Regular Season Games

 

Back in the day, you could tell which weekend day it was by the football game that was being played: Friday night was high school, Saturday was college, and Sunday was the NFL. That was so long ago there were three major channels: ABC, CBS, and NBC.

First there was the innovation of Monday Night Football, in 1970, which was broadcast on ABC. The iconic trio of broadcasters for much of the 1970s and 1980s were Frank Gifford, Don Meredith, and Howard Cosell. My father couldn’t stand Howard Cosell, and would watch the games with the sound turned down.

In 1994, Fox began broadcasting pro football, winning the bid for the NFC games that used to be on CBS. Pat Summerall and John Madden moved from CBS to Fox, staying with the NFC.

In 1998, CBS won the bid to broadcast AFC games, taking them away from NBC.

2006 saw two innovations and one change: Sunday Night Football, broadcast on NBC; Thursday Night Football, broadcast on the NFL channel; and Monday Night Football being broadcast on ESPN.

In a new wrinkle, the 2012 regular season kicks off on Wednesday, September 5, as a special edition of Sunday Night Football. It will be shown on NBC.

In addition to football games being played on almost any day except Tuesday, the league plays 16 regular season games over 17 weeks. Every team gets one week off during the regular season, called a Bye week.

All teams play the first three weeks. Bye weeks run from week 4 through week 11. All teams play during weeks 12 through 17. With Bye weeks running during weeks 5 through 11, most teams have their week off roughly in the middle of the season.

Based on their first few weeks of play, teams use the Bye week to fine-tune their offense and defense, and rest injured players.

All teams play on Sunday, December 30, which is the final game day of the regular season.

The playoffs begin on Saturday, January 5, 2013.

 

Overtime

Week 8 Byes:

(4-3) Atlanta Falcons

(4-3) Chicago Bears

(7-0) Green Bay Packers

(4-3) New York Jets

(4-3) Oakland Raiders

(4-3) Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Week 8 Games:

Sunday, October 30

(5-3) NewOrleans Saints 21 at (1-6) StLouis Rams 31

(2-6) Minnesota Vikings 24 at (2-6) Carolina Panthers 21

(0-8) Indianapolis Colts 10 at (4-3) Tennessee Titans 27

(2-6) Arizona Cardinals 27 at (5-2) Baltimore Ravens 30

(2-6) Jacksonville Jaguars 14 at (5-3) Houston Texans 24

(0-7) Miami Dolphins 17 at (5-2) New York Giants 20

(6-2) Detroit Lions 45 at (2-5) Denver Broncos 10

(3-4) Washington Redskins 0 at (5-2) Buffalo Bills 23

(5-2) Cincinnati Bengals 34 at (2-5) Seattle Seahawks 12

(3-4) Cleveland Browns 10 at (6-1) SanFrancisco 49ers 20

(5-2) New England Patriots 17 at (6-2) Pittsburgh Steelers 25

(3-4) Dallas Cowboys 7 at (3-4) Philadelphia Eagles 34

Monday, October 31

(4-3) San Diego Chargers 20 at (4-3) Kansas City Chiefs 23/Overtime

It was a wild week, Week 8 was: Pittsburgh not only beats New England, but they held the Patriots to 1:22 time of possession in the first quarter – the Steelers had the ball for 13:38; Detroit stops their 2-game losing streak and stomps Tim Tebow and the Broncos; Buffalo shuts out Mike Shanahan’s Redskins; Philadelphia’s DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy have their way with the Cowboys; St. Louis caps a World Series win with the Rams’ first win this season; and Kansas City beats the Chargers in overtime. On top of the football, there was an early snowstorm in the Northeast that left snow on many football fields, and we haven’t gotten to November yet.

Overtime is this week’s topic. People are confused by the rules, because the rules are different between college and the NFL, and between the NFL regular season and the NFL post-season.

College overtime and NFL overtime differ in several ways: college teams each get a chance to score, NFL teams play sudden death, i.e., the first team to score wins; college teams play additional overtime periods as necessary until one team scores and the other doesn’t, NFL teams play one 15-minute overtime period in the regular season – a game can end in a tie (but in the playoffs, no game can end in a tie and additional overtime might be necessary for one team to score and break the tie); college teams scoring a touchdown in the third overtime period must try for a two-point conversion, NFL teams don’t have scoring parameters.

On Saturday, USC lost a heartbreaker at home to Stanford in triple overtime. At the end of regulation, the score was tied at 34. First overtime: both teams scored a touchdown – score tied at 41. Second overtime: both teams again scored a touchdown – score tied at 48. Third overtime: Stanford scored a touchdown, and scored on the two-point conversion; USC did not score a touchdown. Final score: 56-48, Stanford wins.

On Monday night on ESPN, the San Diego Chargers played the Kansas City Chiefs. The game ended regulation in a tie – 20-20. One 15-minute overtime period would be played, each team receiving two timeouts. If neither team scored by the end of the 15-minute overtime, the game would end in a tie, with San Diego’s record going to 4-2-1, and Kansas City going to 3-3-1.

But Kansas City scored a field goal at 5:19, winning the game 23-20. Both teams go to 4-3.

A tie in the NFL regular season is rare. The last one was in November 2008, between Philadelphia and Cincinnati; the previous tie game was in 2002.

