QC and Tendencies

[Adam Seward]

Versatility, misdirection and intended obfuscation; manufacturing confusion of an opponent.

James Develin -
How much of his regular season use as a receiver and in non traditional FB roles served as a tool to keep the defense off balance with his presence, setting up for heavy run use in the post season?

Cordarelle Patterson -
How much do we underestimate his presence? His ability to function in this offense in a wide variety of roles needs to be accounted for on every play. How has his unconventional usage created opportunities for others, through the defense being unable to commit on any play against any particular concept?

Rex Burkhead -
Another player we don’t lean on for a significant role but who’s versatile usage can obscure presnap, intent signaling tendencies.

We run many odd or “cute” plays each season, just to break tendencies. After QCing ourselves against intent being recognized based on personnel, we can also purposefully setup certain tendencies to show an outcome, allowing an effective trick play exploit.

Sean Harrington seems to be incredibly gifted, how has his technological prowess been integrated into the QC analysis?

Perhaps anyone with any knowledge could shed some light into what he is doing here:
Author

Do we believe the Patriots, with the use of technology, QC the entire league against each other? To a level of analysis deep enough to “reverse engineer” opposing teams, their problem solving ability, and track adaptations to counter opponent tendencies?

It wouldn’t surprise me if Bill sat back every morning laughing as he drank his OJ, and watched other teams get ruined by the Baltimore scheme.

How many other team tendencies do we identify internally as the season progresses, to see if other teams are problem solving effectively? How do we use that information when preparing a game plan? Do we note opposing teams and coaches ability to adjust nimbly on the fly in real time during a game?

The hole gets deeper, depending on which pills you take before diving in

These are just my thoughts on the topic. Discuss or ignore

 

[maust]

Ernie Adams had all of the answers before anyone else even started asking the questions.

 

[Adam Seward]

Ernie Adams had all of the answers before anyone else even started asking the questions.

I would like to know how many more questions he has been able to answer with improvements in technology over the years. No doubt he has the mind for all of the abstract questions.

 

[maust]

I would like to know how many more questions he has been able to answer with improvements in technology over the years. No doubt he has the mind for all of the abstract questions.

 

[n6249c]

Ernie Adams had all of the answers before anyone else even started asking the questions.

I would like to know how many more questions he has been able to answer with improvements in technology over the years. No doubt he has the mind for all of the abstract questions.

Okay, applying your approach to interpreting those abstracts of Harrington’s contributions you referenced, he’s using Python with large data objects in multiprocessing environments. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn he’s got the same Nvidia cluster we are using in our high performance computing platform project at work, harnessing multiple GPUs to get some serious crunch. Video analysis springs to mind. Add in some AI to automate film breakdown. Wonder if whatever feeds they get for coaches to use in the press box during the game (all 22?) could be crunched in real-time for matching to past history?

Thinking about stuff like that, and reading those abstracts, had me ready to polish up my resume and send it to Foxboro. But I’m out of the devo world for too long now, doing security and threat intel work. Wonder if they need network defense help?

But yeah, I think the OP is on to something. Give Ernie and BB better tools than everybody else and they’ll be playing 4D chess while everybody else plays checkers. Which reminds me, why did one of those Harrington abstracts mention chromosomes? Are they signing futures contracts with parents-to-be? Or taking combine measurables to a whole other level?

 

[Joker]

SCANNERGATE!

 

[Adam Seward]

Okay, applying your approach to interpreting those abstracts of Harrington’s contributions you referenced, he’s using Python with large data objects in multiprocessing environments. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn he’s got the same Nvidia cluster we are using in our high performance computing platform project at work, harnessing multiple GPUs to get some serious crunch. Video analysis springs to mind. Add in some AI to automate film breakdown. Wonder if whatever feeds they get for coaches to use in the press box during the game (all 22?) could be crunched in real-time for matching to past history?

Thinking about stuff like that, and reading those abstracts, had me ready to polish up my resume and send it to Foxboro. But I’m out of the devo world for too long now, doing security and threat intel work. Wonder if they need network defense help?

But yeah, I think the OP is on to something. Give Ernie and BB better tools than everybody else and they’ll be playing 4D chess while everybody else plays checkers. Which reminds me, why did one of those Harrington abstracts mention chromosomes? Are they signing futures contracts with parents-to-be? Or taking combine measurables to a whole other level?

Someone with the ability and inclination to program a machine to interpret football, along side the greatest football mind alive, I bet they have a fascinating system in place. I can only imagine the depth of the work they are running, I would kill to know what Bill and Ernie want to look for, and now that a machine could conceivably do the work of assistants breaking down film and process an awful lot of nuanced video data, there might not be much they can’t discern. Could you imagine the rage if they used data like this in real time?

 

[Hyped]

Nah, I think BB is strictly old school. He doesn't even use a pen! He can't program his car's clock and threw out those surface tablets.

Sure, there's a computer being run by some geeks spitting out numbers, but the talent lies in interpretation of said data.....which BB has. I think they have only accelerated the process and produced even more useless data.

 

[maineman209]

Ernie Adams had all of the answers before anyone else even started asking the questions.

