State of the NFL

[OldhamA]

3 minutes ago, mc52beast said:

The casual fan who can’t tell you the difference between a safety and a wide receiver is in it strictly for the fantasy aspect and NFL brass knows it. They are targeting this group and trying to get their attention. 
 

Me personally, I love balance. I think in order to be successful over a long stretch of the season you have to be able to run when you need to and pass as well. 

The 49ers O is the best to watch in the NFL imo.

They move the line of scrimmage and gash teams with the run. It's beautiful to watch. 

[OldhamA]

2 hours ago, CRA said:

Murray had 800+ yards, 11 TDs, and picked up 52 1st downs with his legs last season.  I'd think you would be forced to spy him situationally given the damage he is doing on the ground. 

Much like we drafted Davis to spy Vick, if I was in that division I'd be drafting an ultra athletic LB highly to do likewise. 

I still feel Murray is one hit away from a career ender. He's 5'10" but 8 of those inches are his forehead. 

[CRA]

3 minutes ago, OldhamA said:

Much like we drafted Davis to spy Vick, if I was in that division I'd be drafting an ultra athletic LB highly to do likewise. 

I still feel Murray is one hit away from a career ender. He's 5'10" but 8 of those inches are his forehead. 

Kyler does have a pretty sweet baseball slide in his toolbox and pulls it out very effectively.   He is smarter than a lot of other mobile guys IMO.  Largely because he needs to be. 

[Panthers Rhule]

One thing about QBs who are legitimate running threats, one name almost never comes up because he throws the ball so damn well but Allen runs for a lot of TDs. I would love to see Darnold and the Panthers find a way to emulate some of that success into our redzone scheme. Darnold is athletic and big  enough to have success doing that I think. 

[bigdog10]

My biggest complaint is that they’ve neutered the defenses through the rule changes. I don’t mind high flying offenses, but I think they should have to earn it without benefiting from defensive holding every four snaps. 

[TheMostInterestingMan]

Most fans LOVE offense, but I actually prefer watching nasty defenses slug it out. Every year they take more away from what defenders are allowed to do. It sucks. 

Edited September 10, 2021 by TheMostInterestingMan

[glenwo2]

The "balance" I would like is to be unpredictable.

The OP's name is what makes an NFL game boring to me.

2 running plays followed by a Passing play?   Yawn-inducing.

Whereas Passing on a 1st or 2nd down....or running on 3rd down....that's the stuff that keeps me....well not entertained but "still watching" because of the unexpectedness of it.

[onmyown]

14 hours ago, Mr. Scot said:

It is when it's 3rd and 1.

Or when in the third quarter you see the run defense begin breaking apart and slowing down from being hammered all game, especially with a good RB. 
 

For the Panthers run d that’s usually after 5 minutes but you know what I mean.

Edited September 11, 2021 by onmyown

[bigskypanthersguy]

13 hours ago, pantherclaw said:

All of you would be shocked with how few games I've actually watched the last 2 seasons.  To much politics, and the current state of the CBA and rules of the game have made this a boring game, and no longer a priority in my life. 

 

The day may well come I become a full-time Canes fan and won't even realize it at first.

In order to be fun, the Panthers have to start becoming consistently good.

The fact that the NFL has taken my favorite part of the game largely out of it doesn't help.

I understand offense sells tickets but neutralizing the defense by way of ref crap just makes the league boring.

[bythenbrs]

20 hours ago, Tbe said:

Watching RBs run into a brick wall to pick up 1-2 yards isn’t fun.

For them or us?

[Christian McCaffrey nods in approval]

[1of10Charnatives]

20 hours ago, run-run-pass-punt said:

I'll preface this by saying that I'm obviously a fan of the NFL, or I wouldn't be here. With that out of the way...

I'm sadly losing some of my interest in this sport due to the trends within the game itself. As an example, last night saw Dallas throw the ball 58 times while running only 18 times. Tampa passed 50 times while amassing 14 rushing attempts. I know most people love points and the passing game, and I do as well...to an extent. But I love balance far more. I know there will be outliers - defensive battles (or simply inept offenses), but the overall balance of the game itself has just tilted so far in one direction that I find myself experiencing the NFL as, gasp, boring much of the time. Surely change is a constant, but I really miss the days of football gone by. I'm sure I'm just an old man yelling at a cloud, but I can't be the only one here who is disenchanted with the current state of the game.

How do you fellow huddlers feel about the general state of affairs within the game of professional football?

The NFL is the highest and most competitive level of football. Anyone at that level who ignores real and meaningful information about what is most advantageous does so at their own expense. There is abundant data that supports the notion that passing is much more important to winning than running. Here is a link to just one article that examines the data in a historical context:

The surprising truth about passing and rushing in the NFL (thepowerrank.com)

Because most fans love higher scoring games and they are considered more exciting, the league has over the years tailored it's rules to favor offenses and scoring, which makes sense from a business point of view. But unless it further refines the rules to specifically incentivize running, which seems unlikely, I think the game is likely to continue to tilt long term towards passing.

I am also a fan of balance,  but I think where you and I are probably out of luck is that for a long time, when data analysis wasn't nearly as sophisticated as it is now, and wasn't applied to sports to the level it has risen to, everyone decided 50/50 run and pass was the optimal balance for success and desirable all other things being equal. I think the data is showing that just isn't the case, so we're probably out of luck in that regard, but I sympathize with your waning interest as I'm going through something similar with my love of basketball. The modern game just doesn't hold the same appeal for me.

 

[Khyber53]

There is the chance that Thursday night's game was an outlier and is too small of a sample size to judge this season by.

Also, there's a pretty good chance that neither the Bucs nor the Cowboys can play pass defense worth a sh!t and there were two first class passers out there.

The most common final score in NFL football games is still 20-17. 

[rayzor]

You're overthinking things. 

[frankw]

22 hours ago, Moo Daeng said:

My slightly waning interest is due to the shift in how people follow it. It's not about understanding the game as much as a soap opera.

Modified this post for accuracy