Ken, Ken, Ken. Chill. I welcome the idea and would love to read the analysis. I just wish that BoxORocks still posted here as he could do that type of analysis here that AllWorldTE does 'elsewhere'. I have no football coaching training so I can't contribute. And my wife WOULD divorce me if I spent any more time on football.
Maybe we can get NEM to come back and break down the OC's choice of play calls.
Just a quick note. Some years ago, Box and Pats1 would break down plays a series at a time (others would jump in to help, but it was mostly those two). I gave them a set of markup statements and I'd run it through a word macro, convert it to back to HTML and post it on my website. We then had these nicely formatted breakdowns, referenced from this forum, for discussions. For the few who cared, those guys did a great job and were greatly appreciated. Like you, PWP, I don't know how to do the breakdowns myself and my own efforts were laughable.
I'll see if I can dig up some of those old analyses. I should have them around somewhere.... Note that I'm not advocating posting on a website elsewhere. We did it then because the forum didn't have markup tools and no easy way of putting up anything other than reams of unformatted text. These days, I think it's best to simply do a formatted post in a text editor and paste it directly to the forum.
It's a lot of work to do the breakdowns, but we have more people now than we had then who have the football knowledge . I won't mention names, we generally know who they are, and it's a big time commitment, so they should (a) feel free to
not volunteer and (b) if they volunteer, feel free to back out or be part time.
Things I learned:
- You don't need a breakdown of every play to make the breakdowns worthwhile.
- It generally makes sense to breakdown a few key series. Games often turn on a single series where a set of players on the field were dominant, or getting beaten. Those are the series everyone argues about and a breakdown is a terrific point of reference. However flawed, it's yards better than the usual unreasoned flailing about.
- Sometimes it's interesting to breakdown a player. Just follow that one guy through a bunch of series and see if he's making his blocks, getting open, beating his man, whatever he's supposed to do, as best as you can tell.
- For the nattering nabobs: No, we don't know the play call and we'll frequently be wrong. As in all things, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
- The most frustrating aspect of doing the breakdowns was the TV coverage. That frustration is now gone. This is most certainly, as PFK points out, a rare opportunity.
- It requires a little coordination, but not much more than "I'll do the series where Mayo got the INT, does anyone want the series where Hernandez took a reverse for 20 yards?"
- The regulars who do it week to week should take time off to NOT do it. Otherwise it becomes a chore. It's hard work. But it's also fun and rewarding and great boost to the forum.
- The moderators helped out by sticking the threads to the top. I don't know if that's necessary, but a common way of titling the threads, like "[BREAKDOWN] v. Broncos" so we can find them and search them easily.
PFK, great thread, great idea. I don't have the all 22 subscription yet, but I'll be getting it. Not that I know how to interpret it.
