Is the passing game changing football ?

[Kid~Brady]

Teams are committed to win through the air. It used to be said that in order to be competitive in the NFL, you had to be able to run the ball and stop the run. That's not the correct formula anymore. Take the 2011 NFL draft as an example. The best running back available, 2009 Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram, wasn't selected until the 28th overall pick. This also was a draft that saw the Falcons make a blockbuster trade to move up and select impact receiver, Julio Jones, at No. 6. And Jones wasn't even the first wide receiver taken -- A.J. Green was selected by the Bengals two picks earlier. This shows just how important it is to have an explosive offense and be able to keep up with teams in a shootout.

Having said all that, I fear we may be losing the essence of what makes this game special. Both the college game and the NFL have evolved to this at the price of losing some of the physicality that distinguishes it from other sports. I am not sure what the league can do to dial it back. You can't go back and take the protections off the quarterback. The reason for that change, safety, still applies. But perhaps we need to go back to giving defensive backs the ability to play more aggressively down the field. I am afraid the train has already left the station, but I think it at least needs to be discussed.

Will all of the mention of why we were passing the ball so much and whats going on with our OC, thought this might be cool to post.

Full article here: NFL.com news: Passing game is changing football, but may not be for better

 

[Patriots Nation NY]

Re: Is the passing game is changing football ?

2003 Patriots were the ember that started this fire ..

 

[cavtroop]

Re: Is the passing game is changing football ?

2003 Patriots were the ember that started this fire ..

99-00 Rams say hello.

It's not just the Patriots. I think BB recognized this, and changed the team to be more competitive via the air game.

I agree with the gist of the article. The more the NFL becomes like Madden, the less likely I am to stay a hardcore fan.

 

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

Re: Is the passing game is changing football ?

There aren't any GREAT defenses in the league this year

There are some good defenses like Houston and Baltimore,There are decent defenses and there are mediocre and poor defenses as well.

That may be a good reason why passing is such a popular thing these days

When Mark Sanchez throws for nearly 400 yards...times have changed

 

[Patriot Missile]

Re: Is the passing game is changing football ?

The running game will cycle it's way back in one day. There will be a team that designs a run offense that teams will not be able to stop that controls the clock effectively and teams will try to emulate this.

Passing games are premium now but the problem is there are not too many teams that have defenses that are equipped to stop it. This is the main problem right now and I'm not sure if it the new safety rules or just the total evolution of the offenses. Take a look around, As of week 4, I haven't seen one defense that is elite in the NFL.

In baseball people we're in love with the Home run. In football, people have always been enamored with the deep ball. We saw what happened in 98 when 50 homeruns was becoming the standard for the great players in the league. The sport became stale. Is football heading down that road if the deep ball becomes the norm every other play?

4000 yards is becoming more frequent among QB's and someday soon we may have 4 QB's that throw for 5000 in the same season. 300 yard passing days were considered a very good day for a QB, they too are now becoming standard. Ofcourse are boy TFB sets the bar higher with closer to 400 yard pg avg.

I don't know, got see how the defenses evolve before I claim this is a bad thing.

 

[Dessalines]

Re: Is the passing game is changing football ?

Uh, this is football and their is nothing new under the football sun. Right now it looks like the pass is the new and dominant thing but it isn't. Anybody ever heard of "Air Coryell and Dan Fouts? Yeah that looked good for a while till defenses caught up. Great numbers but they never won a championship.


Then there was Jerry Glanville and the ole run & shoot, lord save me.


The run will be important for cold weather teams and those teams will need, and will go to the run come winter. I note that the Raiders are running their way to victory. It's football, there is no one thing on offense, it only seems that way right now when the weather is calm.

 

[cavtroop]

Re: Is the passing game is changing football ?

Uh, this is football and their is nothing new under the football sun. Right now it looks like the pass is the new and dominant thing but it isn't. Anybody ever heard of "Air Coryell and Dan Fouts? Yeah that looked good for a while till defenses caught up. Great numbers but they never won a championship.


Then there was Jerry Glanville and the ole run & shoot, lord save me.


The run will be important for cold weather teams and those teams will need, and will go to the run come winter. I note that the Raiders are running their way to victory. It's football, there is no one thing on offense, it only seems that way right now when the weather is calm.

That was also back in the day when they didn't constantly tweak the rules every year, taking away more and more D every year. At this point, the rules emphasis' and changes are taking place too fast for the game to catch up, so the offenses are ruling the roost.

 

[WhiZa]

Re: Is the passing game is changing football ?

If the NFL didn't change it wouldn't be as popular as it is today.

 

[robbomango]

Re: Is the passing game is changing football ?

Uh, this is football and their is nothing new under the football sun. Right now it looks like the pass is the new and dominant thing but it isn't. Anybody ever heard of "Air Coryell and Dan Fouts? Yeah that looked good for a while till defenses caught up. Great numbers but they never won a championship.


Then there was Jerry Glanville and the ole run & shoot, lord save me.


The run will be important for cold weather teams and those teams will need, and will go to the run come winter. I note that the Raiders are running their way to victory. It's football, there is no one thing on offense, it only seems that way right now when the weather is calm.

The bills of the 90's kelleys Kgun offense and the west coast offense of the 80's were both products of that system i believe. correct me if Im wrong and yes agreed this has been around for years. there just wasn't as many teams doing it, now it's almost every team.

the rule changes are making it easier to exploit, I see flags flying every other passing play. The fines must have a psychological effect, making players more timid and 2nd guessing each hit. just a theory.

