The Drive: Justin Forsett for 30 and Chris Spencer Out 4-6 Weeks

by John Morgan on Aug 28, 2009 12:53 PM PDT Comment 53 comments

The images are a work in progress. Criticize now, because when the season starts I will not adjust them. I am working out the kinks in the preseason. Motion arrows were requested. To do that, I think I will present two images: A pre-snap image and then one that captures the essential moment of the play. The latter will contain the motion arrows. I'll see if I can incorporate that into one of the graphics today. For now, this will have to do. I don't want to spend the rest of my day goofing around with GIMP.

(The graphic represents the formations of the two teams immediately before the snap)

At the snap, the Broncos blitz left cornerback Champ Bailey, the middle linebacker and rush all three defensive linemen. The left outside linebacker presses John Carlson. Right outside linebacker, Wesley Woodyard, drops into cover. The right corner and the nickelback press their respective receivers.

Seattle's left two receivers attempt to break the jam and run their route. Carlson begins a route, is pressed and then turns that press into a block. Deion Branch, playing right split end, begins running a crossing a pattern, sees he is uncovered and breaks route to assist Carlson blocking.

Chris Spencer is the first to release from the line. He first blocks and then pulls out into the right flat. Rob Sims and Max Unger join him shortly thereafter. Matt Hasselbeck fades back and slightly left. Justin Forsett runs, misses on a halfhearted chip block on Bailey and then releases into the flat. He curls behind his blockers. Hasselbeck lobs him a pass and they're off!

Sims, Spencer and Unger, left to right, run in wedge formation in front of Forsett. Forsett begins rushing up field. Spencer leads and is the first to encounter a defender, Woodyard, some 25 yards down field. Spencer squares to engage, turns left and pulls up lame. Woodyard wraps Forsett, but after a gain of 30. Spencer leaves the game with torn quadriceps.

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I don't have the proper number of players on the line of scrimmage

grumble.

by John Morgan on Aug 28, 2009 12:59 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

It's a little too colorful for me right now.

I want the classifications to be distinct, but the colors should be muted. That’s a tough compromise.

by John Morgan on Aug 28, 2009 1:00 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I appreciate the effort, but it's too colorful for me too

I still think powerpoint (or the open office version) is the way to go for these sorts of diagrams. You can type words into the figures very easily, move/copies things around very easily, etc.

Brett Favre is the Kenny Powers of football.

by ninjasocks on Aug 28, 2009 1:08 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

For total overkill

Take screen grabs of google sketchup. Pretty easy to use and comes with the added benefit of actually being able to create everything prefab and set it up to scale.

I’ll whip up an example tomorrow during the game while Nick Reed is off the field.

by timlin45 on Aug 28, 2009 1:13 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

While google sketchup seems pretty powerful

I couldn’t figure out how to use it.

Brett Favre is the Kenny Powers of football.

by ninjasocks on Aug 28, 2009 1:37 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Its got a learning curve...

But google has posted some very very good, albeit dry, video tutorials that take you through the basics in about 25 minutes.

by timlin45 on Aug 28, 2009 1:38 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'll look into that.

by John Morgan on Aug 28, 2009 1:15 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Avoid yellow.

NEEDS MORE FREEDOM!

by Scruffy Lefty on Aug 28, 2009 1:17 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

It's like a cross between Madden and Mario Kart :)

by sev79 on Aug 28, 2009 2:38 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, sorry for suggesting it. Muted is better

Feels like I walked into Neighbors or something, looking at that. Just a way to distinguish linemen from LBs from nicklebacks, and eligible receivers from linemen, will be sometimes, contextually helpful, at least key personnel for the play/analysis. If that’s color, symbolic, or something else, it’ll be nice, but not essential. Thanks.

by jacobstevens on Aug 28, 2009 2:42 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Black line is line of scrimmage

Yellow line is first down marker. I know that there are actually two lines of scrimmage, but I am not bothering with that.

by John Morgan on Aug 28, 2009 1:01 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Yea too colorful

make the yellow a darker yellow or a darker color other then it’s pretty good. What about using the three primary colors for every team?

by Hancock.Brett on Aug 28, 2009 1:01 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I was thinking about that

but too much overlap.

by John Morgan on Aug 28, 2009 1:02 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I thought it was too colored as well.

But I really liked how easy it was to tell the different positions apart. Especially the LB’s from the DL and the TE/WR’s from the OL. Makes it really easy to see how the play is going to develop.

by Fear on Aug 28, 2009 1:14 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

It's a little loud, and I'll work on that

but I am going to keep the colors. I think they are user friendly if not beautiful.

by John Morgan on Aug 28, 2009 1:15 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Sorry, what I meant was I liked how easy the colors made it to tell the different positions apart.

So ya, dulling them down should be perfect. Because the colors themselves were very useful.

by Fear on Aug 28, 2009 1:17 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Oh, I understood.

