AAF Game/Season Thread

jercra

No longer respects DeChambeau
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Jul 31, 2006
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I don’t think it’s bad at all. It’s watchable and CBS to their credit is producing it at a high level. It’s complementary to the big league and there’s room for it.

It can be a developmental league for players of course but it’s also a good laboratory for rule changes. I like the differences from the NFL rule book. (not grasping the parallel lines at each 10 yard line though?)

It would be a trip if this thing outrates the NBA game that’s on ABC right now.
Rules changes, equipment changes and technology changes alike would all be welcomed. I think it would be a great place to experiment with automated spots, balls across the goal lines, balls inside the uprights, concussion reducing helmets/pads, etc.

Edit to add: All kinds of replay rules, especially if they keep the transparency.
 

Investor 11

Plobbably the greatest videographer ever
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InstaFace

The Ultimate One
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Fun related fact: if a defender who has intercepted the ball in the field of play is knocked back into the end zone by the other team (so, it wasn't his impetus), he can go down there and get a touchback. I think about that every time I watch the Butler-Wilson interception. Sure, he fights to get out to the 2, but the initial collision knocked him back into the endzone. If he goes down there, it's not a safety, it's a touchback, and we never get Bennett jumping offsides and then the entire Seahawks team losing their goddamn minds.
 

Brand Name

make hers mark
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Fun related fact: if a defender who has intercepted the ball in the field of play is knocked back into the end zone by the other team (so, it wasn't his impetus), he can go down there and get a touchback. I think about that every time I watch the Butler-Wilson interception. Sure, he fights to get out to the 2, but the initial collision knocked him back into the endzone. If he goes down there, it's not a safety, it's a touchback, and we never get Bennett jumping offsides and then the entire Seahawks team losing their goddamn minds.
This brings back good memories. As soon as I'm done screaming about the pick, I then see Butler trying to take it out, promptly yell loud enough to scare everyone else: "GET DOWN! GET THE FUCK DOWN FOR A TOUCHBACK TO ENSURE THE WIN!"

I never understood why that wasn't done, then or now. Maybe Butler was worried about being stripped in the endzone for further insanity? That was in the back of many, myself included, but no way it's that simple, right? Either way, the Seattle anger schadenfreude absolutely made that worth the price emotionally, albeit not on a coaching level.

---

Okay, so as to ask about the AAF: How are the schemes? Vanilla? Did hear a Philly Special was run, but anything atypical from both a design and/or the blitzing rules perspective? That's something I care about a ton when I see teams play at any level, and a good majority of the reason the NFL's preseason can't hold my interest outside of players competing for a spot, yet simultaneously also why I love the college game.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

Found no thrill on Blueberry Hill
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Sep 9, 2008
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You do grasp that if there continue to be no commercials, it will not be broadcast and will fail ?
There aren’t no commercials at all just no tv time outs. It is a little more like soccer.

The 30 second commercial during change of possession was barely noticeable and with the shorter play clock they managed more plays so more commercials but with no tv timeouts or kickoffs it felt like less interruptions of the game.
 

mauf

Anderson Cooper × Mr. Rogers
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You do grasp that if there continue to be no commercials, it will not be broadcast and will fail ?
One benefit of AAF being explicitly a developmental league for the NFL is that it doesn’t necessarily need to break even to survive.

That said, there’s no way running a zero-revenue league makes sense for the NFL. They’ll make a little money on TV, but I imagine the league’s financial viability will depend on how many people in the 8 AAF cities embrace the local team and buy tickets.
 

Blue Monkey

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I didn’t even know that this league was a thing. Which is odd because I figure I’m in the target demographic. Mid 30’s male... how did I miss all of this? Not that I’m going to watch anyway,..
 

johnmd20

mad dog
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I didn’t even know that this league was a thing. Which is odd because I figure I’m in the target demographic. Mid 30’s male... how did I miss all of this? Not that I’m going to watch anyway,..
I agree. I'm 46 and I have multiple fantasy accounts, a draft kings account, and an ESPN account, and I didn't get any kind of notification a new football league was starting. They all have my Email address.

The only way I knew about this is because the NY Times had a full page article on the league yesterday in the Sports Section. Of an actual paper newspaper.
 

Fisks Of Fury

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I didn’t even know that this league was a thing. Which is odd because I figure I’m in the target demographic. Mid 30’s male... how did I miss all of this? Not that I’m going to watch anyway,..
Same here (well not the mid-30s part)... I had no idea this was happening until I stumbled across it last night. It was fun enough to watch. Having no investment in any of the teams or players was an interesting change. Though I DID enjoy laughing at Martz on the sideline looking confused... “oh no, don’t intercept it! Why’d you go and do that?”

