How I watch football
How I watch football
Everyone loves those play breakdowns all over YouTube and talk shows. On the screen are twenty two men moving and this person with a clicker can explain what is happening so effortlessly. They throw in some jargon and lingo and leave you in awe. This can feel similar to finance bro's overwhelming you with words you don't understand so you don't ask questions and they feel smart.
In this blog I hope to explain how I watch football so that you can begin breaking down plays yourself and notice why things are happening. This is mainly for watching on tv, but you can apply these principles to in-person viewing as well. We will start with what to look for pre-snap and then move into where to watch (or not watch) during the play.
Pre-Snap
Pre-snap is important because it gives us clues as to what both teams are looking to do. Football is a game of chess, played in six second bursts for an entire afternoon. If you only follow the ball during the six seconds the play is happening, you are leaving a lot of information on the table as to why the events actually occur. With how quickly the game can move, you may not be able to follow every step on every play, but figure out which steps make sense for you and which things you want to key in on.
1. Observe the score, down and distance, hash mark, and time on the clock
Very simple, but always important. The score likely has not changed since the previous play, but the down and distance, where the ball is spotted along the width of the field, and the time on the clock can give us a clue of what the offense is looking to call. Are they trying to run out the clock? Is the ball spotted in the middle of the field or on a hash mark, meaning something could happen to either side of the field or most likely to the wide side? These are simple questions to think through for the offense.
For the defense, you can start to think about the coverages and blitz packages. In the red zone, teams often run more man-to-man to avoid miscommunication on pick plays. If the team has a top pass rusher, maybe they try to stunt him into a one-on-one look, or maybe they bring the house against a young quarterback. These are just thoughts to have to be confirmed later.
2. Notice where key skill players are in the formation
Most teams have one or two studs that they are trying to get the ball to in open space for them to make a play. Play callers like Kyle Shanahan, Sean Payton, Lincoln Riley, and Ryan Day are amazing at moving players around so the defense is always stressed about where they will be. Let's look back on some plays we broke down last fall to see what that can look like:
At the bottom of the screen here we have Tennessee's award-winning wide receiver Jalin Hyatt stacked behind another Vols' receiver. This provides Hyatt, who has a slight frame and can have trouble breaking press coverage, a free release downfield.
The Red Raiders use a quad bunch formation to the wide side of the field. College football uses wider hash marks than the NFL so the wide side truly is wide, and putting four players together, where you can easily throw it to one and have three blockers in front, is stressful for a team.
Chase Brown is lined up in the backfield on the short side of the field. This gives him the ability to run to the wide side out of the shotgun, or run a wheel route to the short side of the field, where he can more easily get to the sideline and up the field. This is a common play in the redzone and is something to keep an eye on when you see a running back who can catch (e.g., McCaffery, Bijan Robinson, etc.) lined up to that side inside the 20 yard line.
3. Try to determine the coverage
Pre-snap I like to look at the defense from the outside in. This means start with the corners, go to the safeties, then finally move to the linebackers and linemen. This is so I can guess whether the defense is in zone or man. Coverages are named after the number of players playing a deep zone. So Cover 0 is all man-to-man, Cover 1 is man with a free safety, Cover 2 is two deep players, Cover 3 is three, and Cover 4 splits the field into four deep quarters.
If the coverage is man, the corners will face the receiver, often shaded to the inside shoulder because they can recover on the longer throws to the outside. In zone, they are often facing the quarterback to read his eyes, and on the outside shoulder of the receiver.
We have one safety (dot 3) in the middle of the field, but he is looking right at the tight end. Dot 4 is over the slot receiver, and dot 2 is over no one, on the short side of the field, and looking into the backfield. This is screaming cover 0 (no free defender deep) with a blitz coming. This makes sense in our minds since Clemson was bad at throwing the ball and the play is in the red zone (remember point 1).
4. Look at the defenders in the box
Based on how defenses position their linebackers and linemen, or how many they have on the field, you can determine what they think the offense is going to do.
NC State has three linebackers, but they are shaded to the tight end and away from the running back. They are ready for a run to the wide side of the field and know that the safety blitz we took note of earlier has their help on the back side. They are selling out, which matches the Cover 0 we thought we saw.
