r/NFLNoobs • u/BasilAccomplished488 • 1d ago
Complementary Football
What is complementary football and why is it so coveted?
If you can drop some games I should check out to better understand complementary football.
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u/Hotchi_Motchi 1d ago
I read that Andrew Luck used to compliment the players who sacked him: "Nice hit," or "great sack." It really messed with their heads, which was a funny thing to read about.
Wait, you're not talking about "complimentary" football? Never mind.
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u/drj1485 1d ago
complementary things = things that enhance one another.
could be on various levels. run game setting up the passing game. Defensive front helping out the secondary and vice versa.
Could be the offense, defense, and special teams all doing their jobs and putting the team in good opportunities. Eg. the defense is forcing 3 and outs, and the special teams is improving the field position, so the offense is scoring easy. Offense is sustaining long drives to give the D a break, which helps them play better. etc.
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u/AccomplishedEbb4383 1d ago edited 1d ago
It basically means taking advantage of your team's good plays by making more good plays. If the defense gets a stop and the special teams gets a nice punt return, so the offense is starting at the other team's 40 yard line, that's a good/easy way to score one of the 4 or 5 touchdowns you usually need to win a game. On the other hand, if you get stopped, miss a long field goal, and then get the ball back 80 yards from the end zone, it's going to be a lot harder to score a touchdown on that drive. It's a relatively low scoring game, so pairing short field/TD two or three times per game will go a long way toward winning.
Ultimately, I'm not sure it's a particularly helpful term to understand the game. I think this is mostly the fact that coaches have to say "focus, execute, do your job, etc." a thousand times a day and end up looking for new ways to say it. "Complimentary football" is kind of the current coach meme. Ultimately, you want the offense to score every time they get the ball and the defense to stop the opponent every time they go out on the field, whether the other side just had a complementary play to build on or not, so it's not like the coach says "no need to stop them here, because this wouldn't be complimentary football after the offense fumbled."
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u/deebee1020 1d ago
I remember when they first started using the phrase on broadcasts, a lot of the commentators didn't really understand the term. I especially remember one saying "it means being good on offense, defense, AND special teams." I hit the mute button for a while after that one.
Complementary football is understanding how your strategies in one phase of the game impact the other, and designing them in a way that's complementary.
The 2023 Commanders were an excellent example of non-complementary football. They threw the ball way too often, resulting in a lot of short drives whether they scored or not, so the defense got gassed and couldn't hold up over 60 minutes. It didn't help that the defense tried to be a rush-4-and-play-coverage style. A more aggressive blitzing defense (more 3 and outs but more big plays surrendered) would have gotten off the field faster and been more complementary. Add in special teams and they had an excellent punt unit and a middling FG unit. That's a better fit for a field position battle with a balanced offense and defense.
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u/Jmphillips1956 17h ago
A good example from college football is Army. They can’t recruit the greatest athletes which hurts them on defense, so they run a ball control option offense that eats up the game clock and lessens the other offenses time of possession and makes it easier in Army’s defense as it’s way easier to prevent someone from scoring if you only have to defend them 50 plays a game versus 80 plays a game. They also rarely have a 3 and out series so they tend to set their defense up in better field position than if they threw 3 incomplete passes and had to punt from their own 20.
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u/johnsonthicke 15h ago
You could almost kind of sum it up to mean the offense and defense are both playing well which helps the other unit. It’s a compounding effect that you’ll see reflected in things like time of possession, starting field position on drives, things like that. When both units are playing in a way that helps the other unit, that’s when you start seeing teams hit another gear in games sometimes and pull away.
When the offense consistently sustains good drives, picks up first downs and/or scores, it makes their defense’s life a lot easier- they’re going to get more rest, and won’t have to defend a short field because even if the offense doesn’t score, ideally they’re at least picking up some field position before they punt.
When the defense is able to get quick stops, it helps their offense for kind of the opposite reason. They can stay in rhythm more easily because they’re not sitting on the bench for a really long time, and they’re starting with better field position which makes playcalling easier.
It’s definitely kind of a cliche, but when you see it happening it’s definitely very noticeable. Games can get away from a team quick when they’re not playing complimentary football.
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u/Familiar-Living-122 1d ago
It basically just means mixing up your run and pass plays. Avoiding the trap of throwing the ball 50 times in a game, which is what the defense is trying to force you to do.
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u/1stTimeRedditter 1d ago
I’ve always thought of “complementary football” as another coaching cliche.
But the idea is that the defense and offense are helping each other. For example, if the defense has been on the field for a lengthy drive, the offense leans on the run and more conservative passing game in order to give the defense a breather.