Sinking the Battleship Yamato: a case study of evolution, innovation, and revolution in the NFC South

[PhillyB]

The original Death Star was a Japanese battleship called the Yamato.

The year was 1937. Leadership councils in the Japanese Empire foresaw a war with America as their capacity for national self-sufficiency bled away, and they recognized that American shipyards could out-produce them if war were to break out. As a proactive measure, they decided to build the biggest, baddest, fastest, most heavily-armed warship ever created by man. Shrouded in secrecy from keel-laying to commission, the Yamato was nearly a fifth of a mile long, displaced over 70,000 tons fully loaded, and wielded nine 18.1" guns, making it the largest, longest, most heavily-armed naval ship in the history of the universe.

 

It has since been reimagined as a giant-ass U.N. rocket ship for no good reason whatsoever.

 

The Yamato was ready for war a week after the Japanese effectively declared it by bombing Pearl Harbor. She was built for one purpose and one purpose alone: to blast the hell out of columns of American battleships. Much like the previous century's military strategy had been dominated by legions of troops squaring off against one another in unprotected formations in the open field, naval strategies early on in the war were invariably composed of battleship lines: the archaic tactic of big guns slugging it out on the high seas. This approach followed hundreds of years of unassailed naval doctrine; wars were won by opposing surface fleets, and that was that.

But then Pearl Harbor happened. Ironically, it was Japan's resounding success in striking the American naval base that ultimately did her in. The U.S. fleet had been so badly damaged that fleet maneuvers mere months later had to be made in the absence of a half-dozen premier battleships. Of course, any grand showdown in the open Pacific with the Imperial Japanese Navy would be suicide with the Arizona, West Virginia, California, and Nevada lying on the harbor floor or beached uselessly against its shores. If something was going to be done about the advancing Japanese, it was going to have to be done through unorthodox means.

Like, say, the aircraft carrier.

 

Numerical designator 10 signifies the number of people that thought these goddamn things would actually work.

 

Prior to 1942, aircraft carriers were transports as much as anything, useful for stationing offshore as a strike platform on a place too distant for land-based attacks. It had never been considered as a tool of true naval warfare. Necessity is never more the mother of invention than in war, however, and circumstances thrust it into action in a new role. And suddenly, miraculously, the U.S. Navy found itself at the winning end of a watershed moment in the history of warfare: during the Battle of the Coral Sea, carrier-based bomber strikes successfully repelled a massive Japanese fleet, even sinking a Japanese carrier. Echoing through eternity is commander Robert Dixon's famous words: "Scratch one flat-top!" radioed to his squadron as the Shōhō went under. He had just unknowingly immortalized the ushering in of warfare's modern era.

At that moment the complexion of the war changed. Three months later a fleet of American aircraft carriers launched long-range attacks against a Japanese force invading Midway Island. They sent four Japanese carriers plunging to the bottom with several waves of dive-bomber and torpedo-bomber attacks, repelling the invasion fleet a thousand miles from its objective. And the Yamato, class of the Imperial Japanese Navy, the baddest ship on the high seas, had been instantly rendered irrelevant. Her massive guns had been rendered obsolete in the unlikeliest of ways. She had gone from golden goose to sitting duck in the space of months.

 

Kind of like the Atlanta Falcons!

 

 

The year was 2008. Leadership councils in Atlanta foresaw an opportunity in the NFC South. With an aging roster, the Carolina Panthers' window was closing fast. The Buccaneers were coasting on the waning success of Jon Gruden and a no-name quarterback in a league evolving to leave them behind, and the New Orleans Saints, for all their offensive prowess, were a perennial disaster on the other side of the ball. As a proactive measure, the Falcons decided to draft a quarterback and assemble an offensive roster that would give him downfield weapons and a stalwart offensive line to build around. The result was 3rd overall pick Matt Ryan.

