# NFL game visualizations: pictures worth a thousand words **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [November 14, 2008, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-game-visualizations-pictures-worth-a-thousand-words/472766 "2008-11-14T20:47:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-game-visualizations-pictures-worth-a-thousand-words/472766/1 "2008-11-14T20:47:20Z")
A professor at NC State has invented a very compact representation of a play-by-play breakdown of NFL games. Check out the [Washington-Dallas game](http://www.csc.ncsu.edu/faculty/healey/NFL_viz/2008/Week_04/02_WAS_DAL_26_24.html) from week 4 for an example. Once you know that arrows are kicks, blocks full of x’s are passes, and boxes full of diagonal lines are runs, it becomes very easy to see exactly what happened at any point during the game. The [main site](http://www.csc.ncsu.edu/faculty/healey/NFL_viz/2008/) has a more detailed explanation as well as links to the entire current season, but be warned that it’s fairly image-heavy. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-game-visualizations-pictures-worth-a-thousand-words/472766/2 "2008-11-14T21:10:27Z")
Interesting…I’ll have to delve into more a bit later, but I just wanted to note that I feel bad for anyone trying to analyze a [Raiders-Falcons game](http://www.csc.ncsu.edu/faculty/healey/NFL_viz/2008/Week_09/04_ATL_OAK_24_0.html). Hope they have a bright monitor. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Sensitive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@Darth\_Sensitive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Sensitive)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-game-visualizations-pictures-worth-a-thousand-words/472766/3 "2008-11-14T21:51:54Z")
That’s pretty similar to the drive summaries on the current FB games out there, but I haven’t ever seen them for a whole game. Need to look into it later. ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-game-visualizations-pictures-worth-a-thousand-words/472766/4 "2008-11-14T22:16:00Z")
Yeah, they never show those on TV anymore. Perhaps I’m misremembering, but when I was growing up (say, 15 years ago), wasn’t it standard to show a drive summary graphic after a TD (generally on the other side of the ensuing commercial break)?