Probably goes back to Bill's dad and his obsessive, meticulous charting of plays in a notebook, by hand, during games.

 

[maineman209]

Could you imagine the rage if they used data like this in real time?

Probably already covered by the rule that prohibits viewing game tape while the game is in progress.

 

[DarrylS]

"Early onset confusion" for today 1/15/2019... earlier than usual.

 

[PP2]

Sure, there's a computer being run by some geeks spitting out numbers, but the talent lies in interpretation of said data.....which BB has.

This nails what Ernie Adams pretty much does, and to a lesser extent, BB. Anyone can look at a lot of film, but very few have the skill or ability to sift through a humongous amount of raw data and detect patterns or tendencies.

He's sort of like the football version of "Rain Man."

 

[Triumph]

Nah, I think BB is strictly old school. He doesn't even use a pen! He can't program his car's clock and threw out those surface tablets.

Sure, there's a computer being run by some geeks spitting out numbers, but the talent lies in interpretation of said data.....which BB has. I think they have only accelerated the process and produced even more useless data.

The Pats went back to the formations printed out on paper during the LA game instead of those blue tablets.

 

[JayNM]

Okay, applying your approach to interpreting those abstracts of Harrington’s contributions you referenced, he’s using Python with large data objects in multiprocessing environments. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn he’s got the same Nvidia cluster we are using in our high performance computing platform project at work, harnessing multiple GPUs to get some serious crunch. Video analysis springs to mind. Add in some AI to automate film breakdown. Wonder if whatever feeds they get for coaches to use in the press box during the game (all 22?) could be crunched in real-time for matching to past history?

Thinking about stuff like that, and reading those abstracts, had me ready to polish up my resume and send it to Foxboro. But I’m out of the devo world for too long now, doing security and threat intel work. Wonder if they need network defense help?

But yeah, I think the OP is on to something. Give Ernie and BB better tools than everybody else and they’ll be playing 4D chess while everybody else plays checkers. Which reminds me, why did one of those Harrington abstracts mention chromosomes? Are they signing futures contracts with parents-to-be? Or taking combine measurables to a whole other level?

Ive worked with Python and other statistical programming softwares.

And although he is probably using some sort of probabilistic model in program, i guarantee you he isnt using a "nvidia cluster" to maximize performance nor a super computer to work fast or whatever

His database isnt that big, performing-wise and not that complex.

Just to put in perspective, ive made an econmetric analysis (on R and Stata, in this case) where i had to use over a billion multiple factor (yes with a B. Basically every agricultural resource in Brazil from 1940 to 1970) and i wasnt using a crazy CPU to make it work.

Maybe he has big storage unit for data, a separated server. But he doesnt need a supercomputer to make his analysis

 

[The Brandon Five]

Ive worked with Python and other statistical programming softwares.

And although he is probably using some sort of probabilistic model in program, i guarantee you he isnt using a "nvidia cluster" to maximize performance nor a super computer to work fast or whatever

His database isnt that big, performing-wise and not that complex.

Just to put in perspective, ive made an econmetric analysis (on R and Stata, in this case) where i had to use over a billion multiple factor (yes with a B. Basically every agricultural resource in Brazil from 1940 to 1970) and i wasnt using a crazy CPU to make it work.

Maybe he has big storage unit for data, a separated server. But he doesnt need a supercomputer to make his analysis

From this article it sounds like the Pats have a system that does automated analysis of videos. I guarantee that requires some serious horsepower.

Patriots won't say what Sean Harrington does; meet 'genius' who rejected Google for New England's scouting department

 

[Hyped]

From this article it sounds like the Pats have a system that does automated analysis of videos. I guarantee that requires some serious horsepower.

Patriots won't say what Sean Harrington does; meet 'genius' who rejected Google for New England's scouting department

That was a great article. Thanks for sharing, Dude.

 

[The Brandon Five]

The Pats went back to the formations printed out on paper during the LA game instead of those blue tablets.

I think Bill smashed his Surface tablet during the Seattle game in 2016. I thought they went back to paper at that point (at least for Bill).

 

[jmt57]

While on the subject of a pro football's team QC person/staff:

Did the LA Rams run all over Dallas because the Cowboys were unknowingly tipping them off?

Rams offensive linemen say Cowboys defensive line tipped its hand

Rams herd trash talk, knew defensive calls, what's next?

One overlooked part of a coaching staff's duties is to self-scout. The Cowboys failed to do so. This opened an opportunity for the Rams - who had an extra week to prepare - to find a 'tell' with the Dallas defensive line, and exploit their tendencies.

Kudos to the Rams for a job well done - and shame on Dallas for not noticing prior to the game.

Of course if this happened with a certain other NFL team, all we would hear is 'cheaterz' because they seemed to know what the opponent was doing on so very many plays.

 

[maineman209]

Of course if this happened with a certain other NFL team, all we would hear is 'cheaterz' because they seemed to know what the opponent was doing on so very many plays.

IIRC, a decade or so ago, some Niners' players made a big stink about how the Pats must have stolen their playbook, because the Pats defense always seemed to know what play the offense was going to run before the ball was snapped. It was as if they didn't know that they had tendencies or that teams (legally) study film of their opponents to identify them.