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Democrazy posted:So would anyone be interested in a write-up on the defensive positions and a few schemes and formations? If someone else could do the offense while I write something up on defense, it'd be pretty cool. I'll work on something for offense, sure.
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Jul 6, 2010 02:54
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OFFENSIVE FOOTBALL Let's start with some basics. There have to be at least seven players lined up on the line of scrimmage at all times in American football. If there are less than seven players, it is an illegal formation and will be penalized. Of these, the two players at each end are eligible receivers, and the five interior players are ineligible receivers/offensive linemen. All players lined up behind the line of scrimmage are also eligible receivers. I FORMATION  This is probably the most used formation in football. As you can see, there are five offensive linemen - two tackles, two guards, and a center - lined up on the line. On the left side, a wide receiver is also lined up on the line (a WR lined up on the line is also known as an X). On the right side, a TE (also known as a Y) is lined up on the line. Both of those players are eligible receivers. A second WR is lined up on the right side (a WR lined up behind the line is also known as a Z). A fullback and a halfback (a term used interchangeably with tailback or running back) are lined up behind the quarterback. This formation is fairly neutral and will be used as both a passing and a running set. An I formation is typically run with 2 WR and 1 TE or 2 TE and 1 WR, but other variations exist. Many teams also use an offset I, where the fullback lines up even with the guard instead of the quarterback. Another variant is the pro set, where the fullback and halfback line up at even depths instead of halfback behind fullback. The most basic running play out of this formation is lead:  That's a basic lead play from Notre Dame's playbook in the late 90s. The offensive line blocks the guys in front of them, attempting to clear the space around where the guard lines up. The fullback goes in the hole first and blocks the nearest second-level defender, typically the middle linebacker. The tailback gets the ball and runs through the hole, and if everyone has done their job gains some yards. Other basic running plays out of this formation: Trap - this describes a group of plays where one or more defensive linemen are not blocked or blocked into the backfield because the runner is intending to run towards the space where the defensive lineman was before he left. Counter - a group of plays where the offense takes a step or two in one directio to fake the defense into going that way, then reverses direction and moves the other way Toss - an outside running play where the quarterback tosses the ball laterally to a running back, the RB then attempts to beat the interior defenders to the outside of the field, and then turns upfield There's a lot of different types of these type of plays. The I formation and offshoots have been the core formation of football since about the late 50s, but have been recently overtaken by the spread offense. SPREAD OFFENSE A spread offense attempts to spread the offensive players around the field to create space for runners and receivers. This is mostly a passing formation, although certain teams such as West Virginia have been successful with a run-heavy spread offense. Most spread offenses are run out of the shotgun, where the quarterback stands around five yards behind the line of scrimmage and receives the ball thrown between the center's legs instead of passed. The spread offense typically eliminates the fullback position and operates with 3 to 5 wide receivers, taking backs and tight ends off the field.  A typical three wide receiver shotgun set. Because there is an extra receiver and the play can happen quicker because the QB is in a better position to throw quickly, the defense has to spread out more to cover the possibilities.  These are four fairly typical spread offense passing plays from the holy grail of playbooks for coaches, Urban Meyer's (from Utah). It would take awhile to explain everything going on here, but there are both short options and deep options on all plays. With a quarterback who can figure out who is open (called reading progressions) and athletic perimeter players (WR and RB), it is almost impossible to cover everyone, which is why this formation is so effective. The spread also tends to have a lot of routes working towards the middle of the field instead of the sidelines, which has led to some college quarterbacks putting up insane numbers without even acceptable arm strength. Because the defense has to defend the pass so vigorously, running plays can also be effective out of this formation. The "wildcat" formation, which has become en vogue in both college and professional offense, is essentially just a spread option offense with only running plays and a fast guy playing quarterback. The wildcat sets increase the prevalence of option runs, which are runs where the quarterback has the option to keep the ball himself if he sees an open running lane, or pitch or hand the ball to a perimeter player.  That's four basic zone read plays, a typical spread option play where the quarterback or wildcat player can hand it to the running back or keep it and run depending on which way he reads the defense. I was going to go over the passing tree here, but I found a basic explanation here instead. That's a very very very basic introduction to offensive football philosophy and leaves out like 9 million important things, but it's a start.
