2017 Running Football Thread

[bayonetbrant]

Will Brinson is a local here, and frequently guest-hosts the afternoon drive-time sports show I listen to on the radio.

[Steelgrave]

https://twitter.com/WillBrinson/status/908506176404574210

But he held onto the ball....how the hell did he not fumble? That impressed me as much as the hit.

[airboy]

NFL viewership is at the lowest level since 2009.  As always, multiple explanations are given: political BS by players, retirement of popular players (like that never happens), huge numbers of blowouts, the hurricanes, a Presidential election that occurred a year ago (really, it is still given as an explanation).

But the bottom line is viewership is down again this season.  The NFL costs to the networks is massive.  If things don't change, the goose that laid the golden egg will be eaten.

[Steelgrave]

In my case, it's a growing perception that the NFL does not offer a level playing field when it comes to disciplining teams or individuals. Starting with the Saints and Bountygate and most certainly including Deflategate and the Ezekiel Elliott situation, the NFL seems to decide on a desired result and bend the evidence and rules accordingly. The Elliot suspension is simply the most egregious example of this, as well as the most recent. In general, the person the NFL entrusted to investigate Elliot ( a woman of color, no less ) found his accuser to be "not believable" and recommended no suspension or disciplinary action be taken against Elliot. For her efforts, she was excluded from the meeting with the Commissar Commissioner where Elliot's fate was decided. There are holes in the Deflategate case you could drive a truck through and who really doubts the Saints were made the poster children for bounties? There's long been the perception that favored teams get away with murder or a slap on the hand, while influential owners ***coughGiants*** exert undue pressure on the NFL to rule in ways which are advantageous to their team. Frankly, every time Goodell mentions "protecting the Shield" or "the integrity of the NFL" I want to puke. Goodell and the owners are more interested in punishing their players for smoking grass in the offseason than in the product they put on the field. It needs to change, and the first change needs to be retiring Goodell.

[MetalDog]

Goodell isn't going anywhere.  They pay him $40 million a year to eat an enormous amount of sh*t.  And he does it well.  So unless and until he grows tired of swimming in all that money, he will continue to be the owners and the medias whipping boy.

[Bison]

Vandy's D is for real.  Tough loss even with a suspect call that over turned a clean defensive touchdown for K-State, Vandy played a hell of a good game.

[airboy]

Vandy's D is for real.  Tough loss even with a suspect call that over turned a clean defensive touchdown for K-State, Vandy played a hell of a good game.

Vandy is playing well.  Mississippi State crushed LSU.  Florida and Auburn have no offense, but have defenses to keep them in most games.  It will be an interesting SEC season.

[bayonetbrant]

fight breaks out among players at a game in Nevada

pepper spray solves the problem

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/908931175699300352

[OJsDad]

[JasonPratt]

Vandy's D is for real.  Tough loss even with a suspect call that over turned a clean defensive touchdown for K-State, Vandy played a hell of a good game.

Vandy is playing well.  Mississippi State crushed LSU.  Florida and Auburn have no offense, but have defenses to keep them in most games.  It will be an interesting SEC season.

SEC games are usually interesting for various reasons, and I'm glad that both Vandy and Kentucky have been improving in recent years.

The Florida / TN game was weird, but also kind of typical for being weird. Both teams played like they were super-young and inexperienced, which is at least factually true for UTK -- not sure about Florida. UFlor took a reasonably big lead when UT simply could not capitalize on any successful drives, and after checking in and out I gave up on the game once the 4th quarter had solidly started and TN had thrown away the ball.

Next thing I heard from the parents, is that TN had taken a 1 point lead!  :o DID I FALL ASLEEP? DID REALITY SHIFT ME INTO AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE?! I had things to do I couldn't feasibly drop, to look in on this bizarrity, annnnnnd then Florida wins by a Hail Mary pass at the last moment.  ::) But a heck of a final quarter, once it really got going.

[bayonetbrant]

yep, FL-UT was 55 minutes of dreck, and 5 minutes of "OHMIGAWD!"

[mirth]

Holy Crap! The Lions are 2-0?!

[Marty Ward]

Give them time. After all they ARE the Lions.

[mirth]

Yeah, I don't expect it to last.

[JasonPratt]

yep, FL-UT was 55 minutes of dreck, and 5 minutes of "OHMIGAWD!"

My brother and I (he follows much more closely than I do) have long theorized, since way back in our college days at UTK, that our team would perform substantially better, and more consistently, if we ran a permanent two-minute offense. Even psychologically, the Vols seem to habitually prefer it -- we really aren't happy as a team unless we're either staging a comeback against all odds, or flattening the other team like Godzilla on Bambi.

Also, we'd train our second string on both offense and defense to open the game and run as long as possible to the second half, bringing in our first string mid-game. The first stringers would hate it for ruining their "starting" stat, as professional prospects, but it would deepen the bench considerably and create gaps for us to exploit in the second half and especially the 4th quarter -- where the team historically prefers to be turbo-charging if possible anyway. (Heck, one season back in the mid-late 80s, the team's motto that year was "the fourth quarter belongs to us"! This attitude has not changed, only the teams' ability to achieve that goal from year to year.)

We'd do some other things, too, like more conditioning training and teaching all the defensive squad to focus on creating fumbles more than tackles.