Can you smell it? The NFL season is upon us. Yeah baby!

I've never been a team sports person. Though lately I've been getting more and more into soccer (football). Damn those guys have some endurance.

I still like tecmo Super Bowl though. Newer football games are too complicated, but TSB was awesome. I espeically liked running a season in coach mode, where you called the plays but didn't control the players (it was so easy to win otherwise). There's some interesting, but shallow, strategy in football. But I'd rather just kick people, that's much more fun.
 
Football is lotsa of strategy, mostly feints and trickery though. The Patriots are the only REALLY strategic team.
 
The Panthers are all about strategy as well. I know they got destroyed by Seattle, but that was because they had no running game. The rest was elementary. It forced them into a situation where they HAD to pass, and when the Seahawks defense played pass protection, it turned the ball over to them right at the goal line. Then the Panthers defense was left with a short field to defend. Once the momentum slid to the Seahawks, there was nothing left but desperate play.

Normally, they out-Fox their opponents. Just look at the Atlanta games.
 
Getting back to football, the Panthers isn't really a strategic team, though. They have a painfully balanced offense that simply can't withstand an injury to almost any of its players, which was seen in Deshaun Foster getting injured, and them collapsing against Seattle, and I'd bet if any of their other offensive starters went down, the same results would've happened. If Steve Smith was down, they could just stack the line, and put enough pressure on Delhomme and Deshaun to simply dominate them on defense. And Atlanta isn't a really tough team to beat this year because of how they had a weak defense, and a weak passing game. They were just a running team.
 
That's still a pretty minor thing, and I sincerely doubt the players complain about it.

Anyway, with the Steelers running game being largely ineffective (Parker is averaging 2.7 YPC and Bettis is only getting 2.6) do you think that they'll either just work harder, or do you think that we could see Duce Staley finally get some action?
 
spudlyff8fan said:
Anyway, with the Steelers running game being largely ineffective (Parker is averaging 2.7 YPC and Bettis is only getting 2.6) do you think that they'll either just work harder, or do you think that we could see Duce Staley finally get some action?
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At the risk of sounding stupid on the Monday after the Super Bowl, I think the entire Steelers team will play out of this world football. Cower knows first hand how hard it is to get here and I don't think he'll let his team get any big heads. Because make no mistake, with both teams at full strength the Steelers are the better team.

The thing about those stats is that they don't tell the whole story. Early in the season Pitt's running game was better because teams thought they could play more pass and wait for Roethlisberger to make a mistake (especially because the passing game was so terrible in the pre-season). But slowly the opposition realized Ben wasn't making many mistakes (if any) with the ball. And when he did make mistakes they were never really the "Jake Plummer" type mistakes. So while they banked on him messing up, the Steelers racked up yards on the ground.

But now teams are trying to stop the run more and Roethlisberger is getting more attempts and completions. They have a very balanced offense, and they're only real need on that side of the ball is a true #1 receiver, but they seem to be doing just fine without one. And another reason the numbers lie so-to-speak, is because the Steelers run a rediculous amount of times in the second half because they almost always have the lead. Teams know that now and they play the run almost everytime. So of course if the Steelers are going to the run exclusively and the other team knows that, it will be much harder to to get ground yards. And compound that with the fact that the Steelers are now trying to run the clock out in the third quarter instead of late third/early fourth, it's just that much easier to stop the run. That's why teams have made small come backs against them lately. Too many runs too early in the game gives the opposition the ball 1-3 more times than they probably should have it.

And having Staley play is dicey. Yes he can be a good back, but he's a little too prone to fumbling (and injuries) for my taste. Although that same case can be made for all of Pitt's backs right now, especially Parker.
 
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