CFZ Why Practice is more important than pre-season games

[kskboys]

I don't know how you were taught or played high school football, BH, but preseason games were always important for all 1st teamers to get one's feet wet, adjust to a new playbook or new tweaks added, plus get our legs under us and our bodies in "game shape" before the games that count start. Preseason games are so important in my book.

All HS and College football teams have preseason games. I'm confused on this one.

You absolutely cannot know what a player will play like until he plays. Practices are extremely important, no doubt. But so are having actual games to see what the youngsters can do. And that is what preseason is primarily about, judging young players and fringe players.

The mistake is the owners charging regular price and including these games in the season ticket prices. That is criminal.

Unless you are a season ticket holder(in which case I do understand the hate), using emotion to hate a practice game is beyond silly. Think about where you are expending your energy, and it makes zero sense. If you don't hold season tickets, then you should start asking yourself why you care so much about hating preseason games. Don't like 'em, don't watch 'em.

Me? I enjoy watching the youngsters play hard and struggle to make the team.

 

[America's Cowboy]

Sorry, BH, my dear old friend, but down here in South Texas, we've always had 2-3 non-district games we would play every season to prepare us for the regular season (district) games. It's always been that way. Call it "preseason games" or "non-district games", they all meant the same thing...actual full live games against non-district opponents to prepare teams for the regular season district games. Makes me wonder what part of Texas you were from?

@Bobhaze I am going to add to my previous comment. I had to do it this way since I ran out of time to be able to add to my previous post to you. Please check this out... It's a 1988 Texas high school football schedule for powerhouse Odessa Permian.

As you can see, Odessa Permian had 3 non-district games to start the football season. You could call those games "preseason" or "non-district", but they were all actual live games where the public would pay to watch. Also, many times in August, it was common for a team to schedule an actual scrimmage or two with other non-district teams. That's the way it was in South Texas, obviously up in Northwest Texas, and to my understanding, throughout the State of Texas.

 

[kskboys]

When I was in HS, there were no ps games. I worked in public schools in Tx nearly 40 years- they still don’t have any. They may occasionally have a scrimmage. But ps games in HS? Never saw one.

In the the NFL ps games used to be important to get in game shape. Not in today’s game. Because players work year round on being in shape. In the old days, players worked off season jobs to make ends meet. Today’s players don’t have to do that so they are already in great shape.

Once the reg season starts, what do the coaches use to get players ready for the upcoming game? Practice.

Every HS in Tx has a few non district games before the district games start. Those are preseason games.

 

[kskboys]

Here are some interesting articles on why ps games are almost completely unnecessary:

“Time to Stop Pretending that PS Games are not Pointless”
https://fivethirtyeight.com/feature...ending-that-the-nfl-preseason-isnt-pointless/

“You don’t need PS games”
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id...ur-preseason-games-why-shortening-makes-sense

Bob, I read the first article, and I found it to be frivilous nonsense. Any fan watching preseason game to see starters play has a serious gap on reality. Why in the world would any fan expect starters in preseason? That article was written strictly from a fan's POV, and a fan who is out of touch w/ reality. I was actually looking for a good argument, and was sorely disappointed. Very weak article.

Do I need to read the 2nd one?

 

[CouchCoach]

HS teams have a lot of players that have never played the game and it is doubtful a HS HC is going to hold out his starters for 3 Non-District games. It is a different animal.

These NFL players have been at this for a much longer time and do not need them unless they need to get played into real game conditions.

 

[Bobhaze]

Every HS in Tx has a few non district games before the district games start. Those are preseason games.

Well the stats on those games are kept as real games. I understand what you’re saying- district games are what matters, but those non-district games count for stats and figure into state rankings so they certainly aren’t treated as ps games.

 

[blueblood70]

I’ve always found it interesting that neither college nor high school football requires pre-season games to prepare for their regular season start. In fact, on college and HS campuses right now all across our country, teams are preparing for their first regular season game the old fashioned way- in regular practices. Some HS’s will have one controlled scrimmage. But College football starts in 3 weeks without a single ps game.

Let me make clear, I don’t have a problem with our fans who love PS games. I get it- it’s football and we’ve all waited a half a year to see some kind of pigskin play. if you enjoy PS games, keep enjoying them because the owners fight tooth and nail to keep them for cash purposes. They aren’t going anywhere.

But I have evolved to the point where I would never play a single starter even one down in a meaningless pre-season game. Here are my reasons:

• Practices, not PS games are where teams really prepare for the games that matter.New offensive and defensive wrinkles and systems are not perfected in a PS game. It’s in practice.
  • PS games have no game planning, the absolute most vanilla of offensive plays and defensive alignments are called. Nothing big from the playbook is rolled out in PS games.
  • Opponents in PS games also usually only use their most vanilla play calls and don’t care who wins.
• PS games should be used to decide roster spots.
• PS games can showcase the potential of rookies or backups and how they handle competitive situations.
• PS games can decide kicker, punter, backup QB and many other (mostly backup) positions.
• Practice is where teams prepare for the real regular season games each week. That’s where the coaches game plan, learn about players strengths and weaknesses, etc.
• In today’s NFL with the veterans who are on big contracts in the cap era, it makes zero sense to risk a huge portion of your cap space in a meaningless pre-season game.

