That's the List

It makes me a little crazy (crazier?) when I hear an announcer say, “The way to beat Tom Brady is…” or “The way to beat Aaron Rodgers is…” when what they are really saying is, “The way to beat any great quarterback is…” because they always come up with the same list.

You probably know how to beat Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers.  If Ian Eagle knows (Dan Fouts probably told him), I’m pretty sure you do… 

Possession

No quarterback can throw a touchdown pass without the ball in his hands, of course.  More importantly, great quarterbacks like Brady, Brees and Rodgers will get into a rhythm if you let them and peel off 10-12 completions in a row.  Keeping them on the sidelines isn’t just about number of possessions/scoring opportunities, it’s about keeping them from finding that groove, those 5 of 5 for 87 yards and a TD drives and those “after a difficult first half Tom Brady has now completed his last ten passes for 178 yards” voiceovers from the play-by-play man late in the 3^rd quarter.  You start to see it in the body language of the defensive players; the linemen reluctantly putting their hands in the dirt, defensive backs taking a step or two backward before the snap.  Here it comes.  Again.

Pressure

As Mike Tyson so eloquently paraphrased German Field Marshall Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke, “Everyone has a plan ‘til they get hit in the mouth.”  I’m sure there are more than a few sado-masochists playing professional football (if they had decent guidance counselors in high school) but generally speaking, nobody likes getting hit.  Regardless of your profession, being thrown to the ground several times over the course of your work day is bound to have a negative impact on performance.

Disguise

It is difficult but not impossible to confuse great quarterbacks.  It isn’t just the mechanics of showing blitz and dropping into coverage, running zone blitz with a nose tackle, showing man-to-man and dropping into zone, it’s having the players that can pull it off.  Of course, you don’t need to fool them all the time but you do need to turn your opportunities into big plays; stops on 3^rd down, sacks, interceptions.

That’s the List

Not exactly rocket science, is it?  For the most part, it’s Football 101.  Every team in every game would like to win time of possession; it’s a lot easier to score with the football than without it.  Every team in every game would like to get pressure on the opposing quarterback.  There just aren’t that many teams that can win without a good performance from the quarterback position.  If you can – even briefly – confuse Tom Brady, Drew Brees or Aaron Rodgers, you should absolutely bewitch, bother and bewilder Mark Sanchez, Kyle Orton or Rex Grossman.  As G.I. Joe said, "Knowing is half the battle."  Yeah.  The easy half.