Week 5 - Bye Week

Week 5: Bye weeks begin

BaltimoreRavens

ClevelandBrowns

DallasCowboys

MiamiDolphins

St. LouisRams

WashingtonRedskins

What is a bye week? The NFL regular season consists of 16 games played out over 17 weeks. The week a team doesn’t play a game is called a bye.

The bye week is a chance for teams to rest, regroup, and recuperate. Penalties and turnovers can have big impacts, particularly in close games, so the basic strategy for all teams is to protect the ball.

The Baltimore Ravens and Washington Redskins are both 3-1, and can enjoy a week off without needing to make major changes: what they are doing is working. As the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

The Cleveland Browns and Dallas Cowboys are both 2-2. Coaches and players will use the bye week to see what tweaks need to be made to win games, and what errors need to be corrected so they don’t lose games.

In the case of the 0-4 Miami Dolphins and St. Louis Rams, it is a chance to have a week when they don’t have pressure to win a game. They can take a breath, see what adjustments need to be made going forward, and start to implement those changes.

Will an early bye week turn things around for the Dolphins and the Rams? We’ll find out when they play the New York Jets and the Green Bay Packers, respectively, in Week 6. Both are away games, with home field advantage to their opponents. Both teams need a win to get the season’s momentum swinging the other way.

The "Line"

The “Line” on a football game is for gambling purposes, and has no bearing on the final game score. It does give people an idea about which team is favored, and by how much.

When people talk about the line, they mean by how many points a team is favored, and if they place a bet the favored team will need to win by more than that margin of points.

The line on the Cincinnati Bengals – Cleveland Browns game was Cleveland by 6 ½. There are no half points in football, therefore Cleveland would have to win by at least 7 points in order for someone betting on Cleveland to win the game. If the margin of Cleveland’s victory was less than 7, Cincinnati would be considered the winner. The final score was Cincinnati Bengals 27, Cleveland Browns 17. Since Cincinnati won by 10 points, and they were not favored to win, the line on this game didn’t make a difference in paying out on a bet; anyone who bet on Cincinnati to win won their wager.

3rd Down Conversions

Five games were played last night (August 13):

Green Bay Packers (17) at Cleveland Browns (27)

Buffalo Bills (3) at Chicago Bears (10)

Indianapolis Colts (10) at St. Louis Rams (33)

New York Giants (10) at Carolina Panthers (20)

Minnesota Vikings (3) at Tennessee Titans (14)

The live game last night on NFL Network (channel 212 on DirecTV) was Green Bay at Cleveland. NFL Network is showing all the preseason games (some live, most replays), so there is an opportunity to see your favorite team play the whole game instead of just catching the highlights.

The home team won all five games last night. Is this significant? It’s hard to tell during any game, but particularly in preseason. The starters typically play for one or two quarters, then come out to give the rest of the players time on the field. Does that mean the home teams last night have better depth at each position? Again, hard to say at this point. Time will tell as the preseason progresses, and we get a better look at the players on each team, and also see how the trades work out as new players learn their new team’s playbook.

In the Green Bay at Cleveland game, Green Bay scored right before halftime with a touchdown scoring drive of 9 plays that moved the ball 89 yards in 1:22 (one minute and 22 seconds). As the second quarter ended, the score was Green Bay 17, Cleveland 14. Cleveland scored in both the third and fourth quarters. Green Bay didn’t score at all in the second half. The final score: Green Bay 17, Cleveland 27.

Green Bay was 5 for 14 (5/14) on third down conversions. One of the successful conversions was during that 9 play scoring drive just before the half, at 2Q 1:34. It was 3^rd and 10, and the ball was passed for a gain of 19 yards. It was important to convert at this point; not only did Green Bay end up scoring at the end of the drive, it kept the scoring drive alive.

Third down conversions are important for several reasons: they keep a scoring drive alive, as in the Green Bay-Cleveland game; they keep the team’s forward progress and momentum going; they keep the ball in a team’s possession.

Time of possession is a stat that may or may not be relevant; it depends on what a team does with the time they control the ball that makes the difference.

Monday night's game is New York Jets at Houston Texans. The game will be shown live on ESPN.

For more information about football, Football Basics - How the American Football Game is Played is available as a Kindle ebook at Amazon. Click the book title to purchase, or visit my website www.FootballBasics.net to read an excerpt of the book.