One of the keys to Joe Gibbs' success in his previous incarnation as the Washington Redskins coach was devising offensive game plans with myriad wrinkles.
Yet for the most part of last weekend's preseason game against the Carolina Panthers, his offense showed all the imagination of a starched, white dress shirt.
So it goes for most NFL teams this time of the year, when they use preseason games as much to deceive, mislead and play dumb — or at least try — while evaluating talent and potential starting lineups. Sets and plays are purposefully skeletal so as not to expose one's intentions to regular-season foes — especially those of the September variety.
"But that (shouldn't) keep you from being a good, solid football team," Gibbs said after the error-filled loss. "When you make mistakes and turn the ball over, that's a part of football that you just can't do."
In the first quarter of these early exhibition games when the starters are likely to only play a couple of series, an average of 6.9 points are being scored. Scoring by the remaining quarters: 12.2 in the second, 10.2 in the third and 13.6 in the fourth.
Even with a vanilla approach, the games aren't void of discernable meaning — despite the fact that genuine experimentation goes down in practice and not in front of the paying customers.
Says Houston Texans defensive end Gary Walker: "You have to start learning how to win in a preseason game as well as learning your techniques. You always want to come in the locker room with a victory."
Even so, a more delicate task — and opportunity — comes when teams play each other in the preseason as well as the regular season. That's the case, for example, this weekend when the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots face the Cincinnati Bengals, who also loom as a Dec. 12 visitor.
"So it will take on a little bit more focus," Patriots coach Bill Belichick says. "You really try to spend a little more time on not only their scheme, but their personnel, and (you) try to let the players get a feel for what that is going to be like the second time around."
And whatever the Patriots make a point to not show at Cincinnati is more a measure toward keeping the season-opening foe Indianapolis Colts and the Game 2 opponent Arizona Cardinals off balance than trying to hide things from the Game 13 Bengals.
"The point we play them in the season, everybody will have put everything that they have on the table by that point," Belichick says. "The main thing is to get a feel for the way they play, their style of play."
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Yet for the most part of last weekend's preseason game against the Carolina Panthers, his offense showed all the imagination of a starched, white dress shirt.
So it goes for most NFL teams this time of the year, when they use preseason games as much to deceive, mislead and play dumb — or at least try — while evaluating talent and potential starting lineups. Sets and plays are purposefully skeletal so as not to expose one's intentions to regular-season foes — especially those of the September variety.
"But that (shouldn't) keep you from being a good, solid football team," Gibbs said after the error-filled loss. "When you make mistakes and turn the ball over, that's a part of football that you just can't do."
In the first quarter of these early exhibition games when the starters are likely to only play a couple of series, an average of 6.9 points are being scored. Scoring by the remaining quarters: 12.2 in the second, 10.2 in the third and 13.6 in the fourth.
Even with a vanilla approach, the games aren't void of discernable meaning — despite the fact that genuine experimentation goes down in practice and not in front of the paying customers.
Says Houston Texans defensive end Gary Walker: "You have to start learning how to win in a preseason game as well as learning your techniques. You always want to come in the locker room with a victory."
Even so, a more delicate task — and opportunity — comes when teams play each other in the preseason as well as the regular season. That's the case, for example, this weekend when the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots face the Cincinnati Bengals, who also loom as a Dec. 12 visitor.
"So it will take on a little bit more focus," Patriots coach Bill Belichick says. "You really try to spend a little more time on not only their scheme, but their personnel, and (you) try to let the players get a feel for what that is going to be like the second time around."
And whatever the Patriots make a point to not show at Cincinnati is more a measure toward keeping the season-opening foe Indianapolis Colts and the Game 2 opponent Arizona Cardinals off balance than trying to hide things from the Game 13 Bengals.
"The point we play them in the season, everybody will have put everything that they have on the table by that point," Belichick says. "The main thing is to get a feel for the way they play, their style of play."
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