INDIANAPOLIS —Frank Reich likens his offensive approach to that of a boxer.
"What you want to do is impose your will on your opponent," he said.
So with that in mind, the expectations for the Indianapolis Colts' offense have been established.
Reich, hired on Sunday as the next head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, has almost three decades of NFL experience working with all sorts of offensive approaches, spending 14 years as a quarterback and then the last 12-plus years climbing the coaching ranks.
What he's found — and it might sound simple and is certainly nothing new — is that taking it to the defense, dictating the play on the field instead of the other way around, is the most effective way to put points on the board.
"It's going to be a multiple, attack, up-tempo offense," Reich told Colts.com's Matt Taylor about the offensive mindset he'll instill in Indy. "We're going to be aggressive."
And by "aggressive," that doesn't necessarily translate into being pass-heavy. As offensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles last season, Reich led a unit that finished seventh in total yards and third in points, but the offense, overall, learned more on its run game, ranking third in rushing yards (2,115) vs. 13th in passing yards (3,737).
And once the Colts have a lead, look out. When the Eagles led by seven or more points last season, they took just less than 29 seconds in-between plays, according to FootballOutsiders.com, ranking seventh in the league in that category.
"There's going to be elements of no-huddle in it," Reich said. "And in our offense, what that means is, to be aggressive and up-tempo doesn't mean throw it every down, but it means to run it when you want to run it, throw it when you want to throw it and basically dictate the tempo."
Reich said Tuesday that he will be calling the plays for the Colts' offense, setting up a similar order of operations used the last two seasons in Philadelphia, in which head coach Doug Pederson called the plays while Reich, as the offensive coordinator, had plenty of input from the sideline.
While he'll be the "voice" on gameday for the Colts, Reich stressed the importance of the collaborative effort needed from his entire staff to ensure the team is making the right decisions.
"You can't even imagine the collaboration that goes into preparing the call sheet," Reich said. "Preparing the first 15 (plays), how we're prioritizing our third-down calls, how we're prioritizing our red-zone calls, all the situational football.
"During the course of the game, how the communication goes between the play caller and the rest of the offensive staff, what's said, how we're talking to the quarterback."
While all of those processes are yet to be fully determined — Reich is now working on filling out his entire coaching staff — there's no doubt about how the Colts' new head coach will approach things when the ball is in their hands.
"Sometimes it's up-tempo, sometimes you slow it down," Reich said. "But the whole key is we do it the way we want to do it."
