My Old Nemesis: the Draw Play

I hate the draw play.  Not for any reasons inherent to the draw play itself, but simply because I always thought it killed the Bengals.  And not just on one side of the ball, but both sides.  Our defense seemed so easily fooled by it, while our offense couldn't seem to fool anyone with it.  

And even if we did fool people with it, it was in meaningless situations.  I write under the moniker "Sleeping With Bieniemy" largely because of the endless times we called a draw play on 3rd and long for Eric Bieniemy back in the 90s.  If you close your eyes and think back to those days, you can hear whatever nepotism-fueled hire they had calling plays back then squeal "They'll never see it coming!!!" as he dialed up another shitty draw.  Yeah, they'll never see it coming asshole BECAUSE IT'S A STUPID FUCKING CALL THAT IS DESTINED TO FAIL.  Congrats, you got 8 yards, now you still have to punt.

Point is, to me the draw captured in a single play the massive incompetence of the entire franchise. And so I hate it.

Enter Football Outsiders.  

They recently published two articles on on the draw.  One on how teams defend it, the other on how they use it.  Lo and behold, in 2009, they found that the Bengals defended the draw better than anyone else in the NFL.  Read that last sentence again.

Now, admittedly, this is quite a small sample size (only 23 draws).  Also, they do not count running plays out of the shotgun, which the typical fan (me! me!) probably mistakes as a draw.  But still.  Surprising!  Or maybe not really now that we have a competent defensive coordinator.

But what about on offense?  Do we now, in this new batshit crazy reality, not only defend the draw play well but even use it to our advantage?  In a word:  No.  

In fact, we don't use the draw play at all.  The Bengals called the 4th most RB rushes in the league yet simultaneously called the 2nd fewest draw plays which resulted in the lowest percentage of draw plays called in the entire NFL (3%, in case you were wondering).  It's as if, having witnessed the abomination of previous offensive coordinators (or video of himself), Bratwurst, instead of trying to improve upon the draw, simply discarded the play entirely, pretending it doesn't exist.

More likely, it had something to do with Carson's inability to hand off naturally.  With a new emphasis on the pass game, and a healthy Palmer, I would expect to see more draw plays this season.  Maybe even with some success?  Okay.  Probably just more draw plays.

Comments

[TheCarlPickensClause]

Interesting--I thought the name SWB came from Chris Berman. I also hated the draw plays called on offense. Like you mentioned, they were not only called on 3rd and long and resulted in punts, but the scenario that makes me tear my hair out is when they sit on the ball at the end of the half using a combination of these draws and kneel downs. It's basically a gutless move signaling a white flag of surrender. I hate it. Step on throats, move the ball and get a FG before the half--be aggressive. I will say this though: how sweet is it when it's 3rd and 8 and on the rare occasion they get a first down on a stupid draw play? It makes me laugh because I know either the Bengals are having a really good day offensively and can literally move the ball at will, or that they've been playing so horribly that a stupid play like that would be the only thing working.

[Sleeping With Bieniemy]

Yeah, Berman coined the nickname, but it just seemed appropriate because Bieniemy is just one of the players I most associate with the time of futility in the 90s.

And yes, we suck at the draw on offense. I'm almost fine with them not using it, like last year, except that if we're gonna be so run heavy you'd think it would provide a creative way to change up the run game from time to time. Well, you'd think at least.

[colin]

Bengals draw of the 90's = Brat's shovel pass of the modern era. I know it's blasphemy to use Tab Perry and Brian Leonard in the same sentence (because Leonard must! be related to Charles Norris, for otherwise there would be no explanation for his preternatural grittiness), but Brat doesn't seem to know the difference between the two.

[blesterov]

Another futile play for our offense, but so successful against our defense in the past has been the dreaded screen pass.

I know our defense is a hell of a lot better now, but I still hold my breath when I see this play beginning to develop b/c I am so used to seeing something like this (especially during a Steelers game): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWiduRYw88k or this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8edb7b9TMlA

I still have nightmares of Willie Parker getting around Justin Smith at will for a long gain...

Meanwhile on the opposite side of the ball, it always seemed like we get this as a result of calling the same play: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZQcJrkytm8 or this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ7cjmzTvHM

Thank god for Zimmer, I don't believe we will see long plays like that again unless two of our guys get hurt during the play. Now if we can only upgrade Brat...

On a side note, I bought my first fantasy football mag since I need to catch up with what the other teams have been doing. Complete waste of my money. I love how the fantasy mags have the Bengals D ranked in the 20's and Stephen Jackson is still rated over Ced Benson. These "experts" don't have a clue. Personally, I plan on picking the Def late since I think they will be nasty this year. With an increase in pressure, we should see an increase in turnover opportunities.

[Leo deTrotskyo]

Re the 90s: I'd much rather see a draw on 3rd and 9 than a 5-yd buttonhook to Warrick. I never understood how putting the smallest guy on the team in the middle of the field with his back to a LB at the moment he touches the ball could possibly be a good idea.

[Sleeping With Bieniemy]

Hmmm...in retrospect, blesterov, you are correct. The screen pass probably killed us even more on defense than the draw play. On offense the draw was always the worst though.

[Major Payne]

blestrov, I shuddered when watching those clips. It still hurts to watch. I know those plays defined the 90's, but Bresnahan had no idea what to do against them either. I'm not sure he had ever heard of draws or screen passes. I know Dave Shula hadn't.

[Big Daddy]

Not sure where your confusion comes from. Since the draw only works when you have a decent passing game, I can understand why we had the lowest percentage of draw calls last year. Makes perfect sense.

[Mockenrue]

It's ironic too when you consider that Paul Brown invented the draw play.

[wch]

It took you this long to figure that out? I've been railing on this for over a decade!

In all seriousness, the draw play should ONLY be used on a semi-regular basis to position your kicker in the center of the field. Other than that, it really is a 'gadget' play. One cannot go to the well too often with this play.

The problem I had with this play was that it was employed on a (invariably) 3rd and 22 yards. You already have the defense playing a form of 'prevent' defense so you are not going to bust off 25 yards unless at least three defensive player miss the ball carrier. At this level, the likelihood of that happening is 'Slim and None --- and Slim is out of town.'

This play DID work at one time but it was more about the player running that play than anything else. Remember Big Pete Johnson?

Remember that I said you needed to have three defenders miss? Well, you aren't going to run away from them to get them to miss. That means you have to run them over. 280lbs. Johnson WAS capable of doing that. He had the ability to run after the first contact as well. See that didn't work as well for Brooks, Bienemy, Harry etc.

A combination of defensive players getting bigger and more powerful made it so that even Johnson couldn't slug through a defense for more than the proverbial eight yards. THat's just the evolution of the game.

THe use of a draw these days is to stop from going into the line and cathing the tight end cutting over the middle ten two twelve yards deep -- or a fake run and an rolling option to pass by the running back. Draw the defense up (which is what, by default, a draw play does...) have the Wideout give a chuck to the cornerback so as to sell the idea of it being a run, then break in behind the CB and voila`! Easy six points. Of cource this precludes the idea that the CB is trying to jump the run and you just allow there to be an exploit of his natural tendencies. If the CB stays 'home' then you just try to take him out of the play by stretching him away from the action point. Eventually, if the yards are given up inside, then the CB will try to jump the play -- Six points! He's not going to stand for the opposition getting seven yards at their whim and he can't have any effect on it.

You just move the wideout closer to the line and make it more inviting to the CB to want to influence the play 'with his superb footbal skills and acumen!;. Great, take the bait ya mental midget and let the WR drop to the flat and you will be exploited.

[air jordan]

It is a good story.