The most popular Smart Football articles of 2011

Friday, 13 January 2012 , by : Chris

The coming of each new year gives us a chance to look back, and 2011 was a productive year here at Smart Football. In addition to my pieces over at Grantland, I had a number of fresh pieces here on the site. Below are links to some of the most popular pieces of 2011, in no particular order.

- Dick LeBeau, Dom Capers, and the evolution of defense.

- Why every team should install its offense in three days (and other political theories on coaching offense).

- What is the inverted veer/Dash read?

- Buddy Ryan’s “Polish Goalline” Tactic.

- Bobby Petrino’s shallow cross concept.

- Snag, stick and the importance of triangles (yes, triangles) in the passing game

- The “Diamond” formation and other mult-back pistol sets.

- Teaching a quarterback where to throw the ball – Grass, leverage, and specific defenders

- Combining quick passes, run plays and screens in the same play.

These pieces were not from 2011 but were still very popular this year:

- Breaking down Boise: How the Broncos use leverage, numbers and grass to gash the opposition.

- Understanding and attacking coverages in the passing game.

And you can go here to see the top Smart Football articles from last year.

Posted in the Category: grab bag 4 comments
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  • 4.0 Point Stance

    Congratulations on your mainstream success. It is well deserved. I’m curious to know whether Grantland is going to let you write more long-form articles — your articles there seem to be along the lines of “then the tight end blocks the LB and the fullback blocks the safety, and they score a touchdown.” I’ve always thought your best works are the high-level “philosophy of football” pieces.

  • Anonymous

    We have an open deal — they’ll publish whatever I send them, basically, I just haven’t had time to write the longer form stuff. The short bits are just easier to crank out in a busy schedule.

    Fortunately I have filed some long form pieces this week to run in the coming days, and hope to file another later this week and to keep it going through the rest of bowl season and the NFL playoffs. I’ll probably do some draft related stuff but we’ll see. All a matter of time.

    Thanks for the kind words.

  • Paul Meisel

    Happy New Year and thanks for the fine work.  I often find myself referring to older articles you have written, going back several years.

  • Jrt2020_2

    Chris..Im reading an Air raid article you did on Texas Tech run game cut-ups.  In that article you said “this topic deserves a fuller discussion later…”  Ive been watching ever since and haven’t seen any follow-up on the Air raid run.  Did I miss it?