 

[Gumby]

Re: Is the passing game is changing football ?

That was also back in the day when they didn't constantly tweak the rules every year, taking away more and more D every year. At this point, the rules emphasis' and changes are taking place too fast for the game to catch up, so the offenses are ruling the roost.

Bingo. We have Bingo.

I disagree with the 99 rams or 03 patriots thoughts.

you can trace the changes back to Polian trying to game the system for his qb/team at the expense of the entire league.

 

[cavtroop]

Re: Is the passing game is changing football ?

The bills of the 90's kelleys Kgun offense and the west coast offense of the 80's were both products of that system i believe. correct me if Im wrong and yes agreed this has been around for years. there just wasn't as many teams doing it, now it's almost every team.

the rule changes are making it easier to exploit, I see flags flying every other passing play. The fines must have a psychological effect, making players more timid and 2nd guessing each hit. just a theory.

When watching a game now, any time a defender gets near the QB, or the ball goes downfield more than 15 yards or so, I find myself holding my breath waiting for the flag to come out. I don't enjoy that - I'd rather watch football than watch the refs huddle after every exciting play.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Re: Is the passing game is changing football ?

2003 Patriots were the ember that started this fire ..

Nah. It started at least when Bill Walsh introduced the West Coast Offense in the 1980's and arguably could be traced to the first time the QB was used for something besides blocking and moved under center in the 1930's or maybe when Sid Luckman perfected the old T-Formation for Papa Bear. I'd argue that the game has been heading in this direction for a long time.

 

[borg]

Re: Is the passing game is changing football ?

It's entertainment, not a sport. The eye in the sky can change a call anytime they want. If Roger senses a demographic is losing interest....boom...play under review....change of possession. It's Rollerball baby. Get your parking pass, your foam finger, your $12 beer and pull up a seat. And there will be intermissions every 5 minutes for your comfort

 

[Kid~Brady]

Re: Is the passing game is changing football ?

When watching a game now, any time a defender gets near the QB, or the ball goes downfield more than 15 yards or so, I find myself holding my breath waiting for the flag to come out. I don't enjoy that - I'd rather watch football than watch the refs huddle after every exciting play.

They've gotten so soft these days with this.

That "so-called" late hit on Fitz last week was BS. I couldn't believe they actually threw a flag for that.

 

[Wolfpack]

Re: Is the passing game is changing football ?

The running game will cycle it's way back in one day.

No it won't. Tons of passes, passing yards and scoring is more exciting than 3 yards and a cloud of dust. We've seen several rule changes over the past decade meant to emphasize the passing game. If the running game ever start making a big return league-wide, the league will just change the rules some more to get everyone back to passing.

There will be a team that designs a run offense that teams will not be able to stop that controls the clock effectively and teams will try to emulate this.

The one team who actually had some recent success with the, the NY Jets, have already abandoned their own philosophy. And nobody really seems intent on trying to replicate it.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Re: Is the passing game is changing football ?

I blame the NFL Competition Committee for this. Machiavellian Polian used his influence and a cadre of Pats hating representatives to have Tool-In-Chief Goodell place undue emphasis on the no breathing on a wideout past 5 yards rule. Rescind this "emphasis" and defenses will rebound. Also "emphasize" that there's no PI where the ball is un-catchable.

I have no problem with the player health rules eliminating head hunting by safetys on defensless receivers.

 

[Kid~Brady]

Re: Is the passing game is changing football ?

Its true about the Jets though, they've seemed to stray away from Rexy's famous "ground and pound" techniques that he liked so much previously.

They have Sanchez attempting 4th down and 2's.... which usually spells disaster.

After the first couple series of the Pats/Bills game, I wondered where the hell was BJGE.

 

[robbomango]

Re: Is the passing game is changing football ?

When watching a game now, any time a defender gets near the QB, or the ball goes downfield more than 15 yards or so, I find myself holding my breath waiting for the flag to come out. I don't enjoy that - I'd rather watch football than watch the refs huddle after every exciting play.

2nd that I cringe when the defense is on the field, flag flurries and whistles. listening to michael vick moan about officiating at his press conference the other day made me ill, he wants to run around the field like barry sanders and be protected at the same time. delusional!!!

 

[NEP4Life]

Re: Is the passing game is changing football ?

The run will be important for cold weather teams and those teams will need, and will go to the run come winter. I note that the Raiders are running their way to victory. It's football, there is no one thing on offense, it only seems that way right now when the weather is calm.

You're suggesting that the NFL mandate indoor stadiums for every team north of the 38th parallel, to help complete the game's transformation into basketball on turf?

 

[jmt57]

Re: Is the passing game is changing football ?

If you were to factor in all the possible outcomes when dropping back to pass - yards gained on a completion, yards gained on a penalty against the defense (pass interference, holding, roughing the passer, etc.) as well as zero yards for an incompletion, negative yards for sacks and hold by the offensive line, etc. - as well as whatever negative yards you want to assign to a pick (40, 50 yards?), I am guessing that the net average yards per passing play would be so much more than the net average yards per running play that it's now wonder teams pass as often as they do.

In fact, it may be a wonder that they don't pass even more often than they already do.