Josh Weinfuss, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Larry Foote relies on experience to handle play calling against up-tempo teams

TEMPE, Ariz. -- When safety Rashad Johnson started telling the story of linebacker Larry Foote “changing” the defensive plays Sunday against Philadelphia, it had all the makings of a juicy tale of a veteran being bold enough to break away from the coaches’ directive.

 “We’ll get the call sometimes from the sideline, and he’ll be like, ‘Hey man, just run this,’” Johnson said. “And we’ll just run what he calls, and it’s like, ‘Dude, who’s calling the play, you or the coach? Like, you can’t be changing the plays on us all the time.’

“He’s like, ‘Man, look, I don’t want to go to nothing new if I can’t get it to everybody so we gonna play what we played the last snap.’ I’m like, ‘Alright, I feel you. You the man. We following you.’”

In reality, Johnson’s story wasn’t salacious at all. It was Foote, however, being savvy.

Defensive coordinator Todd Bowles said Foote does “absolutely not” have the freedom to change the play at the line of scrimmage. But Foote wasn’t necessarily changing the play as much as making sure his teammates were on the same page.

“There might be two plays,” Bowles said. “Or he’s taught if we don’t get the play in in time and they’re breaking the huddle and coming to the line, you can play this or this. But there is no freedom in changing plays.”

With the Eagles running 92 plays Sunday -- that’s one snap every 20 seconds of possession time -- the Cardinals’ defense didn’t have much time to set up. Johnson said Foote took the liberties in this game because of Philadelphia’s tempo, but he typically follow’s Bowles’ direction.

Foote was making the decision to just play the last snap’s scheme about twice a quarter, Johnson said.

“Sometimes they were getting to the line so fast and coach would give us a new call, and he just felt like, ‘I can’t get it to everybody so I’d rather play the defense we were just in, and if everybody is on the same page, then we’re [alright] at the end of the day,’” Johnson said. “Which is the philosophy we take.”

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