Coaching Philiosophy

[Darth Biscuit]

I think he did play to win. Just his idea of the best path to get there was different than ours.

(that'll probably be true a lot)

Yeah, I mean I didn't mean that he wasn't playing to win, but I meant (in response to Dimbee) that sometimes you gotta suck it up and do what you may not want to in order to win...

I'm sure Rivera thought that his way was the best... and he knows far more than any of us do.

[panthers55]

He wasn't challenging his players or trying to get them to do something they couldn't do. On the punt, he gameplanned to rugby kick it and practiced it all week. Then in the game Baker kicked it too far and there were missed tackles and away he went.

Rivera had a perfectly good idea based on film work. His players practiced it but didn't execute it in the game. Plain and simple. It wasn't that they couldn't do it, they simply didn't.

On the kickoff return we kicked it 7 yards into the endzone and Hester ran it back, short of kicking it out of bounds and giving it to them on the 40, what exactly could he do???

How you go from that to coaching philosophy about challenging your players or asking them to do more than they can, is beyond me.

Execution is needed on every play and when it doesn't happen mistakes get made. He is going to try and find people who can execute his gameplan, plain and simple. In my mind he was only wrong to kick to him because his players didn't execute it properly. And honestly the coach is the one who shoulders the blame when his folks don't do what is needed.

[MadHatter]

the kick was good we just didnt make the play. so coaching did not fail us, and its great that now you can listen to a presser and get some insight from the HC.

I thought the execution of the kick itself was horrible. We kicked a low line drive to him....giving him ample opportunity for a return. The key to kicking to Hester is to hang the ball high....giving your coverage team time to get in his face.

[RevJ]

All this reminds me of the story of the transfer student that came to America to play sports. His kicking was so good that he ended up on the college football team as punter and was doing great until the end of a game when the coach instructed him to kick out of bounds. He took the snap, turned directly toward the stands and put the ball in the upper rows.

Hindsight is 20/20, but we would have been better off "punting it into the stands". Love Rivera's competitive spirit, but hope he learns when best to moderate it - until the personnel matches his expectations.

[pawsandclaws]

I thought he said it was supposed to be a high, short punt, not a low, short punt... to give the coverage guys time to get down and surround him... and Baker missed it and kicked a low, line drive? No?

That was it exactly. AND....he said they had watched tape and Hester usually backs up 50 yards and usually fair catches it in that case. (High and short)

[bleys]

kicking to hester was a really really bad idea.....its like they learned nothing when he returned the ball from the 108 yard line to the other side of the 50

actually, the idea was good.. we had 2 guys there to tackle him. the players executing was bad, nay- atrocious..

[dimbee]

Yep. Hester ran through 1 or 2 arm tackles before exiting stage left.