SB Nation User Blog: scespy12

Homer... or Genius?

scespy12 — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:26:28 -0000

I just drafted my FF team and of course I had to ask you guys....

Update: Standard Espn league... Snake style draft pick #1

Am I just a homer or do I have a Chance?

SLOT	PLAYER, TEAM POS
QB	Jay Cutler , Chi QB
RB	Matt Forte , Chi RB P
RB	Marion Barber , Dal RB
RB/WR	Brian Westbrook , Phi RB Q
WR	Wes Welker , NE WR
WR	DeSean Jackson , Phi WR
TE	John Carlson , Sea TE
D/ST	Bears D/ST , Chi D/ST
K	Robbie Gould , Chi K
Bench	Ray Rice , Bal RB
Bench	Devin Hester , Chi WR
Bench	Donald Driver , GB WR
Bench	Matt Hasselbeck , Sea QB P
Bench	Chester Taylor , Min RB
Bench	Rashard Mendenhall , Pit RB
Bench	Vernon Davis , SF TE

Poll

How did I do?

Good Draft... Be ready to hold up the fake trophy you bought years ago.

8 votes

Ehhh... good enough, I guess

19 votes

Haha, Homer

15 votes

42 votes | Poll has closed

Origins of Football (1890s to 1933)

scespy12 — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:58:06 -0000

Professional football began in 1892 when the Allegheny Athletic Association paid former Yale guard Pudge Heffelinger to play in a game against the Pittsburgh Athletic Association. Heffelinger returned a fumble 35 yds for a touchdown in the 4-0 walloping. At that time, touchdowns were counted as one point. The first truly professional game was played in 1895 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania between the YMCA of Latrobe and the Jeanette Athletic Club. Players made between 10 and 25 dollars for the game; the YMCA won 12-0.

In 1899, the Morgan Athletic Club on the South Side of Chicago was formed, who later became the Chicago Cardinals, who then became the Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals are the longest running professional team on the NFL.

The Chicago Cardinals circa 1900

In 1902, the first professional league started. The National Football League (oddly enough not the same league) started at the behest of professional baseball teams. The five-team tournament called the World Series of Football was created. The league only managed to last a whole of two seasons, then promptly folded.

The NFL as we know it now began with a loose confederation of teams in Ohio, of which the only teams to survive were the Akron Pros and the Canton Bulldogs, who employed arguably one of the greatest players ever in Jim Thorpe. The NFL began in 1920 as the American Professional Football Players Association, and Thorpe was elected the league's President, and the fourteen teams began play.

The teams were:

Akron Pros
Buffalo All-Americans
Canton Bulldogs
Chicago Tigers
Cleveland Indians
Columbus Panhandles
Dayton Triangles
Decatur Staleys
Detroit Heralds
Hammond Pros
Muncie Flyers
Racine Cardinals
Rochester Jeffersons
Rock Island Independents

The league began as an agreement to play each other (but that did not bar the teams from playing other teams as well) with a champion crowned out of the best record against the teams. Only four teams manged to not fold under the schedule: Akron, Buffalo, Canton and Decatur. Akron was crowned the champion of the first league with the first perfect season.

The 1921 season saw the acceptance of several more teams, chief among them was the Green Bay Packers who still have a record for the longest time with the same name in the same place.

Most importantly, in 1921 A.E. Staley sold his Decatur Team to George Stanley Halas who was a Player/Coach, who moved the team to Chicago and in 1922 renamed the team the Bears.

Papa Bear is front row center

In 1932 the Chicago Bears and the Portsmouth Spartans were tied for the best record after only losing to each other, and because a consensus could not be made, the league voted that the two teams would have a playoff to determine the League Champion.

The unusually cold weather forced the game to be played at the indoor Chicago stadium. Chicago, of course, won 9-0. The playoff was so popular that the league chose to reorganize into two divisions and the best record out of each would play to determine the champion.

1933 also was the year of some of the more radical changes to the rules, with all play beginning between the hashmarks, the goalposts were moved to the front of the endzone, and forward passes could begin anywhere behind the line of scrimmage, instead of the usual 5 yds back.

The war years ground professional football to a halt as more than 9/10ths of the players enlisted in the military.

Next Week 1940- 1970 (The Expansion Era)

Madden Ratings

scespy12 — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:54:26 -0000

Tuesday Ea sports announced the Top Ten players in the Major catergories...