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Jul 6, 2010 03:52
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Crunkjuice posted:This is really awesome info, any chance you or someone could do a defensive write up? I can do pretty well in identifying offensive schemes, but i can't read defenses for poo poo. Democrazy said he was writing one up so I'll let him handle that, if you have any specific questions I'll take a shot though. A really good site that breaks a lot of this stuff down is Smart Football.
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Jul 6, 2010 04:30
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Doppelganger posted:What are the most important qualities for different defensive position players to have? Defensive tackles: Girth, strength Defensive ends/3-4 outside linebackers: Strength, quick burst speed to rush passer Linebackers: Tackling ability, play recognition, lateral quickness Safeties: Play recognition, speed, tackling ability Cornerbacks: Speed, ability to read passer/receiver, hand/eye coordination
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Jul 6, 2010 04:55
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WombBroom posted:I'm not aware of any programs that help you draw up defenses, but I'm trying to find a way to grab some screenshots of Madden '08 to use as teaching tools. I think Playmaker has a free demo that lets you draw, although I haven't used it in many years. There's a bunch of video editing/scouting suites that have play drawing capabilities but they're obviously a bunch of money. Some people just use Paintshop, that works too.
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Jul 6, 2010 07:20
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The other thing with reads is that most defenses (and offenses and even individual players) have significant tells that can be discovered through film study.Quiet Feet posted:What exactly does it mean for a defense to have a 1-gap or 2-gap (or A-gap?) scheme? Something to do with plugging holes in the offensive line? Most players in a defensive front (anyone playing close to the line) have a "gap responsibility" to stuff a run in a particular gap (gaps being basically just a terminology assigned to the space around offensive linemen). The A gap is the gap between the guard and the center on each side. Most defenders are 1 gap, the most typical 2 gap defender is a 3-4 nose tackle which is why those guys are huge - they can physically take up both A gaps. oldfan fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Jul 8, 2010 |
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Jul 7, 2010 23:57
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Perhaps a simpler explanation is that the "gap" letters are used to denote offensive blocking holes, whereas the "technique" numbers are used to determine defensive positioning (where the defensive player lines up in relation to the offensive players). In practice you only hear about the odd numbers for the "techniques," 1 techs are nose tackles, 3 techs are under tackles, 5 and 7 techs are regular defensive ends, and 9 techs are outside pass rush specialists. Occasionally a 3-4 will line their nose up as a pure 0 tech, but there's usually an advantage to having the tackle play a shoulder leverage for complicated but relatively unimportant reasons.
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Jul 8, 2010 02:27
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Quiet Feet posted:What is the benefit to rotating your defensive lineman/running backs? Is it just to keep guys fresh, or is there something else I'm missing here? A bit of both. RB and (most) DL are the spots where a quick burst of speed is needed much more than anywhere else on the field, which requires fresh legs. They're also two of the most down-and-distance dependent slots on the field - a third down scatback or a third down pass-rushing specialist is essentially a different position than the first and second down players, which is why hearing such and such is a "three down player" is a pretty big compliment.
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Jul 8, 2010 15:05
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Pass blocking, especially of edge rushers, has a lot more of an agility and explosiveness component than a raw strength component. That's why a lot of smaller backs are excellent pass blockers, and it's also why left tackles tend to be some of the best athletes on the field.