Here Oregon State has a lot of players near the line of scrimmage. They likely are not going to bring everyone, given that it is a 2 minute drill, but they are trying to not give Caleb Williams a clean pre-snap read. This makes sense why their defensive backs are all muddled as well, and is something you see on Sunday's a lot too.
Other things to look for include looking to see where top defenders are lined up. Is Will Anderson Jr. on the left or right side? Did they put Jalen Carter over the center or shaded to one edge or the other? This will be helpful later.
5. Notice any late movement
We have done the pre-snap work and have a guess as to what is going to happen. Right before the snap, sometimes there can be a man in motion from the offense. Does his defender follow him? That is a pretty clear indicator of man coverage. Sean McVay loves the jet motion from a receiver because it gives him a backside blocker and it shows his quarterback what the coverage is. Notice how with Stafford they have used less motion? He trusts Stafford to be able to tell what is happening and without the motion more than he did Goff.
Additionally, some quarterbacks wait to snap the ball until the last second to try and get the defense to make the first move. Aaron Rodgers is often snapping as the play clock hits zero. If a safety is disguising his deep coverage, he will often bail before the snap so he can get back and Rodgers wants to see if he is going to move first. It's cat and mouse, and something you can look for as you get more comfortable watching the game.
Now that we have done all the work and the play has snapped, let's talk about what to watch for as the play is happening.
Post-Snap
Most of what we are going to talk about is where not to watch during most plays. Most people just watch the ball, or where they think the ball is (even the camera men get faked out on a good play action). Most of the time, this is not the most informative way to watch football. Despite having high definition TV's, we still watch the game super zoomed in on the line of scrimmage. This means that we can't see what is happening downfield. This means that we will watch the play from the inside out, the opposite of our pre-snap approach.
1. Watch the center and guards
If the center and guards keep their heads down and move forward, they are run blocking (unless it's an RPO, but we will get there). If their heads pop up and they move back, it is a pass. These are the two most simple views.
Here we have Florida State's linemen standing up and moving backwards. Pretty easy, and we can see Jordan Travis is looking to pass.
To take things up a level, we can see if a guard is pulling. 99% of the time this is a run, with Tom Brady and Peyton Manning being the two quarterbacks who most liked to "influence pull" on pass plays to mess with defenders. This doesn't happen, so if we see a lineman stand up and run parallel to the line of scrimmage we can assume it is a run going in the direction he is moving. This shows us where the play is going.
In Week 0, Northwestern ran an unbalanced formation towards the short side of the field. Everyone thought they were going to run it towards the strength of the formation. But we can see the two linemen's facemasks coming right towards us. This alerts us that a counter is happening back to us.
2. Widen your horizon
Now that we know what is happening on the offensive line, we can start to widen our eyes to what we find interesting.
Now that we know Illinois is passing, we can probably see that Chase Brown is running a wheel route, since he is near the linemen, and we know offenses like running wheel routes in the red zone. Take a peak and see if the corner, who we know is in zone, can pass off the drag route to cover him.
Maybe as you were watching the offensive line you noticed no one is picking up the defensive end because of the blitz scheme LSU called. Now you know Travis is in a race to get the ball delivered.
Maybe you feel confident that USC's pass blocking is good and want to see if that corner is going to stay with Jordan Addison in a quarters scheme or is going to come up. Sometimes you can see a bit downfield, and since you identified where the best players were pre-snap and that it is a pass, you can find the action downfield before the camera even moves to show the touchdown.
Recap
I know that only gives us two steps during the play, but that makes sense. The offense has half a minute to snap the ball, and the play will likely be over in 6 seconds. Most of the work can be done pre-snap, whether that is identifying a matchup you want to watch during the play or just setting you up to make an educated guess as to what play is going to happen.
Pre-snap
- Observe the score, down and distance, hash mark, and time on the clock
- Notice where key skill players are in the formation
- Try to determine the coverage
- Look at the defenders in the box
- Notice any late movement
Post-Snap
- Watch the center and guards
- Broaden your horizons
There's a lot here, but see if any of these steps are helpful to you in your football watching experience. At the end of the day this is something that we all watch for fun, not something that should become a chore. However, this is how I watch the game. It's how I studied film growing up, and something I still enjoy doing, watching chess played at high speed. Maybe something here will spark your interest with football, help you better understand matchups for your fantasy team, or help you win against our friends in the desert.
Have other ideas on what I can write about this summer? Let me know!
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