Category: sports

Football Analysis: Distribution of Positive-Negative Plays

I want to write about an approach to analyzing football that I haven’t seen yet. (It might exist, but I’m not aware of it.) The analysis would look at the sequence of plays to identify the distribution of positive and negative plays. (Note: Plays aren’t so binary, but tend to be more or less positive or negative. More on this later.) I think this can be important and revealing way of examining football–an approach that can reveal things that are hidden in statistics, especially the ones that are aggregates. To give a good example of this, Continue reading “Football Analysis: Distribution of Positive-Negative Plays”

What is a Pro-Style Offense?

I wanted to discuss the concept of a pro-style offense. I’ve heard this over many years, I’ve had a vague understanding this, but I’ve never really read anything that provided a more precise definition (at least, nothing I can really remember). By “explain,” I’m not necessarily thinking about nitty-gritty details of specific plays (e.g., blocking schemes, receiver routes, etc.) but rather more general principles and concepts. I wanted to talk about the latter, mainly to see if you guys agree or not with my understanding.

Before I start I need to make one clarification. Pro-style is not necessarily synonymous with NFL offenses, especially if we’re thinking about current NFL offenses. My understanding is that current NFL offenses blend pro-style offenses and spread passing offenses. When I say “pro style” I’m referring specifically to the NFL offenses prior to blending the run-and-shoot–i.e., early 90s or prior to that.

OK, let’s start. Here’s how I would sum up a pro-style offense: Continue reading “What is a Pro-Style Offense?”

Whose Jump Shot Would You Want to Have?

Since Mitchell isn’t a big basketball fan, I’ll also include the pitcher you’d want to throw like. By the way, I guess you can answer the question however you want, but I’m thinking about aesthetics just as much as effectiveness. For example, Jamaal Wilkes was a pretty good shooter, but I really wouldn’t want me jump shot to look like his. Bird’s jumper didn’t look that great, either. OK, here are some shooters off the top of my head: Continue reading “Whose Jump Shot Would You Want to Have?”