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Jul 8, 2010 16:13
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Dominion posted:The term "wildcat" is getting overused and becoming a generic term for any formation in which there is a direct snap to a player who is not normally a QB. That's well and good, but the Dolphins didn't invent the Wildcat and so attributing "what the Dolphins used in 2007" as the only correct definition of the formation is incorrect. There isn't any consensus on what is and isn't a "Wildcat" formation, and the name doesn't really have all that much to do with Miami's unbalanced line/jet sweep variant - there's a formation invented by a HS coach, what Arkansas was running and turned into the Wildhog, what Carolina ran with the direct snaps, and then what Miami ran, and they can all be called "Wildcat." oldfan fucked around with this message at 21:53 on May 1, 2011 |
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Aug 1, 2010 20:55
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Dominion posted:Oh certainly, the Dolphins didn't come close to inventing it. But when people ask "so whats this wildcat thing all about anyway?", they usually don't want a detailed history so much as an explanation of what the word means when they hear it on Monday Night Football or whatever. But it really is just a generic term for "perimeter guy receiving a direct snap and running a misdirection or option play." The term entered the popular football lexicon from Arkansas, not the Dolphins, and it was basically just their generic term for the package which had McFadden (and occasionally Felix Jones) at quarterback. Arkansas certainly did a lot more then just jet sweeps and playactions off the jet sweep from an unbalanced line with their Wildcat, and it was a term being used a lot by 2007 to refer to the broader concept and not the limited Miami set (since the Dolphins hadn't even come up with it yet). Crunkjuice posted:Stupid question, but how much has football changed in the past 30 years or so? I've only really paid attention the last 3-4 years, but i when i see old school clips of even the 90's, the game feels off to me. Maybe i need to sit down and watch an older game in full. Maybe its the new style gear, but it seems nowadays players are stronger/faster/hit harder compared to even 10 years ago? Less than you'd think. Players are a little faster and a little stronger, but by the early 80s speed and strength were being emphasized so it isn't like comparing the game to the 40s or 50s. There haven't really been any great offensive or defensive innovations - West Coast offenses were already around then, and at least a few teams were running spread philosophies. The two biggest changes I can think of would be the advent of the spread formations as running sets and the existence of advanced zone defenses, most notably the Tampa 2. And the basis for both already existed by the 70s. I suspect that the reason it feels so different is because of the quality of television broadcast. There have been huge leaps in the quality of television football broadcasts in the last ten years, in terms of both resolution and camera angles.
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Aug 2, 2010 04:04
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Xeras posted:From my understanding a slot receiver is the receiver lined up with a flanker or split end, correct? A slot receiver is an eligible receiver who is not lined up on the end of the formation (that's the flanker and split end, usually), next to the offensive tackle (tight end), or in the backfield (running back). quote:Why then do I hear often commentators say so and so is a good slot receiver, can't this change based upon formation used? Yes, but a lot of teams will consistently use the same guy in the slot. A good slot receiver tends to be very good at intermediate routes over the middle, although this can vary based on the offensive scheme. quote:In addition to this Wikipedia states under the penalties for illegal formation states: eligible receivers fail to line up as the leftmost and rightmost players on the line in the NFL. Is that referring to only receivers lined up on the line, not any a yard deep? Essentially, there have to be seven players on the line of scrimmage - five offensive linemen and two eligible receivers - although the rule is worded slightly differently. The receivers who are lined up "on the line," which would usually but not always be the split end and the tight end, have to be lined up even with the ball and the offensive linemen; if they aren't it's an illegal formation. This doesn't come up as a penalty much because the tight end is lining up right next to the tackle and the split end usually communicates via hand signals with the line judge and head linesman to make sure he's on the line. quote:I read up on the Bob Davies link mostly regarding defense but I am still uncertain on things such as weak side, strong side. At a basic level, the strong side is whichever side the offense has more players lined up on and the weak side is whichever side the offense has less players lined up on. In a basic 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE formation, it would be the side where the TE is lined up. Some teams use strong side/weak side to orient their defense, some teams just use left or right (but from a defensive perspective). quote:A more comprehensive look at zone and man coverage would be great as well, he talked about the cover 2 playing man underneath, is that then zone or man? Cover 2 man is basically a man coverage with two safeties providing deep help. It's pretty basic, can get killed by short slants, and only allows for four pass rushers. The least complicated way I can explain basic pass defense philosophy is to think of it as each defensive