All of those things apply to the 31 other teams out there. And yet the number of extra blockers kept in is about 80% correlated with the number of extra pass rushers sent at the quarterback, for those other 31 teams. This is why the standard deviation of this ratio I've come up with is very low, for those other teams. What you're doing right now is trying to explain very general details of how an offense works, to make it look like your argument is effective. But you're not at all connecting point A to point B. You're not explaining why extra blockers are so strongly correlated with extra pass rushers on EVERY OTHER TEAM, but not in Miami and certainly not when Chad Henne is in the game. Until you explain those things, and show evidence of how Miami's offense was so drastically different from the rest of the league as to naturally explain why Miami's ratio was over 6 standard deviations away from the mean, then you can keep explaining how an offense works (while leaving out key details) all you want. Your argument still lacks merit. And the biggest thing you've yet to explain is how this offense was so very different from...itself. In 2008 and 2009, neither Chad Pennington nor Chad Henne wasted nearly as many extra blockers as in 2010. This indicates that wasting blockers is in large part a matter of performance, the ability to read the defense pre-snap and set your protections accurately. Hence, number of extra blockers is 80% correlated with number of extra pass rushers, for the rest of the league. But not in Miami, not in 2010. Except when Chad Henne was not playing.
My numbers are not off. They are what they are. A blitzed snap does not necessarily mean more than 4 pass rushers, not the way PFF tallies it. For instance against the Patriots you may see the 3 DLs rush the passer and then one ILB join them from the interior. This is a "blitz" according to PFF, but it's still just 4 pass rushers and the 5 OLs should be able to handle them. Summing up the number of pass rushers is a much more pure method. Hence the high correlation between extra blockers and extra pass rushers (80%), and the very low standard deviation among teams in the ratio.
Henne was calling protection that wasn't best for the RBs, or the TEs, or the WRs, but best for HIM. If you put a QB such as Vick or Romo or Big Ben in our offense with the same situation, he will most likely have many times where he will keep the blitzer unaccounted for to make plays with his leg. Henne knows he can't do that and called in the protection for him. Thats what all protection is for, protecting the QB first and foremost. Do you have any idea which RBs and TE's that stayed into block had the option to release into the route when they finish blocking of if there is no one to block? No, you have no idea and neither do I. If Henne calls a RB and TE to block, from the statistic you would assume they are meant to stay in to block only and not to release if no one is their to block. There isn't a stat that has extra blocker turn into route runner is there? So say Henne has a 7 step drop and keeps 7 guys is pass pro for 4 guys. Great, The FB and TE are accounted as extra blockers. But how do we know they are or are not able to release into a route? We don't. Please explain how the great Phillip Rivers and even Andrew Luck who you do love, keeps in 7 blockers on a 5 step drop for only 4 rushers? Look at Luck's film He's keeping 7 blockers for 4 rushers on a 5 step? Why is this? Theres only 4 rushers...according to you shouldn't there only be 5 blockers to 4 rushers? No, it doesn't work that way. I really don't know how else to explain it, when you learn protections from coaches, camps, drills, etc.. your taught to base it on the strength of the formation and your drop, not the amount of rushers coming in. So you have Luck keep 7 in on a 5 step or 7 step. Then switch to his 3 step drop sets. 6 blockers, not 7. Same amount, only 4 rushers, yet 6 blockers. Why? Its only a 3 step drop. The TE/RB releases into their route for the 3 step. Look at this, how many times does Henne have a PA, 5 step or 7 step drop in this video? Almost ALL the time, causing a 7 protection front even only against a 4 man rush. When he does switch to shotgun, it switches to 5-6 blockers vs 4 rush. Just because Henne ran an offense that almost ALWAYS preferred a 5-7 step or PA, doesn't mean you criticize him for that. Its Henning's outdated scheme that caused it. [video=youtube;giMXRwtc3sk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giMXRwtc3sk[/video] A quote from Henne.... He says they didn't run 3 steps at all last year. Most other teams ran 3 steps plenty of times compared to the Dolphins. Its UNHEARD of in this day and age to not have the 3 step incorporated in your scheme.
There should be zero -0- reason to not have quick game in your offense. I don't care what you run, you need to have quick game.
Your numbers on Henne have to be off. I took a look ar 5 more teams and all are pretty much bunched together, with Sanchez and Orton basically the same as yours. You say the same, except for Henne. I think there is a pretty good chance there is one mistake as opposed to 63. PFF does count a LB or DB as A blitz. They also count 3 or 4 coming as A blitz. You have 110 extra rushers. They have 199 blitzes. Are you saying that 89 of 199 blitzes were with a 3 man line and one blitzer? There's no way.
