is actually important enough that coaches all across the league put an emphasis on it. New England’s head coach, Bill Belichick, in discussing the 4-3 versus the 3-4 defenses; and transitions from one to the other, stresses that it’s all about technique.

“They will continue to play the same fundamental techniques as they’ve been teaching for the entire year, for the most part,” the Patriot’s coach said. “I think that’s what teaching defensive fundamental football is about. It’s about fundamentals.”

Gruden knows that with the increased focus on various penalties in the NFL this year — the Redskins were called for 11 penalties against the Browns Monday night for 100 yards — the basics are going to be important.

“The head bobbing by the quarterback — that’s simple to correct,” he said about quarterback Robert Griffin, III’s false start penalty. “The other ones — the holding by the offensive linemen — those happen all the time. All the other penalties you just have to continue to coach and coach the fundamentals. That’s a major part of football. Everybody wants to talk about X’s and O’s and players… but it comes down to fundamentals a lot to win football games. If you’re not fundamentally sound, you’re going to have a lot of penalties and penalties end up costing you. We’re not happy with the penalties that we’ve received, but they were legitimate penalties and something we have to correct and maintain our coaching discipline and making sure our players understand the right and wrong way to play the game.”

Asked about their coach’s focus on fundamentals yesterday, most of the players admitted it was necessary for success in football.

“Yea… the ‘fundamental’ part… everyone knows it like the back of their hands,” Pro Bowl left tackle Trent Williams said. “But when you get out there and everyone’s going 100 miles an hour, you’re thinking about all type of different ways you have to approach a defense or what your assignment is. So you kind of lose sight of those little things that Coach is constantly reminding you of. [Remembering your technique] makes it easier to remember to do those things.

“Definitely the muscle memory has a lot to do with it,” Williams went on.” It makes it easier. Everybody’s been doing this their whole life… since we were like, five years old.”

Technique is always going to be important to successful execution on any play. Some might believe Gruden’s focus on the fundamentals isn’t as important as installing a great set of plays but his players don’t necessarily feel that way.

“I like that Coach Gruden does [focus on fundamentals],” rookie wide out Lee Doss said yesterday. “You have to do everything right in order for it to carry over to the game, especially in wide receiving. You run a route a couple of times and it becomes natural to you… muscle memory… and that helps slow the game down too.”

There is a lot of “new” going on out at Redskins Park in 2014. There’s a new head coach, a new offensive system, a new outlook, obviously some new players and; perhaps, an increased accentuation on technique. It’s hard to know whether all of this will pay off this season or not. No one has said that Gruden has put more focus on the fundamentals than, say, former head coach Mike Shanahan did. But if he has, certainly more wins than three can be achieved by getting back to the basics of football.

Hail.