The 8-in-the-Box Myth

[Phins4life 271]

8 in the Box Myth

 

A discussion about AP in the 2500+ thread led me to post this article which I found just recently. CHFF is doing a piece on the top 4 football myths, and this was one of them. A pretty informative read, as seems to be the norm with their stuff.

 

I admittedly used this argument in the past as well, and I was surprised to see how little 8+ in the box was actually used in the big picture. The QB must always be respected, even if his name is Ponder.

[Glanvilles Grits 142]

That's actually a really interesting read. I've used that argument pretty often based on what I've seen when I was watching Peterson, but I've never actually looked at the raw stats. I'm pretty curious to see more of the top running backs/running teams in the league and what they went up against. On the same note, that article could easily be a discussion for the fact that perhaps it wasn't all Peterson doing the work. From what I just read, I get the impression that the Vikings offensive line was more to credit for the big season as opposed to Peterson. I'm not discrediting Peterson, he's clearly the best back in the league but what I'm saying is perhaps it was a healthy mix of some great run blocking and great running that produced the hulk-like season.

 

Interesting. Thanks for posting man, that was a great read!

[Phins4life 271]

That's actually a really interesting read. I've used that argument pretty often based on what I've seen when I was watching Peterson, but I've never actually looked at the raw stats. I'm pretty curious to see more of the top running backs/running teams in the league and what they went up against. On the same note, that article could easily be a discussion for the fact that perhaps it wasn't all Peterson doing the work. From what I just read, I get the impression that the Vikings offensive line was more to credit for the big season as opposed to Peterson. I'm not discrediting Peterson, he's clearly the best back in the league but what I'm saying is perhaps it was a healthy mix of some great run blocking and great running that produced the hulk-like season.

 

Interesting. Thanks for posting man, that was a great read!

 

That's definitely the other part of it. The Vikings run blocking got very little attention compared to AP, for pretty obvious reasons. But they still deserve a nod.

Edited July 14, 2013 by Phins4life

[oochymp 2,393]

I think '8-in-the-box' is a phrase that at this point is used not in the literal sense, to say that the defense is putting 8 players in the box, but as a figure of speech, to say that the defense is keying in on the run, it makes little to no sense to run a literal 8-in-the-box defense except in very specific short yardage scenarios because you not only expose yourself to deep passes, but (as the article posted mentioned) you open yourself up to deep runs if the back can get past the first level

 

what I would expect backs like AD to face regularly is 8+ defenders keying in on him pre-snap and immediately after, looking for run until you see otherwise, which doesn't require those defenders to be 'in-the-box' but actually puts them in a better situation, if you're the 8th defender keying in on AD (after the front seven) and you're lined up 10+ yards deep you're in a much better position to adjust to where he actually goes and stop him if he gets past your front seven than if you're in the box or to drop back into a zone to cover a pass and the offense is less likely to bring in an extra blocker, which negates the benefit of the extra man watching the run

 

it's impossible to quantify, but I suspect AD faces a lot of these figurative '8-in-the-box' scenarios

Edited July 14, 2013 by oochymp

[RazorStar 4,025]

CHFF did some interesting mythbusting this week.

 

I'm sure these all deserve topics, but the bust the myth of the Cowboys being giant chokers, the Read Option being the reason the Panthers had success at the end of the year, and Peyton's stanky ass old arm being the reason we lost in the playoffs. (Flukes, Flukes everywhere).

[DonovanMcnabb for H.O.F 2,241]

The Green Bay game in the playoffs where Joe Webb started was the one game where I saw a team truly sellout and try to eliminate the run. CHFF has some pretty good articles.

[Thanatos 2,847]

CHFF did some interesting mythbusting this week.

 

I'm sure these all deserve topics, but the bust the myth of the Cowboys being giant chokers, the Read Option being the reason the Panthers had success at the end of the year, and Peyton's stanky ass old arm being the reason we lost in the playoffs. (Flukes, Flukes everywhere).

 

Who the blazes thinks that? We moved away from the read option, lol.