CFZ Is football getting worse?

[CouchCoach]

And it's fun to know just how scary our defence has become. I do think it's safe to say, after a season and a quarter, that the Doomsday Defence is back.

Doomsday I and II were strong against the run first, this defense is not.

 

[Naruto]

The NFL has largely abandoned the run game which provided a safety valve for bad teams in the 90s and early 2000s

There’s a lot of bad teams that can’t run the ball and aren’t built for it. When they lose their QB or the QB loses his mojo they are screwed

 

[RustyBourneHorse]

Doomsday I and II were strong against the run first, this defense is not.

Maybe, but, in a different way, Doomsday III has done something that I've mentioned in a new thread that hasn't been done since Doomsday I.

 

[acr731]

Doomsday I and II were strong against the run first, this defense is not.

I hope they do well tomorrow, but I have a feeling the Rams are going to bring the defense back down to earth.

 

[Whirlwin]

Guess that's why we still can't stop the run!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You and crash would think that

 

[Cowfan75]

Football is worse in my world because our owner doesn't care about winning anymore. It's a "great if we do, fine if we don't" mentality, and yeah, it's not quite as fun when you go into each season knowing it's going to take a lot of luck to get to where we haven't been in two and a half decades, while other teams actively try to get to the Super Bowl. Plus, the officiating is almost unbearable. I hate having to work and not being able to watch games live, but in truth, more and more I am starting to enjoy being able to just skip all the commercials and all the pre-game garbage...heck, I even skip the comments between plays most of the time. Maybe it's my age, impatience, lack of interesting commentators...who knows. I just want to see the plays, zero filler. When I was younger? I couldn't get enough of the filler in addition to the games.

 

[kskboys]

You and crash would think that

I don't understand your response.

 

[Whirlwin]

I don't understand your response.

Think the running game sucks. Because of Jerry Jones. I don’t know why we can’t shut the edge down. Too busy spying on the quarterback

 

[mattjames2010]

90s football to around 2007 or so was the peak for football. 80s football was pretty great as well. Rule changes to defenses and wanting more scoring and higher QB play is what has hurt the sport.

90s football, to me, had the best balance. It seemed after that 2007 Pats year, it rapidly shifted offenses and then gradually the rule changes happened to neuter defenses.

 

[mattjames2010]

I'll sum up what I think with this: The amount the NFL relies on QB play and the fact teams are usually out of contention when they lose a QB show there is a problem. A team sport should not rely on a single position this heavily. MVP race alone proves this.

 

[Cowboys5217]

Absolutely not, the worst team in the NFL today would rout the 1989 San Francisco 49ers. The quality and size of the athletes, the quality of their diets/training/workouts, the quality of the coaching, the sophistication of offensive football, the kicking game, everything is just so much more refined. The rules have also changed substantially in the last 50 years which has opened up the game and allowed for more athletes to make more plays in space..

Urban myth. The only team in history that beats the 89 49ers are the 92-94 Cowboys. Also, who's stronger than Larry Allen today? Who's faster than Bob Hayes? It's recency bias and nothing more. Humans have only so far they can achieve. It is not unlimited. Rules changes can make for dramatic record improvements, but the difference in athleticism is minimal.

 

[cej757]

To me the problem is the lack of a running game and not having an elite running back. Back in the 70's ,80's and 90's it was mandatory to have an elite rb on your roster to win.
Nowadays it's all about passing numbers and having the elite QB to win.
How many times have we seen teams line up in shotgun from the goaline and throw a back shoulder pass or something. You would've never seen that back when you had a Walter Payton in the back field. Payton would've just jumped over the pile and scored.

Seriously the last elite rb that is a for sure HOF'er is probably Adrian Peterson. I can't think of anyone else that's gonna make it?

 

[Captain-Crash]

if you like restling, you'll love this crap.

 

[acr731]

To me the problem is the lack of a running game and not having an elite running back. Back in the 70's ,80's and 90's it was mandatory to have an elite rb on your roster to win.
Nowadays it's all about passing numbers and having the elite QB to win.

Rule changes over the past 20 years or more are what caused this. The NFL wanted more scoring so they began protecting the QB's and receivers by hammering down on the defenses. The NFL achieved what they were trying to do. They wanted the games to be more entertaining, and that's what they got..

Think about this for a second - the 1990's Cowboys offense was a force. Everyone knew what they were going to run but still got beat. Take that offense and give them the protection offenses have now and what do you think would happen? The young people who think the teams today are so much bigger, faster, and stronger would be be in for a very sobering experience.

if you like restling, you'll love this crap.

That's exactly what the NFL has become.

 

[RustyBourneHorse]

To me the problem is the lack of a running game and not having an elite running back. Back in the 70's ,80's and 90's it was mandatory to have an elite rb on your roster to win.
Nowadays it's all about passing numbers and having the elite QB to win.
How many times have we seen teams line up in shotgun from the goaline and throw a back shoulder pass or something. You would've never seen that back when you had a Walter Payton in the back field. Payton would've just jumped over the pile and scored.

Seriously the last elite rb that is a for sure HOF'er is probably Adrian Peterson. I can't think of anyone else that's gonna make it?

Which, in turn, has led to the lessening of teams caring about the NT position, which hurts defence in general.

 

[NickZepp]

1974 for me. The game is absolutely different now as compared to back then, and what changed were the rules allowing offenses to open up. For example, as good as Aikman was back in the early 90's, imagine how dominant he would be now with the protection provided to QB's. Imagine how dominant a really good receiver from those days would be now knowing the defense was no longer allowed to blow them up for nothing more than just running a route.

Aikman to Novacek was a big thing back then but imagine that with modern rules of not allowing people to get blown up over the middle. Jay wasn't as good as Tony Gonzalez or Shannon Sharpe or a couple other TEs but he would be in the HOF if you had the middle give up we have now. And Sharpe being 6-5 and having WR speed, had ridiculous numbers for that time period. He would probably put those numbers out of reach if he played a full career in the modern era.

In the 80s and 90s we had an era where you had Montana/Elway/Marino maybe you can throw in Young and Aikman after those 2 but those 3 were thought to have put up numbers that weren't going to be beat. Only for Manning, Brady, Brees, and Rodgers come along and make their numbers look pedestrian. I'm not sure the younger group of guys we have right now are going to do that yet. Mahomes looks like he's at that level right now. But I'm not sure Lamar Jackson will be. It's too early to tell with some of the younger stars like Herbert, Allen, Burrow etc. But they don't seem to have the early aura those guys had. Manning you knew was different right away. Brady won a title his first year as a starter. Won 3 of them within his first 5 years in the league. We may be in a bit of a drop off from the post late 78-present day era where we have changes to really emphasize passing. But it's definitely a transitional period.

 

[jrumann59]

so, you think the mental aspect of the game today is simpler?

I do especially from the QB side of it. I think with the multiple front defenses and coverages, QBs are just not taught at a young age what they are looking at. I feel, most HS QBs are pretty much told do what you have to, to make a play work. I think HS and many college coaches do not teach the game. Look at the QBs today and compare them to all the top QBs 20-30 years ago, you could win a SB with all the top QBs of the 90s and Early 00s. Today you are stuck with what 3 guys if they made it to the Super Bowl you would not bet against them. QB talent in the NFL is in the middle of a nosedive once Brady and Rodgers retires the last "great" QBs will be Mahomes and Wilson.