What Are The Three Phases In Football?

When a coach prepares his team for a football game, he has three distinct parts of the game for which he and his assistants will prepare game plans. Offense, defense and special teams comprise the three phases of football. While offense and defense receive the most attention, the ability to make big plays on special teams regularly decides the outcome of games.

Offensive Football

A team tries to score points and establish its strength on the offensive end by mixing running and passing plays. A team that is bigger and stronger than its opponent can use that advantage by establishing a power running game. A team that is skilled and fast will attempt to hit big plays in the passing game. Most teams use a mix of running and passing to move the ball consistently and score touchdowns.

Defensive Football

The defense tries to stop the offense in its tracks and take the ball away. One of the ways to slow down the offense is to punish the ball carrier with hard tackles. Defensive backs will try to get between the receiver and the ball. Pass rushers will try to sack the quarterback and strip him from the ball before he has a chance to throw the ball. Defensive players need to combine athleticism with a desire to punish the opponent with hard tackles to be effective.

Special Teams

This is commonly known as the kicking game. There are many aspects to special teams play. Field goal kicking and punting are two important phases. So are kick returns and punt returns. Kick coverage and punt coverage are also very important aspects of special teams. A team that has a speedy return man who knows how to get past the first wave of tacklers can turn a game in his team's favor. A consistent field goal kicker that is impervious to pressure may be more valuable to his team than a top receiver because the team may ask him to kick game-winning field goals three or more times in a season.

Preparation

The offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and special teams coaches are all like mini-head coaches for their team. Those coaches have to come up with their own game plans each week and the idea is to put their team at an advantage and to make life difficult for their opponents. To do this, you must know your own players very well but you also must know the strengths and weaknesses of your opponents. This requires hours of preparation through film study and reading scouting reports. A team that can win two of these three battles has a good chance of winning the majority of the games played, according to former Dallas Cowboy and Miami Dolphins head coach Jimmy Johnson.