players having an individual assignment on each play. In a basic man defense, a defender has the responsibility for a specific offensive player. In a basic zone defense, a defender has the responsibility for a specific area on the field. Does that make any sense? The strengths of a man defense are that it isn't really complicated in terms of where you're going on a specific play - you're literally just covering the dude in front of you. The weakness is that offensive players have a number of innate rules (pass interference) and knowledge (they know where they're going) advantages that make it hard for even the best defensive players to cover a good offensive player in single man coverage for very long, Darrelle Revis and Nmandi Asomugha excluded. The strengths of a zone defense are that the defender doesn't have as big of the knowledge problem, because he doesn't necessarily have to keep up with the offensive player, and it's also easier to disguise coverages. The weaknesses are that specific plays can just carve the poo poo out of zone defenses because it's impossible for 11 guys to cover the entire field and thus there's a lot of holes. Zones are also pretty complicated and can occasionally lead to screwups where a defender goes with the wrong guy and an offensive player ends up behind the defense with nobody within 20 yards of him. quote:I personally hate listening to TV announcers as the Packers have great radio announcers but the game is nearly a play ahead of the TV, any way to correct that? If not what commentators are good, generally? For the pros, not many of them on the television. Gus Johnson rules, but he does secondary AFC games. Same thing with Ian Eagle. Ron Jaworski is a really good analyst, but he's buried on a team with a bad PBP guy and a second color guy who talks a lot but doesn't say much. The Bob Papa/Matt Millen team on NFL Network was great but they're adding Joe Theismann this year and he's The Worst. Ron Pitts and Kenny Albert are okay. quote:I would love to get a better understanding of most NFL routes for wide receivers in terms of name and use of the routes. Wikipedia (in the Route(football) article which won't link properly) does a decent job on the basics if you click through to the connecting articles, as does an introductory passing tree I posted a while back. There's certainly some more complicated stuff like combo routes or option routes but I'm not real sure you want to be learning those as a new viewer. oldfan fucked around with this message at 08:00 on Sep 14, 2010 |
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Sep 14, 2010 07:56
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Xeras posted:Thank you so much for most of this writeup it was very informative. I guess I worded my zone and man question poorly as I do understand their concepts and their use. I was just confused as to when you get into the tampa 2 it is a combination of zone and man, but is cover 2 the same or just referring to the "level" of coverage defenders are covering as Bob Davies explains it? The number after the coverage indicates that it's a zone coverage with that number of players deep. So a cover 1 has one safety in a deep zone, a cover 2 has two safeties in a deep zone, a cover 3 has three defensive backs in a deep zone, and a cover 4 has usually two safeties and two corners in a deep zone (with linebackers covering the flats). The Tampa 2 is a misnomer; it's really a cover 3 zone variant. The safeties each have a deep sideline coverage area and a linebacker has the deep middle responsibility, while usually also having the usual run responsibilities. The personnel required for a Tampa 2 is extremely specialized and tough to find: the linebackers must be good in both run support and pass coverage and be excellent read and react players, the corners have to be good in run support, and pretty much everyone on the defense has to be fast. It does have the advantage of being able to use relatively smaller players, and when run correctly is very hard to outscheme. Cover 1 and cover 2 are sometimes used to describe man defenses in addition to zone defenses, in situations where the coverage is man with deep safety help. Cover 0 is usually a single man coverage on every receiving option and is used to denote a heavy blitz. Xeras posted:Edit: Also I do find what you said about slot receivers interesting. Is there any sort of similar generalization for flankers and split ends as to if they run short, intermediate, deep routes? Gonna look over the passing tree tomorrow, thanks for posting it! It depends on the offense. Most playbooks have different responsibilities for the flanker (also known as the Z) and the split end (also known as the X), but there isn't necessarily a huge difference except that the flanker can go in motion easier and the split end might run a small amount more deep sideline routes because he's starting slightly closer to the defensive backs. Both positions are fairly interchangeable generally and they can be asked to do it all. This would be much easier with a chalkboard! oldfan fucked around with this message at 15:49 on Sep 14, 2010 |
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Sep 14, 2010 08:41
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Lead, iso, and blast are all pretty close cousins, and depending on playbook-specific terminology may be used interchangeably (same play could be called any of the three depending on a certain playbook) or concurrently (a play could be called lead iso, iso blast, etc.). They're your basic man-blocking straight ahead inside run plays.
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Oct 3, 2010 15:15
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It looks like some derivative of yards per attempt, although it's not just straight yards divided by attempts.
