BruisedOrange
Well... known member
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2013
- Messages
- 9,268
- Likes
- 26,964
Defense still wins championships, but (depending on your offense) it has different strategic goals.
You could parallel the evolution of football offensive strategies to the changes in warfare from the Civil War's line-of-battle attacks (rugby-like football) to WW1's trench warfare (3 yards and a cloud of dust) to WW2 (development of the passing attack) to Cold War (intricate plays and multiple formations to create confusion or hesitancy in the defense) to guerilla and asymmetric warfare (taking what the defense gives you, from the triple option to today's read-and-react).
Back in Gen. Neyland's era(s), when there were fewer explosive* plays, football was a field position game. So total yardage allowed was an accurate indicator of how good your defense was. That's also when punting had the greatest impact, because it could reverse field position and make scoring nearly impossible, from inside your own 20. The explosive play of that era was often a successfully executed quick-kick on third down.
Innovations like the forward pass, making the ball slimmer and longer, dynamic offensive formations, pulling guards and trap plays, all eventually allowed yardage to be gained in bigger chunks. So denying 3rd down conversions became the "key" statistic for defenses. It's probably hard for youngsters to imagine, but many an SEC game in the '60s was won on 3 or 4 field goals with no touchdowns. Those were days when defenses fought for every yard, and what many of us 55 or older think of when we say "defense wins championships." But we oldsters should remind ourselves that the 1985 Chicago Bears might have been the last time we saw that kind of defense.
Today's rules, playing surfaces, and speed give the offense even more advantages, so that field position is no longer a factor in scoring ability. Probably the most cited statistical keys for today's defenses are turnovers and explosive plays allowed.
For our defense (working strategically with our offense) scoring itself is the key statistic. The goal of our defense is not to limit yardage, but limit points and possessions. Each turnover and punt provides our potent offense an extra opportunity to put points on the board, and force our opponents to be more one-dimensional as they play catch-up.
THAT'S the ultimate design of our defense: to limit their ability to run effectively on 1st and 2nd down... then, when the scoreboard forces them to pass, to get sacks and turnovers.
And that's why I'm not criticizing Coach Banks: the players he inherited (who stayed) were recruited to keep the ball in front of them, force the offense into long drives until they made a mistake, and strategically be a defense that could win games with scores like 27-21.
We will not be able to judge Coach Bank's defensive plan until we are 2 and 3 deep with players recruited for what he needs them to do. As I've often said, right now we are Manning's Indianapolis Colts... before they got DE Dwight Freeney and OLB Robert Mathis. And all things considered, we're doing pretty darn good!
You could parallel the evolution of football offensive strategies to the changes in warfare from the Civil War's line-of-battle attacks (rugby-like football) to WW1's trench warfare (3 yards and a cloud of dust) to WW2 (development of the passing attack) to Cold War (intricate plays and multiple formations to create confusion or hesitancy in the defense) to guerilla and asymmetric warfare (taking what the defense gives you, from the triple option to today's read-and-react).
Back in Gen. Neyland's era(s), when there were fewer explosive* plays, football was a field position game. So total yardage allowed was an accurate indicator of how good your defense was. That's also when punting had the greatest impact, because it could reverse field position and make scoring nearly impossible, from inside your own 20. The explosive play of that era was often a successfully executed quick-kick on third down.
*One reason there were fewer explosive plays was that the heavy pads and hindering equipment of the era diminished speed differences between individual players, especially for quick, underweight players like a Squirrel White. Note today how many speed players even forego the knee pad, because in today's game, a split second of added speed makes a bigger difference than it did 80 years ago.
Innovations like the forward pass, making the ball slimmer and longer, dynamic offensive formations, pulling guards and trap plays, all eventually allowed yardage to be gained in bigger chunks. So denying 3rd down conversions became the "key" statistic for defenses. It's probably hard for youngsters to imagine, but many an SEC game in the '60s was won on 3 or 4 field goals with no touchdowns. Those were days when defenses fought for every yard, and what many of us 55 or older think of when we say "defense wins championships." But we oldsters should remind ourselves that the 1985 Chicago Bears might have been the last time we saw that kind of defense.
Today's rules, playing surfaces, and speed give the offense even more advantages, so that field position is no longer a factor in scoring ability. Probably the most cited statistical keys for today's defenses are turnovers and explosive plays allowed.
For our defense (working strategically with our offense) scoring itself is the key statistic. The goal of our defense is not to limit yardage, but limit points and possessions. Each turnover and punt provides our potent offense an extra opportunity to put points on the board, and force our opponents to be more one-dimensional as they play catch-up.
THAT'S the ultimate design of our defense: to limit their ability to run effectively on 1st and 2nd down... then, when the scoreboard forces them to pass, to get sacks and turnovers.
And that's why I'm not criticizing Coach Banks: the players he inherited (who stayed) were recruited to keep the ball in front of them, force the offense into long drives until they made a mistake, and strategically be a defense that could win games with scores like 27-21.
We will not be able to judge Coach Bank's defensive plan until we are 2 and 3 deep with players recruited for what he needs them to do. As I've often said, right now we are Manning's Indianapolis Colts... before they got DE Dwight Freeney and OLB Robert Mathis. And all things considered, we're doing pretty darn good!
.
