24
Nov
2011
How the 49ers Got Their Groove Back (INFOGRAPHIC & VIDEO)
On this Thanksgiving Day, the San Francisco 49ers and their fans have a lot to be thankful for after starting the season 9-1 under rookie Head Coach Jim Harbaugh.
In case you were wondering exactly how Harbaugh has managed such a fast turnaround, we bring you this handy-dandy infographic drom reddit/r/nfl. In it, you’ll see how the Niners’ defense – led by all-everything LB Patrick Willis - has really been the biggest factor, leading the league with 26 takeaways and zero rushing touchdowns surrendered. And as we know, football is a game of field position, and San Francisco’s special teams have also contributed hugely to their success in that department.
(Image via reddit/r/nfl)
One could also argue that the 49ers schedule has played a big role in their success, and many are predicting an early playoff exit for Jim Harbaugh’s club. But they’ll have a chance to prove their critics wrong tonight when San Francisco plays the Baltimore Ravens and John Harbaugh in this brother-versus-brother head coaching matchup.
In the mean time, Harbaugh has his club feeling confident and as relaxed as can be in San Francisco, as evidenced by this clip of OT Joe Staley and TE Vernon Davis singing Adele’s “Someone Like You” from Staley’s “The Joe Show”. These gridiron crooners definitely struggle with the lyrics, and they’re both terrible singers, but they earn points for enthusiasm … especially Davis while butchering the chorus.
VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP
29
Sep
2011
The Tony Romo Flowchart is Hilarious (PIC)
Via Reddit/r/nfl comes the instant-classic Tony Romo Flowchart, which takes you step-by-step through the Cowboys quarterback’s typical thought processes after receiving a playcall from head coach Jason Garrett.
We have no idea who created this masterpiece (it was originally posted to Reddit by user “Tokyosexwhale“), but it’s pretty much perfect, especially coming on the heels of Monday night’s game against the Redskins, where Romo was working with a crew of inexperienced receivers and a center who seemingly couldn’t remember a snap count. Kudos to you, sir.
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW FULL-SIZE
(Image via Imgur.com)
23
Aug
2011
Can’t decide which NFL team to root for? Check out this handy flowchart
In case the lockout left you feeling disoriented about the upcoming NFL season, or if you’ve never had any reason to fully embrace one NFL team over the other, the good folks over at Interpretation By Design have developed this handy-dandy flowchart to help you decide which franchise to cheer for in 2011. It’s really quite enlightening … as long as you don’t take yourself (or the game) too seriously.
Click on the pic below for the full-size version:
(CLICK TO ENLARGE - Image via InterpretationByDesign.com)
15
Feb
2011
INFOGRAPHIC: There’s only 11 minutes of actual action in an NFL game
(Chart via WSJ.com)
Ever feel like you spend more time on Sundays watching commercials and talking heads than you do watching football being played? Well, The Wall Street Journal Online put together this fascinating breakdown of four recent NFL broadcasts, and you might be amazed at how little of the 3-hour plus broadcast is devoted to actual gameplay.
According to the study, in an average pro football game, the ball is in play for only ELEVEN minutes. Which means that during a 60-minute game, 49 minutes are whittled away while the clock runs between plays. And since the average play only lasts around 4 seconds, that puts ratio of inaction to action during a game at approximately 10:1 … and that’s just while the clock is running!
So what do the networks do with the other 174 minutes in a typical broadcast? Not surprisingly, commercials take up about an hour. As many as 75 minutes, or about 60% of the total air time, excluding commercials, is spent on shots of players huddling, standing at the line of scrimmage or just generally milling about between snaps. In the four broadcasts The Journal studied, injured players got six more seconds of camera time than celebrating players. While the network announcers showed up on screen for just 30 seconds, shots of the head coaches and referees took up about 7% of the average show.
I guess this really shouldn’t come as a shock, should it? I mean, we already know that football has a lot of dead time in between plays, and with the added value of commercial revenue over the years, we’ve seen a gradual increase in TV time-outs to help pad the league’s bank accounts. And just because the ball hasn’t been snapped, doesn’t mean there’s nothing going on. Football is a chess match, and the adjustments & decisions that are made between plays can effect the outcome as much as the plays themselves.
But if you’re interested in a more detailed breakdown of how those precious minutes of your life (which you’ll never get back) are being wasted, go ahead and click on the banner image above.
20
Jan
2011
Injuries in the NFL: How many games did each team’s starters miss this season?
(Photo: Reuters)
Anybody who spends any significant amount of time watching the NFL (or playing fantasy football for that matter) quickly comes to realize how big of an impact injuries can have on a team’s season. So much so that over the years, I’ve fallen firmly in the camp that injuries – and more importantly how back-ups perform in the inevitable case of injury to big-time players on both sides of the ball – are the single most important factor for a team’s success. Everything else can seemingly go out the window if the cornerstone of your offense goes down and nobody steps up to replace him. Add in the loss of leadership on the field, and there can be a domino effect that takes an irreparable toll on the entire team.
(Image: FootballOutsiders.com)
Well, the guys over at Football Outsiders put together an interesting statistical breakdown which might blow my theory right to hell. Or not. This table breaks down the total number of games lost by each team, and as you’ll see, this year’s playoff teams are all over the map. The most startling difference can be found in the NFC Championship opponents. The Packers came in second league-wide with 83 total games missed, while the Bears are tied for dead last with just 11. Meanwhile, the Steelers are middle-of-the-pack with 49, and the Jets got off relatively easy with 38 starter games missed.