No. 4 — Miami Dolphins Forget all about what you think the Wildcat may indicate; Miami is a hugely conservative team, especially when it comes to passing the football. No team came close to using as many pass blockers as Miami — not even Oakland, for whom it seemed a lot more appropriate. Unlike the Raiders, the Dolphins’ line seemed more than capable of coping with pass rushers. So why they felt the need to keep in nearly six blockers per play is something for Mr. Sparano to answer, especially as their tight ends didn’t even do particularly well when staying into block. It’s also a question he can’t deflect with talk of a novice QB: The blockers/pass play with Chad Pennington in was slightly higher than with Chad Henne. This is PFF's protection run down from 2009. Penny, with Martin and a better version of Ronnie, being a bit higher than Henne has to tell me it's coaching, not the QB.
I took a closer look at the Minny game to see what was done on both sides of the ball on pass plays. It is only one game but worth a look. We only had 20 pass plays vs a 4-3 D, with a great DL. I'll try to do a different game later. WRs- Marshall was in on all 20 pass plays, Hartline on 16, Bess on 11, and Moore on 2. No pass blocking. TE- Fasano was in on 17 pass plays, 10 as a receiver and kept in 7 times to block. RBs- Polite was in on 10 pass plays, 8 as a receiver and 2 as a blocker. This tells me that they are allowing for the times he released to a safety valve or had no one to block and ran a pattern. I can't imagine having him in 8 of 10 times to be a receiver. Ricky was in on 4 plays, 3 as a receiver and 1 as a blocker. Ronnie was in 15 times, 10 as a receiver and 5 as a blocker. Grand total of 15 extra blockers on 20 pass plays, a little less than our average. Minny mostly depends on it's front four to pressure the QB. Their DL combined for 78 pass rushes out of a possible 80. Edwards and K Williams defended 2 passes to make up the difference. Their LBs and DBs blitzed 7 times which by my thinking (allowing for the 2 PDs from the DL), gives them 7 extra pass rushers. 15 extra pass blockers for 7 extra rushers (2.1 ratio) and great DEs is not bad at all, although it is only one game. I'm anxious to see how a few others turn out.
Keep saying it all you want. My numbers are not off. Instead of blindly and ignorantly accusing me of jimmying the numbers, why don't you do the work yourself and tally up the pass rushers from all 16 games.
The same outdated scheme we ran in 2008 and 2009 which did not waste nearly as many blockers? M'kay. You know what, you can try and say whatever you want while avoiding proving your case that Miami's offense was so unlike every other offense in the league as to justify this anomaly in the blocking. The fact of the matter is there are other QBs out there that didn't use much shotgun. Joe Flacco, for instance. Yet he had a 1.67 ratio. There are other QBs out there that come from play-action offenses. There are probably other QBs out there that don't have many 3 step drops. You're not connecting these hypotheticals and theories with reality, and until you do that your arguments fall limp, because you're explaining hypotheticals and theories which apply to all 31 other offenses out there...you know, all those offenses which had their extra blockers 80% correlated with extra pass rushers. Those offenses.
That was a childish reply. I accused you of nothing other than making a mistake, which is neither blind nor ignorant. Miami had 634 pass plays. I did not include Ronnie or Marshall's throws, and PFF has a 644 listed as well. We kept in 553 extra blockers, and there were 217 extra pass rushers. I include 22 players from the DL listed in pass coverage. The team's season long ratio is 2.55. Without the DL coverage, it is 2.8. Henne had 502 extra blockers, including 80% in the Tenn game and 42% in the Pats game. There were 191 extra pass rushers. His ratio was 2.6. Without 17 in DL coverage, his ratio was 2.9. Thiggy had 23 extra blockers and 13 extra rushers in the Bears game for a ratio of 1.8. Without the 5 in DL coverage, it would be at 2.9. In the parts of the Tenn and Pats games he played, he had 28 extra blockers and 13 extra rushers combined, for a 2.2 ratio.
In looking through all these stats, I found a few games of interest. In the Browns game, we had 37 pass plays. When you multiply that by the 4 pass rushers you allow for, it's 148. Cleveland's total rushers was also 148, leaving a 0 for anything extra. We kept in 41 extra blockers. Rex Ryan threw the kitchen sink at us the first game with 38 extra pass rushers coming from everywhere. This was more than double to more than 6 times what other teams did, other than Tenn. We used 53 extra blockers. Then, in the second game, he only used 17 extra rushers. We had 32 extra blockers. The last on was Blitzburg. They only sent 6 extra rushers against our 40 extra blockers, while keeping their LBs back in coverage. The number of extra blockers is a bit misleading considering one on ever pass play would give you an average of 40 per game. However, we still did use more than almost every other team.
Awesome post. RBs and TEs, on any pass play, are assigned to either go into a route, pass pro, or check blitz and then go into their assigned route. It all depends on the play call. Clearly we left more guys in to block than defenses sent in to blitz, but assigning responsibility for the discrepancy is IMPOSSIBLE w/o access to the coaching philosophy, play book and play calls. Anyone who claims otherwise is crying wolf.
