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Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Smart Notes - Jan 21, 2009

1. I have updated my articles about the "shakes" or "three-vertical," "all-curl," and "levels" pass plays with game film video.

All-Curl


Levels


2. Does defense win championships? ESPN chimes in, but Phil Birnbaum feels that their analysis was rather weak.

3. Pro-Football Reference Blog expands on an idea I brought out a few years ago: namely, that yards per pass is the best measure of the effectiveness of a team's ability to throw. PFR Blog expands on this by analyzing Super Bowl teams and using measures to add yards for touchdowns and subtract for interceptions.

1 comment:

Jon E said...

I have seen a Saban fire zone in which the outside underneath defenders are assigned "#2 wall/flat" coverage. They line up on and key on the #2 receiver and at the snap wall off the inside, pushing routes either upfield into deeper coverage or forcing out routes, which they chase to the flat.

The middle underneath defender has "#3 hook", where he reads #3, who may be a #2 if #3 and #2 cross. The coverage is matched up well underneath, with emphasis on covering hot routes while the zone blitz can get to the QB.

This comes from the 2004 Nike coach of the year clinic.

That variation seems to mesh better with Saban's "defend the middle" ultimatum.