In all, 4 of the 5 most injured teams, along with the three least injured teams made the playoffs this season. The remaining five playoff teams (Pats, Steelers, Ravens, Jets, Saints) are somewhere in the middle, and the Colts clearly got the worst of the injury bug this year. So what do we learn from this? Mainly it proves that a team can overcome injuries and still make a run at the post-season. It’s just a matter of having capable back-ups. At the same time, we can also see that some teams who weren’t necessarily expected to be contenders this season (Chiefs, Bears, etc.) benefited from staying healthy.
It should be noted that this breakdown isn’t statistically perfect. It only takes into account 22 starters on each team per game (11 offense, 11 defense), and most teams use more players than that regularly on each side of the ball. Also, it doesn’t take into account injuries to multiple starters at the same position (see the New Orleans Saints RBs). But perhaps most importantly, the table doesn’t assign any value to the importance of the player injured or the total number of games missed by that player. Losing someone like Sidney Rice, Ryan Grant or Ed Reed for much of the season is a far more significant injury than losing a 2-down linebacker for a few games here or there.
So, while this table may be interesting to look at, it doesn’t really give us the full picture. It would probably take a much deeper analysis than I’m capable of (hint hint, Football Outsiders math wizards) to show which teams really faced the most overall adversity due to injury.
13
Jan
2011
Gary Kubiak infographic will make you wonder how he still has a job (PIC)
With all the NFL coaching changes taking place this month, the retention of HC Gary Kubiak by the Texans seems to have flown under the radar a bit. The January 3rd announcement means that Kubiak will be coming back for his sixth season in Houston, after finishing 6-10 in 2010. And it’s a move that has left plenty of people scratching their heads as to why owner Bob McNair keep giving this guy another chance at the helm.
Let’s face it, the Texans haven’t improved even one bit during Kubiak’s tenure. For all the talent they have, Kubiak has only led his club to ONE winning season and ZERO playoff appearances. Having consistently been the fashionable pick as the next NFL franchise to break through to the upper-echelon of teams, Kubiak’s Texans always seem to fall short of expectations. But don’t take it from us. As usual, the interweb went WAY further than we ever could have imagined in breaking down Kubiak’s ineptitude while in Houston.
So sit back, relax and enjoy this handy dandy infographic here (unless you’re a Texans fan, that is), which shows just how miserable the Kubiak era has been thus far (click image to enlarge):
(Image via Reddit/r/nfl
7
Dec
2010
Confused about the NFL playoff picture? Have we got a site for you!
Is this what the playoff picture looks like to you? You're not alone.
If you’re like most NFL fans, things start to get pretty confusing around this time of year. The playoff picture can get increasingly convoluted over the final weeks of the regular season, and you often find yourself not knowing who to cheer for on any given weekend. When trying to factor in tiebreakers and all of the mathematical implications of each game, it can start to make your head hurt.
Well, in our continuing effort to bring you the finest in lazy-man’s NFL news and info, we proudly present PlayoffStatus.com. This site gives you the current playoff picture in each conference, along with probabilities to make the post-season for each club. You also get magic numbers, a list of important games for each weekend, playoff clinching scenarios etc. It’s all presented in a fairly straightforward way that pretty much anyone with a high school education should be able to understand it.
Simply click on either AFC/NFC to find your favorite team, click on the team name, and then go to “What If” in the left navigation. You’ll see the best & worst scenarios for each team’s playoff chances, so you can easily figure out who you should be rooting for in this weekend’s games. In addition, there is an “Important Games” section for each conference that ranks each game based on their playoff implications. For Instance, for this upcoming weekend’s games, these are the top three games in the league, as rated by their Playoff Importance Factor (# in bold):
Bears (9-3) vs Patriots (10-2): 161
Steelers (9-3) vs Bengals (2-10): 113
Lions (2-10) vs Packers (8-4): 106
Pretty cool, really. Go ahead … visit the site. Take a look around. You can thank us later.
23
Nov
2010
INFOGRAPHIC: Parity in the 2010 NFL
This one comes to us from Reddit/r/NFL, and illustrates the parity in the 2010 NFL season so far.
Going clockwise, the first team defeated the second team and so on in a circle. So, starting at 12 o’clock, the Falcons lost to the Steelers (15-9) but defeated the Bucs (27-21), who beat the Browns (17-14), etc. Behold …
I can’t believe I’m introducing math into this blog, but in case you come across anyone deluded enough to believe that winning in the NFL is a transitive relationship (if A>B and B>C, then A>C), just show them this picture.
23
Nov
2009
Eli Manning’s 2009 Performance Chart = The Big Dipper
(Image: Shutdown Corner)
Thanks to Shutdown Corner for this educational graph which illustrates the tumultuous journey of Giants QB Eli Manning so far this season. Not surprisingly, with the exception of game #9 against the Chargers, when Eli plays well, the Giants win. And when Eli craps the bed (like he did against the Saints, Cardinals and Eagles), it leads to a 4-game losing streak.
Yesterday against the Falcons, despite getting off to a horrendous start, Manning threw for a career high 384 yards and 3 TDs en route to a 34-31 OT victory. He spread the ball out to his receivers - Steve Smith, Mario Manningham and Hakeem Nicks combined for 15 catches for 270 yards – and took what the defense gave him, including some beautiful deep touch passes to the outside. And despite the Giants defense’s best efforts to give the game away in the 4th quarter, the Giants won the toss in OT and Manning was able to get them into FG range to win the game.
So it’s safe to say that as goes Eli, so go the Giants. Thank goodness we have science to back this stuff up.
