Hurry-up offense

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The hurry-up offense is an American football offensive style which has several related forms such as the "two-minute drill" and the "no-huddle offense". A team using a hurry-up offense seeks to reduce the average game clock elapsed per play. Depending on the style of hurry-up used, this manifests as a change in play-calling strategy, a reduction or elimination of time spent in the huddle, or other clock management techniques. While the two-minute drill refers to a specific point in the game, the hurry-up may be used in some form at any time.

1 Hurry-up
2 No-huddle
- 2.1 No-huddle as a standard method
3 Two-minute drill
- 3.1 Example two-minute drill

[edit] Hurry-up

The hurry-up offense is the broader category that includes the no-huddle tactic and may be employed during a 2-minute drill. The hurry-up aspect is that teams either reduce the time spent or forego huddling to set their players at the line of scrimmage in an effort to be able to snap the ball in a shorter period of time.

Using the hurry-up offense is an approach often used by any team when the amount of time remaining in a half is waning and they want to get as many offensive plays in before that time runs out. There are many teams that employ the hurry-up mode throughout the game.

[edit] No-huddle

The no-huddle offense is usually employed as part of a hurry-up offense, but it is not necessarily an attempt to snap the ball (begin the play) quicker. The basic aspect this includes is having the offense line up in a predetermined formation at scrimmage, possibly with a predetermined play in mind, and the quarterback may then call an audible (altering a play's choreography) based on what they perceive the defense is going to do according to their pre-snap behavior and alignment. The quarterback might not change the play, especially when the emphasis is on conserving the clock, but there are teams which use this methodology to react to the defense and will remain at this pre-snap state for a considerable time as the clock runs down. A team that currently uses this tactic as their main approach is the Indianapolis Colts.

[edit] No-huddle as a standard method

The first team to employ the no-huddle approach as the normal offensive play strategy was the Cincinnati Bengals under Sam Wyche with Boomer Esiason as the quarterback. The no-huddle approach was used by many teams before but in specific situations for a limited time. This strategy proved to be very effective in limiting substitutions, creating fatigue in the opposing defense, creating play-calling issues for the defense, and various other advantages. The employment of the no-huddle propelled the Bengals to their second appearance in the Super Bowl.

The Bengals' resurgence as an offensive powerhouse made them rivals of the Buffalo Bills during the late 80's. The Bills then adopted the Bengals' no-huddle approach and apparently perfected it becoming the dominant offense powerhouse of the early 90's with Jim Kelly as their quarterback. That led the Bills to their first Super Bowl appearance.

Currently the Indianapolis Colts with Peyton Manning as quarterback, New England Patriots with Tom Brady, and Cincinnati Bengals with Carson Palmer employ their own variations of this approach.

[edit] Two-minute drill

The two-minute drill is a high-pressure and fast-paced situational strategy where a team will focus on clock management, maximizing the number of plays available for a scoring attempt before a half (or game) expires. The tactics employed during this time involve managing players, substitutions, time-outs, and clock-stopping plays to get as many plays in. In the first half, either team may employ the two-minute drill; however, near the end of the game, only a team tied or losing employs the strategy. Most famously, the two-minute drill references end-of-game drives by a team tied or trailing by one possession.

The two-minute drill is named for the point in the game (about two minutes remaining in a half) when it is employed. If significantly more time remains, a team's standard strategies are still viable; if significantly less, a team has little option beyond a Hail Mary pass.

Play calling during the two-minute drill emphasizes high probabilities of significant yardage gains or clock stoppages. To help control the clock, teams tend to pass rather than run and to pass near the sidelines rather than the middle of the field. The former provides for incomplete passes while the latter allows the receiver to run out of bounds, both stopping the clock. When plays that do not stop the clock occur, the offense relies on a combination of hurry-up plays, spikes, and time-outs to minimize time lost. Additionally, in college football, the offense can temporarily stop the clock by gaining a first down.

Finally, as a two-minute drill nears completion, the offense's clock management stance may shift towards running out the clock in an effort to deny the opponent their own opportunity for a two-minute drill.

[edit] Example two-minute drill

In Super Bowl XLII, the New York Giants executed a two-minute drill culminating in the game-winning touchdown against the New England Patriots.^[1] Taking possession with 2:39 remaining, the Giants' play calling broke down as:

11 called passes verses 1 called running play, with the one run coming on a 4th-and-1 attempt
7 passes to sidelines versus 2 passes to midfield

When plays did not stop the clock automatically, the Giants took action as follows:

The clock was allowed to run normally once, 30 seconds between plays
Hurry-up plays were run twice, average 15 seconds between plays
Time-outs were used three times, average 11 seconds between plays

For comparison, the six plays which stopped the clock by rule averaged 5 seconds between plays.

In total, the Giants' two-minute drill ran 12 plays for 83 yards in 2:07 of game time. By contrast, the Patriots' preceding drive (run without hurry-up) ran 12 plays for 80 yards in 5:12.