Delay of Game

There was an interesting article in the WSJ today by David Biderman that provided a breakdown of the content of an average NFL game.

Now, I had suspected that out of the 60 minutes of game clock, that there would be a lot of dead time e.g. how the clock keeps ticking after running plays are stopped in-bounds. Still, just less than 11 minutes of actual game-play was a little surprising to me at first blush.

"According to a Wall Street Journal study of four recent broadcasts, and similar estimates by researchers, the average amount of time the ball is in play on the field during an NFL game is about 11 minutes.

In other words, if you tally up everything that happens between the time the ball is snapped and the play is whistled dead by the officials, there's barely enough time to prepare a hard-boiled egg. In fact, the average telecast devotes 56% more time to showing replays.

So what do the networks do with the other 174 minutes in a typical broadcast? Not surprisingly, commercials take up about an hour. As many as 75 minutes, or about 60% of the total air time, excluding commercials, is spent on shots of players huddling, standing at the line of scrimmage or just generally milling about between snaps. In the four broadcasts The Journal studied, injured players got six more seconds of camera time than celebrating players. While the network announcers showed up on screen for just 30 seconds, shots of the head coaches and referees took up about 7% of the average show."

Looking at these numbers has to be pretty disheartening to regular viewers who whittle away whole Sundays. When I am watching football, I'm often doing something else at the same time, usually cooking, which cuts down on my NFL-coach-potato guilt level. But to those fans who go to the games, that's quite a price to be paying for 11 minutes of action.

It begs the question, though: How does football dead time compare to other major sports? In basketball with a 24-second shot clock, a lot of time is spent passing the ball and setting up plays before a shot is attempted. Same thing with hockey. Both of those sports have a 60-minute clock in the professional game. Soccer is another serial time-waster, even with longer matches --- 90 minutes, plus so-called "stoppage time" which is a referee-determined add-on of how much time has been spent on injuries, substitutions, etc. --- that often come down to about 5 serious shots on goal. This is an American viewer's oft-bemoaned example of why soccer doesn't have much of a following in this country.

Tens of millions of fans, however, go to Major League Baseball games every year to sit through an indeterminate-timed 9 innings. Indeed, sitting for 3 hours, watching practice swings, bullpen sessions, warm-up pitches, bubble gum chewing and arguments between managers and umpires, while waiting for 27 players to be called "out" is deemed the American past-time. Then again, at our house, it gives a heck of a reason for a nice spring/summer/fall weekend nap when a game is on.

21 November 2009

Buffalo Bills coach Dick Jauron was fired on Tuesday this week. It's the first step of a long road toward turning the franchise back toward respectability. There's a lot that needs to be fixed in the hierarchy of the front office. The multiple-VP 'consensus' system that was initiated a couple of years ago is not what's required in the NFL. So far, the rumor-mill has generated the name of former Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan, who would ostensibly be brought in either late this season in an advisory role (similar to Bill Parcells' post with the Miami Dolphins) and perhaps be named as the head coach and/or GM after the season concludes. The issue of how much control a new hire would have is something that will have to be worked out. Ralph Wilson, the Bills' owner, is rightly making generic statements, but hinted that established big-name coaches are on the radar. For an owner who has run his team on the cheap for the last ten years (and who has meddled with his toy to the team's detriment since the start) I'll believe in change when I see it.
-----
Started building a new tailgate for the trailer this week, in addition to re-jiggering the tail light wiring. It will soon be street legal again. The tailgate is a pattern of three horizontal pressure-treated 1" x 6" boards with a 6" gap between them, and bolted together with four shorter vertical sections. Will have to post a picture when it's complete. This is, I hope, ahead of doing some more extensive repairs on the trailer itself in the spring. The plywood sides have certainly seen better days and the frame could use a fresh coat of paint.
-----
Built a replacement birdhouse this afternoon, essentially making a copy of the design of the old one whose wood was weathering away. The entry hole had been hacked away to about 4" in diameter, and it's been awhile since I noticed any birds in residence. Building it better, painting it 'Colonial Red' and also making a roof covering out of a pair of old Connecticut license plates that were from our '86 Bronco (which had quite the same color scheme as the new CT plates). That was something I'd seen in a magazine some time back, and it seemed like a interesting idea. This, too, I'll have to share a picture of when it's done.
-----
The UConn football team beat Notre Dame this afternoon in double OT. Undoubtedly the biggest win in the program's young history... and surely an emotional victory for the team with all that's happened in the past month.
-----
I recently rejoined Facebook. After the family reunion "pumpkin carving party" just before Hallowe'en, it made me rethink the decision. Made a few changes, edited the 'Friend' list a bit and it seems a little more palatable now. Not on it all day (not that I ever was)... just now and then. We'll see how it goes.