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Oct 9, 2010 06:53
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Head coaches have two-way headsets where they can switch from being on the offensive frequency to the defensive frequency, so they end up having input on anything they want. Some head coaches of course are also the primary playcaller for one side of the ball, and in that case they would have much less of an influence on the other side. In addition to the aforementioned personnel stuff, a special teams coach would typically be checking during the game for protection issues, blocking lanes, and fake opportunities.
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Nov 1, 2010 18:23
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That's indeed called the "muddle huddle," "swinging gate," or "swinging fence." In theory depending on which way the defense lines up, you can run different fakes to different places, usually if someone is uncovered. Of course, the defense knows you run the muddle huddle from tapes, so they normally position their players reasonably and don't leave people uncovered. The typical set of muddle huddle fakes are a pass to one of the guys lined up on the opposite side from the linemen, a kicker draw up the middle, or a lateral to a wing lined up behind the offensive linemen. There are more creative versions. It's common at the high school level and used to be common at the college level, but has fallen out of favor over the last 5-10 years. I've always found the fakes turn into debacles unless they're practiced a fairly large amount since you need to install at least two to have a successful muddle huddle, and the plays are normally complex and involve precise timing. Most teams just aren't going devote a practice period per day to running muddle huddle fakes, and realistically given the success rates on both you'd probably be better off using that practice period to hone your fake punts instead. You also get the occasional illegal shift, delay, or false start that wouldn't occur if you lined up normally. Incidentally, most kickers that I've dealt with hate the thing because it screws up their regular routine. eta: The best variation involves the short snapper being an eligible receiver, although I want to say the NCAA kiboshed that a few years ago. I once saw a team run an Urban Meyer-style double sprint option out of the muddle huddle with the snapper, holder, and kicker, which was quite a fun play although a resounding disaster. oldfan fucked around with this message at 07:36 on Nov 22, 2010 |
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Nov 22, 2010 07:28
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C-Euro posted:I'll bet it's been talked about to death, but honestly what were they trying to do there? The play design is a screen left to either the kicker in motion or the left wing - and they actually had an 8-on-5 out there for that - but the holder freaked out when he saw the pass rush and just launched it. That destroys your numbers advantage because of the 8, most are ineligible receivers, of course.
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Nov 28, 2010 21:41
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Bashez posted:I also believe they lined up for that, there was a penalty, and then they tried it again. It has lost all it's surprise element. It's also about a 5-10 yard play design and they tried it at the end of the half from a lot longer than that, so the most interesting question is why they ran that in that situation.
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Nov 29, 2010 02:20
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Some teams do it more than occasionally. The Jets use backup tackle Wayne Hunter as a tight end in much of the base offense, about 20 percent of snaps.
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Dec 7, 2010 00:02
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-Dethstryk- posted:1) What does "an x possession game" actually mean? Is the possession margin determined by a set number like 7 or 8 points? Or is it just strictly the minimum number of possessions the losing team needs to tie or win? Multiples of 8 since that's the maximum you can score in one possession. So a one possession game is a 1-8 point lead, a two possession game is a 9-16 point lead, a three possession game is a 17-24 point lead, and pretty much after that it's a blowout and nobody cares.
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Dec 9, 2010 11:56
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Doppelganger posted:One thing I hear people talk about sometimes is how good of a route runner somebody is. How do people gauge this? It's not like we can look up the playbook or anything. The way "route runner" is used in analysis usually refers to field awareness and the sharpness of cuts and routes more than replicating the arrow on the playbook. Those are definitely things you can see without knowing the playbook, especially on the isolation replays. Side note: you'd actually be pretty surprised about what's rather freely available in terms of playbooks.
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Dec 10, 2010 01:44
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Groucho Marxist posted:I don't know if these are the ones you're referring to, but here's a shitload of playbooks Jesus, I thought my personal library was huge and there's easily triple that on here (including the college and HS ones not linked). Mostly different stuff too. Thanks!
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Dec 10, 2010 23:26
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I flipped through that book at a brick and mortar store and it was pretty bad.
