4 Hard Downs: Gimme a Second, Bad Pursuit, Commercials & CTE

We're coming out of Week One with a gang of things to discuss and we'll get to as many as possible. I can tell you what, I have had two weeks of football and I didn't realize that since, in my day-to-day life, I don't watch TV, I also never see commercials. So I did not know Taco Bell is bringing back 2016, was that a good year for Taco Bell food? Like, better than any other year? Are they doing throwback pricing? I also didn't realize that Chili's is basically fighting places like Chick-fil-A, Burger King, Sonic etc with an $11 sit down meal vs an $8 fast food meal. One place you can get drinks, the others you can't. Now, keep in mind, my entire experience of these commercials is through total silence since I watch most games on mute. I unmute when Marshall Newhouse is on. I'll unmute when Roddy Jones, Eric McClain, Marilyn Payne or Max Browne are on because they're my friends. But in gneral mute city. So I just assume the fighting is real between that $3 meal differential. A whole new world, so let's get to the meat andSPOT THE BALL!!! 1st Down: Michigan Miracle A lot of moving pieces so I will make it precise regarding the one second vs illegal touching situation. If you want to call Micah Davis for 'Illegal Touching' than call him for it. But that's not what you did, you said there was a second on the clock. We all saw there was not. Your statement said all clocks and cameras were synched yet you have a separate, un-synched camera angle where we can't even see the ball? This is bullshit on more than one level. You had an out with illegal touching, you decided to go the worst way. Also go back and watch, 18, Micah Davis, jumped from inbounds so you were wrong on that out. Which is why you didn't use it. Which is why both plays took place from the 47 with no penalty yardage assessed. If I'm to believe that clocks can, after you sync them, come 'out of sync' then why should I trust any of this? Why should I trust the clocks on the broadcast that pays you millions of dollars? Why should I trust the referees who you pay to call the games? Why should I trust the QB or the coach of the winning team who both thought the game was over, as well? Why, NCAA, Big Ten, Michigan should I trust you? Subscribe now I have had a few friends, who I trust that work in the space and they said, 'It was the right call.' So I guess I just have to not care. Which is fine. I was going to put together a video presentation on how far a football can go in 4 seconds plus how Davis jumped from inbounds and landed out but just threw it away because what's the point. Do I think WMU got screwed? Yes. Is this a thing I can spend more energy on, given what might happen again this week or any week? No. Especially with what might happen in my normal day-to-day life this week. 2nd Down: Let's Talk Football I'm tired of a thing I've done to myself with respect to the Michigan situation, so I need to reset. Let's talk about how teams are combatting the space and speed offense with defensive adjustments and that reaction. Hit on it a week ago with just a light volume of games but with a full slate this past weekend we saw it even more. We're talking about 'The Crease' folks. After two weeks of watching I am loving how teams are literally playing 'both sides against the middle' so far this season. Hell, it might be four sides against the middle because depth is another factor, not just spacing on the field but in front of or behind linebackers and then pushing more vertical, essentially 10-12 down and 12+. If you have a deep middle safety, think Cover-1 or Cover-3, then he can't get to both creases. Essentially if the QB looks left, he flows left, then QB comes back right, not quite to the middle, but to THE CREASE, you get a completion by moving him with your eyes. The corner is largely doing business outside the numbers or near top of the numbers. Now, you get two high to protect the crease and guess what's open? The middle because there ain't no linebacker that run the middle chute with Jelani Thurman of UNC or Jeremiah Scoby from Bowling Green or Trey'Dez Green from LSU. Mix in the RB in the middle as well and you have problems. More plays to create conflict means a harder job for defenders means more chunk plays. I am defense first, for life. I hate seeing my DB brethren get cooked. I hate seeing the palms up responses of safeties to linebackers and corners, the no audio version of, 'the fuck are you doing bro?"!' Oh and a bonus tidbit, look for palms up after a big play. It will let you know who is wrong regardless of outcome. Blaming it on a corner when a safety was supposed to help and the CB gets up and goes palms saying, 'Where were you at?' An RB goes for 14 and the linebacker looks at the DT palms up, 'Hey man, that's your gap!' Just a bonus. 