During the summer between 9th and 10th grade I took a summer gym class with my friend Scott. It ended up being one of the coolest things ever, meaning the final in the class was a series of face-offs in sports at which I was pretty good. We all got to skip the final because we were great at sports. Every class should be like this.
However one day during an outdoor lunch, I was minding my own business when basketball rolled across the table, hitting the lower half of my face. I looked over, and Scott, my "friend," had been the one who rolled the ball. My jaw started clicking that day. Asshole.
Here we are today, almost ten years later, and my jaw not only clicks occasionally. It clicks EVERY TIME I open my mouth and the right side of it hurts significantly if it is fully open OR fully shut. What the fuck!?!? And now, this very same Scott, has the nerve to leave this comment on my blog:
1. This comment is really odd because you fail to notice how effective this strategy can be. Organizations often copy successful systems to excellent effect. In fact, innovation frequently starts with attempts to copy a proven system and ends with attempts to improve upon it. The Romans were great at stealing shit from all kinds of people and making it better. What we are seeing now is a very natural stage of development in football strategy. I'm not a licensed football historian, but I would imagine that this kind of thing happened a lot over the years. You also have to recognize that it's a game of rock-paper-scissors. Defenses are going to adjust to this way of playing by taking more guys out of the box and putting them into coverage; as a result, offenses will take advantage by teams on the ground. at some point a team is going to start winning again on the strength of their ground game, and other teams will start trying to copy them, and so on.
2. I don't think passing is necessarily less tough. NFL backers and DBs beat the shit out of people who catch all those balls. If toughness was less important, we would be seeing a bunch of little track stars out there, but we don't. Hell, some of the teams even use WHITE wide receivers; speed is obviously not the end all be all. Also, your point about planning is off target. The best teams are great at making adjustments on the fly, especially in this era of increasingly ornate scheming on both sides of the ball. This cerebral aspect is very much a part of what makes football great. If you want to watch a sports where few adjustments are made, you shoudl probably stop watching football.
Let's start with what I think I like.
1. He did comment. I appreciate that. If you look at the other comment on that same post, it was something like, "Please write your thoughts on the Buffalo Bills." What an IDIOT comment!!! Who the hell is "Maggie?!?!"
2. Obviously, some of these individual points are true. Things do seem to go in cycles. The criticism that I overreacted to some of these numbers is a legitimate criticism. However, that's pretty much all this blog is. This post was just a gut reaction to something that I thought had stood out so far in this season. Quarterbacks who are not thought to be very good are throwing a lot of times for a lot of yards.
3. The Romans were a thing. Though not a football historian, this commenter actually is a regular historian (kind of), so I will trust him there. That sounds like something Romans would do.
4. There are some tough wide receivers and defensive backs and football is a very cereberal game.
5. This shit probably does happen all the time. If I blogged in the mid 1900s (a time in which blogs most certainly existed), I'd probably be complaining about how boring all the running is.
There are some things about this comment that I do not agree with (aside from the general tone that sounds as if, at the time, this commenter was offended that I even had a blog or watched football).
1. The first thought in here is that, historically, copying is the first step to new innovation. I buy that. I hate it when I say, "I think Smashing Pumpkins are a really good band," and then someone else says, "They're just rip-offs of Black Sabbath." Uhh...yeah duh. Who cares? That's how things grow. Also, they're not really, but that's another blog entirely.
Anyway, the problem starts with the comparison to The Romans. Yes, The Romans stole and perfected aspects from other civilizations, but the Romans had ambition and resources the civilizations from which they stole did not have (I'd imagine). That analogy applies to maybe the Packers, who have altered the West Coast offense to suit their athletes' strengths. Where is really applies is baseball. The depressing end to Moneyball, which I'd guess they didn't include, is when the Red Sox steal all of their ideas but have 10 times the money and now the Red Sox win the World Series every now and again and the A's suck.
But that's not who I was criticizing.
I was criticizing the Kyle Orton/John Fox Denver Broncos, who try to run a similar spread type offense with equal resources, inferior athletes and inferior coaches. The comparison of the Romans to the 2011 Denver Broncos is ridiculous.
Furthermore, this strategy is not necessarily effective. The Broncos, and teams of their ilk, might score more points than they would if they ran the ball more but that's not the goal, as strange as it sounds. The more you throw, the more possessions in the game. Losing 45-21 instead of 21-10 does not scream "effective" to me.
2. You seem to be equating "athleticism" with "speed." I would say Calvin Johnson is a better "athlete" than Mike Wallace, even though Wallace is faster. I guess that word is pretty subjective though.
And yes, wide receivers and defensive backs aren't necessarily not tough. However, the way I think you stop a guy who is a better athlete than you in any sport is basically to turn it into a different game. Don't injure him, but hurt him a little. You know he's faster than you and can jump higher and is taller...but is he stronger? Smarter? More mentally stable? You have to make it a contest of something you're at least not 100% sure at which he's better than you. When the refs are so SO quick to throw the pass interference flags, it puts enough doubt into the defensive players' minds, who are already at a disadvantage, that I think it makes a real difference in the physicality of the passing game.
3. Your point where you infer that I don't like watching sports where adjustments are made is confusing. There are no sports where no adjustments are made. Adjustments basically define sports. Adjustments are my favorite aspect of any sport...it's the whole reason I have a blog to begin with. I listed it as one of my three things that make football great. An NFL coaching staff is basically a group of military officers drawing up an attack plan and then commanding from the sidelines. It's awesome.
All I'm saying is this:
The athleticism, and some of the planning, is predetermined before the game exists simply by the existence of the players and the gameplan. The mid-game adjustments end once the ball is snapped. The rest is all left up to excecution. Does this team trust eachother enough? Do they want this enough? Are they smart, calm and/or tough enough? All these questions are answered only after the ball is snapped. When the rules change enough to supply the offense with free yards and subsequently strike a yellow flag-shaped fear into the hearts of defenders, those are paper yards. They were not earned on the field, those yards were only gained on paper.
For the record, and I know that you didn't say this, but the New England Patriots are not one of the best teams and in-game adjustments. They are far and away the best pre-game planners in the league, but not in-game. You've seen the interceptions Tom Brady throws. They're not inaccurate passes. They're to guys who are "always" open on that play. But sometimes they're not. Interception.
But really, you're right. It seems like, even now, teams are starting to figure out how to combat this change in strategy and it was probably an overreaction to Kyle Orton beating my fantasy team in Week 1 on Monday Night Football when he had one of the worst games at quarterback I've seen in awhile but still had 17 fantasy points because Denver threw the ball 46 times. Whatever.
To wrap things up, here's what I think about the Bills:
23-20 BENGALS BABY!!!!! WOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm going to sleep. My jaw hurts. Fuck you, Scott.