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Dec 11, 2010 01:35
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Cane Break posted:Is there a good author/book/series of books about x's and o's that i could find at a brick & mortar store? I've seen books like the AFCA manuals and Coach of the Year clinic stuff show up at bookstores, hit and miss of course. Pat Kirwan put out a book a few months ago in a similar vein to the Layden book that is supposedly a lot better, but I haven't had a chance to look at it.
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Dec 12, 2010 01:07
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Quiet Feet posted:What exactly is the benefit of the Giants' "bunch of guys behind the kicker" style of kickoffs? Just an attempt to confuse the return team? Most kickoff return teams are man blocking schemes, especially with the wedge restrictions, so it makes identifying and picking up the right guy a bit tougher.
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Dec 19, 2010 22:42
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The penalty is called "leverage" in the NFL and I believe "vaulting" (as of a few years ago) by the NCAA. It's illegal all the time but essentially never comes up except on kick blocks.
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Jan 11, 2011 18:39
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deadkiller615 posted:I didn't want to start a new thread for this, so this seems like a good place to ask. How much do you guys think a football signed by most of the 2001 patriots would sell for? I think most of the team is on it. This depends on a lot of stuff, such as: - How many signatures it's missing - Which signatures it's missing - What type of ball it is - What condition the ball and the signatures are in - Whether it's authenticated already or can pass PSA/DNA or JSA There also isn't a lot of 2001 Patriots team-signed stuff out there so it's hard to give realized prices. A Duke football with 50 signatures in 9-10 condition, authenticated by a top company, would probably go for $1500-2000 at auction. A commemorative football with 20 autographs, not including Brady, in worse shape would go for a couple hundred. And different variations could go anywhere in between. A commemorative ball with 33 autographs including Brady that was in okay shape went for $428 in an AMI auction about a year ago; if I had to guess that's probably pretty close to what your ball is, but if you want to post some pictures I can probably help some more.
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Jan 13, 2011 21:21
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Blackula69 posted:How much is the Steelers Super Bowl XLIII ball I got with my SI subscription worth? Around $20-30 unsigned. The SI balls are cool looking though.
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Jan 13, 2011 22:09
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Blackula69 posted:He's like if you took the height, speed, and hands of the best receivers and put them together in one. His measurables are off the charts and on a good team he would be shredding the record books for #2 all-time. I firmly believe this. And yet Al Davis, who usually masturbates to the idea of a receiver like that, took JaMarcus Russell over him. One of the great mysteries...
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Jan 19, 2011 01:38
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Short version: Cablevision has rather feverishly fought off any attempt to build a major stadium/arena complex in Manhattan because they don't want competition for major concerts, boxing, and other special events that have usually been held at Madison Square Garden. Cablevision basically owns state assembly speaker and all-around corrupt rear end in a top hat Shelly Silver, and he's used his position to personally kill any stadium or arena projects, including the Jets West Side Stadium.
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Feb 5, 2011 22:23
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I don't really think that the Meadowlands is particularly less convenient from the city than the Citi Field/former Shea site or the Westchester County Center, FWIW.
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Feb 5, 2011 23:16
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BIGFOOT PEE BED posted:Who or what is an Elephant? Usually used to describe a hybrid DE/OLB who is comfortable playing with his hand down in a three point stance or in a tradition LB two point stance. The position was invented for Charles Haley as a 49er. some6uy008 posted:Also, they keep talking about "foot work" what are they referring to, I thought that only matters if a QB has to scramble? In any kind of throwing, whether it's a football or a baseball or something else, the placement of your feet and your weight transfer determines in large part where the ball is going and how hard it is going. This is coming up a lot now because Cam Newton's footwork blows to a degree rarely seen in serious pro prospects, and Blaine Gabbert's isn't exactly awesome either. nnnAdam posted:Going off this, I always see people bring up proper footwork and stuff like that and I've always wondered what this entailed. Can someone go into detail and maybe post some links to youtube or something that can show me good v. bad footwork. I'll see what I can come up with, but in general these types of coaching tools and tapes cost some money and wouldn't be on Youtube. oldfan fucked around with this message at 22:32 on Apr 7, 2011 |
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Apr 7, 2011 22:30
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Pron on VHS posted:What current NFL players fit this? DeMarcus Ware, right? Maybe Terrell Suggs? Is Aldon Smith a prototypical Elephant? Ware and Jason Taylor would be the two off the top of my head. There's not a ton of guys who are super-comfortable rushing from both stances. I'm working on a big effortpost about footwork.