This is Espns Link.... (Pops of course)

Only one Bears player makes the top ten. Sizzle himself who appears to have a less than 90 Rating. His Rating is an 87, Although he was third in passing yds and Tds.

Anyone think we got snubbed?

Breaking Down the Play That Ended The Bears' Season

scespy12 — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:13:25 -0000

So I thought that I'd give you guys a looksie into the play that ended our season last year.

Week 17 vs Texans....

Video

The play started with the base Tampa-2 with the responsibilities of the base defense shown.

The offense is running an easy I formation, a very common running formation, as evidenced by the fullback and strong side TE. This formation is a power running formation with the fullback typically leading through the 3 or the 5 hole and engageing the linebacker on the second level. Kyle Shanahan sees the Tampa base and employs what coordinators call a cover -2 beater.

Inside we can take a look at the Play....

# 1 is the Play-action. The fullback steps to the 5 hole and blocks. Schuab fakes the hand off to Slaton who delays a flat route.

This is essential to the play because it forces the S to step up to look run. The only safety that is supposed to do that is Kevin Payne the SS. Danieal Manning makes the Nickel Back read and steps up to play the run as well.

#2 is the #2 reciever, in this case Andre Davis, running a stop route designed to enter and exit the corner's cover responsibilities thus containing the corner for the flat route or the TE post pattern in #4.

Tillman does exactly what he is supposed to do and sits in his coverage and reads Matt Schaub's eyes. There is nothing else he can do except play his responsibilities.

#3 is the danger of this route combo, the post corner. Andre Johnson is already a excellent route runner combined with the flawless Play- Action the route is designed to slip through the passing of coverage by Corey Graham to Danieal Manning and be wide open.

Graham played his responsibility correctly staying with Johnson until it was time to pass him off to Manning but Manning bit on the Play-Action in #1 and was not there to take Johnson.

#4 is a Safety Net. It is an easy throw to the TE that is between the coverages and is the second option in the combo.

It was played perfectly by us, in no place was Owen Daniels actually open in this play, Roach passed him to Tillman who stayed with him.

In this Play the reads should look something like #3,#4,#2, #1. With the #2 route opening up the #4 or vice versa. The read on this play is a no-brainer for Schuab because Andre Johnson is easily wide open by 5 yds. Which leads to a TD and seals our fate for 2008.

But as many of you are asking now. Haven't we seen this play before?

February 2007, Receiver: Reggie Wayne, Result: TD. Same Base D, slightly different O.

The only difference is #2, a skinny post pattern, that was run to confuse the corner and get between the coverages. Same bite, same Result.

I am going to hearsay this but I know Riveras Brother in Law so...

Apparently, Lovie told Ron he needed to be more aggressive with the safeties. That may have been part of the reason that Manning bit on the play action or maybe it was the Skinny post the was run inside the coverage that made him bite.

Lions sign Larry Foote..... Worried?

scespy12 — Wed, 06 May 2009 22:14:05 -0000

The Lions today signed Ex- Steeler Larry Foote, adding to what is quickly becoming a dangerous defense.

With the addition of Foote, the Lions now have Him, Ernie Sims and Julian Peterson as Linebackers.

They also signed Grady Jackson DT and Phillip Buchanon CB and Anthony Henry CB as well as Eric King CB.

With their additions from the Draft on offense and the improvements on defense....

Are the Lions Dangerous?

What do you love about Football?

scespy12 — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:10:29 -0000

I thought that since this is the slowest time of the year, we could talk about some other bears related topics. Thus, What do you love about football....

I'll go first:

What I love most is the stategy involved. I love the way teams hide coverages on defense, I love the play action pass. I love the gutsy call at the end of the game when we are down by 3 on the 20 yd line and time is expiring and we take the shot at the endzone even though if we complete and are short we lose.... thats what I love about football...

What about you?

The Cutler Dimension

scespy12 — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:59:26 -0000

The addition of Sir Jay Cutler has been celebrated by this site for exactly two weeks now.

So the time has come for me to talk about what can actually do for us.

I don't like seeing Cutler in Broncos Uni now that he is a Bear.

Jay Cutler:

Born: April 29, 1983

Ht. 6’3"

Wt. 232

40yd: 4.77

Benched: 23 times

Wonderlic: 26

Follow inside for a breakdown….

Jay has an amazing ability to move around and outside the pocket, combined with his accuracy on the move and his incredible arm strength, he defines the West Coast Quarterback……

Wait a second.... the West Coast is a quick throwing, accurate, marginally mobile, doesn’t have the strongest arm QB….. Why did we get Cutler?

