Are you ready for some (smart) football?
January 14, 2019 2:10 PM   Subscribe

American football season is winding down. The college football season is already over, and there are only three more NFL playoff games. (Although the Alliance of American Football will kick off its inaugural season in February!) Now that we don't have games to keep us occupied anymore, let's turn our attention to Xs and Os instead. If you can't tell the difference between a 3x1 spread and a flexbone, jump in to some Xs and Os blogs and start learning. By next season's kickoff, you'll be able to impress all your rowdy friends when you say things like "oh, that's a simple smash concept to the boundary with the H-back check-releasing to the flat, gives the QB an easy hi-lo read".

The godfather of Xs-and-Os blogs is Chris Brown's aptly-named Smart Football. Brown is the rare genius who can explain esoteric technical concepts in lucid, even sometimes enjoyable prose. Sadly, the blog has only been updated a handful of times since 2015, but the archive is vast. Some of my favorites:

Why Every Team Should Install Its Offense in Three Days
The History of the Air Raid Offense
Combining Quick Passes, Run Plays, and Screens in the Same Play
The Original One-Back Spread Offense
Defending the Zone Read

If you read Grantland, you may remember Chris Brown's column there. Some good ones:

Packaged Plays - Rethinking Modern Playcalling
Why Power Running Works
Appreciating Michigan State's Defense in an Age of Offense

(Chris Brown is still active on Twitter.)

Football Study Hall is an SB Nation blog that mixes Xs and Os with advanced stats, and they've done an especially good job explaining the spread offense explosion the past few years. Some greatest hits:

The Four Main Schools of Spread Offense
Kansas State's QB Run Game
The Gulf Coast Offense
Lincoln Riley's Oklahoma Offense
Two Developing Worlds of Spread-Option Football

Ian Boyd, the main Xs and Os writer at Football Study Hall, maintains his own blog at SportsTreatise.com, where he focuses more narrowly on the Big XII and Texas high school ball (which, fortunately, is where a lot of offensive innovation is taking place). Highlights:

Breaking Down the 2017 Texas High School State Championship
Market inefficiencies in Big XII Recruiting
A Glossary of Modern Defensive Formations

Also, How Did You Learn About the Game?, which is basically Boyd's version of this post.

Similarly, Breakdown Sports, written by the amusingly pseudonymous Space Coyote, focuses more narrowly on the Big Ten:

Six Types of Zone Blocking
Adding False Keys to the Run Game
Inside the Playbook: Ohio State's Book Run Scheme and Arrow/Slide RPO

They also have a helpful Football Fundamentals section for beginners.

Match Quarters is a site run by Coach Cody Alexander. Named after the once-ubiquitous, now-fading coverage made famous by Michigan State, it's unique among these sites in that it focuses primarily on defense. When they do analyze offense, it's generally from a "how to defend it" perspective - the Know Your Enemy approach.

Adapting Saban's Rip/Liz
The Chad Morris Clemson Offense
MQ's Link Book

Riley-Kolste Football is a blog run by two college kids (Riley and Kolste, natch). They haven't posted a ton of material, but what they have posted is good. For example, one of the most comprehensive guides to wide receiver technique anywhere.

Additionally, there are plenty of sites focused on individual teams, and many of them have writers who cover their team's Xs and Os in considerable depth. Some of the best ones I've come across are:

Eleven Warriors (Ohio State)
FishDuck (Oregon)
Coug Center (Washington State SB Nation)
College and Magnolia (Auburn SB Nation)
Shakin the Southland (Clemson SB Nation)
Husker Chalk Talk (Nebraska)
Xs and Oz, an ancient but encyclopedic guide to the turn-of-the-century Nebraska option offense, which many believe was the greatest team ever.

If this is moving too fast and you need help keeping up, you can consult Inside the Pylon's helpful glossary.

And if you're really starting from scratch, you can start where I started over 15 years ago: former Notre Dame coach Bob Davie's Football 101 columns on ESPN.com.

As you learn more, you may find it helpful to watch some All-22 video to see concepts in action.

Now that you know what to watch for, hopefully your team will enjoy a decided schematic advantage. But remember, it's not just about Xs and Os; sometimes it's about Jimmys and Joes.
posted by kevinbelt (14 comments total) 51 users marked this as a favorite
 
If you'd like to see some of the concepts broken down in game situations, Matt Wyatt's Film Study YouTube series is a pretty good watch. Just pick a couple of recent games and he'll cover the offensive decisions on the biggest plays.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 2:15 PM on January 14, 2019


This is amazing. Thank you.
posted by radiosilents at 2:21 PM on January 14, 2019


Very cool! Thanks for sharing.
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 2:33 PM on January 14, 2019


Holy cow! As an enthusiastic but less cerebral fan this has eased my approaching-offseason blues. I'll be a mastermind by next season.

Just learned that alexa has an NFL Fundamentals skill for asking about rule clarifications midmatch, btw.
posted by ominous_paws at 3:31 PM on January 14, 2019


The local sports-talk shock-jocks mock the new helmets as making the players look like "The Great Gazoo." They're apparently very effective, tho there was a player in the 90's, which is now ungoogleable since someone trademarked the term "conehead helmet" who wore a goofier looking helmet with padding on the outside as well as the inside after sustaining a severe concussion, and never suffered another for the rest of his career.