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Apr 7, 2011 23:02
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nnnAdam posted:Not even so much coaching tapes, but maybe just quarterback highlight videos perhaps and what I should look for would be awesome. I know you know your stuff incredibly well so anything you can provide would be awesome. The first tape we'll look at is a Tom Brady game cutup. In general, Tom Brady has some of the best footwork in the league. All but three throws here in this Bills game have the same general properties, no matter what the drop is or whether he's in the the gun or under center. (The Patriots mostly do three step out of the gun, but not entirely, and this tape has a little of everything.) Brady takes nice even steps in his drops, stays on the balls of his feet, slides around in the pocket without look harried or hassled, plants his feet in the direction the ball is going, steps into his throw, and has a smooth, balanced weight transfer. Everything is textbook and Tom Brady is the guy quarterback coaches show their young quarterbacks for this. There are exactly three throws with imperfect footwork in this tape: At 0:57, Brady drops back for a HB screen left. As McKracken already noted, screen footwork is different than your typical drop footwork. The LG doesn't hold his block long enough, Brady is pressured a half-second earlier than he should have been, and ends up throwing badly off-balance with his feet pointing towards the left sideline on a throw that should have been at about a 45 degree angle to the left. The throw ends up being way underthrown and way off target towards the sidelines, and the RDE makes a great play to intercept it. Not really Brady's fault. At 1:18, Brady takes a three step out of the gun. Randy Moss ends up uncovered running a drag route because the Patriots ran one of their patented (and illegal) downfield screens that never get called. Brady throws the ball before he's even out of his drop for a big gain. This is bad footwork in a good way; all he has to do is get the ball in Moss's vicinity here and you've got a big play. At 2:41, the Patriots have a two point conversion attempt. Brady takes a three step out of the gun. The Patriots run another downfield screen that leaves Moss open on what was either a flag or deep out (tough to tell from the camera). Brady starts scrambling under light pressure, doesn't set his feet, and throws off his back foot. The ball ends up way underthrown and intercepted. Brady makes only a couple bad throws on non-screens like this per season, just so happened I managed to find a cutup that included one. Here's another Brady film, not a full game cut but about ten throws. Every throw here is perfect or almost perfect, just the picture of what you'd want the ideal quarterback to look like from the torso down. You can look at almost any Brady game film for this purpose. Aaron Rodgers is another guy who has good footwork, not quite as textbook perfect but he's brilliant moving around in the pocket while still staying in a good throwing position. Now for some bad footwork. Jay Cutler is a good example of a quarterback who is limited by inconsistent footwork. Here's a highlight film of Cutler against the Vikings - so remember, these are just the major throws. Cutler sometimes backpedals out of the snap instead of taking a good drop. More importantly, he throws off his back foot way way way more than is advisable. Despite this, he does usually (although not always) end up with his feet in the right position, he stays up on his feet well, and he has a big enough arm to power through some throws that are ugly in his legs. But if you wonder why he throws so many drat interceptions, a large part of it is because his mechanics are inconsistent as all hell. When Cutler does set and steps into it, he looks like one of the greatest quarterbacks of all-time - the throws at 1:07 and 3:55 are just phenomenal with great mechanics, throws only a couple guys in the league can make. Eli Manning is another guy that looks like a superstar one minute and then the next second you see him throw off his back foot and sail it by 15 yards, but I couldn't find a good video pointing this out. Alex Smith is a similar guy with inconsistent footwork; again, tough to find a video showing this. Not surprisingly, there aren't a lot of negative highlight tapes - or any highlights of non-stars - floating around out there. So now we get to horrible footwork. Here's the picture of exactly what you don't want a quarterback to look like: a phenomenal camera shot of Cam Newton making a few throws at the combine. When I say Cutler or Eli have bad or inconsistent footwork, well, Cam Newton would have to make unprecedented strides to get to their level. His drop steps are choppy, not smooth. His feet are pointing in a different direction than his arm is going; if you isolated his lower body you'd think he was throwing a deep post instead of a deep post corner. His weight transfer is just terrible, he's off his back foot in a situation