Players certainly seemed to be moving at NFL speed... though the overall NFL execution level wasn’t there, obviously.
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
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Dec 16, 2010
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Ratings beat the NBA game.

The app was supposed to have a play along thing, predict the next play type of thing, but it didn't seem to work.
 

deanx0

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As I said, joined a fantasy football league, and I find it hilarious that you cannot find boxscores for last night's games anywhere.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

Found no thrill on Blueberry Hill
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Sep 9, 2008
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I agree. I'm 46 and I have multiple fantasy accounts, a draft kings account, and an ESPN account, and I didn't get any kind of notification a new football league was starting. They all have my Email address.

The only way I knew about this is because the NY Times had a full page article on the league yesterday in the Sports Section. Of an actual paper newspaper.
You have to follow E5 Yaz. Bottom line.
 

Brand Name

make hers mark
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Iron are my squad, way too many good players I've seen over the past few years in the Yellowhammer State, to say nothing of the coaching staff, but I suppose it's only logical.

The ST specialists stand to benefit most, right? Your Novaks, Koos, Mazzas, no? I personally will enjoy that at bare minimum.
 

E5 Yaz

Transcends message boarding
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Christian Hackenberg already has thrown more picks than he did with the Jets
 

luckiestman

Son of the Harpy
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Jul 15, 2005
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Christian Hackenberg already has thrown more picks than he did with the Jets

I’d love to know what made my asshole GM blow a 2nd round pick on this dude. The GM got the coach fired. He must be some special type of kiss ass to ownership to have kept his job.
 

CFB_Rules

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Fun related fact: if a defender who has intercepted the ball in the field of play is knocked back into the end zone by the other team (so, it wasn't his impetus), he can go down there and get a touchback. I think about that every time I watch the Butler-Wilson interception. Sure, he fights to get out to the 2, but the initial collision knocked him back into the endzone. If he goes down there, it's not a safety, it's a touchback, and we never get Bennett jumping offsides and then the entire Seahawks team losing their goddamn minds.
This isn’t true. You can ONLY get a touchback if the turnover (interception) occurs IN the end zone (barring some extremely strange). However if it’s close (from the 1 and in) the officials will rule it in the end zone.

You may be thinking of the momentum rule, which eliminates the cheap safety when a player intercepts a pass inside the 5 and his momentum/contact takes him into the end zone. In this case it’s not a safety, but the intercepting team will snap the ball at the spot where the interception occurs. If the ball carrier is going north-south after intercepting and contact pushes him back into the end zone it’s just a forward progress play like it would be anywhere else
 

InstaFace

The Ultimate One
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It sounds like we agree, then, that if Butler had gone down when knocked into the endzone by the collision with Tyler Lockett, rather than fighting to get out to the 2, they would have given him a touchback rather than a safety.

This brings back good memories. As soon as I'm done screaming about the pick, I then see Butler trying to take it out, promptly yell loud enough to scare everyone else: "GET DOWN! GET THE FUCK DOWN FOR A TOUCHBACK TO ENSURE THE WIN!"

I never understood why that wasn't done, then or now. Maybe Butler was worried about being stripped in the endzone for further insanity? That was in the back of many, myself included, but no way it's that simple, right? Either way, the Seattle anger schadenfreude absolutely made that worth the price emotionally, albeit not on a coaching level.
You're faster on the draw than I am. By the time I realized he'd intercepted it, he'd run out and gotten tackled, and the play was over. It was a fraction of a second, from "oh hey incomplete, they didn't score and they stopped the clock" to "JESUS CHRIST WHAAAAAAA?! INTERCEPTION!!!!!" as the living room I was in exploded around me. It was only on the replays that I was like "wait, why not just go down?".

I guess players, especially defensive players, don't normally think about those sorts of exceptions to the general prime directive of "when you have the ball in your hands, run as far as you can towards the attacking endzone". Seems like the sort of situation that Belichick would have coached up at some point, though, you're totally right.
 
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CFB_Rules

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It sounds like we agree, then, that if Butler had gone down when knocked into the endzone by the collision with Tyler Lockett, rather than fighting to get out to the 2, they would have given him a touchback rather than a safety.


You're faster on the draw than I am. By the time I realized he'd intercepted it, he'd run out and gotten tackled, and the play was over. It was a fraction of a second, from "oh hey incomplete, they didn't score and they stopped the clock" to "JESUS CHRIST WHAAAAAAA?! INTERCEPTION!!!!!" as the living room I was in exploded around me. It was only on the replays that I was like "wait, why not just go down?".