I think they will be handy when I post two or more or these to show how the play develops. It’s easy to know who is who before the line starts, but once everyone moves around it gets chaotic.

Also, I am going to put in jersey numbers.

by John Morgan on Aug 28, 2009 1:19 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Numbers would be great

But then you definitely want to use sketchup or openoffice draw.

With sketchup you could also show things from a 3D field perspective. Might make it pretty interesting to step into the pocket…or at least a poor-man’s virtual pocket.

by timlin45 on Aug 28, 2009 1:23 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

That will have to be a long term project

I am not sure I will be able to that right away.

by John Morgan on Aug 28, 2009 1:57 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Long term = 90 minutes

I’ve got the .skp file of this play done to scale. I had to guess where the deep safety was, but he’s not really important with regard to the pre-snap read. Available here

This should be pretty close to scale, but I had to work off the highlight reel at nfl.com which has a pretty lame angle for eyballing distances.

I’ll do the screen shot, but before I do I need to know how big of an image you want these to be?

by timlin45 on Aug 28, 2009 3:29 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

350 x 260

by John Morgan on Aug 28, 2009 3:35 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

It loses something...

in the translation. Sadly I’m trapped without a good photo studio on my laptop, so MS paint will have to do. The next one I do wouldn’t lose the yardage markers. But this should give you an idea about how big the dots would be when done to scale.

If I cut the wideout splits by half and ditched the safety the dot would be bigger. Looking at it though I think I’m a fan of doing it to approximate scale since you can see just how much ground these athletes can cover in 3 seconds

by timlin45 on Aug 28, 2009 3:55 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Work be damned!

I can’t help myself. I’ll throw together a simple template for you of this play and post it somewhere…

by timlin45 on Aug 28, 2009 1:58 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Like Fear^^

It made distinctions really easy. And to me it wasn’t so busy that it hurts your eyes. I think you’re close to something repeatably workable here.

Glenn Beck likes argument, but has a deap-seated hatred for logic.

by Cheddar28 on Aug 28, 2009 5:14 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

dig the yellow/black lines though

Makes it easy to see where the defenders were playing in relation to where the offense was trying to go. If you did last year’s our CBs wouldn’t even be in the flippin graphic.

by Hancock.Brett on Aug 28, 2009 1:02 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Contributing to the Downfall

I believe you meant “Hasselbeck lobs him a pass and they’re off!”

by timlin45 on Aug 28, 2009 1:07 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Ugh.

Thanks.

by John Morgan on Aug 28, 2009 1:09 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

beat me to it...

…internal English Major was like AUUGHH

by djafrot on Aug 28, 2009 1:10 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah

That’s a stupid mistake. I was thinking about the graphic.

by John Morgan on Aug 28, 2009 1:11 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I will change the yellow to orange

and dull the colors, but I do think the distinction is useful.

by John Morgan on Aug 28, 2009 1:13 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Thats all you need to do.

If they still seem to bright you could try to change the color of the background to a slight gray.

NEEDS MORE FREEDOM!

by Scruffy Lefty on Aug 28, 2009 1:20 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

That might be smart.

I worked with some background colors, but it made the images less clear. I’ll try something very slightly gray.

by John Morgan on Aug 28, 2009 1:22 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

How about watermarking a field on the background as a light indicator of distance as well as some contrast?

by abender20 on Aug 28, 2009 1:24 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Maybe a "frost"

NEEDS MORE FREEDOM!

by Scruffy Lefty on Aug 28, 2009 1:28 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Did you already do this?

Because when I saw it just now I thought “This is perfect.” I can tell right off the bat who is where and what is going on. Though I guess maybe an arrow to point out Forsett and the WRs routes would be nice?

by LantermanC on Aug 28, 2009 1:24 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Thats how I felt.

Except for the yellow.

NEEDS MORE FREEDOM!

by Scruffy Lefty on Aug 28, 2009 1:27 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

maybe highlight the "important players" in a play?

ie: a red outline around the ballcarrier and key defenders/blockers?

Love the graphics.

by cro-mag! on Aug 28, 2009 1:22 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Try using the player's numbers

It may defeat the need for colors because the convention is pretty much set across the league (e.g. we know there won’t likely be any people in the 50s on offense, because they’re typically linebackers, etc).

Nonwithstanding, I like the graphic and the colors didn’t bother me.

The demise of the Broncos in '09 is our future. Pray hard.

by Nick Andron on Aug 28, 2009 1:22 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I think the players numbers would be really confusing

Unless you want to highlight a specific player, I think positions (WR, DT, SS, etc) are clearer.

Brett Favre is the Kenny Powers of football.

by ninjasocks on Aug 28, 2009 1:39 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Confusing how?

No one on field will have the same number, and I’d like to think that most seahawk fans know who most of the numbers are (especially in the regular season when the roster is set and the majority of players will be the same every game and every down).

The demise of the Broncos in '09 is our future. Pray hard.

by Nick Andron on Aug 28, 2009 2:05 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs