Analysis Notebook

One of my favorite things to watch this season has been the route running skills of Victor Cruz. Most wide receivers make the majority of their yards from their athleticism and natural physical ability (think Calvin Johnson here), but Cruz has bucked that trend, especially for such an inexperienced player, by taking defensive backs to task with his routes and fakes.

That’s not to say Cruz is without athletic talents himself–some of his best plays on the season have come from combining both those talents with the route running–but it’s such a rare thing to see a player with such precise, slick, and disguised routes, it needs to be highlighted.   Read the rest of this entry »

Continuing our Super Bowl Preview Week at PFF, we’re turning our attention now away from the team perspective in order to focus more closely on an individual player from each squad.

We’ll find out the Giants player that is coming under the microscope tomorrow, but today we’re taking a look at one of the game’s true X-factor players: New England’s Aaron Hernandez.

Hernandez started off as another of the new breed of receiving tight ends (a big receiver that can’t really block), and saw much of his time split out wide or simply running routes from his tight end spot rather than contributing with any blocking. Since then, however, he has morphed into a legitimate hybrid of three positions, and in this piece we’re looking at examples of how Hernandez can hurt teams three different ways.   Read the rest of this entry »

The next installment of our Analysis Notebook preview series for Super Bowl XLVI sees us take a look back at this season’s first encounter between these two squads, all the way back in Week 9. In a postseason that has been littered with rematches, we’re treated to another on the game’s grandest stage.

The Giants won on that day and here we’ll inspect some of the key plays that not only helped decide that game, but also set a tone for the upcoming title bout–some things both teams need to do and some they need to avoid to ensure that they are the side raising the Lombardi Trophy.

Each team mounted a late charge for victory (both will feature in this article) and if the last two meetings between these two squads are anything to go by, this Super Bowl will be decided in the final quarter, possibly the final minutes. Both offenses finished strong last time around, neither defense made a play in the last two minutes this time around. The offense that had the ball last with a reasonable amount of time to do something with it walked out victorious.   Read the rest of this entry »

PFF Super Bowl preview week continues with a look back at some of the plays that sent the Patriots on their way to Indianapolis as once we again we break out the Analysis Notebook, this time on the Patriots’ Super Bowl season.

After an early bump in the road against the Buffalo Bills, the Patriots coasted through the regular season to a 13-3 record and clinched homefield advantage as their rivals in Houston, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh stumbled during the stretch run.

Many doubted the Patriots’ credentials entering the postseason because they were so short of being battle-tested, but they showed their class once in the playoffs. The Patriots ended the rather unorthodox fairy tale of Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos before setting aside the Ravens last Sunday as New England’s much-maligned defense rose up and rescued their suddenly misfiring offense. Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to Super Bowl Preview Week at PFF! To kick off our look at the Giants and Patriots, we’re going to break out the Analysis Notebook and check out three key plays from the New York Giants’ season.

New York’s season was a real roller coaster ride from the outset. They lost their opening day contest on the road to the Washington Redskins (the only team to beat the Giants twice this season), but then rebounded to win five of the next six games en route to a 6-2 start. From that point, the wheels fell off the wagon, and the Giants fell to 6-6, losing at the death in a close game to the undefeated (at the time) Green Bay Packers. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s playoff time and everything about the NFL right now is a little bit special, and so is this week’s Analysis Notebook.

Instead of looking at a few random plays from the week’s games, we’re going to focus instead on just one player, and the impact he had. The three plays we’re inspecting are his three touchdowns, each of which came against a different covering defender, and each showed a different facet to his game, helping to explain why he broke all-time records this season that have stood for years.

That player is Rob Gronkowski, and here Sam Monson breaks down his touchdowns against the Broncos.

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Playoff football is upon us! We’ve hit the postseason in the 2011 NFL year and, though the games are fewer, we are still going to bring you some of the more interesting plays we have seen from the week’s action.

Our top analysts, Ben Stockwell and Sam Monson, have each provided a play from the Wild Card games, including one that Sam claims may just be his favorite of the season.

So take a look through this week’s Analysis Notebook, and let us know what you think and which plays you would have drawn attention to.

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In this final regular season installment of the Analysis Notebook, PFF Analyst Sam Monson brings you a deeper look at three more notable plays from the past week’s action.

These segments wouldn’t be complete without checking in on Tim Tebow’s latest shenanigans, so we’ll get a quick peek at a moment where he flashed his far-from-polished passing skills. To wash that down, we’ll glimpse a blazing Victor Cruz as he tears past the Dallas D and an embarrassingly bad Buccaneers effort that adds to an already atrocious day.

Join Sam on this short trip through some of Week 17′s memorable moments.

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For this special holiday time of year the Analysis Notebook is offering a special edition too. We’re still bringing you three interesting plays from the Week 16 action, but this time they all have something in common.

It wasn’t long ago you wouldn’t see an option play in the NFL from anybody, lest they run the risk to their precious quarterbacks and ruin a multi-million-dollar investment. Now teams are running out of conventional ‘pro-style’ quarterbacks and are being forced to run whatever works and–as it turns out–that’s the option.

In this festive edition of the Notebook, Sam Monson brings you three touchdown plays (on three quarterback runs), as teams start to use the athletic ability of their passers instead of bubble-wrapping them for fear of injury. Read the rest of this entry »

PFF Analysts, Sam Monson and Ben Stockwell, are back once again to offer a deeper look into a few select plays from Week 15.

This time around Sam and Ben will dissect a sneaky trick play from the Panthers that nets them a touchdown, a curious coverage call for the Jets that sets up an Eagles score, and an incredibly tough (and/or ill-advised) throw from Tom Brady that falls incomplete after a somewhat comical bounce. Their keen insight is on display as they dive into exactly what’s happening in these snapshots of recent game action.

Check them out, share your thoughts, and let us know … did any particular plays catch your interest this week?

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