I guess players, especially defensive players, don't normally think about those sorts of exceptions to the general prime directive of "when you have the ball in your hands, run as far as you can towards the attacking endzone". Seems like the sort of situation that Belichick would have coached up at some point, though, you're totally right.
No that ball was coming to the 2 no matter what. Butler was running towards the opponents end zone when he caught the ball, there’s just no way you could argue “his own momentum” carried him into the end zone. The contact from the receiver knocked him back, making it just a normal forward progress play. The officials MIGHT “cheat” and give him the end zone, but I think it would be too far into the field of play here to plausible rule that the ball was first controlled in the end zone.
 

GoDa

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Sep 25, 2017
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Orlando got a TD on a catch no catch dispute where the replay official went back and forth on what to call. It was pretty cool to hear.

I applaud the transparency, but I've only seen this one replay and I thought it sounded and looked like a mess. I questioned whether or not the televised replay official even knew the 'catch' rules.

Was the official dealing with voices in her ears? Was she simply nervous?

Made me think about how this should be done, however. Shouldn't there be a flow chart that the official could walk us through?

For example...

a) we see the receiver has secured the ball here.
b) next we're looking for 2 feet down without the ball becoming loose.
c) minor bobble, but ball still in possession. continuing to evalute...
d) b is established here.
e) now we're looking for a football move, etc...
 

Dollar

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I thought the same thing as I was watching it, GoDa. It seemed to me like she made a sound decision, then had someone in her ear telling her that it was a catch because the elbow was down, and then she tried to justify it. The transparency is great, but not when it causes you to lose confidence in their ability to make a good call.

It also looks like the NBC replay is different than what she's watching on her screen. I wish it would show the viewer the exact screen that she's watching so we can see what she's looking at as she's making her decision.

On a similar note, I would like to see the AAF trying out different things to see how they work, specifically full-speed replay. I think football is such an inexact sport that slowing things down to a fraction of a second to get the call right is going too far, and maybe a full-speed replay solution could work. But there's only one way to find out, so why not try it for a few weeks in AAF?
 
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CFB_Rules

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If there is football all year round could this lead to our first set of full time refs?
From what I can tell the NFL would rather use this league as an evaluation and training tool for future NFL officials. Basically the entire AAF officiating roster is made up of people from the NFL Officiating Development Program.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

Found no thrill on Blueberry Hill
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Sep 9, 2008
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I’m watching the Arizona Memphis game.

Or, have it on in the background really.

They are going almost exclusively with sky cam and it makes it hard to tell what’s going on,
 

luckiestman

Son of the Harpy
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Jul 15, 2005
32,618
I’m watching the Arizona Memphis game.

Or, have it on in the background really.

They are going almost exclusively with sky cam and it makes it hard to tell what’s going on,

My boy Hackenberg got JACKED UP.

I have it on a second screen too. I'm in the procrastination zone.
 

E5 Yaz

Transcends message boarding
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A lot of field level shots ... which means there's no need to show empty seats
 

HomeRunBaker

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Jan 15, 2004
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As I said, joined a fantasy football league, and I find it hilarious that you cannot find boxscores for last night's games anywhere.
With CBS as a partner I understand why other media outlets are not giving them free advertising but CBS themselves are missing big time in not providing easy access to up-to-the-minute action online or mobile. I've only watched parts of 2 games but this thing has a real good chance of working with just a few tweaks. NFL fans LOVE football and what better way to finish off the Super Bowl with the start of an AAF season complete with audio directly from the field? This is FANTASTIC imho!!

NFL definitely wants this to succeed. They've got highlights all over NFL.com. Went looking for Mic'D Up video and this is what it looked like:

https://www.nfl.com/videos/highlights

Absolutely! The more people engaged in football in Feb and Mar means the more will be engaged during Combines and the Draft which has already seen a ratings boon the past few years. This is all such good stuff for all involved......except maybe the networks with college hoops contracts that turn folks away from So. Illinois/Illinois St to watch the AAF as I did last weekend.
 

j-man

Member
Dec 19, 2012
3,646
Arkansas
after watching 7 games have not watched ATL/SD yet

here is my 02 cents

East
1 BIR they dont score but they and Orl are the 2 best teams in the league shouild had Lost to SL but found a way to win

2 Orl the most talent the best team on paper only Q is can they beat Bir Def at least 2 times out of three
3 ATL no home games plus Mike S Might be the worst time mangment coach i ever seen
4 Mem they cant pass at all 3 wins at most

West
1 Zona they played awful through 3 Q but made the plays late to win
2 SA the best home field in the league
3 SL they have a shot
4 sd martz off looks awful with no speed guys

overall
1 BIR
2 ORL
3 ZONA
4 SA
5 SL
6 SD
7 ATL
8 MEM