where there's no pressure or movement which is just inexcusable. In a related note, he isn't stepping into the throw at all. He's much more flat-footed than you'd like everywhere. This is a quarterback whose natural throwing footwork is going to lead him to be horrible at the pro level. Can that be fixed? That's the $64 million question. Some more bad Cam: Here's Cam's pro day workout at Auburn. It's not as good of an angle, but you've got pretty much the same issues - feet aren't in the right position, weight transfer is inconsistent at best, steps are all over the place, throwing off his back foot constantly in a non-pressured situation. Notice that his trainers tried to hide this by scripting a lot of running throws and a lot of easy throws, but a good scout isn't going to be fooled. A lot of people said he was improved; that's true, he improved from Pop Warner to high school JV, and the level to which he was better had a lot more to do with scripting the workout to his strengths. And remember, Cam's got one year in a D1 spread option and one year in a JuCo pistol; these workout tapes are all we have of him in a pro style scheme and frankly they scream "developmental third QB/practice squad." If you look at his Auburn highlight films or his Blinn highlight films, you get almost nothing useful past that he's athletic guy with great arm and happy feet, because it's a spread option and essentially every throw isn't a NFL throw. Even watching those you still pick up his terrible weight transfer and inability to set properly with feet pointing everywhere but where they're supposed to. oldfan fucked around with this message at 01:27 on Apr 8, 2011 |
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Apr 8, 2011 00:16
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McKracken posted:Jefferson, the link to Newton's combine workout is the Brady week 12 cut. Welp I fixed that but in case anyone missed it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQkluYNrPvM
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Apr 8, 2011 01:28
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some6uy008 posted:jeffersonlives: I'm a big niner fan, and have been watching, but based on all the stuff you have pointed out, but have not been paying attention. What are some of Smith's major weaknesses that has caused him to do so poorly year after year? Alex Smith was one of the first spread option players turned major pro QB prospect. From what I have seen of Smith's recent play, he has the typical problems for former option quarterbacks of poor, inconsistent drops and inability to set himself very well for what I'd call the typical NFL throws, your standing in the pocket slants and outs and posts and such. I did study a fair bit of Utah tape back in the day because everyone was copying Urban's offense and I don't remember Smith as being nearly as sloppy in college as Newton was in college or has shown in his workouts, but this was some years ago so it may have just faded. At the time nobody had really discerned what a big problem converting spread option guys - and there's a difference that sometimes gets missed between option quarterbacks and just regular spread guys in terms of footwork - to pros was going to be. And hell, with Newton all of a sudden the probable 1-1 maybe some people still haven't. I'll let someone else take Kolb. I think he has the makings of a good quarterback but I don't think he's worth a first.
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Apr 8, 2011 03:33
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No Safe Word posted:To clarify, D3 schools can still give scholarships, they're just Usually through grants more than scholarships. There's always ways to get a guy in, same way D2s get a lot more than 36 scholarship level guys. I think there's also a lot less of a separation between D2 and D3 largely because of this, which is something that bears out to a degree in the head-to-heads.
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Apr 15, 2011 03:30
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academic scholarships
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McKracken posted:The only baseball website I know of that requires a subscription is Baseball Prospectus, and while I'm not a member, so I'm not 100% sure, I think that is 100% for stats, news and articles related to such...although if I'm wrong I'm sure the SAS baseball fans can correct me. I think he's talking about PBEO. There's not exactly a per se football equivalent AFAIK; NFL jobs are on Teamwork, NCAA jobs are on the NCAA site, and everything else is hit and miss.
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May 9, 2011 05:20
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Scrotos posted:Quick question how many refs/judges are there for any given NFL game? Seven: referee, umpire, head linesman, line judge, back judge, side judge, field judge
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May 18, 2011 20:11
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