You know the feeling.

The first painful rays of morning light reach your retina like red hot pokers. You rise. The routine motions and sounds of the beginning of a normal day bring not comfort, but dizziness and nausea. Bile rises in the back of your throat. An all too familiar sense of inexplicable failure and disappointment hangs in the heavy air.

You’re a Redskins fan in February. And your team hasn’t played a meaningful football game in months.

...

[I]Zone blocking rules allow linemen to use the movement and attack angles of the defenders against them.[/I]

[b]Benefits of a zone blocking scheme:[/b]
-Two reads for the linemen. Covered or uncovered. Simple.
-Seek positioning where you have leverage, not where you are looking to overpower a defender.

[b]Rule: In inside zone, the linemen operate on a system that moves to the play side, not toward the hole called[/b]

[u]Explained:[/u] It...

Get it? Come on. I have an English degree (and Art History). I get to use it once a year, if that.

Lord of the Flies is a classic novel by William Goldman about a group of boys who try to govern themselves on a deserted island.

Fabulous commentary on our evolutionary history, nature vs. nurture...

Nevermind. I forgot. Football blog. Right.

Humor me for a moment.

I haven't had the opportunity to write about...

Last entry I posted about a rating system for all players in general. To recap here’s the system in a nutshell.

Turnover Opportunity – Own Side: -5 points
Turnover Opportunity – Opponent Side: -3 points
Loss of 2 or more: -2 points
40% of necessary yardage on 1st down*: 1 point
60% of necessary yardage on 2nd down*: 1 point
100% of necessary yardage on 3rd down*: 1 point
100% of necessary yardage on 4th down*: 1 point
Extra Yards on...

Recently, I began reading [i]The Hidden Game of Football[/i] by Bob Carroll, Pete Palmer and John Thorn. It’s an older book, dating back to the late 1980’s, but it gives some great information and different ways to look into stats. In one chapter in particular, they have a way to assess quality of a team, or an individual player. Not all three yard plays are equal. For instance, in the book they suggest that in order to “win” on a first down play, you must gain 40% of the necessary yards, otherwise...