OneManGang
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Tennessee vs The Maxims vs Troy
The most famous ship in the Royal Navy prepared for action. After a long search she had found her quarry and trained out her guns to engage the German battleship Bismark. It was 24 May 1941.
HMS Hood was the ultimate expression of an idea hatched in the fertile (some would say fevered) imagination of Admiral Sir John Jackie Fisher, First Sea Lord in the early 1900s. Fisher had been the driving force behind the first truly modern battleship HMS Dreadnought which had been commissioned in 1905. What separated Dreadnought from every ship that had come before was that her main battery was all the same caliber, in this case 12-inch guns mounted in twin-gun turrets. She was also well protected with thick belts of armor on her hull and her gun turrets. All that protection came at a cost and Dreadnought and her successors tended to be a bit slow.
Fisher's idea was to sacrifice armor for speed. He convinced Parliament to fund the construction of a series of battlecruisers. These ships would be roughly the same size as a battleship and carry the same armament but have more powerful engines and much less armor. A World War I battlecruiser was generally nine or ten knots faster than a battleship. As such they were completely offensive weapons, all teeth and hair as it were. The idea was these battlecruisers would range ahead of the battle fleet hitting and running: attriting the enemy force in modern parlance. They could also stage hit-and-run raids against enemy shore installations escaping before the more ponderous battleships could catch them.
The acid test came on 31 May 1916 as the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet squared off in the North Sea off the Danish coast known as Jutland. Vice-Admiral David Beatty led six British battlecruisers ahead of the battleships looking for the Wily Hun. He soon found them. Unfortunately for Fisher's theory, the Germans had battlecruisers of their own which were similarly deployed. In a series of short, sharp exchanges of fire the Germans proved to be better shots and their battlecruisers to have tougher armor than their English counterparts. Three of Beatty's ships were literally blown out of the water, succumbing to a combination of superior German gunnery, their own thin armor and poor Royal Navy ammunition-handling doctrine. The first of Beatty's ships to go down was HMS Indefatigable which blew up in a tremendous explosion and when the smoke cleared her bow and stern were the only pieces left and they soon disappeared beneath the waves. Of her crew of 1019 only two survived. She was followed by the HMS Invincible and HMS Queen Mary. Watching his ships explode, Admiral Beatty shook his head and muttered, in one of the grand understatements in history, There is something wrong with our bloody ships today." Nearly 7,000 British sailors died that day, most of them on the three battlecruisers.
Twenty-five years later, nearly to the day, Hood made ready to exact a measure of revenge for her forebears. Tragically for Hood the German gunners on board Bismark were even better shots than their fathers had been. Hood got off a couple of rounds before two or more shells from Bismark hit and she exploded just like the three at Jutland. Of Hood's crew of 1418, only three men were plucked from the icy North Atlantic.
The all-offense experiment of the battlecruiser came to a final deadly end.
Tennessee's experiment with an all offense strategy continues for the 2012 campaign. Saturday's contest with Troy, who also seemed to totally lack any meaningful defense, reflected this.
So, how did the team do compared to the Maxims?
1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
Tennessee has kept overall offensive records since the 1950 season. The two teams Saturday combined for over 1500 yards of total offense and 103 points. That's more than either the 1958 or the 1964 Vols managed to generate over the ENTIRE SEASON. Interestingly, the 1964 Vols wound up 4-5-1.
2. Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way SCORE!
A learned friend of mine commented after the carnage Saturday, The Vols have invented a new category of futility: the moral defeat.
3. If at first the game or the breaks go against you, dont let up PUT ON MORE STEAM!
This writer was reminded of the 1997 tilt against Kentucky during which John Chavis' defensive troops mailed it in. Peyton Manning seemed to shrug and say, OK, we'll just make this a track meet. Tennessee won that one going away.
4. Protect our kickers, our quarterback, our lead and our ballgame.
Troy should NEVER have been in a position to win Saturday. Period.
5. Ball! Oskie! Cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle THIS IS THE WINNING EDGE.
Dear coaches Dooley and Sunseri:
Defense (diˈfens) Sports
a. Means or tactics used in trying to stop the opposition from scoring.
b. The team or those players on the team attempting to stop the opposition from scoring.
Thank you very much.
6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.
Michael Palardy is probably still soaking his leg in a whirlpool after three punts, nine kickoffs, seven PATs and three field goal attempts.
7. Carry the fight to Troy and keep it there for sixty minutes.
The Vol offense never quit and eventually prevailed. Tennessee's defense never made it out of the hotel.
There is a pithy football aphorism that, offense sells tickets, defense wins championships.
One can now add a codicil to that, "Offense with no defense doesn't sell tickets either."
Tennessee fans stayed away from Neyland Stadium in droves Saturday as Vol faithful from Dyersburg to Ducktown echoed a long-dead British admiral, There is something wrong with our bloody defense today.
