Game 3, Oct 9th, Tough Luck

We were handed our first lost this evening. Playing half the game short handed, they got ahead, however the Defense stepped it up in the second half having a worthy showing with 7 men on the field. I was unable to play today, finally the long awaited date for my back operation came today, however I did come for the last ten minutes to cheer the team on. We have another bye next week, however I do have a practice scheduled for next Saturday Oct 17th, at 9am. please respond here in the blog letting me know whether your going to make it or not. Go Cougs, lets take it to UNLV!!

Game 2 Saturday 25th, 27-7 WIN!

Great win guys! This is our best record in over 4 years, 1-0-1. Turns out our chocking zone D is confusing every opponent! First play of the game Jeff stepped in front of a simple cross route and turned it into a pick 6, nice! The best part is we simply had a ton of fun out there, and no one got hurt. Thanks everyone for putting in the time to memorize those formations, this weekend I will be putting up the routes and their number, try to take a little time and memorize them as well. Our next game actually isn't for another two weeks, so there is no conflict with next weeks BYU-USU Friday night game, Go Cougs!

Position mastery!

Each formation has selected positions to fulfill individual purposes. They are identified by this simple lettering system I learned back in the ancient days on recruiting trips in Gainsville. I will be putting up a post for each formation, where I will explain the specific function of each position for that formation. Here is a general explanation of each position as related to flag football.

Q- quarterback, self explanatory.

C- Center. against man on man defense becomes the most potent receiver up the middle. will always be first check-down against man. Against zone, more effective rolling out and settling in a short zone in the direction of the quarterbacks throwing arm.

T-tight end. For most flag football formations, will usually be linemen, running block and release routes are crucial anytime, especially against man defense, which we will see 90% of the time in the lower division. Being sneaky is key, make sure the block lasts long enough to allow defenders down-field to forget about you, but not long enough for the quarter back to have to be under to much pressure, quick short routes are key, often settling in a zone and waiting. On long plays abandoning the receiver responsibility and putting full effort into blocking.

Z- the z receiver is the slot receiver, generally short and quick, smart route runner, must get open quickly, never down-field. In flag football takes all running back responsibilities, must be quick enough to outrun defense to corner for short yardage option plays. Also the primary second Quarterback for double pass plays. Button-hooks, comeback catches, alot of timed breaks where the ball will already be in the air when coming off the cut, has to run very clean routes. Will also be an option for hook and ladder, and double pass plays.

Y- for BYU familiarity, this would be O'Neil Chambers. Slant and crossing patterns are the spice of life here, must be able to break that cross route leaving the defender lost in a crowd, using smarts to redirect route up-field after the catch rather then continuing crossing pattern after the catch.

X- my person favorite because this is what I played :) In BYU terms this is Mackay Jacobson. This position must be the fastest guy on the team, can break down-field multiple times without tiring, often times knowing its just to spread the defensive length. Must have good hands and instinct for those couple of shots down-field, makes good use of the rare opportunities, only a couple throws come this way a game, but if their caught its for a touchdown.

Its important that when lined up in that position that you run those types of routes taking on the personality of that position, when we do get some playes built into the formations it will clear out wide open receivers every time!!

Offensive Formations

Here is a diagram of the 4 formations that we all need to memorize, I will next be putting up the blitz packages out of the zone that we have been working with on defense. After we get that down I'll put up some set plays that we can run out of the formations. The 4 formations code names are Hammer-time, Smokestack, Vanilla, and Hawaii. Where you see the blue box, it's an optional lineup for that position. I'll put up an individual post for each formation to explain the benefits of each. Please take a few minutes and memorize, enjoy!

Welcome!

Welcome to the 85th ward flag football blog! I figured this would be an easy way to communicate with everyone so that we can stay organized with minimal time out of your busy schedules. First and foremost I'd like to congratulate you all on the first game of the season pitted against the Walker Texas Rangers, we came out with a tie! For those of you new to the ward, we had a breakthrough year last year getting our first win going back at least 4 years, and I'm hoping we can build on that :) We did have one casualty unfortunately, Blair separated his shoulder going after a flag, it's still early but my hope is that we will be back to full strength soon. I would also like to commend you all for representing our ward well as honorable priesthood holders, we played hard, had fun, and kept it all in perspective! I know every one of us have stories of intramural teams losing sight of who they are out there on the field, it's great to know we don't have to worry about that with this team. As I mentioned before I will be keeping things simple because we don't have much time to prepare for these games, however I would like to lay out formations for us to memorize so that things run smoothly. I will be posting them here, also remember that if you can, please come out to practice with us at the Elementary school South playground on Center Street and 7th East Saturday at noon. Until then, have a great week!