Why? Because Cutler is young, talented and smart, he makes great throws and is accurate with the deep ball. Although Turners offense is not meant to have a cannon QB the only time it really fires on all cylinders is when they have an substantial deep attack (see early 2006 when the team was a leader in scoring).

Also, having a QB like Cutler will keep the SS out of the box setting up Forte for more 7 man fronts. That allows him significantly more opportunities to break long runs, as well as opening up the bootleg passing game and the tight end flats and crosses. His mobility will help to protect the offensive line from costly Kyle Orton stripped because he couldn’t get away from one defender mistakes.

Another plus: he has big hands so no fumbling the snap right after you got a turnover in the biggest game of your life.

My Take:

With the addition of a WR expect the offense to put up 25 plus points per game. Rex did it and I'm certain that Jay is better. I also see Ron Turner making more of the playbook open to Jay than was open to either Grossman or Orton. (The short passing game was closed to Grossman and the deep was closed to Orton.) The only hiccups we can expect to have are Jay having trouble learning the playbook, and our O line not having time to gel together.

The Brady Rule: 2009 rule changes

scespy12 — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:23:37 -0000

The NFL competition committee passed four new rules and one major clarification.

Basically they are ways to eliminate the danger in the game. I am not the snappy, witty guy my fellows are; so I’ll just shoot it straight.

Lets start with…..

Special Teams:

Rule #1: Wedges are now illegal:

Any forming of a wedge that is more than two players will result in a 15 yard penalty.

How this affects us:

It doesn’t; it will actually help us in coverage because most teams used the wedge whereas we use a man to man scheme.

My Take:

Are you serious? This is a pointless rule; it will completely change kickoffs. Expect return TD's to significantly drop this year as teams have to change their scheme.

Rule #2: Can’t have more than 5 players on onside kicks

That will result in a 5yd penalty and a rekick.

How this affects us:

We will have to change our onside kick coverage. But then again so will everyone else. Check.

My Take:

Another pointless rule change, this is ridiculous. Can we get some real rules, please?

Defensive Rules:

Rule #3: No contact to defenseless receiver's head.

Anquan Boldin. That explains this rule well enough; it will be a 15 yard penalty.

How this affects us:

Do I really need to explain this?

"Yeah I do."

Well this means that a defensive player cannot lead with their head when the receiver is in the air.

My Take:

Totally agree with this one. Great jorb guys.

Brady Rule Adjustment: Not a new rule but an adjustment to an old rule.

The old rule said that you can’t hit a quarterback below the knees; new rules say you can’t do that while on the ground.

How this affects us:

Well this is pretty obvious, I mean really…. Don’t be Bernard Pollard.

My Take:

B.C. I thought that this was a terrible change but now…. All for it!

Offensive Rules

Rule #4: Illegal blindside blocks are illegal?

Ear hole to….. Now illegal. 15 yards for that as well.

How this affects us:

Wait….. Receivers are supposed to block? Seriously?

My Take:

Not a bad idea but it really sucks for Hines Ward. That will take a little something from his game.

Another Blockbuster?

scespy12 — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:40:50 -0000

Follow me here.....

Every one knows that the Pack is changing to a 3-4.

Aaron Kampman is a 4-3 end.

I say we call the Broncos and offer a 2nd and a fourth and next years 3rd if they offer the Pack a second and next years third.

Kampman has said that he does not belong in a 3-4 and we are in desperate need of Pass rush at DE, Why not attempt to get a guy that had 16 two seasons ago and 9.5 last year.

He is 29 and unhappy I think if we keep it quiet we could pull this off too.

What do you guys think?

The Case for Williams at Guard

scespy12 — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:17:54 -0000

I recently made a statement on another thread that I beleve that Chris Williams shoud be moved to LG.

My version of the line would look like:

LT Pace 6'7" 325 lbs

LG WIlliams 6'6" 312 lbs

C Kruetz 6'2" 292 lbs

RG Omiyale 6'4" 310 lbs

RT Shaffer 6'5" 315 lbs

That is an average of 6'5" and 312 lbs.

Williams would not have the run blocking responsibilites that the RG considering that the LG always has the C or the LT helping. LG is the easiest and least physical of the line positions; it will allow Williams to develop as a T and give him experience on the field.

What do you guys think?