I’ve been thinking a lot about football recently for obvious reasons and have been working to come up with an overall point of view on the game - what are the underlying principles that matter?
Well, I’m not there yet, and it’s probably going to take me all season to figure it out.
Along the same lines, I spent some of yesterday and today trying to determine what to write about on Sundays during the NFL season. The easy thing to do would be to analyze the Browns game in some capacity…but like I’ve already implied - I don’t think I know how to do that.
So what I’d rather do - at least this time - is sift through an oft-mentioned concept that I don’t understand: that is “managing the game.”
I’ve heard a lot about managing the game over the past few weeks, mostly in relation to Brady Quinn’s supposed ability to not create turnovers (I think). I also heard it a lot this weekend, too - a paraphrase from Bears head coach Lovie Smith, for example: “We don’t need Jay Cutler to go out and win the game for us, we need him to manage it.”
For someone as competitive as me, this is a frustrating idea to try and wrap your head around. A common philosophy in the NFL involves not trying to win the game?
Confusing, right? I know.
In looking at the two other sports full and almost full seasons have allowed me to break down in a bit more depth - basketball and baseball - it’s easy to see the focal points of winning: in baseball, it’s scoring runs; in basketball, it’s scoring points.
We know how to score an infinite amount of runs in baseball - every hitter needs to get on base. We know how to score as many points as possible in basketball - shoot 100% from 3 on every offensive possession (4-point plays are even better, but they depend on the other team committing a foul).
There are a couple opponent-based variables in both scenarios. For baseball, well, the big problem is that you could never finish a game, since there’s no clock. In basketball, you could theoretically lose the game if the team you were playing against shot 100% from 3 as well and made the last basket before the clock ran out in the 4th quarter.
Another basketball hypothetical to think about is winning by dominating the offensive boards, essentially missing shots on purpose and getting the offensive rebound in order to limit the other team’s possessions, scoring only when the clock is about to expire at the end of quarters. The jump ball and alternating possessions at the start of quarters warp this concept, but it’s still fun to consider.
When it comes to football, we can apply a similar concept - what makes a perfect offensive game? Scoring a touchdown every time you have the ball and successfully completing a 2 point conversion.
What makes football a bit different than baseball and basketball is the function of the clock and how it can be controlled and manipulated by the offense. Unlike baseball, football doesn’t give both teams the same number of “outs” (i.e. possessions, like how OT is constructed in the college game). And unlike pro basketball, which operates with a 24 second shot clock, there is not a relatively decisive exchange of possessions, and therefore, opportunities.
Teams in the NFL can manipulate how long they have to score points by controlling their style of play, effectively limiting the number of opportunities their opponent has to score. They can do this by piling short plays on top of each other, adding up first downs, and keeping the clock moving.
The other variable in the NFL is field position. In other words, teams begin drives with different roadblocks to scoring points depending on where they get the ball - it’s not always the same (a basketball has to go in the basket, a baserunner has to make it from 1st to home).
Teams can also control this variable as well. What’s interesting then about football is that, to a certain extent, teams can manipulate and control the “rules” of the game for their opponent - how far they have to go to score and how much time they have to do it.
This, I believe, is the actual subtext to the idea of “managing the game.”
Whether or not it’s an effective way of winning football games…I’m still thinking, and I’m still not convinced. You can manage the game all you want, but you better put the ball in the endzone. Because if you don’t, if your team gets no points or relies on field goals, you can pin your opponent inside the 10 yard line all you want and hope your defense stops them (let’s also assume it’s harder for a team to go 90 yards than it is for them to go 50, so giving the other team bad field position is actually one way to improve your defense’s chances), but you’ll always be one or two big plays away from losing the game at the last second.
And that’s no way to party.