I mean, athletes getting killed, no kidding dead, was a regular occurrence in the early intercollegiate games in the 19th century. It took Teddy Roosevelt endorsing the leather helmet and the forward pass to reduce it to merely horrific injury.

The game will be made safer. It is being made safer. But we should never give up the pressure to see our athlete idols ride off into the sunset whole and healthy.

In other "Perhaps there's Progress?" NFL news, Brooklyn native Brian Flores, the Patriots' Defensive Coordinator, is a lead-pipe cinch to be head-coach of the Miami Dolphins after we loose to New Orleans the post-season. The Patriots have the 7th best defense in the league this year, with an untested linebacker coach taking the role of play-caller. He's a man of color, sure, but he's goddamn good at what he does, and the league is starting to care less and less about black folks being in positions of power, so long as you can win.

Also! A woman in zebra stripes was on the field for the Pats v. Chargers game! She Did Her Job with aplomb.

I'm of the opinion that Bill B. should sign Kaep as the backup and future franchise QB to mess with everyone's head. I mean, everyone hates the Pats already, let's give 'em some red meat who can lead a team through the playoffs to the Superb Owl. Yeah, he endorsed his golfing buddy for President, his second biggest mistake after benching Malcolm Butler, but he continually learns and adapts.
posted by Slap*Happy at 4:43 PM on January 14, 2019 [1 favorite]


You're thinking of Mark Kelso from the Buffalo Bills.

There's also a school of thought that believes helmets, and more specifically facemasks, lead to more concussions because they short-circuit the normal feedback you get from ramming your head into things, i.e., "ow!"
posted by kevinbelt at 5:06 PM on January 14, 2019 [1 favorite]


One thing I've always wished existed is a camera view similar to what you see on Madden - basically, what the QB sees during an actual game. I feel like that'd make it so much easier to see plays develop, get a feel for patterns, and so on. Right now all we see on TV is... the ball, really. :(
posted by jamesrhodus at 6:46 PM on January 14, 2019


Last season due to fog, NBC broadcast most of a game from the cable cam suspended over the field.

If you really want to see what is going on with plays, you need the All 22 view.
posted by mmascolino at 7:23 PM on January 14, 2019 [3 favorites]


This is phenomenal
posted by not_the_water at 9:23 PM on January 14, 2019


RE: "The market efficiencies in Big 12 Football" has a good portion where they discuss the number of African American players in TX vs the rest of the Big 12 conference, and that TX has more is why they dominate the Big 12 vs the rest, which has very few. They also surmise that the SEC conference has a higher population of African Americans which is why they dominate in college football. Easy enough. Fair enough. But getting back to Texas (since we are talking market efficiencies in the Big 12), the typical state title winners are from majority white schools (I mean seriously white. Katy, Southlake Carroll, Allen, Highland Park, each have like 10% or less AA in the school) so the market efficiency comes from a total lack of AAs on the state title winning teams. State title winning teams get the most recruiters looking at the players. That's a market inefficiency that is easy to spot.

Also has a part about Baker Mayfield, who lead the Cleveland Browns to more wins this year than they have had in the past several combined, so up and out into the pros might not be the best strategy for QBs.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:38 AM on January 15, 2019


You're thinking of Mark Kelso from the Buffalo Bills.

Two minutes ago I would have bet my whole life savings that it was Don Beebe, but you are of course correct. Lucky break for me!
posted by Kwine at 9:19 AM on January 15, 2019


One thing I've always wished existed is a camera view similar to what you see on Madden - basically, what the QB sees during an actual game.

Grab a couple seats high in the end zone it's a whole different game view than from the sidelines and you can see holes open up and receivers get open.
posted by lstanley at 9:27 AM on January 15, 2019


Holy cow! Bookmarked for later immersion, thank you!
posted by old_growler at 12:15 PM on January 16, 2019


I've been a football fan for 40+ years, and this looks like an amazing way to spend the offseason.

In other "Perhaps there's Progress?" NFL news, Brooklyn native Brian Flores, the Patriots' Defensive Coordinator, is a lead-pipe cinch to be head-coach of the Miami Dolphins after we loose to New Orleans the post-season. The Patriots have the 7th best defense in the league this year, with an untested linebacker coach taking the role of play-caller. He's a man of color, sure, but he's goddamn good at what he does, and the league is starting to care less and less about black folks being in positions of power, so long as you can win.

Dolphin fan here, and I am really starting to warm to this idea. I'm impressed with Flores' diversity in both organizational experience and ethnicity/culture/etc.


I'm of the opinion that Bill B. should sign Kaep as the backup ...


Actually, I'd love to see him sign a one-year prove-it deal with the Dolphins. It fits with the team's commitment to diversity, comes at a great time during a rebuild and would make Armando Salguero's head explode.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 2:28 PM on January 16, 2019 [1 favorite]


« Older FUTURE ZONE - FULL SCI FI MOVIES   |   for this was it a glorious, for this was it an... Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments