The Return of Fundamental Football

[lightsout]

For many of us, we grew up when the league was really centered around balanced attack football. Run the ball, use play action and timing to hit deep balls, repeat. This was perfect football. The physical aspect of the game shined, the most physical team had a distinct advantage. 

 

Then the spread seized the league. Teams focused the passing attack and made running backs out to be "nice to haves". There were teams that kept a strong running attack all along, but the number was far fewer than half the league.

 

In 2015, only 7 teams rushed for 2000+ yards. That means most teams went most games without hitting over 125+ yards rushing per game. Every year after saw a steady rise in the number of teams eclipsing that mark, save for an outlier or two.

In 2023, that number was 13. 

 

This season, I feel like more teams are really focusing on being balanced. The rise in speed and high flying offense led to defenses being less physical, leading to physical offenses returning. 

 

Boys... we're so back. Thank god our staff understands it and are using it as our plan of attack.

[Hoenheim]

That's what made the Wilks lead panthers so thrilling to watch we were running the rock like a runaway freight train on teams. Nothing like it

[TN05]

1 hour ago, Hoenheim said:

That's what made the Wilks lead panthers so thrilling to watch we were running the rock like a runaway freight train on teams. Nothing like it

It was so much more fun to watch than the dink and dunk crap that surrounded it.

[strato]

10 hours ago, Hoenheim said:

That's what made the Wilks lead panthers so thrilling to watch we were running the rock like a runaway freight train on teams. Nothing like it

That was a lot of fun. But it had a limited ceiling and we hit it a couple of times. You just weren't going to beat some teams without more. 

I was okay with that, that 1 win to 5 losses ratio was fuging wearing me out. And it was proven that having the top pick QB which was the argument against winning, isn't the magic bean that people think. 

The fact that Wilks took what he had, not even his coaching staff, and did that with it was discounted by a lot of people. And they were short handed on staff too. 

 

[jb2288]

I was just thinking about this yesterday. Yes all the new rules benefit passing so that took a huge leap forward initially, but now defenses have adapted by going smaller and faster and passing numbers are way down. We’re shifting back to control to LOS and pound the rock and then setup play action. Our team is built well for this which is why I feel if Dave and Dan are both the real deal we will be competitive in the division by next year. 
#RTGDF

Edited 3 hours ago by jb2288