Matt Ryan was quickly tabbed as a future NFL star (you could see it the moment he splashed that big advertisement deal with AirTran.) The first play of his career was a 67-yard bomb to Michael Jenkins for a touchdown. He put together a stellar rookie campaign and led his team to the playoffs with a rookie head coach (the first time a rookie head coach/quarterback combination accomplished such a feat since the Cleveland Rams did it in 1945.) Matt Ryan was the Yamato of the NFC South. The clear future, the meteoric talent, the juggernaut. He would dominate, he would bring victory.

Like Pearl Harbor, the lockout torpedoed the Carolina Panthers and sent them crashing to the bottom; it was even an inside job, as many have accused Pearl Harbor of being, most notably outlined in the ironically-named Clausen Inquiry. And the Panthers, wounded, stripped of their talent, had to find some new way to win. If something was going to be done about the advancing Falcons, it was going to have to be done through unorthodox means.

Like, say, drafting Cam Newton.

 

 

Before 2011, quarterbacks didn't get to run and call themselves good quarterbacks at the same time. "Mobile quarterback" was a trope for "black and can't throw." The positional archetype was a Matt Ryan: tall, sturdy, committed to standing stalwart in the pocket and making efficient downfield throws, relying on hard work and familiarity with Xs and Os rather than premier athletic talent. But circumstances thrust a widely-criticized, mold-breaking, rough-edged quarterback who could attack defenses in ways never before encountered into a starting role with the Panthers; and, just as the jut of the Shōhō's bow from the frothing sea as she went under changed the landscape of naval warfare forever, Cam Newton's touchdown pass deep down the left sideline to Steve Smith announced to the world that a new force had arrived to the NFC South, a new power to be reckoned with.

Nearly five full seasons from the moment of that first touchdown pass, the revolution of the Carolina Panthers is nearly complete. Cam Newton is the runaway MVP favorite. He'll cement it this week by taking on the Falcons. He'll do it, ironically, in an air raid. He'll do it against the Yamato of the NFC South, the new quarterback of the new team that was supposed to dominate and control it.

 

 

In 1945 the Yamato met her end ignominiously, loaded with troops, like any common transport ship, and given orders for a suicide mission: to beach on Okinawa and use her massive guns in support of the defense until depleted or destroyed. Poetically, she was spotted by reconnaissance planes flown from aircraft carriers, bombed and torpedoed for two hours. Finally she capsized, blew up spectacularly, split in half, and, symbolic in more ways than one of the flagging Japanese war effort, sank to the bottom of the ocean forever.

 

 

On Sunday the Falcons embrace their suicide mission. On Sunday they meet the force they inadvertently created. On Sunday they explode spectacularly, split in half, and plunge to the bottom of the NFC South. The Panthers advance to 15-0.

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

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[SIGCHI222]

Busted the week 16 cherry.  Kudos master of the Word.

[lightsout]

Every week, I think the same thing.

"Well, I learned something today."

 

[uncfan888]

I get up early for this poo

[PandaPancake]

I dub the Dennis Miller of the Huddle

[Hotsauce]

Nicely done!

You were the guy I needed to find in college to help me write papers. 

[UKPanther94]

I have a History degree and i still learn more from these posts than i did during most of my education!

[ladypanther]

Brilliant!!!

Thanks PhillyB.  Merry Christmas to you as well.

[KSpan]

Fantastic article, and worth noting that Harbaugh and Flacco achieved the rookie coach/rookie QB combo to reach the playoffs milestone in 2008 as well. I mainly.point this out because the Falcons deserve credit fornas few unique achievements as possible.

Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead.

[Captain Obvious]

Pie for StarBlazers alone.

[Khyber53]

Well done! This was in your top 3 so far!

[Navy_football]

Wow! Love the naval history analogy.

[Moorgan]

Star Blazers was my favorite show as a kid. It crushed Speed Racer in quality and was my first real exposure to anime.

Great job again Philly.

[ThPantherFan]

I read the entire thing without stopping.  You had me mesmerized!  Loved it in it's entirety, all angles from history past to history future (Sunday, 27 December, 2015).