Oakland Raiders Practicing Situational Football: What-If Scenarios

Tom Cable used a powerful phrase during his press conference on May 19.

The phrase was "situational football."

What does this phrase mean to the average fan? An attempt to define the phrase and to make connections will be given.

First, situational football assumes that the coaches have a collection of scenarios which cover almost all of the possibilities of actions and reactions on the football field.

In another area, the following conditions must be met in order to make the right choices in a particular scenario. A complete and exhaustive lists of scenarios would help to maximize the outcome for the Raiders.

The meaning of a complete set is that all of the limit points are contained in the set.

Every sequence of events eventually converges to a limit point, or, a winning point for the Oakland Raiders.

Yes, I am stretching your thinking but let me continue making my point.

It is assumed that the team has the talent and physicality to execute the sequence of plays that would help the team approach a limit point.

In this case, a particular sequence of plays must produce either touchdowns or field goals.

During the training season, various scenarios and unlikely events are presented.

Then, the players must know enough about their playbook and other matters to do the right thing. 

This type of thinking has to be quick, smart and executable by the player who finds himself in a particular scenario either exact or similar to what he was exposed to in training.

Good thinking is very important in this process. It requires the type of thinking that goes beyond only two choices, but rather many choices might be possible.

This type of thinking is called divergent thinking.

The basic philosophy of situational football requires the Oakland Raiders to "execute perfectly in specific, important situations."

For example, one article says:

"such as third down, short-yardage, inside the 20-yard line and the final 2 minutes of each half."

If you watched the games in 2009, you certainly remember that the final minutes of each half in most of the games were minutes where faulty thinking was exhibited.

It suggested that the players could not function effectively under pressure, or that they did not have a collection of alternatives in their repertoire, ready to be executed to become victorious in the given situation.

Now, some psychologists say that there is a way to improve divergent thinking which would certainly be useful in situational football.

The lists of things to do include

1. Brainstorming about all types of scenarios.

2. Keep a journal

3. Mind or subject mapping.

Most of all it is necessary to learn the various scenarios or unusual situations on the playing field while also having time off the field to think and meditate about what has been learned.

Since there are almost eight years of struggle to attain consecutive victories for the Oakland Raiders, it makes sense "to cram" and study, day and night, the scenarios of football just as a student crams to pass final exams.

Of course, a student crams when he or she has procrastinated and not been thoroughly prepared throughout the entire semester. Usually the student did not study at regular intervals and did not comprehend all of the necessary concepts and problem-solving strategies.

I commend Cable for focusing on situational football. He cannot do it alone.

The players have to buy into the program.

This means, finally, that time, thought, meditation and becoming totally absorbed in the belief that the Oakland Raiders can win consistently is the goal.

One wise concept is, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." What does that mean and how does it apply to football?

It means that the Oakland Raiders must be totally faithful to the belief that the team can win, will win and has the heart to win.

In some cultures the heart is the seat of emotions.

One emotion and concept is love. So, if the Oakland Raiders truly love victory then victory will usher forth from the inside of their heart to the outside and be measured on the scoring board.

And since the Oakland Raiders have included situational football in their program, the "what-ifs," will be answered with decisions and plays that will get the Oakland Raiders to the endzone, resulting in touchdowns and field goals for victories.

Go Raiders!

Source

Source of metaphor: Theorem/Every closed subset of a Cauchy complete set is also Cauchy complete, because it contains all its limit points.