#Megatron

"SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman" (dasborgen) 10/27/2013 at 16:35 • Filed to: NFL

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17

329yards receiving, 1 TD

Is this shit even fair?

lepie > SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman 10/27/2013 at 16:43

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I have literally no idea of what you are talking about. All i see is some guy jumping pretty high and catching a weirdly shaped ball, who then proceeds to fall at high speed.

SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman > lepie 10/27/2013 at 16:49

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and that's exactly why it's so impressive...

Calvin Johnson (nickname:Megatron) is a 6'5" man with a standing reach of 8'8"...

Layman's terms? he's a very tall receiver with an absurd amount of reach making him a very very very valuable asset to throw the ball to.

Hindered23 > SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman 10/27/2013 at 16:49

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go lions haha

lepie > SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman 10/27/2013 at 16:51

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If you've got some spare time, i'd like to know a bit more about american football. I don't understand any of it, other than that it can be fairly brutal.

fhrblig > SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman 10/27/2013 at 17:06

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He's a beast, for sure.

I had to laugh at the time they took to review that last TD. Even if he didn't break the plane on the jump, he ran into the end zone with the ball to celebrate.

Dusty Ventures > lepie 10/27/2013 at 17:13

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I'll give it a go. Are you familiar with rugby?

lepie > Dusty Ventures 10/27/2013 at 17:16

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Very little, other than the goal is to score a goal, lol.

Dusty Ventures > lepie 10/27/2013 at 17:55

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Haha rats, I was hoping to use that as a baseline.

Ok, so, starting with the basics of football. You have your two teams, each made up of eleven players, and at any given time one side has the ball and is playing offense (trying to score) and the other is playing defense (trying to prevent a score). Let's say the first play starts at the offensive team's 20 yard line, meaning they have to go 80 yards to score. The offensive team selects a play, either a passing play (where the quarterback, who calls the plays and at the start of each play has the ball, throws downfield to one of up to five eligible receivers) or a running play (where skilled runners, known as running backs) are handed the ball almost immediately after the play starts and attempt to run down field. The moment the person holding the ball is knocked down the play stops. Or if a pass is attempted and the ball isn't caught play stops and the next play starts where the last play began.

The offensive team has four attempts, known as "downs," to gain at least ten yards through their selected combination of passing and running plays. If the team succeeds in gaining ten yards they get a new set of downs to again attempt to gain at least ten yards, this process continues to repeat until they make it to the defending team's "end zone" and score a "touchdown." If, however, after their third play in a set of downs they have not yet gained the required ten yards they have to decide whether they want to use their fourth play to attempt to get the remaining necessary yardage or kick the ball downfield to the other team. The risk with using the fourth play to attempt to gain the remaining yards is that if they fail the other team gains control of the ball at whatever point on the field the fourth play ends. So, if the team with the ball is on their 24 yard line and has to reach the 30 yard line to gain a new set of downs, but only makes it to the 27, that means the other team starts their set of downs on said 27 and they only need to go 27 yards to score. Kicking the ball downfield to them from that point would instead leave them with approximately 70-85 yards to score, a much greater challenge.

How am I doing so far?

lepie > Dusty Ventures 10/27/2013 at 18:00

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This sport is quite involved O_o.

Reading ...

lepie > Dusty Ventures 10/27/2013 at 18:05

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I think i get it, but when you say when they fail to give up their fourth play, and lose out. I assume the other team can start at the 27 yard line on the other side of the field, right?

Dusty Ventures > lepie 10/27/2013 at 18:12

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Sort of. Let's say in the image of the field I posted the starting team is going left to right, attempting to get to the red section on the right to score. When they failed on their 27 it means they failed on the 27 closest to the blue end zone. The other team takes over at that spot, but for them to score they have to get the ball into the blue end of the field.

lepie > Dusty Ventures 10/27/2013 at 18:16

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Wow, okay. I would've guessed that they would move to the same yardline on the other side of the field.

