Fans in every NFL fan base have grown frustrated at some point and time with their team’s performance on offense. After first blaming the starting quarterback, the next person to be under fire is the offensive coordinator or the offensive play caller. This is an overrated and lazy argument.

An NFL offensive gameplan is a lot more complicated than calling plays while playing NFL Madden on a PlayStation. Offensive coaches have hours off meetings and film sessions along with practice to formulate a game day strategy. The planning and preparation are the most time-consuming part of the NFL week. What all preparation goes to is a play call sheet for both offense and defense.

The offensive play call sheet is the game plan and strategy based on the in-game situation. For instance, they have a group of plays for third down and short yardage situations just like a second down and long yardage situations. These group of plays would also coincide with field position, score and time left in the game. It is way more complicated than run or pass. Other factors may be involved as to why a play did or did not work.

Most of the time the reason a play doesn’t work is not the play call itself. The quarterback possibly made the wrong read. There could have been a missed blocking assignment. A receiver may have run the wrong route. It is also possible that the defense was just better on that specific play.  Other times a play call is changed at the line of scrimmage and the play still didn’t work. It is very easy to armchair offensive coordinators on one play. Most of the time they will tell you that a play call was bad because the play didn’t work. The play was just not executed well. My advice to every football fan including the casual fans. Look at a game wholistically, what was the strategy in the game? Were adjustments made? Were the adjustments affective? Fans may see better results than they think they initially saw.