Gameplan

Happy Memorial Day! Welcome back to The Call Sheet! Here’s our gameplan for today:

• Cover 1

  • Foundations of Football: Mike Identification

• Quick Game

Cover 1

Foundations of Football: Mike Identification

Like all complex sports, football has foundational blocks upon which coaches can build extravagant plays and schemes. However, most people are entirely unaware of football’s finer intricacies. As the 2024 season approaches, I’ll dive into some fundamental aspects of the game so you can watch with a greater appreciation and understanding of what’s happening.

A cliche in football is that “teams are built from the inside out.” While this could easily be chalked up as coach-speak, it’s a phrase that holds more truth than fans realize. Are coaches simply referring to the importance of good line play? Yes, but they’re also stressing the importance of cohesiveness, particularly for the offensive line.

We all know playing quarterback is the most challenging job on the field, but do we know the second? I would argue it’s playing any of the five offensive line positions. Some of you probably just scoffed.

“Oh, give me a break, Raj. All they have to do is block!”

Bullshit. You’re wrong. You’re solely focusing on the final aspect of their job.

Offensive linemen are some of the most intelligent people on any team. Understanding protections for the pass game and where to be/who to block in the run game is a monumental standard to uphold, and as the game wears on, that standard remains the same even at peak exhaustion.

“Ok, then how do they pull that off?”

Great question - the answer is it starts by identifying a “Mike” before every play.

When you’ve sat at home watching football, you’ve likely seen quarterbacks and linemen pointing at the defense before the ball is snapped. In some instances, the broadcast catches the audio of a quarterback yelling out a defensive player’s number (e.g., Mike 53 Mike 53, hey 53’s the Mike, 5-3 5-3). Collectively, they’re identifying a Mike or multiple Mikes for that specific play.

Before we dive deeper, I cannot stress this enough: whoever is identified as the Mike does not have to be the defense’s Mike linebacker. It is just the terminology that coaches adopted as the game evolved.

“Ok, cool, so what’s it mean then?”

A Mike identification tells the offensive line who they’re responsible for on each play, run or pass.

Using the barebones picture above, we can see four defensive linemen and three linebackers opposite an offensive line and a quarterback. Without a play call, the rule of thumb is “4 Down, 1 Mike; 3 Down, 2 Mikes” (five offensive linemen accounting for five defensive players). So, for this scenario, the lineman and quarterback need to identify one of the linebackers as the Mike. It could be any of the three, but to keep things simple, let’s say it’s 51. The quarterback would yell, “Mike 51, Mike 51!” And the offensive linemen know they’re responsible for 51 in pass protection or the blocking scheme of a run.

While the picture above differs from before, our rule remains the same: 3 Down, 2 Mikes. Now, the quarterback comes to the line and yells, “Hey, 3 Down, 3 Down! 51 and 58!” So once again, whether the play called is a run or pass, the line knows they’re responsible for the three down linemen and two linebackers (51 and 58).

Now that we have a baseline let’s add a layer of complexity to the picture. What’s different in this picture from the first? Offensively, we’ve added a running back (B) and a tight end (Y). Defensively, we bumped the linebackers over to the right and added a safety. While the picture is more complex, the rule remains the same: 4 Down, 1 Mike. And depending on the play call, that can be anybody.

“What does the Mike ID mean for the B and Y?”

Excellent question - the Mike identification tells the running back and tight end who they’re not responsible for (47 and the four down linemen); the linemen have it covered. For example, if we were running the ball to the left in the picture above, the tight end would help block the end man on the defensive line until the left tackle had control, and then the tight end would likely work his way to block 31, the safety.

Quick Game

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