In a 1996 New York Times article, Bill Walsh explained his thought process behind scripting plays to start a game.
“Scripting is planning; it’s contingency planning,” Walsh said. “The fewer decisions to be made during the game, the better. You don’t want to live by your instincts. It’s isolating each situation that comes up and establishing what comes up.
“You make much better decisions on Thursdays and Fridays than you do on Sundays. If anybody thinks they can make all of the decisions on Sundays, then that person often is simply hoping to be lucky.”
Coaches have different goals and processes for how they plan their initial calls. Some, like Andy Reid, believe that getting off to an early lead is a big deal. Other play-callers may simply want to show the defense different looks to see how it responds. The first 15 (or however many it is) may help set something up later in the game.
So which coaches…