MAXOMG
The most famous ship in the Royal Navy prepared for action. After a long search she had found her quarry and trained out her guns to engage the German battleship Bismark. It was 24 May 1941.
HMS Hood was the ultimate expression of an idea hatched in the fertile (some would say fevered) imagination of Admiral Sir John Jackie Fisher, First Sea Lord in the early 1900s. Fisher had been the driving force behind the first truly modern battleship HMS Dreadnought which had been commissioned in 1905. What separated Dreadnought from every ship that had come before was that her main battery was all the same caliber, in this case 12-inch guns mounted in twin-gun turrets. She was also well protected with thick belts of armor on her hull and her gun turrets. All that protection came at a cost and Dreadnought and her successors tended to be a bit slow.
Fisher's idea was to sacrifice armor for speed. He convinced Parliament to fund the construction of a series of battlecruisers. These ships would be roughly the same size as a battleship and carry the same armament but have more powerful engines and much less armor. A World War I battlecruiser was generally nine or ten knots faster than a battleship. As such they were completely offensive weapons, all teeth and hair as it were. The idea was these battlecruisers would range ahead of the battle fleet hitting and running: attriting the enemy force in modern parlance. They could also stage hit-and-run raids against enemy shore installations escaping before the more ponderous battleships could catch them.
The acid test came on 31 May 1916 as the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet squared off in the North Sea off the Danish coast known as Jutland. Vice-Admiral David Beatty led six British battlecruisers ahead of the battleships looking for the Wily Hun. He soon found them. Unfortunately for Fisher's theory, the Germans had battlecruisers of their own which were similarly deployed. In a series of short, sharp exchanges of fire the Germans proved to be better shots and their battlecruisers to have tougher armor than their English counterparts. Three of Beatty's ships were literally blown out of the water, succumbing to a combination of superior German gunnery, their own thin armor and poor Royal Navy ammunition-handling doctrine. The first of Beatty's ships to go down was HMS Indefatigable which blew up in a tremendous explosion and when the smoke cleared her bow and stern were the only pieces left and they soon disappeared beneath the waves. Of her crew of 1019 only two survived. She was followed by the HMS Invincible and HMS Queen Mary. Watching his ships explode, Admiral Beatty shook his head and muttered, in one of the grand understatements in history, There is something wrong with our bloody ships today." Nearly 7,000 British sailors died that day, most of them on the three battlecruisers.
Twenty-five years later, nearly to the day, Hood made ready to exact a measure of revenge for her forebears. Tragically for Hood the German gunners on board Bismark were even better shots than their fathers had been. Hood got off a couple of rounds before two or more shells from Bismark hit and she exploded just like the three at Jutland. Of Hood's crew of 1418, only three men were plucked from the icy North Atlantic.
The all-offense experiment of the battlecruiser came to a final deadly end.
Tennessee's experiment with an all offense strategy continues for the 2012 campaign. Saturday's contest with Troy, who also seemed to totally lack any meaningful defense, reflected this.
So, how did the team do compared to the Maxims?
1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
Tennessee has kept overall offensive records since the 1950 season. The two teams Saturday combined for over 1500 yards of total offense and 103 points. That's more than either the 1958 or the 1964 Vols managed to generate over the ENTIRE SEASON. Interestingly, the 1964 Vols wound up 4-5-1.
2. Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way SCORE!
A learned friend of mine commented after the carnage Saturday, The Vols have invented a new category of futility: the moral defeat.
3. If at first the game or the breaks go against you, dont let up PUT ON MORE STEAM!
This writer was reminded of the 1997 tilt against Kentucky during which John Chavis' defensive troops mailed it in. Peyton Manning seemed to shrug and say, OK, we'll just make this a track meet. Tennessee won that one going away.
4. Protect our kickers, our quarterback, our lead and our ballgame.
Troy should NEVER have been in a position to win Saturday. Period.
5. Ball! Oskie! Cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle THIS IS THE WINNING EDGE.
Dear coaches Dooley and Sunseri:
Defense (diˈfens) Sports
a. Means or tactics used in trying to stop the opposition from scoring.
b. The team or those players on the team attempting to stop the opposition from scoring.
Thank you very much.
6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.
Michael Palardy is probably still soaking his leg in a whirlpool after three punts, nine kickoffs, seven PATs and three field goal attempts.
7. Carry the fight to Troy and keep it there for sixty minutes.
The Vol offense never quit and eventually prevailed. Tennessee's defense never made it out of the hotel.
There is a pithy football aphorism that, offense sells tickets, defense wins championships.
One can now add a codicil to that, "Offense with no defense doesn't sell tickets either."
Tennessee fans stayed away from Neyland Stadium in droves Saturday as Vol faithful from Dyersburg to Ducktown echoed a long-dead British admiral, There is something wrong with our bloody defense today.
MAXOMG
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