The hell you talkin’ 'bout? What’s “that”?
I’m a bit suprised that this doesn’t hapen more often as well. Why wouldn’t a big tight end or a reciever like Calvin Johnson be lined up to block the kick? I suppose there’s a possibility for injury, but that possibility is there for the defensive ends and linebackers lining up as well.
In the 2006 Wisconsin / Penn State game, the Badgers scored near the end of the first half. Not wanting to allow Penn State to take advantage of the few seconds left in the half to attempt a quick scoring drive, Wisconsin took advantage of a then-new NCAA rule (not sure if it still exists) which started the game clock on kickoffs as the ball was kicked, rather than as it was caught by the receiving team. The Badgers intentionally went offsides on the kickoff – twice – thus running off nearly all of the remaining time in the half.
I know that the NFL recently changed the rules about what defenders can do on field goal attempts; I believe that jumping is restricted, if not outright prohibited.
Jumping is not restricted. Getting leverage from a teammate is.
This was one of the dumbest rule changes in college football, ever. Luckily for fans and for the integrity of the game, the rule was changed back. Your quoted scenario is one of the main reasons–a team could manipulate the kickoff and the clock to essentially stall out the other team.
Clarification: I think the rules were changed back–I don’t recall any recent controversies or outcries.
I came in here just to say fake punt/field goals. Seems like they are only used in the most dire of circumstances, and sometimes not even then.
I can provide a good example of why you would want to decline it and actually saw it happen. The offensive team was up by something like 4 points late in the fourth quarter and it was fourth down with the ball somewhere around the 40. The kicker wasn’t too accurate so taking a 50 yard FG was fairly risky and the other team would still be aiming for a touchdown in either case and the risk of missing was giving up excellent field position. So they elected to let the clock run and take the delay of game to back up a bit to give the punter more room to try pin them, so the other team declined the penalty.
The potential for disaster is high. At least on a fake field goal you can have a quarterback throw a pass. Fake punts where the punter throws usually look awful, and only a few punters are fast enough to make a run fake work.
Howard usually doesn’t have anyone in scoring position when they use the shift on him.
In my pickup league last Thursday, my team was getting slaughtered. Those pickup games are very casual, so the skip was deliberately trying some difficult shots just to get the practice. And we only lost by one.
I’m pretty new at this and haven’t skipped yet. I am trying to get a feel for which shots are difficult and which risk making things worse. They’re not always the same thing.
In football, I’d like to see more fleaflickers. A team will generally do one, maybe two in an entire season. I’d like to see 3-5 a game. I see it as a more effective play action pass. On a PAP, maybe the linebackers take a step or two forward before they drop back (or maybe not even that – sometimes, it seems a QB will fake a handoff on every play, even when it’s 2nd and 25 and his team is down by 21. Totally worthless fake there, and probably done more by rote than anything else). On a fleaflicker, it seems to me that the secondary is so out of position to defend a pass by the time the ball is pitched back to the QB that coverage downfield is very soft, and big gains result with surprising regularity. (I also don’t think you have to go for the home run ball with every fleaflicker – find your suddenly uncovered tight end on a medium route). I think a team ballsy enough to run three fleaflickers in a game will have the secondary hesitating just a second on every handoff thereafter.
Obviously, a fleaflicker takes a little time to develop, and so is dependent on the performance of the respective lines. But generally the worst that’ll happen is the RB gets smushed before he can pitch it back, or the QB takes a sack.
Also, on 2nd and short, take a shot downfield for Tebow’s sake! Why run a play designed to get 3 yards on 2nd down when you can run it on 3rd down after an incompletion?
Correct. The calls that really annoy me are the ones that are both! Or the ones that are just ridiculously difficult, but still take a ten-minute coffee klatch to plan.
I want to see the conclusion to this analysis implemented in pro football:
http://www.advancednflstats.com/2009/09/4th-down-study-part-1.html
It basically says that you have a statistically positive outcome from going for it on 4th down FAR more often that what coaches currently do.
There was a high school football team that made it a policy to NEVER punt on 4th down. They won the state championship.
It would probably be more optimal in the HS level because the level of competition is so disparate (a powerhouse could probably make it on 4th down most of the time playing various patsy teams), but even in the NFL they’ll punt 4th and 3 from the opposing 43, and I always wonder what is the point.
I suspect it’s because coaches are very rarely fired for being too conservative, but they do get fired for taking chances that don’t work out.
Professional coaches/managers do not do what maximizes their chances of winning.
They do what maximizes their chances of keeping their jobs.
I just wanted to come in here to point out that Wisconsin did exactly this against Iowa in the 2010 season, and it was a key play in the Badgers’ win. Iowa screwed up royally - even in high school, I remember coaches constantly telling us, “Make sure they kick the ball!”
Well, in this key situation, as Wisconsin snapped the ball in punt formation, the Hawkeye defenders basically gave the Badger linemen a quick shove and then immediately ran downfield to set up the return. I swear, they had their backs to the punter before he even fielded the snap. So, he just tucked the ball and ran for an easy first down. Wisconsin finished that drive with the game-winning touchdown.
I can still hear Coach Gerard yelling at our football practice: “Make 'em kick the ball!”
Basketball
I wish more players would miss the free throw at the end of the game when its under 3 seconds. I believe the difficulty of tossing up a prayer 3 pointer from across the court outweighs the benefits of getting one extra point
This happened over the weekend in the LA vs. Denver game. Kobe missed a free throw with 1.1 seconds on the clock and the Lakers up by 2. He made the next free throw to make the Lakers up by 3 with the Nuggets having the ball. The coach took a couple of time outs and set up a play where they got a desperation 3 pointer off at the last second that still hit the backboard and was in danger of kind of bouncing in.
With 1.1 seconds, I think Kobe should have purposefully missed the shot. The scramble for the ball itself will take at least half a second off the clock, and that’s if the Nuggets grab the ball. They could call a time out, but with under a second to go, they’re not going to have time to get a decent look.
I also think more players should toss the ball in the air at the end of the clock to waste a couple of seconds. Pretty much every time I see one of these last second scrambles for the ball, a player grabs it and holds on to it, gets fouled, and has to make a couple of shots but the other team ends up getting the ball. Don’t they know that tossing the ball straight up in the air will kill at least 3 seconds? Just grab the ball, toss it, and in the scramble to get the ball, another second might be lost. Don’t grab it and hold on to it and wait for the foul
The only player I’ve ever seen throw the ball away was Magic in the 1991 Finals against the Bulls. I think it was game 1. The Lakers got the ball with mere seconds to go and Magic, instead of holding it and getting fouled, tossed the ball down the court. It took at least 4 seconds to roll out of bounds, by which time it was pretty much too late.
Football
Too many people just run up through the middle of the field trying to get through. I think its stupid. The middle’s going to be congested, go around the damn pile up!
Easier said than done. We have a bird’s eye view and can tell when the outside is more open, but from ground level when you have just beenhanded the ball it is not so east to see how open other parts of the field are.