Reddit Reddit reviews Take Your Eye Off the Ball 2.0: How to Watch Football by Knowing Where to Look

We found 8 Reddit comments about Take Your Eye Off the Ball 2.0: How to Watch Football by Knowing Where to Look. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

Reference
Books
Encyclopedias & Subject Guides
Sports Encyclopedias
Take Your Eye Off the Ball 2.0: How to Watch Football by Knowing Where to Look
Check price on Amazon

8 Reddit comments about Take Your Eye Off the Ball 2.0: How to Watch Football by Knowing Where to Look:

u/MKactus · 77 pointsr/nfl

That's one of the contributing factors of Football IQ, and the very basics. Other than that, you have to know what defender is going to do what in which system.
There are QBs who also determine blocking schemes for their line. They say which blocking scheme to apply for which play, and switch them up if need be.
Very, very basically, a spread offense spreads out the defense across the width of the field, instead of bunching everything together around the ball. If you spread the defense out, there are bound to be more holes. That could mean putting 4 or even 5 WRs out away from the Oline (hence, wide), for instance.
A lot of the times, they add in the read option in that play. If a certain defender goes into coverage or for the HB, the QB keeps the ball and runs through the gaps of the defense. If the defender stands pat, the QB hands it off to the HB (or throws).
There are some great books that explain a lot of these things. A few I would definitely recommend are (in order of how deep they go into stuff):

u/Johannes_silentio · 11 pointsr/NFLRoundTable
u/yoda133113 · 2 pointsr/nfl

Amazon link.

Great book! Despite being a football official and a longtime fan, this book was a great and educational read. He does a great job of making it easy to read for knowledgeable fans as well as new ones.

u/exodus1028 · 1 pointr/Patriots

> I know that on offense the QB can either pass it to the receivers downfield (is this the position that Gronk plays?)

Yes and no. Gronk is a Tight End. This is a special position, which typically lines up at the end of the offensive Line. From that spot he can either help block or release downfield for an reception. Or both.
Its different in the sense, that typical receivers, so called Wide Receivers, ar lining up more towards the sideline. They are usually less bulky than TEs, they are mostly faster and more agile. But this really depends what type of routes the team wants them to run.

> or run the ball while the linebackers keep the pocket open

no, linebackers are on the defensive side.
You probably think of the offensive line which consists of 2 tackles, 2 guards and a center...like that:

Left Tackle - Left Guard - Center - Right Guard - Right Tackle

This line's duty is to block any/all rushers the defense sends towards the Quarterback, who receives the snap from the center and then either hands the ball off or steps back behind them and looks for a throw downfield. The line tries to push aways any rushers that want to come around through the ends or up the middle, which should creat an area of 1-4 yards, a bubble of safe space for the QB, thats the pocket.

> but on the defensive end I'm really not sure about the positions and roles. I guess the linebackers are the ones trying to sack (am I using this word right? Haha) the opponent QB while the backs are chasing the receivers (so this is what Hightower does right?).

Think of it as 3 layers.

1st layer: there is the defensive line. Defensive tackles in the middle and defensive ends on both sides. like that:

DE - DT - DT - DE or DE - DT - DE

we call that a 3 man front or a 4 man front, which is just depending on the system or the players a team has. DT are more beefy and DEs are usually a little less beefy but more agile/speedy.
DTs directly collide with the Center and Guards and try to eat up as much space as possible by binding blockers or just penetrate the pocket by beating the matchup - means they try for a sack but pushing the pocket often results into it collpasing, which also means its harder for the QB to escape and/or make a clean throw.
Same applys to DEs with the difference being, they try to get by Tackles on the outside of the line and just flat out trying to sack the QB.

2nd layer: the linebackers
those can have multiple jobs, depending on skillsets. mostly they cover the middle of the field, help closing running lanes or - as you said - are sometimes an additional rusher. Hightower does this very well, as you can put him anywhere behind or outside the defensive line. If the opponent doesnt account for him he has a free rushing line towards the QB for example.

depending on how many Receivers are on the field and how many Players are on the Defensive line there are 2 to 4 LBs on the field. Thats just a scheme thing and, as I said, influenced by what formation the opponent runs.

finally there is the 3rd layer: the defensive backfield
its a little more complex but these are usually 2-4 Cornerbacks and 1-3 Safeties.
The cornerbacks are usually directly assigned to the opponents Wide Receivers, while the safeties usually stay a little more behind and go whereever its needed, clean up lanes and help the Corners by doubleteaming good receivers.

------
This is just a VERY basic overview. Roles shift and alter all the time and so do their duties.

If you are really interested into this I recommend the book "Take your eye off the ball" by Pat Kirwan. Its great for learnign the basics, easy to understand and fairly cheap in most regions.

there is a 2.0 version of it out for a year: link
I cant speak for the differences to version 1.0: link
Just a note though, v1.0 has a spiralbound version with a DVD. I dont know exactly what it contains, but I guess it supports with visualization by showing plays. Might be worth a look.

> Apart from that, player positions like Safety and the part about
> >
> > Belichick purposefully taking a safety because he knew his defense would big-dick the other team's offense are still unclear to me.

dont mix that up, the term Safety has two meanings. Its a player position on the field and also a playevent. When the offense starts on its own 1 yard line and the ballcarrier after the snap gets tackled in the own endzone, thats called a 'Safety' aswell. It results in 2 points für the opponent and you have to kick away the ball next play, aka changes possession.

The intentional safety mentioned above was a tactical genius from Bill Belichick that day.
Trailing the Bronocs 23-24 with around 3 minutes to go in the 4th quarter, Patriots couldnt move the ball out of their own Redzone, 4th down & 10 at the own 1 yard line.
Belichick decided to take an intenional safety, which made the game 23-26 for the Broncos. He gambled that the D would stop the Broncos, resulting in a 3 and out and likely in a better field position for Brady and not much time wasted. The D delivered and Brady had the Ball back with ~2 minutes remaining, driving down the field for a TD, Pats win 30-26.

> Lastly about the part about having to deal with hate...ummmm kind of sorry to break it to you as a Pats fan who has to deal with that, but I live in Southeast Asia where the other Football is super popular, and where the NFL has 0 presence. The worst case scenario would be people judging me for following American Football instead of "real" Football, but even that's really unlikely. So I'm all safe and cushy from sports hatred all the way on the other side of the world haha. The worst thing that could happen to me as a fan would be having to watch games at 3am in the morning over here? And losing another Superbowl of course.

Yeah pretty much the same here in Germany, although the sport gathers some steam and with streaming services growing, access is that much easier. I dont mind the hate though. Nearly everyone here is even less educated on deflategate/spygate so in 99% of the cases I can shut them up within a few minutes or I realize the hate for the sake of it and there is just no point argueing.

u/samling · 1 pointr/nfl

I'd recommend checking out Take Your Eye Off The Ball. It's a solid introduction to some of the more subtle aspects of football that don't usually come across in the broadcast.

u/dxdrummer · 1 pointr/nfl

reddit.com/r/footballstrategy/wiki

The Games that Changed the Game

Take your eyes off the ball

Blood Sweat and Chalk

are all great if you want to get into detail