Watching my team play. Any of you watch American Football?

[Chris]

My team is the New Orleans Saints. Any of you keep up with NFL? How about some of you that live in Mexico or South America?

[JPablo]

Well, congratulations for the Super Bowl last year!
I do not keep up with NFL as much as I'd like... after all, I still don't totally understand all the rules and everything else. But I definitely love to see a good TD!

Last year I was with the Minnesota Vikings, particularly because of Brett Favre... (besides his indecisions and retiring-unretiring-retiring and unretiring again...) I think the guy has the guts and the intention to keep at it at 40 and counting... and despite any and all rigamarole about him, I think the guy is highly commendable.

I liked to see the Saints crowning themselves champions last year, I think they deserved it, despite the good season Manning did for the Colts...

Well, I also like Donovan McNab... and I was following a bit the Philly Eagles. Now he is with Washington Redskins... and yes... He is an “interesting” QB!!!

At any rate, now that I start to write about it, I realize I know more than I thought, although I bet you can fill me in, in many things and details I have not the faintest clue...

(I am more of a basketball fan... Lakers to be precise!!)

[Chris]

Well Favre is a pretty tough guy. And his home is about a 15 minute drive from where I live. I've never met him, but my sister in law has met his wife. He has a lot of fans in this area.

I've been a Saints fan all my life so I was very happy to see them win. Now as an old Saints fan we had to have alternate teams over the years to pull for heh.

McNabb is a very good quarterback and I thought the Eagles were stupid for letting him go. He's one of those quarterbacks that isn't afraid to get hit and I like that.

This year the Saints have a RB named Chris Ivory. I'm excited about him because he's a train! He can run over several defenders and make the first down which was needed last year.

For the rules... Well I don't know anyone that knows them all haha. I started watching soccer this year and it took me a few games to get what was happening. At first I thought it was just a bunch of back and forth until I started seeing the strategy behind it. I have aquired a lot of vocabulary including header, corner and cross.

Right now the score is 21 - 29 NO with :51 in the 4th. It's a nail biter because they could tie with a TD and 2 point conversion.

San Diego 21 New Orleans 36

New Orleans intercepted a pass with 17 seconds left and ran it in for a touchdown. They squib kicked it and recovered the ball then in the victory formation took a kneel to run the clock out with 7 seconds left for the win.

[JPablo]

Originally Posted by Chris

San Diego 21 New Orleans 36

New Orleans intercepted a pass with 17 seconds left and ran it in for a touchdown. They squib kicked it and recovered the ball then in the victory formation took a kneel to run the clock out with 7 seconds left for the win.

Hey, CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN!!!

(But I need a "translation" for the "green" sections... if you don't mind!)

[Chris]

A squib is kind of like an onside kick except that they kick it deeper and it's only done so that the guy that normally catches the ball off of the kick off can't get it and the guy not experienced gets it instead. There is always the chance that a kick off could be returned for a touch down. A squib tries to minimize this chance. Don't do it with a lot of time on the clock because it will give your opponent good starting field position. I think this was the first one I'd seen in a game. I only knew what it was by playing Madden video games.

A "kneel" or quarterback kneel is where the QB hikes the ball and just kneels down. It would be as if he completed a pass or handed the ball off for a run to the clock. The clock doesn't stop, it keeps running. They are wanting run the clock out. This play has an opposite called a spike.

A quarterback spike is where he hikes the ball and in a forward arm motion throws the ball directly on the ground in front of him. This stops the clock. Let's say you have 14 and your opponent has 21 points and there is 1:30 left on the clock. You make a pass in the middle of the field getting the first down but you need the clock to stop so that you can plan your next play. You spike the ball and stop the clock and now it's 2nd down and 10 yards. If instead you passed the ball to the edge of the field and got the first down, your receiver can step out of bounds and stop the clock that way. This is how you'll see it done more often.

There is another way that you "manage the clock." Now you have 21 and your opponent has 14 and you have the ball again. (possession or possession of the ball) Also there is 6 minutes left in the game. Well you want to score, but you don't want to just hurry and score because you want to minimize the opponents chance of scoring, doing an onside kick and scoring again. So you want the clock to keep going without stopping as much as possible. In this case you do a lot of running plays. If you did passing plays there would be the chance that you throw an incomplete pass (stopping the clock,) throw an interception (that could be ran in for a TD or giving them a good opportunity to make a TD and tie the game,) or sacking the quarterback making it hard to get another first down and having to punt it away. You see this type of playing a lot. Your opponents defense is stopping the run early and make you punt it, his time outs and forcing fumbles.

There is a lot of strategy to managing the clock.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock_management

[laepelba]

Go Buffalo Bills!!!!!!

[Perikles]

Chris - care to translate your post in Spanish?

[JPablo]

@Chris. Wow! Thank you! I guess I will have to see more games to really get familiar with all the details and have all this data sinking..., but your explanations are very clear. (You may take Perikles 'challenge' as an interesting drill/exercise... but that task may be a very hard one to tackle... given that besides Mexico, I don't know of any Spanish-speaking country that plays American Football!!) (I am wrong on that, looks like it has spread throughout all South-America)
I know that QB in Spanish is "Mariscal de Campo" or "corebac" (the second version a "hobson-jobson" spelling of the English "Quarter-Back") It may be an interesting thread to start. (Maybe Chileno, Crotalito and Angélica know more about the sport.) (Ookami may say something from Argentina...)
In Spain there is some teams... but rugby is more popular... and even then, it is totally dwarfed by soccer...

@ Lou Ann... I take yours is a statement for the Buffalo franchise!
Is Dan LeFevour your QB?

@ Perikles... don't you want to help him translating? (Or better yet... what about startring one thread about Rugby?) ...

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by JPablo

@ Perikles... don't you want to help him translating?

To be honest, it was because I couldn't understand a single word of his English, but it sounded too rude to put it like that. The vocabulary is just too alien to me. I thought I'd stand a better chance reading the Spanish.

[JPablo]

Oh! I thought you were kidding!
I see what you mean... but maybe you want to "connect" with ESPN (I don't know if you need a Satellite/parabolic dish or what... most probably you do) and watch some American Football... (I personally enjoy it a lot more than baseball.)