Okay, so I saw the name Alex Van Pelt pop up again recently, landed the Raiders job. Made me think back a bit.
I remember really trying to get a handle on what he was doing back when he was with the Browns. It wasn’t like some full-on film study, you know, I’m not that guy. Just watching the games, trying to figure out the flow. Sometimes it felt like, okay, I see the plan here. Running game looked solid a lot of the time. They had the backs, obviously. Chubb, Hunt. Made sense to lean on that.
But then other times, especially in the passing game, I’d just be scratching my head. Seemed like things got real clunky. Was it the play calls? Was it Mayfield? Was it the line? From my couch, it’s tough to tell, right? You just get these glimpses. You see a play work, you think, “genius!” You see it fail, you think, “what was that?”
Trying to Make Sense of It
I spent a few Sundays, seriously, just focusing on the offensive possessions. Rewinding plays on the DVR. Trying to see patterns.
- Was the protection holding up?
- Were receivers getting open?
- Did the QB miss reads?
- Did the play call seem… logical for the situation?
Honestly, half the time I just ended up more confused. It felt like they had the talent, especially some of those years, but consistency was the big missing piece. One week they’d look unstoppable, the next they couldn’t get out of their own way. Frustrating as a fan, and even just as someone trying to follow along.
It reminds me a bit of this project I was on a while back. We had this lead guy, super smart on paper. Knew his stuff. But getting the whole team on the same page? Translating his ideas into actual, smooth work? Total mess. Meetings would go in circles. People doing the same task twice because communication was garbage. You looked at the individuals, talented people. But the results? Hit or miss, just like watching that offense sometimes.
You never really know what’s going on behind the scenes, do you? Is the coach calling great plays and the players aren’t executing? Or are the plays just not cutting it? We hear snippets, read reports, but it’s all filtered.
So now Van Pelt is with the Raiders. New team, new QB situation, different weapons. Will it be different? Who knows. I guess I’ll be watching again, trying to figure it out from my couch. Maybe this time it’ll click, or maybe it’ll be the same old routine of trying to guess what’s really happening. We’ll see how it goes. Good luck to him, I suppose. It’s a tough gig.
