Basic football theory: time, space, force, and... pawn structure?

Football and chess both involve the placement and movement of pieces with diverse capabilities in a limited playing space, so it's not surprising the basic principles governing the two games are similar.  In fact, while chess masters and pro football coaches may have many hundreds of favorite play sequences memorized, most people can get pretty far in both games just by keeping these basic concepts in mind.

Concept 1: Time

Tempo in football refers to the time the offense takes between plays, but in chess the concept of time or tempo refers to doing more in the same number of moves than your opponent.  Getting further in development or in attack than your opponent through efficient, multipurpose movements results in a time advantage.  The same is true in football: when one team executes with efficiency and immediacy, they have an advantage over a team of players who hesitate or move inefficiently.

Many people understand that a team with an unusual scheme has an edge over one using something their opponent sees every week.  Few realize why unfamiliarity gives them an edge: it creates a time advantage, sowing doubt and confusion in their opponents while their own players move confidently and efficiently.  A scheme architect can also create a time advantage by combining plays into series such that multiple plays look similar but complement each other.  As Tubby Raymond shows in his outstanding book, the Wing-T offense is especially well constructed for this purpose, because its misdirection series put defenders "in conflict," so their responsibilities against different plays in a series are different, even though the plays look similar to the defense.  

The Wing-T buck series puts defenders in conflict by hiding the ball and using similar backfield action on every play.  Once the QB turns his back to the defense, he may hand off on the sweep or trap, or keep on the bootleg.  Defenders who hesitate while they diagnose the play lose valuable time relative to the offensive blockers.

A defender in conflict has to either guess at the play and risk being wrong, or wait to identify the play, but of course by then it's too late to stop it.  Another common way to induce hesitancy and create a time advantage is to use option schemes, which give defenders another responsibility to juggle.  Not surprisingly, the Wing-T offense also provides many ways to run the option.

Concept 2: Space

In chess the concept of space refers to the number of spaces on the board your pieces can attack on any given move.  If your pieces have access to more spaces than your opponent, you have more options and more room to maneuver, while your opponent has relatively less space to operate and more area to defend.  A similar concept holds in football: attacking as much of the field as possible forces your opponent to spread out their players and prepare for anything.

TV commentators often talk about running to set up the pass or vice versa, but in terms of impact on the defense, run vs. pass is a false dichotomy.  A swing pass to a tailback puts the same stress on the defense as a toss sweep.  Running a draw to the halfback to set up a middle screen to the halfback sets up nothing.  The real reason that running to set up the pass works (when it works) is that the two play types attack different areas of the defense (when it works).  A running play threatens the first level, frontal defenders whereas a pass usually threatens the undercoverage or the contain unit.  Whether by run or by pass, offenses must threaten to use all parts of the field on a given play or they surrender their space advantage to the defense.

Concept 3: Force

In chess you create a force advantage by overpowering your opponent in a particular part of the board.  The force concept is also a basic part of football strategy.  Defensive coaches often design their schemes by drawing an imaginary vertical line through the ball (since the offense can usually attack either side of the ball equally fast) and counting the number of players on either side of the line:

Defensive coaches generally want to avoid being outnumbered by more than half a player to either side of the ball.  If the offense outnumbers the defense by a whole player or more on one side of the ball, the resulting force advantage makes it hard to stop.  

A force advantage can also be created by bringing more blockers to the point of attack than the defense can match with tacklers.  Offenses can most easily do this through "lines of force," which indicate where a given formation can most naturally attack.  The lines of force concept has been covered before on other sites, but I'll add a little more diagramming here.  A line of force is an imaginary line connecting any two or more backs in the backfield.  A line of force through the quarterback shows where a back can run immediately, while one connecting any two other backs shows where one can run with a blocker.  The offensive formation is best positioned to run the ball where these lines cross the line of scrimmage.  Lines of force aren't supposed to show all the areas the offense can attack - backs can and do slide laterally before and after the snap to create new lines.  But comparing offensive formations by the number and orientation of their lines of force indicates how different formations can create ways to overpower the defense.

Single back formations can only have a single line of force.

Two back formations can have up to three lines of force.

Three back formations can have as many as six lines of force.

Creating and using multiple lines of force can create an advantage in both force (outnumbering the opponent at the point of attack) and space (since multiple lines keep multiple areas under attack).

Concept 4: (Pawn) Structure

The final basic concept is a difference between football and chess.  Chess players are concerned with issues of pawn structure, such as avoiding creating islands of isolated pawns.  Football architects are more concerned with structure in general, for all players on the field.  Some of the common structural concepts an offensive coach can use to create an advantage include:

• Unbalanced lines.  An unbalanced offensive line can force certain defenses to either be outflanked or play in unfamiliar positions, such as when a linebacker plays as the last man one one side of the defense (rather than a cornerback).
• Offensive line splits.  Certain offenses gain an advantage with either very small (Single Wing, Double Wing offenses) or very large (Veer, Wishbone, Mike Leach Air Raid) line splits.  At the extreme, these can range from no split at all (i.e. foot to foot) up to splits of several yards.  Tight splits give pulling linemen less distance to travel and facilitate double team blocking and inside pass protection, while wide splits move outside rushers far from the passer and open natural running lanes.  

Carson-Newman University, like many split back veer teams, often uses wide line splits.

• Backs outflanking backers.  Linebackers are usually the defensive counterparts of the offensive backs, covering them in pass routes and taking them on as blockers in the running game.  Offensive coordinators will frequently try to find ways to set their backs wider than the linebackers they correspond to, in order to pin the linebackers inside and spring the offense for a wide run.  Moving the wishbone halfbacks to slot positions in order to outflank the backers led to the creation of the flexbone offense (it also made them more effective receivers).
• Proximity of backs to the line of scrimmage.  Many offenses try to maximize the number of receivers that will get into the pass pattern.  Pass protection schemes are designed to achieve this by ensuring as many potential rushers as possible can be accounted for by the offensive linemen, freeing the backs to be receivers.  But there is a structural element as well: positioning backs close to the line increases their effectiveness as receivers.  Blocking backs are sometimes overlooked as receivers because they align in the backfield, but because they are close to the line they can be very effective, as shown by the fullback in the West Coast Offense.
• Symmetry.  Some defenses, such as the 5-2 Monster, use an "extra" defender (sometimes called a rover) to match the strength of the offensive formation.  A symmetrical formation has no strong side, so these defenses must play out of their comfort zone or be outflanked.

These are just a few of the basic concepts in offensive football theory.  Just as a casual chess player can have some fun and success by following the basic concepts, a casual football fan or novice coach can understand and enjoy the game by keeping these concepts in mind.  In both games, understanding the basic theory beats memorizing situations or sequences of moves.