Grooves, defensive/offensive

Hi,

1) “When my sister got divorced, she went out of her way to make sure that things would go along in their usual grooves in terms of the upbringing of her child because she didn’t want to traumatize him.”

Could ‘go along in grooves’ be used this way?

2) What’s the difference between going on the ‘offensive and defensive’?

I know that the first one’s an attack on someone and the other’s used to ward off the attack, but judging by the examples I’ve come across so far, these two seem to overlap to some extent.

What do you think?

Thank you.