[Row80Critic]

[/quote]

Deja vu. After a loss, Shaw says the team needs to work on execution. Some people cry foul and claim Shaw is throwing the players under the bus. Cardboarders explain that no, it doesn't mean he's throwing anyone under the bus. That's not what "working on execution" or "throwing someone under the bus" mean.

What can and should a team work on for the next week, after a tough loss? A coach's job is to get players better each week. Execution. It's a totally reasonable, if boring and universal, answer.

Then, after the next loss, the cycle will begin anew.
[/quote]

Execution is "the carrying out or putting into effect of a plan, order, or course of action."   I would think Shaw's plenty smart enough to realize that word comes across as blaming the players to a lot of people, even if he doesn't 'mean it that way.   There are an infinite number of ways to deflect the question without doing that.  That's all I'm saying.   Regardless, for purposes of my vacuous arm-chair coaching, let's agree he doesn't mean it that way.  The other half of the point is that it's not always about execution (unless 'execution' subsumes everything involved in winning a game and becomes the ultimate truism -- i.e., we didn't win because we didn't win).  Sometimes it's way more about the plan and/or state of the program, not (or at times in addition to) how things are being executed.  If he told everyone to go out there and hop on their left foot, the inevitable loss would not be the result of poor execution, and no amount of buckling down, hopping drills, or more highly skilled hoppers would change the results next week.  

[Row80Critic]

[/quote]

Deja vu. After a loss, Shaw says the team needs to work on execution. Some people cry foul and claim Shaw is throwing the players under the bus. Cardboarders explain that no, it doesn't mean he's throwing anyone under the bus. That's not what "working on execution" or "throwing someone under the bus" mean.

What can and should a team work on for the next week, after a tough loss? A coach's job is to get players better each week. Execution. It's a totally reasonable, if boring and universal, answer.

Then, after the next loss, the cycle will begin anew.
[/quote]

Execution is "the carrying out or putting into effect of a plan, order, or course of action."   I would think Shaw's plenty smart enough to realize that word comes across as blaming the players to a lot of people, even if he doesn't 'mean it that way.   There are an infinite number of ways to deflect the question without doing that.  That's all I'm saying.   Regardless, for purposes of my vacuous arm-chair coaching, let's agree he doesn't mean it that way.  The other half of the point is that it's not always about execution (unless 'execution' subsumes everything involved in winning a game and becomes the ultimate truism -- i.e., we didn't win because we didn't win).  Sometimes it's way more about the plan and/or state of the program, not (or at times in addition to) how things are being executed.  If he told everyone to go out there and hop on their left foot, the inevitable loss would not be the result of poor execution, and no amount of buckling down, hopping drills, or more highly skilled hoppers would change the results next week.