Extra Edge: Jon Gruden

His creative plays confound opponents

SAN DIEGO -- Jon Gruden's voice is only in the ears of his quarterback, but he is always in the heads of the opposing defense.

His savvy play-calling is responsible for the Bucs' appearance in Super Bowl XXXVII Sunday.

[Times photo: James Borchuck]

Players and coaches point to Jon Gruden's creativity and ability to throw defenses off balance.

Time after time this season, Gruden has dialed up the right play in the right situation, sometimes to the wonderment of his players.

"We were playing in Cincinnati earlier in the year, and we had this play-action fake to the tailback and kind of get a combination (route) to the right," Bucs quarterback Brad Johnson said. "And at halftime, he said, "Listen, if they come weak side (on a pass rush), be ready to drift in the pocket, roll out to the right a little bit and buy yourself a little extra time.'

"Son of a gun if he didn't call the play, they come weak and I'm thinking this, it's just clicking. I kind of roll out to the right and hit Ken Dilger on a little underneath route and he scores a touchdown.

"The first time I came over there I said, "Man, that was a great coaching point you had, that you gave me.' I told him I'm here to learn, give me some more. Feed me, feed me."

Anyone can write the alphabet. But put the letters in the right order and you might win a Pulitzer. The same is true about drawing plays on a chalkboard and knowing when to use them.

"That's all about preparation and feel," general manager Rich McKay said. "And he has a very good feel for the moment. There are a lot of play-callers that I have known over the years. They're going to use their sheets and stick to the sheets. My dad was a great play-caller, but one of the best play-callers I've been around is Joe Gibbs. And the reason was he had prepared to a ridiculous level and he had sheets, charts, call sheets, everything lined up. And yet, he had a feel. He didn't just operate on what the sheet told him.

"To me, that's more of an instinct than a learned trait. And Jon is very good at that."

Gruden not only studies defenses, he spends as much time charting his own tendencies.

"Here's the deal. He thinks outside the box, he's not orthodox," offensive line coach Bill Muir said. "He's fundamental. He's unorthodox. So some of the things he thinks about, the motion, the movements, he's very creative. And really, when it's all said and done it presents problems for the defense because he moves in and out of personnel packages and continues to do the same thing."

Muir grabbed three empty water glasses from the table, turned them over, aligned them as two tight ends and a receiver, reached for a couple of peppermints and placed them in what would be the backfield.

"The perfect example of it is when we were playing San Francisco. We come out in the traditional goal-line formation," Muir said. "We line up here with two tight ends, and we've got two backs. Everybody matches up. They've got six defensive linemen on the field, in San Francisco's case, they had three linebackers and two defensive backs."

Then Muir began moving the glasses and peppermints around like he was playing a shell game.

"So on the snap of the ball, this guy goes here and taps him and he steps back," Muir said. "He comes across him and taps him. And when he taps him, this guy goes over here and taps him. He shifts out, he kept going in motion, he came over here and we ran the ball there. You can watch San Francisco go with the first movement and they're lost."

The pitch went to the left to Mike Alstott, who practically walked into the end zone.

The consensus is Gruden is a great motivator. But offensively, he also is an innovator.

"I remember when that empty backfield set was en vogue. Right?" Muir said. "Well, that was five wide receivers. Or maybe it was four wide receivers and your best running back. Well, he'll go five wide receivers with the personnel group of two tight ends, two backs.

"He'll combine any shift or motion with any personnel group. If you have a defensive coordinator over there saying, hey, every time they go two tight ends and two running backs, we're going to put an extra linebacker in. Okay, you put an extra linebacker in and they spread out five wide. Now you've got this extra linebacker, who isn't good enough to be a starter anyhow, covering a halfback outside. So it creates mismatches.

"I think he forces the opposing defense to play a little more basic than they want to play. Because you really don't know what to expect. He keeps them off balance."

Bucs players say Gruden often will point out plays in practice he believes could go for long gains or touchdowns.

More often than not, they say, his predictions are right.

"There's been some plays where Coach Gruden will say this play is going to open up a certain way," receiver Karl Williams said. "He says it in practice and you're like, okay, whatever. Then we run it in the game and it turns out just the way he says it. It's like, okay, is this guy psychic or something?

"The play that stands out is in Cincinnati, the Keenan McCardell touchdown on the sideline. He pretty much walked in. And he told us it would turn out that way and it did. It's kind of scary."

Other great calls include receiver Joe Jurevicius' 71-yard catch and run against Philadelphia that led to the first touchdown in the 27-10 win in Sunday's NFC Championship Game and Jurevicius' TD Jan. 12 against the 49ers when he was the only receiver near the goal line in a two-tight end set.

"He's been on it," McCardell said. "I mean, he's been really on his play-calling. He really puts us in great situations and certain plays are for this guy and certain plays are for that guy. He's done it. He's shuffled the deck to make everybody happy. And that's something a good play-caller would do, it's something a good head coach would do.

"It keeps a happy family around here."