No-Huddle Offense

Week 2 Results:

10-23:  (1-1) Chicago Bears at (1-1) Green Bay Packers
34-41:  (1-1) Tampa Bay Buccaneers at (1-1) New York Giants
13-35:  (0-2) Oakland Raiders at (1-1) Miami Dolphins
27-  7:  (2-0) Houston Texans at (0-2) Jacksonville Jaguars
27-34:  (0-2) Cleveland Browns at (1-1) Cincinnati Bengals
17-35:  (0-2) Kansas City Chiefs at (1-1) Buffalo Bills
23-24:  (1-1) Baltimore Ravens at (2-0) Philadelphia Eagles
27-35:  (0-2) New Orleans Saints at (1-1) Carolina Panthers
20-18:  (2-0) Arizona Cardinals at (1-1) New England Patriots
20-23:  (1-1) Minnesota Vikings at (1-1) Indianapolis Colts
28-31:  (1-1) Washington Redskins at (1-1) St. Louis Rams
  7-27:  (1-1) Dallas Cowboys at (1-1) Seattle Seahawks
10-27:  (1-1) New York Jets at (1-1) Pittsburgh Steelers
10-38:  (0-2) Tennessee Titans at (2-0) San Diego Chargers
19-27:  (1-1) Detroit Lions at (2-0) San Francisco 49ers
21-27:  (1-1) Denver Broncos at (2-0) Atlanta Falcons
 
There has been talk about “parity” in the league – never before have there been 20 teams at 1-1 after Week 2, as there is this season. Six teams are at 2-0, and six teams are at 0-2. Who would have thought that Arizona and San Francisco would be 2-0, and New England and New Orleans would be at 1-1 and 0-2, respectively?

No-huddle, or the no-huddle offense, are often mentioned by the announcers. But what does that mean?

The huddle is the circle of offensive players prior to an offensive action. This is when the quarterback will tell the players what play to run in the next offensive action, whether a run or pass. The specific play called will tell the players what their assignment is; the play book, which teams guard vigorously, has the name of all the plays and what their particular offensive assignments are.

In the no-huddle offense, the quarterback doesn’t gather the offensive players into a huddle to discuss the play prior to a down. He may have given a series of plays in a previous huddle, so the offense doesn’t need to take time off the clock in the huddle after the previous play.

Because the no-huddle offense is meant to take less time off the clock, it is sometimes referred to as a hurry-up offense (the other hurry-up offense is the two-minute drill). It is used in time-sensitive situations such as when a team has a lot of points to make up if they want to win the game.