OT: Todays NFL games

Brando70 · Post by **Brando70** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:59 pm

I played offensive/defensive line in high school and also played in a live-blocking flag football league when I lived in NYC. No expert by any means, but I've been on both sides of the long drive issue.

The "tired" issue is related mostly to run blocking. The O-line knows the count and play, and they fire out. The D-line has to react and fight against that momentum. After a while, you do get worn down.

I think linemen tend to get more fatigued pass blocking for long periods of time, because there you are fighting the momentum of the D-line as they rush. Generally speaking, I think it takes more out of you to play the D-line than it does the offensive line.

RallyMonkey · Post by **RallyMonkey** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 3:04 pm

Scoop, sorry for the "you all" generalization. Didn't look closely enough. I hereby withdraw the above "you all" and replace it with "some of you".

Post by **ScoopBrady** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 3:06 pm

RallyMonkey wrote:Scoop, sorry for the "you all" generalization. Didn't look closely enough. I hereby withdraw the above "you all" and replace it with "some of you".

LMAO

matthewk · Post by **matthewk** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 3:06 pm

Brando70 wrote:I played offensive/defensive line in high school and also played in a live-blocking flag football league when I lived in NYC. No expert by any means, but I've been on both sides of the long drive issue.

The "tired" issue is related mostly to run blocking. The O-line knows the count and play, and they fire out. The D-line has to react and fight against that momentum. After a while, you do get worn down.

I think linemen tend to get more fatigued pass blocking for long periods of time, because there you are fighting the momentum of the D-line as they rush. Generally speaking, I think it takes more out of you to play the D-line than it does the offensive line.

True. However, I think that is offset by the DL rotating players while you usually have the same 5 OL in the game. This keeps the DL fresher than if you had the same 4 guys line up every play. If it's the same 11 vs. 11, then yes, the defense would get tired quicker. That's why I keep bringing up substitutions. TEs and LBs come into the mix, but the lines are mainly the DL vs. the OL.

For the record (listening DB?), I played linebacker, WR, and QB. I know SOME about line play, but didn't play it much due my (lack of) girth.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 3:07 pm

matthewk wrote:For the record (listening DB?), I played linebacker, WR, and QB. I know SOME about line play, but didn't play it much due my (lack of) girth.

Madden doesn't count.

Brando70 · Post by **Brando70** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 3:16 pm

matthewk wrote:
Brando70 wrote:I played offensive/defensive line in high school and also played in a live-blocking flag football league when I lived in NYC. No expert by any means, but I've been on both sides of the long drive issue.

The "tired" issue is related mostly to run blocking. The O-line knows the count and play, and they fire out. The D-line has to react and fight against that momentum. After a while, you do get worn down.

I think linemen tend to get more fatigued pass blocking for long periods of time, because there you are fighting the momentum of the D-line as they rush. Generally speaking, I think it takes more out of you to play the D-line than it does the offensive line.
True. However, I think that is offset by the DL rotating players while you usually have the same 5 OL in the game. This keeps the DL fresher than if you had the same 4 guys line up every play. If it's the same 11 vs. 11, then yes, the defense would get tired quicker. That's why I keep bringing up substitutions. TEs and LBs come into the mix, but the lines are mainly the DL vs. the OL.

For the record (listening DB?), I played linebacker, WR, and QB. I know SOME about line play, but didn't play it much due my (lack of) girth.

But you're still getting beaten on more when you're playing defensive line. I don't remember ever getting tired playing on the O-line. I got my ass handed to me on plenty of occasions, but don't remember ever really feeling fatigued. However, when a guy keeps drive blocking your ass down the field, or you get walloped by a pulling guard you didn't see, it breaks you down in a hurry, rotation or no. Usually, as an O-lineman, you're not getting the surprise hit or getting driven around as much.

Plus the other thing to remember is that offensive linemen are usually bigger than the guys they are blocking, especially at the ends.

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 3:25 pm

One reason the Colts TOP during the season, but not the Divisional Playoff game, was so poor is that they scored too fast a lot of times. Sure they were putting up 40 regularly but those weren't sustained drives.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 5:56 pm

I don't think the Colts' TOP was that bad. The Colts lead in TOP in 7 of the 15 games started by Peyton Manning. They only ran about 5 less plays a game for the season.

I'm looking at the box scores and the drives are a little shorter time wise, but when they lost TOP big it was usually in games when they gave up over 200 yards rushing to KC or over 400 yards total offense to Jacksonville twice.

The Colts had a high powered offense and very generous defense. Colts' opponents only punted 52 times all season. 3.3 punts a game + 4.6 yards a rush + 90 QB Rating + 41.9 3rd down pct = poor defense.

The Colts may have forced a lot of turnovers, but they were also on the field a lot because they couldn't force the other team to punt. They forced 4 more turnovers than the Steelers in about 140 more plays.

I also don't buy that the Colts gave up a lot of garbage TDs. They gave up more points in the 2nd Quarter of games than in the 4th.