Here's a great breakdown of the MNF game between the Jets and Fins by Mike Tanier from Football Outsiders and Chris Brown of Smart Football.
Football Outsiders
Best quote:
Mike: "Defending the Dolphins must be like trying to punish a student who enjoys detentions. You hold them to three yards and they happily take it. I have never seen a team so methodical and committed to power football when trailing at the end of the fourth quarter."
In response to one of Chris' articles about the Wildcat, I had posed the question of why the Dolphins are so good at it? Is it due to personnel, understanding, or play-calling?
Chris writes that he believes that the Dolphins understanding of it is much better than other teams. In addition, he says that it fully utilizes their best players. Basically, he validates my suspicion that it is some combination of the three ingredients, but I think that it is more based on the specific abilities of their personnel (a strong run blocking O-line, RONNIE BROWN, and Ricky) than on their "understanding" of it. However, these two ideas are intertwined and so cannot be completely separated.
the playcalling of great teams is the antithesis of results-oriented thinking. i think it's pathetic that so many professional coaches cannot grasp the concept.
ReplyDeletebtw sorry i haven't been posting much this month; work sucks and i miss blogging.
ReplyDeleteThe Dolphins' 8-minute drill strategy, much-maligned as it was, seems to have some merit if the underlying thought is this: we'll take three quarters of the clock, give you one quarter of the clock, and if you beat us, great. If not, that just means you aren't Peyton Manning, who we play once a year.
ReplyDeleteSneaky smart strategy if they can get someone else to knock out the Colts in the playoffs?
The 8-minute drill strategy also works much better when there are still 8 minutes left on the clock. Just sayin'.
ReplyDeletelol wat?
ReplyDelete(pretty sure that's a phishing attempt btw)