Football is not rocket science.
I’m thinking of starting to do themes with my posts; one day focus on sports, another comics, another maybe politics, etc. I’ll also be doing the rapid fire Fridays because those are a lot of fun. Once I have it worked out, I will post what the daily themes will be… then again I may just forget the whole thing and just write what comes to mind. We’ll see.
Now on to Football:
I spent the weekend watching the NFL draft and was pretty much surprised by a few things. Football is not rocket science and those who do it well should certainly not be called geniuses. Anyone can put together a winning team if they use this basic strategy. 1) Make an opportunistic defense. 2) A strong running game. 3) a quarterback who is a good field general. This is all you need to win and make the playoffs. It may sound difficult but it really isn’t.
For the defense, you need to draft speed and hands. It doesn’t matter how many sacks your team gets, the key is to stop the drive. A sack does not stop a drive. It may end one if it’s on third down but it doesn’t stop it in its tracks. A turnover on the other hand ends the drive immediately. Look at Cincinnati last year, only 28 sacks but lead the league in turnovers. So for Houston to draft Mario Williams over Reggie Bush was completely ridiculous. Mario will help put pressure on the quarterback, but they could have got that from other players in later rounds. Build your defense by starting with your corners, get guys who aren’t afraid to hit. Get speed at linebacker and then go for power rushers on the ends of the line. You don’t need marquee guys, just guys who like to get after the ball and hurt people when they tackle. You can teach scheme, you can’t teach speed and aggression.
Running game is crucial as well. Your linemen are your linemen, you can improve them slowly but you can’t change the whole thing over night. So choose a scheme that works for what you have. Denver has small linemen but they do cut blocking. Atlanta is now following suit. You get some of the big nasties up front then you can go for more zone blocking. But get durable back who can handle 25 carries a game and then hand off that many times. Don’t get these scat backs that spend as much time running east and west as they do north and south. Carolina drafted Deangelo Williams over Lendale White; doesn’t make sense to me. They say Williams greatest asset is being short the defenders can’t see him until he’s running past. The problem is he can’t see the defenders until he’s cutting into them.
Your quarterback doesn’t need to be the big armed or fleet footed guy. He needs to know when to throw the ball and when to throw it away. Look at the top three QBs in the draft. Young is known for his feet, Cutler for his arm and Lienart for his brain. I can scheme for Young, teams do it against Michael Vick. I can scheme against Cutler, big arms are only good if there is someone out there to throw to. But you can’t scheme against brains. Some of the best quarterback’s in history have been because of their intelligence: Montana, Starr and Tom Brady.
The bottom line, looking at the draft I think the team that helped themselves the most in this draft was Arizona. They got their running back before hand with Edgerin James, picked up Lineart and an offensive lineman. When Warner gets hurt… and he always does… I expect Lineart to step in and not step out again. So Arizona is my big winner of the weekend and the big loser… Houston.
I’m thinking of starting to do themes with my posts; one day focus on sports, another comics, another maybe politics, etc. I’ll also be doing the rapid fire Fridays because those are a lot of fun. Once I have it worked out, I will post what the daily themes will be… then again I may just forget the whole thing and just write what comes to mind. We’ll see.
Now on to Football:
I spent the weekend watching the NFL draft and was pretty much surprised by a few things. Football is not rocket science and those who do it well should certainly not be called geniuses. Anyone can put together a winning team if they use this basic strategy. 1) Make an opportunistic defense. 2) A strong running game. 3) a quarterback who is a good field general. This is all you need to win and make the playoffs. It may sound difficult but it really isn’t.
For the defense, you need to draft speed and hands. It doesn’t matter how many sacks your team gets, the key is to stop the drive. A sack does not stop a drive. It may end one if it’s on third down but it doesn’t stop it in its tracks. A turnover on the other hand ends the drive immediately. Look at Cincinnati last year, only 28 sacks but lead the league in turnovers. So for Houston to draft Mario Williams over Reggie Bush was completely ridiculous. Mario will help put pressure on the quarterback, but they could have got that from other players in later rounds. Build your defense by starting with your corners, get guys who aren’t afraid to hit. Get speed at linebacker and then go for power rushers on the ends of the line. You don’t need marquee guys, just guys who like to get after the ball and hurt people when they tackle. You can teach scheme, you can’t teach speed and aggression.
Running game is crucial as well. Your linemen are your linemen, you can improve them slowly but you can’t change the whole thing over night. So choose a scheme that works for what you have. Denver has small linemen but they do cut blocking. Atlanta is now following suit. You get some of the big nasties up front then you can go for more zone blocking. But get durable back who can handle 25 carries a game and then hand off that many times. Don’t get these scat backs that spend as much time running east and west as they do north and south. Carolina drafted Deangelo Williams over Lendale White; doesn’t make sense to me. They say Williams greatest asset is being short the defenders can’t see him until he’s running past. The problem is he can’t see the defenders until he’s cutting into them.
Your quarterback doesn’t need to be the big armed or fleet footed guy. He needs to know when to throw the ball and when to throw it away. Look at the top three QBs in the draft. Young is known for his feet, Cutler for his arm and Lienart for his brain. I can scheme for Young, teams do it against Michael Vick. I can scheme against Cutler, big arms are only good if there is someone out there to throw to. But you can’t scheme against brains. Some of the best quarterback’s in history have been because of their intelligence: Montana, Starr and Tom Brady.
The bottom line, looking at the draft I think the team that helped themselves the most in this draft was Arizona. They got their running back before hand with Edgerin James, picked up Lineart and an offensive lineman. When Warner gets hurt… and he always does… I expect Lineart to step in and not step out again. So Arizona is my big winner of the weekend and the big loser… Houston.
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