3rd Down: More Football, Let's Go I have never been a very fast man. In my world I was always a slow man. My nickname in middle school was Turtle. Angles were my best friend. Understanding them and using both sideline and knowing where my teammates were pursuing from is how I made tackles. Every team does pursuit drills like this, which I am of mixed thoughts on: It is a good way to work conditioning in, they. also are very strict regarding not disrupting the rabbit (guy running the ball) even when they build in a cutback across the field. As someone who has been in the drill and been the rabbit, this drill will make you tired if you're going full speed. However, it isn't real football with respect to attacking angles and addressing adjusting targets on the field in real time. From Clemson at LSU Saturday night on ABC: It starts with bad pursuit from the DL, if the left DE runs top side and forces the QB inside his teammate from the right side can get a sac; but he doesn't. Next the safety over runs instead of either keeping head behind the ball and using the sideline to stop the first down, let alone touchdown. Or he could hold hist spot at the numbers and let his two teammates running to help get involved in the play. But no. Then 7 for LSU gets his touchdown springing blocks made for him as 5 and 8 for Clemson overrun and 5 blocks them both out of the play. Touchdown. Deepest hip of the deepest back when you're blitzing. Stay topside without overrunning the QB. That helps condense the pocket, forces them to step up and into the interior of your defensive front 7. On the edge either use the sideline or set a hard edge forcing them back inside to your help. Clemson wasn't the only culprit this weekend, just the easiest to find. When you teammate spills a run, forcing bounce, run topside and make them cut back into the teeth of the defense. Honestly, it is fucking rough to watch defenders flail. Leave a comment 4th Down: Brain Health Does Matter There is no question on if brain health matters, but more how serious the NFL, CFB or HSFB are about actually addressing the issue. The NFL already dragged its feet being slow to the party of even investigating the link between brain injuries and the sport. They launched in 2016. I was a part of a brain study in 2003-2004 at UNC where I got MRIs/CT scans weekly. Wake Forest and Virginia Tech were already vetting helmets for safety during that same time period. Boston University was deep into CTE, analyzing deceased athletes' brains from small colleges to the NFL. Chrstipher Nowinski is the premier voice around CTE. He mentions Guardian Caps and the new helmets as still not doing much with respect to the torsion and brain twisting, not just slapping against the skull. I think about this a lot, I have been monitoring this stuff for a long time. There are two things here: 1-Performative Safety Measures2-CTE's Actual Development Guardian caps. Targeting. Roughing the Passer. Defenseless player. Those are performative practices, if you ask me. One looks good, as if the leagues are trying to ensure safety, the guardians. The other two are avoiding things that look and penalizing via penalties in-game and fines out of games to CYA for the leagues. As in, 'see we are working hard on this,' to the fans who pretend to care. Minimum is enough for most fans. It looks good, sounds good and that's good enough. Thanks for reading ItsFelder! This post is public so feel free to share it. Share However CTE, also known aspugilistica dementia or being Punch Drunk, isn't actually aided by these performative measures. Mike Webster, OL, Junior Seau, LB are prime examples of how CTE manifests itself to a high degree. Leagues spend, for more reason than one, a lot of time protecting QBs and WRs. Outside of specialists, the least hit players on the field. However, when you hit them it looks bad and if they're out that is also bad for business. TV business. Fantasy Business. Gambling Business. Who actually gets CTE on a larger scale? OL. DL. LB. RB. TE. Those are the positions that, as described in the above link: Note it says persistent/prolonged exposure and the key-est of keywords 'SUB-CONCUSSIVE BLOWS.' Who absorbs and delivers sub-concussive blows every single play? OL and DL in their phonebooth windows on the snap. RB/TE and LBs in their 4-6 yard windows in pass and run plays. Think about it throw the lens of boxing, OL, DL, LB, RB, TE get hit in the head every single play. They don't go down in the dramatic fashion of a QB getting smoked because he thinks he is safe since everyday of practice he's in a red, no contact jersey. Same as a WR trying to catch a hospital ball that should have never been thrown. The big boys don't go down with their arms outstretched and everyone fawning over them, they get up, even after seeing green, getting smoked on a trap or colliding with an LB blitzing from depth. They line up and keep going. Respect. It is mad dangerous and I wish the narrative was focused on the guys who are the most at risk, not the beauty projects. Honestly, I don't ever need to hear a QB talk about CTE ever again. Cheers!!!