October is Separation Month When Good Coaches Make Adjustments
Analysis 10/12/22
Bill Cowher never earned the nickname "Mr. October" but could have with his 70.2 win percentage during the month, by far the best percentage of all the months he coached the Pittsburgh Steelers. And it's probably wasn't by accident. In this column, Cowher outlines the importance of October and how, if coached correctly, can separate the contenders from the pretenders.
Here we are in the month of October, we have five games already on the docket that we can see a body of work the opponent also can see. What you're seeing around the league is parity. Yes, there are a lot of two-win and three-win teams, one undefeated at this point in the Eagles. And a few with one loss.
So you look at this and you say, OK, what's going to happen the rest of the month? To me, October is about coaching.Â
Identify Strengths
That first month, you're trying to figure out who you have and what you had out of training camp. No. 1, the starters probably didn't play much, but now you're starting to see them play week in and week out. You start to see consistently what they're giving you. So at this point, you're starting to find out what your identity is as a team. It may not be what you thought it was when you came out of training camp because now you have a body of work, you have something on tape. Your opponents also are looking at something on tape that you were looking at.
So what am I doing right now? I come into the month and October and to me it's all about coaching because the good coaches right now will separate themselves from everybody else.Â
Yes, we have some talented teams that are at the top and they're going to be there no matter what – the Buffalo Bills, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Baltimore Ravens, the Tampa Bay Bucs. We know what they are. But for the group that's in the middle, October is separation month. And the separation comes from good coaching because the good coaches right now will identify what their strengths are and exploit them.Â
And, yes, identify what their flaws are, too. And now they've got to find a way to mask that.Â
Develop a System
Put your players into a system that fits them. The good coaches now will start to develop a system around them. They're going to identify a passing concept – whether it's going to be a flood element to it, whether it's going to be seams where it can be crossing routes. Something that fits the quarterback that they have, whoever it is. Who you got? Maybe it's a backup. You now must find a concept that you believe in that works with the players you have.
Same thing defensively. Can I play man-to-man mode? Maybe I have to play a little bit of zone. Who is my best man-to-man player that I can start matching him with a certain guy to take somebody else out on the other team?
These are concepts that you have because you have a body of work from the first four or five weeks, and the good coaches use that.Â
Then we'll start to develop a system around those strengths, develop a way to mask those weaknesses and not put the players in a position where they're going to fail.
Use Simple, Repeatable Concepts
That to me is why October football is about coaching. It's like taking something in, making it a start to how you are going to play. They're playing faster. You know why? I start now to identify what the strength of the teams is, and now I just keep repeating it. The only way you get better at something is if you repeat it.
Yes, I'm going to put some window dressing on things. I will give you a little bit more motion, different formations, but the concepts will be the same.
Bill Cowher's Career Record By Month
Month | W | L | T | Pct. |
September | 28 | 23 | 0 | .549 |
October | 40 | 17 | 0 | .702 |
November | 39 | 24 | 1 | .617 |
December | 38 | 24 | 0 | .613 |
Say in the running game I’ve got one lineman who can pull better than our other linemen. Just pull him and run behind him. So, if I have a passing game that I have one receiver who's a great option-route runner, then feature that, but find different ways of masking and throwing a wrinkle every now and then.
Study yourself. The good coaches not only are studying the opponent, they're studying themselves. You don't want to fall into a very predictable element where they know on the other team what you're going to do. You want to be unpredictable, you want to be creative, but you also want to be simple. Write simple concepts so that the players can play fast. They can develop an intuition about the game.
And the only way you do that is through repeated plays, through repeated messaging. Because the longer and the more you do it, the more often, it's not always going to unfold the same way. But when the concepts are the same and you're repeating the same concepts, you get very good at that. You can make in-house adjustments and game adjustments.Â
Again, that goes back to coaching. When you have concepts, a system is built around your players, on your strengths, and also it's based on your flaws and how to avoid them. If something comes up, I can fix that because I know what my strengths are, I know what my flaws are.
Be Flexible
Being able to understand the strengths and flaws allows you to be flexible. So many things can change weekly, so it’s important to be open-minded. You know, it's a fine line between being committed to something and being stubborn. And I always say one thing: If you always do things the same, it's a pattern. Be flexible enough to start to alter from that.Â
You're constantly growing as a team in the NFL. You're constantly finding out about people; you like to face a little adversity. I always think it's great to get adversity somewhere in the middle of the season, because then you find out about people, you find out about yourself, your assistant coaches.
It's a journey. Yes, we hear it a lot – it's a marathon, it's not a sprint. You don't have to go through the highs and lows every week, but you’re constantly building and understanding your team, finding out who you are, finding out the people that you're surrounding yourself with so that you come out there on Sundays and can succeed.Â
You know what you have. You can look somebody in the eye -- that quarterback, maybe -- and look in that receiver’s eyes, and you know. Why? Because of the repetition, because of the concepts, because we start to understand what we're doing. There's an intuition that players have and I have, and also the coaches have the same intuition about their players. Maybe it’s that we need to blitz more because I can't get there with four men this week.
Let's get creative and do some things. Think outside the box. It gets the players excited.Â
Separation
Coaching is huge in the National Football League and you're going to start to see the separation because good coaches will get creative, they'll make the game fun. They'll cater to what they have, cater to their players and embrace each challenge. It comes week in, week out. Let's watch this unfold.
Yes, there's parity now. But there's going to be separation, and good coaches will be a part of the evolution of their team.Â
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