This makes for pretty complicated dynamics. Seems it is much more of a strategy based sport than i thought. All i see on TV is guys getting their heads bashed in.

Dusty Ventures > lepie 10/27/2013 at 18:30

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Definitely a lot of strategy to it. The offensive team, for example, needs to try and choose a play that they think the defense is least prepared for. This includes various pass routes (depending on play call a pass receiver's pre-catch route may have him run straight down the field, run down the field then turn out and run toward the sideline, run down the field then turn in and run across the field, run across the field immediately from the start of the play, run down the field then turn around and come back, etc, all in an attempt to confuse the defensive players tasked with attempting to stop the pass) and run routes (left, right, center, fake left go right, hesitate in the backfield before running, etc). The defense meanwhile needs to predict the play the offense is going to use and before the start of the play position their defending team members accordingly. As a final pre-snap (the "snap" is the term for the start of each play when the quarterback gets the ball) bit of strategy the quarterback will look at how the defense has their players lined up and if he sees something he doesn't like he'll call an "audible," a sort of last second change to a back-up play design. Sort of like going to Plan B.

lepie > Dusty Ventures 10/27/2013 at 18:39

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I will have to check out some plays online and look for the strategies you've mentioned. I really had no idea that there was this much depth to it. To me, it just looked like one guy running like hell and everyone on the other team trying to break as much of the runner's bones as possible.

Dusty Ventures > lepie 10/27/2013 at 18:52

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Well yeah, there's that too.

Here's a nice combination of strategy, speed, and "kill the man with the ball" violence for you. This is known as the "play action" pass. The team with the white jerseys is playing offense. The ball is snapped to the quarterback, who fakes handing it off to the running back. The running back tucks and runs, doing his best impression of what he'd look like if he actually had the ball and was trying to run with it. His acting fools some of the pass defenders, these defenders stop guarding the receivers they're supposed to be guarding and instead run toward the runner they think has the ball. This leaves some of the receivers wide open, making them excellent pass targets. The quarterback throws the ball to one of them and between the ground he's already covered at that point and the extra ground he's able to gain before finally being tackled (thanks to all those defenders fooled by the fake run) he gains about 45 yards, nearly half the 100 yard field and well more than half the 70 yards they had at the start of the play.

lepie > Dusty Ventures 10/27/2013 at 18:56

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Wow. Things happen fast, huh? I think i like this game.

Dusty Ventures > lepie 10/27/2013 at 19:18

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It can be great to watch if you get the right team matchups. If you have two teams that are great at defense but not nearly as good on offense it can become a snooze fest because the game will mostly be nothing but plays that go nowhere broken up by rounds of kicking the ball to the other team so they can go nowhere as well. Not fun.

Going back to Snap's original post, Calvin Johnson is a very special player because of his ability to make catches and gain large portions of yardage. He's incredibly fast, which means the defense always has to put their fastest pass-blocker on him or he'll just outrun anyone trying to cover him. He's also tall and can jump an incredible height, which means the quarterback can throw the ball high, too high for the pass blockers to break up the pass, and know Calvin will still be able to catch the ball. He's also very strong and hard to tackle, at times it can take two or three defenders to take him down. All this means the defense needs to put extra focus and their best men on Calvin, which is perilous for the defense in two ways. If they underestimate Calvin or their best just isn't good enough he's going to gain big yards and score points. If they focus on him too much, putting their fastest, strongest defenders on him at the start of the play, assigning two defenders to him as an extra precaution (say because up to this point in the game one defender alone hasn't proven adequate) it means the defense is now weaker at some other part of the field. Assigning two defenders to Calvin means there's now a hole where that second defender used to be, creating an opportunity to gain yardage via pass to a different player or run. And since the two best defenders are on Calvin, those remaining short-handed defenders aren't as well equipped to stop said pass/run. In short, a player with Calvin's level of talent is incredibly valuable because whether you use him or not he creates opportunity for the team as a whole.