Offenses in 2012

[jamie1981]

Just wanted people's take on how successful the offenses will be in 2012. Will there be multiple 5000 yard passers again? Will defenses catch up a little more this year? Do you think the spike in offensive passing stats last year was due to no training camp or due to protecting QBs? Or both?

I hope it was just because of the lack of training camp. It was tough watching one pass completion after another.

Sent from my 1983 Motorola DynaTAC mobile phone

[Chip Douglass]

I wrote about the passing phenomena last year.

http://www.operationsports.com/forum...n-stuff-3.html

Basically, teams are using the short passing game as an extension of the running game and are taking advantage of the increasing effectiveness of the pass because of the myriad of rule changes by passing even more.

I think this trend will continue as teams realize the gains from passing. The top four teams in the league last year in yards per attempt were Green Bay, New England, New York, and New Orleans. GB/NE/NO went a combined 41-7 in the regular season while scoring the 2nd, 4th and 11th most points in NFL history and New York won the Super Bowl.

[SPTO]

Quote: Originally Posted by Chip Douglass

Basically, teams are using the short passing game as an extension of the running game and are taking advantage of the increasing effectiveness of the pass because of the myriad of rule changes by passing even more.

So basically it's still Bill Walsh's world and we're all living in it huh?

Actually that's one thing about the modern game I don't like. Offensive Coordinators are less apt to go for the longer passing game which in turn may affect the QB's passer rating. At least in the '80s and the first half of the '90s you saw quite a bit of 30-40 yard pass attempts to the tune of 3-4 and sometimes more per game.