This at least gets to the real issue people are giving all kinds of different labels to.
Execution.
Doesn't matter how fast/slow you go, if you don't execute, you don't get the maximum points per possession you could have. When the other team can punch back more and more this is going to get you into tighter games or beat.
It isn't because of tempo. It isn't because of the number of possessions. It's because you failed to execute and extract enough points in the possessions you did have. If you go faster on purpose (not in scenarios where you have no choice) when you have an execution problem, you are just going to give the ball back to the other team faster.
The constraint of the game of football is 1) the clock and 2) the rules that require an exchange of possessions. If you speed up, you can absolutely get more possessions per game but you are at the same time going to give your opponent more possessions and when you do that you are giving them more opportunities for random variance to express itself.
Ask yourself what is the ideal outcome of every possession? If you could make it happen what would it be?
For me it's score a TD after the longest possible time of possession possible which is theoretically 60 game minutes. Even though that is fantasy, it's true north of how the game actually works. Anything you do that gets away from that, you are going in the wrong direction.
Give me points (ideally a TD) after every possession and each possession take 8-9 minutes and I will end up with 2-3 more possessions than the other guy. THEN, he will be playing from behind in the fewer possessions he has so the last few will be severely constrained (in my favor) and I am going to win every time. When you are the more skilled team, this is the only sensible strategy.
It breaks down when execution breaks down, like anything else.
