Bud Kilmer was the villian in Varsity Blues, of that there is no doubt.
Jon Voight’s portrayal of a hard-driven, old school high school football coach hit home for many washed-up high school athletes. In the film Voight portrays Bud Kilmer, the long-time head coach at West Canaan High School. He has a way of doing things that is his own, and when he is forced to turn to his backup quarterback, played by James Van Der Beek, the message is simple:
“Stick to the basics.”
With Cleveland Browns’ head coach Kevin Stefanski sidelined this weekend due to COVID, along with a number of starters, the path to a win Sunday night comes along similar lines.
There were many questions about Baker Mayfield entering 2020, but chief among them was just how well he would fit into Kevin Stefanski’s offense. Many – this author included – believed the play-action design elements off of outside and wide zone plays was ideal for Mayfield. After all, a season ago there was only really one area where the young QB excelled: Throwing off of play-action. Among qualified passers, Mayfield saw the biggest jump in completion percentage last season when using play-action, an increase of 10.1%. His NFL passer rating on play-action throws clocked in at 102.5, ranking him 11th in the league, and a far cry from the 68.8 NFL passer ration on plays without play-action.
This season both numbers have increased, but Mayfield remains a much better quarterback when using play-action. Again using numbers from Pro Football Focus, Mayfield has an NFL passer rating of 84.8 on traditional dropback passes, an increase of nearly 20 points from last season.
On play-action? Mayfield has a passer rating this year of 121.9, fifth-best in the league. He has also thrown 12 touchdowns passes – against just one interception – when using play-action.
For the Cleveland Browns, play-action passing is the basics. As Coach Kilmer would say, stick to them on Sunday night. This is something that shows up on film, even against the Steelers and even in that Week 6 meeting where Mayfield was hurt and the Browns were blown out. Take this second quarter completion from Mayfield to Odell Beckham Jr., with Mayfield working off of play-action:
Working off play-action, Mayfield scans the middle of the field before throwing to Beckham along the right sideline.
In fact, Cleveland’s most explosive play that afternoon came off, you guessed it, play-action:
Mayfield executes the run fake and retreats into the pocket as tight end Austin Hooper runs the wheel route to the left side of the field. Mayfield is forced to climb in the pocket due to pressure, but he finds his tight end for the big gain. This play comes out of 13 personnel – three tight ends – and as we have seen this season the Browns love to throw downfield out of heavy personnel.
Of course Bud Kilmer would hate this. He was all about running the football. What did he hate more than throwing it? Throwing it out of empty formations. In a scene from early in the film Kilmer clashes with Van Der Beek’s Jonathan Moxon when the backup QB tries to run a play in practice out of an empty set. Moxon’s points about the explosive Mississippi Valley State offense were not received well by his coach…
However, the Browns might want to pay attention to them this week. Because with the injuries mounting up front, spreading the Steelers out with empty formations and throwing quickly might make sense. And that was part of their game plan last week, with Mayfield attempting 20 passes against the Steelers out of empty formations. Mayfield completed 16 of those – an 80% completion percentage – for 170 yards. He had six different completions out of an empty formation that went for 14 yards, including this one to Jarvis Landry in the third quarter:
Throwing out of these empty formations allows Mayfield to get the ball out quickly – minimizing what the offensive line has to do – and might work to get T.J. Watt forced to play in space rather than off the edge. It also puts Kareem Hunt to the outside, where he can be a very effective weapon as a receiver.
Maybe Jonathan Moxon was on to something after all, Coach Kilmer.