Week 3
I'm not caring too much about the Dallas-Carolina game later tonight, so i'll do this now.
- Football is like RPGs some time. Basketball is more like an action game, and baseball is pen and paper D&D, but football, like many RPGs is about character. You design a team to be a certain way, to think and act in certain ways and then you hope that the situations you encounter match up. Often times, it doesn't. If you create a smashmouth running attack type team, with big offensive linemen and a bruising running back, normally paired with a big defense used to punishing other teams trying to run the ball, then you may not know what to do when a finesse team, filled with speed guys and a speedy defense comes along in a pretty field in scorching mid-september.
Sure, the barbarian can cut the rogue in half, but he has to catch him first - he might run around him, causing the barbarian to speed up, make swipes he's not used to making.
Some teams are designed to be very broad - they can play alot of ways - they'll run with you or run over you, and they have defenses that compliment. Many teams though, seek an identity. That can be a crunch - personallly you don't need to know "who" you are, you just need to know what you are - there is no reason to lock yourself in.
Some identities are traditionally more sucessful than others - heavy run attacks paired with strong run defense has historically been strong - but how does that match up with the Colts/Pats of the world? Who score in seconds and do the one thing a smashmouth football identity can't do? Catch up. Get a lead on these running barbarians, and now they have to flail around at something new.
Whereas, it feels like a team like the Colts, who can't stop the run, and often look manhandled, look downright shutdown awesome with a lead. They can pressure with four, occasionally bring the blitz and never allow big plays. They give up yards, which when even or behind is murder, but when you need touchdowns, they'll give up yards and force field goals...and even that is hard to do when Brock, Freeney, Mathis and Co are turning your QB into poster art.
In that sense, the best thing to do as a football team is control the environment, which coaches refer to "Control the tempo." Turn the game into what you want it to be - hence the Colts should run the ball some (you can't abandon it entirely), but don't go away from what you are good at - score points and rush the passer. The rest of the skillset compliments nicely.
(beware snowy fields and windy days though....)
- The Jets defense is intense; the Colts offense won't stop; the Saints shouldn't expect to keep getting 400 yards passing; yes Favre can win you those games, even at age 80; the Bears offense might be the best thing about them; Speed kills in such interesting ways; Jim Zorn will probably get fired, but the entire team sucks; Detroit is bad, but it doesn't suck.
- I noticed this sadly, John Clayton writes: "It's only Week 3, but offensive linemen are dropping at an alarming rate. The list of inactive offensive linemen Sunday included Nate Livings (Cincinnati), Floyd Womack (Cleveland), Daniel Loper (Detroit), Chad Clifton (Green Bay), Jammal Brown (New Orleans), Robert Gallery (Oakland), Jason Smith (St. Louis), Sean Locklear and Walter Jones of the Seahawks, Louis Vasquez and Nick Hardwick of the Chargers, Jeff Faine of the Bucs and Todd Herremans of the Eagles."
- Football is like RPGs some time. Basketball is more like an action game, and baseball is pen and paper D&D, but football, like many RPGs is about character. You design a team to be a certain way, to think and act in certain ways and then you hope that the situations you encounter match up. Often times, it doesn't. If you create a smashmouth running attack type team, with big offensive linemen and a bruising running back, normally paired with a big defense used to punishing other teams trying to run the ball, then you may not know what to do when a finesse team, filled with speed guys and a speedy defense comes along in a pretty field in scorching mid-september.
Sure, the barbarian can cut the rogue in half, but he has to catch him first - he might run around him, causing the barbarian to speed up, make swipes he's not used to making.
Some teams are designed to be very broad - they can play alot of ways - they'll run with you or run over you, and they have defenses that compliment. Many teams though, seek an identity. That can be a crunch - personallly you don't need to know "who" you are, you just need to know what you are - there is no reason to lock yourself in.
Some identities are traditionally more sucessful than others - heavy run attacks paired with strong run defense has historically been strong - but how does that match up with the Colts/Pats of the world? Who score in seconds and do the one thing a smashmouth football identity can't do? Catch up. Get a lead on these running barbarians, and now they have to flail around at something new.
Whereas, it feels like a team like the Colts, who can't stop the run, and often look manhandled, look downright shutdown awesome with a lead. They can pressure with four, occasionally bring the blitz and never allow big plays. They give up yards, which when even or behind is murder, but when you need touchdowns, they'll give up yards and force field goals...and even that is hard to do when Brock, Freeney, Mathis and Co are turning your QB into poster art.
In that sense, the best thing to do as a football team is control the environment, which coaches refer to "Control the tempo." Turn the game into what you want it to be - hence the Colts should run the ball some (you can't abandon it entirely), but don't go away from what you are good at - score points and rush the passer. The rest of the skillset compliments nicely.
(beware snowy fields and windy days though....)
- The Jets defense is intense; the Colts offense won't stop; the Saints shouldn't expect to keep getting 400 yards passing; yes Favre can win you those games, even at age 80; the Bears offense might be the best thing about them; Speed kills in such interesting ways; Jim Zorn will probably get fired, but the entire team sucks; Detroit is bad, but it doesn't suck.
- I noticed this sadly, John Clayton writes: "It's only Week 3, but offensive linemen are dropping at an alarming rate. The list of inactive offensive linemen Sunday included Nate Livings (Cincinnati), Floyd Womack (Cleveland), Daniel Loper (Detroit), Chad Clifton (Green Bay), Jammal Brown (New Orleans), Robert Gallery (Oakland), Jason Smith (St. Louis), Sean Locklear and Walter Jones of the Seahawks, Louis Vasquez and Nick Hardwick of the Chargers, Jeff Faine of the Bucs and Todd Herremans of the Eagles."