(12-17-2017 08:52 AM)firmbizzle Wrote: (12-16-2017 04:36 PM)vick mike Wrote: I recall just a few years ago Auburn was playing Oregon in the NC game. At one point the camera was put between the Auburn DL and the Oregon OL. The Auburn players were much bigger than the Ducks, which is unusual in high level football. If I remember right, Tigers had some future pros on that line. Point is, Auburn is going to be big fast and mean. UCF cannot expect an opponent who will fall down in awe at their speed.
They haven’t seen Orlando speed.
I'm still absolutely amazed at the enigma of speed talk in the this, and other, thread. Speed by itself is useless if guys can't catch or hold onto the football. Take one of the fastest men ever in the NFL in Willie Gault, who couldn't catch a cold. Yet pedestrian speed Jerry Rice road all the way to the HOF.
I don't have numbers in front of me and refuse to calculate them myself, but I take some educated guesses anyway. Teams run somewhere around 70 plays a game, depending on the team. Of those plays, even good teams, have an average of about 5 or less plays over 30 yards, what I'm calling big plays that could be attributed to speed. Of those 5 plays, perhaps 4 result in scoring, and perhaps 2 result in TDs.
Of those 5 big play successes that result in points of say 20 points (2 TDs, 2 FGs) many failures happen to produce those big plays such as WRs dropping balls, QBs missing throws, holding penalties, missed FGs, etc. Those failures can lead to lost possessions resulting in punts as opposed to grind out teams, Navy for example, who eat the clock and still often score.
Lastly, those quick play scores do nothing to help the defense. I call this the Chip Kelly failure where defenses are asked to stay on the field longer than normal leading to 4th quarter collapses.