Bad Fan

I was never a fan of the Dick Jauron hire in Buffalo. He is an expressionless, ultra-conservative coach in a league that demands action, involvement, and offense. Jauron's unabashed man-love for defensive backs has led to using 60 percent of the last four drafts for secondary players. I'm not going to say that the surfeit of drafted DBs doesn't contribute. Just that their selections come to the detriment of many other positions of need. And these deficiencies are in much more important positions in the grand scheme. Building from the secondary out is a stupid strategy. The fact that the run defense was shredded to bits against the Jets and is dead-last in the league in the 'Yards Allowed' category is a clear indictment of the front-7 and adequate depth. Hurray for the pass defense --- and their only measure of success comes because opponents are all too happy to run roughshod over weak DTs and LBs --- but the Bills can't stop anyone when it counts or put pressure on opposing quarterbacks. In order to be an effective defense, the secondary would have to play shut-down on every wide receiver for 7-10 seconds, on every play. Most teams are lucky to have that kind of coverage five times per game.

Blaming injuries for the problems is a weasel argument --- you have to be prepared for injuries because LBs get hurt often in the NFL; it's just the nature of the position that injuries will happen. Having street free agents at these spots is begging for the position the Bills are in --- namely, getting blasted for 318 yards rushing versus the Jets. Most days, a team is not going to overcome that. What happens when the Bills' defense doesn't get gifted 6 interceptions? Add into it those 'backup' players who are firstly and secondly retained for special teams, and are woeful in normal play. It means our depth is in even worse shape than any other team, right out of training camp. Bobby April, the special teams coach, and Jauron have had too much influence in drafting and roster management. The front office structure, with five VPs and a marketing man as CEO, to put it simply... sucks. If last week's piss-poor win is part of an excuse to keep Jauron beyond this season, I will officially become a bad fan akin to Randy Quaid's character in "Major League" until Ralph Wilson dies. The old man's refusal to fire bad coaches (because he'd still have to pay their full salary) and spend money on good coaches is one of the major reasons for 4 out 5 losing decades. In a time when others are feeling a pinch, Wilson cleared over $30M last year. He refuses to spend to the salary cap, refuses to pay for good coaching and allows a front office hierarchy that is busy staring at its own colon.

The offense doesn't get off easy, either. As big a supporter I was of Trent Edwards, it's apparent from back-up QB Ryan Fitzpatrick's play that Trent is regressing. And, with some time to see it more clearly, it started after the concussion in the Cardinals game last year. Can only imagine what effect the latest concussion against the Jets will have. There have been a lot of young QBs in the NFL ruined b/c they play in bad offenses and behind bad offensive lines. All of those first-round busts came into the league with a lot of talent... and that talent dried up and blew away. They got gun-shy/skittish in the pocket, panicky when holding the ball, and their final death knell was indecisiveness. Trent Edwards is at the panicky stage; that's why he's not progressing his reads and not seeing open receivers, and why he's been so quick to 'check down' to receivers rather than go for passes over 10 5 yards, even when it's 3rd & 18. It's sad that such bad roster management and coaching has led to this. There's not too many quarterbacks that came back from this black hole-like progression --- though the jury is still out on David Carr. "Bust"ing often says as much about the surrounding cast as it does about an individual player.

What I do know is that before the Bills get another QB, they need to build an offensive line and get competent coaches. And, as I've written, there's about a 10 percent chance of this happening while Ralph Wilson is alive. In the meantime, it's going to be shades of futility. Good players are going to come in here and have a high failure rate b/c there is an air of toxicity at One Bills Drive.

(Photo illustration uses images © Mirage / Paramount Pictures, Buffalo Bills)

Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory Since 2001

Tonight, my Buffalo Bills once again snatched defeat from the jaws of victory on Monday Night Football.

Really, they've done this almost every game since the Marv Levy / Wade Phillips era ended. Whenever they do keep a game close into the 4th quarter (or, like tonight, have an 11-point lead with 6 minutes left), we Bills fans know exactly what's coming. Some flub, fumble, bounce or bollix, and the game is given away. Your heart is pounding for those several minutes where it's close. This is a vestigial endorphin rush, you do not know why your heart is pounding so fast --- because what always happens seems as inevitable as the sun rising tomorrow morning --- it just does. Fourth quarter anguish is part of the Bills fan experience.

