I don't think the issue is with Petes mantra. The issue comes down to a poor gameplan that is not changed until halftime. This falls on all the coaches within the gameplan, not on a soundbite meant to keep a team from quitting.
In my opinion, they should start with a short passing game, maybe 1 run, 2 short passes. NO PASSES BEHIND THE LINE OF SCRIMMAGE TO START OUT! I cannot stand caught in the backfield bubble screens that Bevell loves. Wait until they have to move defenders in to stop the success of our short passes, then take it outside. SPREAD OUT THE DEFENSE! We run a lot of bunched up plays for out routes to the sideline. If the defense is already on the line near russ, they bring 5 or 6 fast on the blitz and those routes to the sideline never happen because russ is smothered. Our line cant tell if the blitz is coming because our receivers are too close to the OL, so a blitz appears as man coverage.
Up the tempo. The defense is going to come out with a gameplan as well, so put the pressure on them to not have the time to make the adjustments. We have an issue with running the play clock to 0. Keep the defense on its heals and with no time to adjust.
When we come out and hand it off first play, try a long route 2nd play that never has time to develop due to the line collapsing, then run or try to force a pass on 3rd and long it doesn't work.
Our weakest link is our OL. Take the pressure off them. Hoping they create a hole for a run, or can pass block for 5 seconds for a long route to develop is unrealistic. Make it simple on our weakest link. Pass protect for 2 seconds. 2 hot routes and one intermediate. Close crossing patterns to throw off man coverage. Force them into zone. Send out one long route that breaks inside fairly soon to make sure it draws the safety to keep the short and intermediate routes as open as they can be. If the free safety doesn't bite, and the line somehow does hold, then you still have that big play possibility. NO EMPTY BACKFIELD. You will have a running back in the backfield to pick up any extra rushers or someone that breaks through to give russ some time. They also have to stay closer to the line to defend against the rush.
Confuse them with pre snap alignment. Keep spread out, and run several different plays from the same look presnap. Anything you can do to keep them having to guess or play zone due to lack of information. When they are spread sideline to sideline, they have to man up. They will rush 4, have 4 in man coverage, free safety back as our long route takes off and breaks to the center. That leaves 3 guys. The strong safety usually hangs near the line to spy russ. Lockett and Baldwin are fast enough to get ahead of their assigned coverage, leaving the 2 left in zone to protect. We burned teams this second half of the season this way consistently. Once they get burned a few times this way, they will hang back a bit. Use the exact same formation, but run it on them. They will recognize the formation and hang back to cover the seam, opening up the run.
Tempo and multiple plays from the same formation severely limits a defenses ability to adjust. Teams kill us with the dink and dunk stuff using this exact strategy. We then adopted it after the buy this year, but for some reason abandoned it during the playoffs until after halftime.
It is a breakdown of X and 0's, not a locker room mantra that causes these problems. It would be great if it was just locker room soundbites that were the problem, but it is not. Composing a new rahrah cheer is not going to fix the flaws in gameplanning. The reality of having a subpar OL makes it a neccesity to keep it easy for them coming out of the gate.