Week 9 Byes: Carolina Panthers, Detroit Lions, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Minnesota Vikings.

A key game next week: the New York Jets (rested and coming off a bye) at Buffalo Bills (fresh from a win).

Now that we’re in the heart of the regular season, we’re starting to see which teams have what it takes to go the distance.

Two Minute Drill

Last night’s (8/15) Monday night game, broadcast live on ESPN:

New York Jets (16) at Houston Texans (20)

The score was 16-13, Jets ahead, with 4:46 to go in the fourth quarter. Houston punted the ball and the Jets caught it at their own 18 yard line.

The commentator said the Jets would go into their Four Minute Offense. All the Jets needed to do was three things: 

1.                Keep the ball in bounds, to keep the clock ticking (the clock stops when the ball hits the ground or goes out of bounds);

2.                Make 1^st downs, to keep the ball in their possession;

3.                Take time off the clock. In football time, 4:46 is an eternity of time. If you don’t think so, clock how much time it takes to actually play that amount of time.

The Jets did not achieve those three goals. Houston got the ball back, and went into their Two Minute Drill. This refers to the final two minutes in each half, when the team with the ball, or the team who gets the ball, tries to score in the final two minutes of the half. This does two things (three if it’s a home game):

1.          It scores points;

2.          It gives the scoring team momentum to carry with them into halftime (if they score at the end of the second quarter) or into the next game (if they score at the end of the game);

3.          If they are at home, it gives the home crowd something to cheer about and keep their enthusiasm for their team high.

Sunday night I watched the replay of the Denver Broncos at Dallas Cowboys game (originally played Thursday 8/11). The ending was more exciting to watch than it sounded, and it sounded exciting. Dallas was down 23-16 to Denver; if they had scored a touchdown and gone for the point after kick, they would have tied the game and gone into overtime. Already with the ball in a scoring drive, Dallas used their remaining two minutes wisely; they were able to convert on 4^th down to keep the drive alive, and scored the touchdown. Opting to win the game outright, Dallas quarterback Stephen McGee passed the ball for the Two-Point Conversion and the go ahead score with 15 seconds left on the clock. Total time of the scoring drive: 5:29; 12 plays. Dallas won the game 24-23.

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.

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.

Sacks and Shutouts

Five games were played last night:

Cincinnati Bengals (3) at Detroit Lions (34)

Miami Dolphins (28) at Atlanta Falcons (23)

Pittsburgh Steelers (7) at Washington Redskins (16)

San Francisco 49ers (3) at New Orleans Saints (24)

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (25) at Kansas City Chiefs (0)

The television coverage is limited right now, and the only two games I could watch were the Miami Dolphins at Atlanta Falcons, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Kansas City Chiefs. SportsCenter on ESPN is a great resource to find out what I missed in the other games, and get highlights of the games I did see.

During the 49ers/Saints game, the Saints had 6 sacks in the first half. A sack means the quarterback is tackled before he hands the ball off to a runner or throws (passes) it to a receiver; only quarterbacks are sacked. The goal is to have zero sacks in a game. To have 6 in the first half means the offensive line did not do their job protecting the quarterback.

Sacks are bad for three reasons:

1. The quarterback is more likely to be injured while being sacked;
2. The sack effectively wastes the down, because there is no forward progress of the ball;
3. Because the quarterback is behind the line of scrimmage, and drops back farther if he is going to pass, getting sacked almost always results in loss of yardage.

Commentators talk about the “pocket collapsing” around the quarterback; this is the line of offensive players whose job is to prevent the defensive players from getting to the quarterback and sacking him, or interfering with the forward progress of the ball in any way. They form almost a horseshoe around the quarterback, and this is called the “pocket.” It is hard to win a game when a team is not moving the ball forward on every down, and in this case New Orleans beat San Francisco handily.

A shutout occurs when one team prevents the other team from scoring any points, effectively shutting them out from scoring. In the Tampa Bay game at Kansas City, Tampa Bay shutout Kansas City. In this case, Tampa’s offense was better than the Kansas City defense, and the Tampa defense was better than the Kansas City offense.

Five games are being played tonight:

Green Bay Packers at Cleveland Browns

Buffalo Bills at Chicago Bears

Indianapolis Colts at St. Louis Rams

New York Giants at Carolina Panthers

Minnesota Vikings at Tennessee Titans

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.

The Lockout is Over!

The football lockout is over, and teams are in a fury of signing and trading players. Right now it seems ESPN always has breaking news about what player went to what team, and there is daily (if not hourly) breakdowns of what that means.

The big news: Nnamdi Asomugha has signed with the Philadelphia Eagles. He is a cornerback who has been with the Oakland Raiders for eight seasons. Besides generally being big news, you might think “And this affects me how?”

I am a New York Giants fan. This affects me because the Eagles are in the same division as the Giants, so we’ll get to see their new acquisition up close and personal for at least two games this year.

The beginning of the season may be a little rough, with players learning new plays, new teams, and getting used to new teammates. Pre-season games begin August 11, and the regular season begins September 8. The lockout shortened the time that teams have to shake out their roster.

It will be exciting to see how the teams develop over the next few weeks.