To talk about the organization for a minute, they've had quite a bit of shake-up in the past week and a half. Dick Jauron, the Yale man / nice guy / perennial loser of a head coach, fired the offensive coordinator, Turk Schonert, after the final preseason game. Schonert said he was fired because Jauron "wanted a Pop Warner offense." Then, a short time later, they released Langston Walker, the player tagged in the offseason as the left tackle (the key spot on the offensive line, for anyone who may not know about football), who got all the starting LT snaps in minicamps, through training camp and during preseason games.

Jauron has to be aware that his job is on the line. Even 90-year-old owner Ralph Wilson will only put up with losing for so long. Jauron received a 3-year extension last year based on the first 6 games (5-1) of the season. Then the team nose-dived and finished out 2-8 --- an epic collapse. The contract was signed already, though, and old man Wilson doesn't like to eat contracts, so he threw out a "continuity is good, mmm-kay!??!" excuse.

Well, now, we have just witnessed continuity for sure. The team continued getting dumb penalties, continued game mismanagement (clock and time-out use), continued general "keep it close" small-ball, continued to play our CBs 10 yards off the line of scrimmage (thereby giving offenses free, guaranteed 5 yards a clip if they can just connect a slant or screen pass), and continued to give up big plays late in the game.

I hate that I love this team.

11 August 2009

The bathroom painting took a little longer than expected because it required a second coat, and especially in the bathroom it's good to put that extra layer there. We went with Supreme Green at Sherwin-Williams. That's really the only place to go for paint in my experience. Have used Behr, Glidden, Dutch Boy, etc. and none of them were as easy to work with as S-W. Well, I lied, actually. The Rustoleum brand (both spray and roller/brush paints) gets a high rating as well... but they're not for interior walls.

Did get the toilet in, a day behind the mental schedule of Thursday last. Just wanted to give that paint extra drying time for a full cure before placing things against it. The toilet install was relatively easy, though. The hardest part was caulking along the bottom rim, what with the lack of good angles with the caulking gun and having to clean the excess away. The toilet was christened that night.

Speaking of christening, we attended my niece's baptism down in Southington on Sunday at St. Aloysius. We ourselves are not Catholic (and personally speaking, I try to steer clear of organized religion), so it is somewhat amusing to watch the ritual of Sunday Mass. It was also somewhat amusing to see "FUCI" carved into the left rearmost pew --- there were the beginnings of the K diagonals, though faint. We pointed it out to an usher. Otherwise, my cousin down from western NY was denied communion because she is not Catholic. That policy just... seems very un-Christ-like. And again, this is but one of a million examples why organized religion isn't my bag. The more people brought into any group, collective intelligence, efficiency and dedication to the original purpose suffers --- rules are adopted to suit the particular whims of a majority or passionate vocal minority of members, core beliefs are staked out a la carte, intra-church cliques appear, the Us vs.Them mentality forms between different church branches (as much as Christians will usually deny, deny, deny the extent of this simple fact) and before you know it, the church is more of a social organization than anything else. As for me, I know what I know, I know what I believe, I can conceive the immensity of what humanity cannot possibly know, and I try to reconcile a little sense from it. Anyway, after the baptism was a lunch at a local restaurant and it was nice to see some family members we don't get a chance to meet up with very often.

Sunday night, I saw my Buffalo Bills get faked out of their shoes early in the NFL's Hall of Fame game, the first game of the preseason. But there were some positive showings, including Terrell Owens getting two nice catches in the starting offense's brief appearance. The pair of rookie offensive linemen projected to start were raw at times but showed promise. Especially on the play where Andy Levitre was shoved backward into the Edwards's face... and yet, to his credit, he stayed upright and bought his QB an extra second when many veterans the team has had in the past 10 years would've fallen down or morphed into a turnstile. You've got to appreciate a lineman who has the mentality that even if something goes badly, he won't let a defense have a free shot on the QB. Too many times, from players making enough money to make you think they'd actually care ($7M +), they stood and watched as their QB got pummeled.

Anyway, got the pedestal sink in position last night, and lag-bolted to the floor and wall. Need to do some jury-rigging with the drain pipes (we want to try to hide as much as we can inside the pedestal) and connect the water lines, and it'll be good to go. Opened the mirror I picked up at Lowe's a while back, and there are some dark splotches from where the glue is on the backside. They've faded since it's been out of the box, but still quite noticeable. My fault. I should have opened the box at the store and looked. It was on clearance when we got it, so I don't know what their return policy will be... Will try anyway if the spots don't go away. 'Clearance' shouldn't mean 'Defective.'