BREAKDOWN: The Second Quarter Has Been the Key For the Patriots Over Last Six Seasons

[PatsFans.com Article]

BREAKDOWN: The Second Quarter Has Been the Key For the Patriots Over the Last Six Seasons
By: Ian Logue

They say it's not how you start but how you finished, and that's probably why New England's first quarter woes haven't stopped them from going 27-5 over the past two seasons....

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[Ian]

Re: BREAKDOWN: The Second Quarter Has Been the Key For the Patriots Over the Last Six

Did a lot of digging for this one and found some intriguing numbers, so hopefully all of you find it interesting.

 

[denverpatsfan]

Re: BREAKDOWN: The Second Quarter Has Been the Key For the Patriots Over the Last Six

Donks have had the worst 2nd quarter point differential of any team in a long time. Historically bad. With the exception of the last game of course.

If these two trends continue it should greatly benefit the Pats.

 

[The Brandon Five]

Re: BREAKDOWN: The Second Quarter Has Been the Key For the Patriots Over the Last Six

Ian-

I didn't quite understand this piece:

Jeremy Lundblad of ESPN brought up a great point in a recent article about the fact that back in 2008, the league instituted a rule providing the option to defer the decision to kick or receive until the second half. He points out that New England has deferred all but once since.

What does it mean to defer the decision until the second half? Seems to me that even if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice! Someone is kicking off either way, right?

 

[Ian]

Re: BREAKDOWN: The Second Quarter Has Been the Key For the Patriots Over the Last Six

It means that teams have the option to decide whether they want to receive to start the game and kickoff in the second half, or kickoff to start the game and receive to start the second half. The Patriots deferred all but once over that span.

Hopefully that makes sense

 

[xmarkd400x]

Re: BREAKDOWN: The Second Quarter Has Been the Key For the Patriots Over the Last Six

Ian-

I didn't quite understand this piece:



What does it mean to defer the decision until the second half? Seems to me that even if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice! Someone is kicking off either way, right?

Deferring avoids a Rush to judgement.

(NOTE: I _THINK_ this is how it works) In all seriousness, it's more like you get to choose when you choose. Each team gets to pick kick or receive once per game (at the start of each half). The coin toss decides who gets to pick first. You always pick to receive (If you pick to kick, the other team can pick to receive the second half and you end up kicking off twice). When you defer, you just say you'd like to choose in the second half, rather than the first.

 

[The Brandon Five]

Re: BREAKDOWN: The Second Quarter Has Been the Key For the Patriots Over the Last Six

It means that teams have the option to decide whether they want to receive to start the game and kickoff in the second half, or kickoff to start the game and receive to start the second half. The Patriots deferred all but once over that span.

Hopefully that makes sense

I guess I wasn't seeing what was new about that. Sorry.

Deferring avoids a Rush to judgement.

(NOTE: I _THINK_ this is how it works) In all seriousness, it's more like you get to choose when you choose. Each team gets to pick kick or receive once per game (at the start of each half). The coin toss decides who gets to pick first. You always pick to receive (If you pick to kick, the other team can pick to receive the second half and you end up kicking off twice). When you defer, you just say you'd like to choose in the second half, rather than the first.

When I watch teams, though, whoever wins the toss usually signal whether they want to receive or kick...so I am still a little confused. So the league changed the nature of it from choosing to kick or receive to choosing to, umm, choose?

 

[TruthSeeker]

Re: BREAKDOWN: The Second Quarter Has Been the Key For the Patriots Over the Last Six

I guess I wasn't seeing what was new about that. Sorry.



When I watch teams, though, whoever wins the toss usually signal whether they want to receive or kick...so I am still a little confused. So the league changed the nature of it from choosing to kick or receive to choosing to, umm, choose?

According to the article, the option to defer (which has always been in the college rules) was added to the NFL 4 years ago in 2008. It actually provides the opportunity for a little more strategy (some coaches prefer to choose at the start of the game; some prefer to choose at the start of the second half). Interestingly enough, Patriots' opponents usually choose to receive the kickoff at the start of the game when they win the coin toss so it's very rare for the Patriots to receive the initial kickoff.

 

[Wax Frog]

Re: BREAKDOWN: The Second Quarter Has Been the Key For the Patriots Over the Last Six

It means that teams have the option to decide whether they want to receive to start the game and kickoff in the second half, or kickoff to start the game and receive to start the second half. The Patriots deferred all but once over that span.

Hopefully that makes sense

Of all the rule changes since I started following the Pats in '85, this is far and away my favorite, since it's the one I wanted to see all that time. If you're behind you have a chance to get back into the game right away, and if you're ahead you can pad your lead :rocker:

 

[The Brandon Five]

Re: BREAKDOWN: The Second Quarter Has Been the Key For the Patriots Over the Last Six

It means that teams have the option to decide whether they want to receive to start the game and kickoff in the second half, or kickoff to start the game and receive to start the second half. The Patriots deferred all but once over that span.

Hopefully that makes sense

Okay, I read another explanation that makes sense. Essentially it allows for teams to kickoff or receive at the beginning of both halves. If it was a windy day like the Buffalo game in 2008, you can choose to defer and defend with the other team having to go into the wind and then in the second half do the same. Not sure if anyone would actually want to give the other team the ball to start both halves, but given that BB once took a safety for the sake of field position, I guess he would be the most likely candidate!

 

[jmt57]

Re: BREAKDOWN: The Second Quarter Has Been the Key For the Patriots Over the Last Six

What does it mean to defer the decision until the second half? Seems to me that even if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice! Someone is kicking off either way, right?

Prior to that rules change if you won the coin toss you pretty much had to elect to receive. Without that option under the old rules you could actually end up kicking off at both the start of the game as well as the start of the second half if you did not do so.

I guess it is semantics, but what you are deferring is when you make your choice (at the start of the second half rather than at the start of the game); it's not a case of making no choice at all.

When the game of football was started a hundred years ago and there was very little scoring (6-0, 8-6, etc.) it may have actually been a sound strategy to kickoff both times. In today's game however it wouldn't make much sense, so the rule change was long overdue.

 

[Ian]

Re: BREAKDOWN: The Second Quarter Has Been the Key For the Patriots Over the Last Six

According to the article, the option to defer (which has always been in the college rules) was added to the NFL 4 years ago in 2008. It actually provides the opportunity for a little more strategy (some coaches prefer to choose at the start of the game; some prefer to choose at the start of the second half). Interestingly enough, Patriots' opponents usually choose to receive the kickoff at the start of the game when they win the coin toss so it's very rare for the Patriots to receive the initial kickoff.

Yeah, the only point behind even mentioning that was just to point out that despite the fact they didn't start the game with the ball, they weren't any better to start the second half despite starting with the football in every game this year in terms of scoring on their opening possession.

The numbers in both scenarios were surprising when I looked them up, and going back year by year looking at it by quarter. When I saw it was consistent from 2006 until now in terms of the second quarter being their highest scoring, I thought it was an interesting trend.