As I said at the beginning- IMO if college and HS football don’t need pre-season games to get ready for the regular season, NFL starters can get ready for the games that matter in practice too.

I would never risk a big portion of cap space in a meaningless game. I know that’s not a popular opinion with fans, but it makes the most sense the way the game is structured these days.

I agree with most of that as we cant risk the core players in PS so anyone that wants to see our starters and upset when they dont in a meaningless game , well too bad LOL


the biggest difference between professional and nonprofessional is the fact that they get to choose from so many players and I mean you got such a huge roster to choose from you can make changes within the season and whatnot, professionals are being paid and they need to earn their job and all within a small roster and salary cap. IMHO the only way the Cowboys can tell whether any of the new players, second year players, rookies and all that can play is with some preseason games because you're not getting that in practice... how many times have we had these camp heroes guys like Kamara and Houston and brandon miller plus other never even get on the field?

Now we don't need 5 but this right now it's three preseason games for the Cowboys is pretty solid.. So what I want to see is these guys in a live game going full speed be able to hit, tackle, get off blocks, get in their routes off the line of scrimmage and all that stuff. we may know our starting 20-22 players but thats what PS games are for the rest to maybe snatch a spot.

 

[kskboys]

HS teams have a lot of players that have never played the game and it is doubtful a HS HC is going to hold out his starters for 3 Non-District games. It is a different animal.

These NFL players have been at this for a much longer time and do not need them unless they need to get played into real game conditions.

Of course. However, the team is full of rooks and hopefuls who do need these preseason game. Players such as Miles Austin may never have even made the NFL if not for preseason experience. These young players desperately need a taste of playing against NFL type talent.

 

[blueblood70]

I 100% agree with everything you said.

I just hate the way it's turned into Camp Cupcake in the NFL.

Exactly there's no tackling there's hardly any padded practices there's no truly physical enough camps nowadays to really get a good grasp on some of these players.

 

[Coogiguy03]

I’ve always found it interesting that neither college nor high school football requires pre-season games to prepare for their regular season start. In fact, on college and HS campuses right now all across our country, teams are preparing for their first regular season game the old fashioned way- in regular practices. Some HS’s will have one controlled scrimmage. But College football starts in 3 weeks without a single ps game.

Let me make clear, I don’t have a problem with our fans who love PS games. I get it- it’s football and we’ve all waited a half a year to see some kind of pigskin play. if you enjoy PS games, keep enjoying them because the owners fight tooth and nail to keep them for cash purposes. They aren’t going anywhere.

But I have evolved to the point where I would never play a single starter even one down in a meaningless pre-season game. Here are my reasons:

• Practices, not PS games are where teams really prepare for the games that matter.New offensive and defensive wrinkles and systems are not perfected in a PS game. It’s in practice.
  • PS games have no game planning, the absolute most vanilla of offensive plays and defensive alignments are called. Nothing big from the playbook is rolled out in PS games.
  • Opponents in PS games also usually only use their most vanilla play calls and don’t care who wins.
• PS games should be used to decide roster spots.
• PS games can showcase the potential of rookies or backups and how they handle competitive situations.
• PS games can decide kicker, punter, backup QB and many other (mostly backup) positions.
• Practice is where teams prepare for the real regular season games each week. That’s where the coaches game plan, learn about players strengths and weaknesses, etc.
• In today’s NFL with the veterans who are on big contracts in the cap era, it makes zero sense to risk a huge portion of your cap space in a meaningless pre-season game.

As I said at the beginning- IMO if college and HS football don’t need pre-season games to get ready for the regular season, NFL starters can get ready for the games that matter in practice too.

I would never risk a big portion of cap space in a meaningless game. I know that’s not a popular opinion with fans, but it makes the most sense the way the game is structured these days.

Agree I guess they just feel like they need to go against other competition, and tom brady and rodgers play in the PS and they have great great seasons, so DAK should do it too!! I think they're meaningless as well. I mean if we're going to get a player injured, let's do it in a game that means something

 

[Bobhaze]

Bob, I read the first article, and I found it to be frivilous nonsense. Any fan watching preseason game to see starters play has a serious gap on reality. Why in the world would any fan expect starters in preseason? That article was written strictly from a fan's POV, and a fan who is out of touch w/ reality. I was actually looking for a good argument, and was sorely disappointed. Very weak article.

Do I need to read the 2nd one?

The first article was written by stat experts at “fivethirtyeight.com” and they aren’t sports people. But they are experts on stats. The second article is from ESPN.

Kev we can certainly agree to disagree. As I said in the OP, I understand and support every fan who like PS games. I’m just not one of those fans. I wish the season started Sept 1st with real games. I would be in favor of 18 Reg season games and no ps games.

 

[kskboys]

Well the stats on those games are kept as real games. I understand what you’re saying- district games are what matters, but those non-district games count for stats and figure into state rankings so they certainly aren’t treated as ps games.

Sure, but you can lose every PS game in HS and still win the state championship. Those games have nothing to do w/ the HS playoff system. State rankings don't matter in HS, as long as you make the playoffs and win games.

 

[CouchCoach]

All HS and College football teams have preseason games. I'm confused on this one.

You absolutely cannot know what a player will play like until he plays. Practices are extremely important, no doubt. But so are having actual games to see what the youngsters can do. And that is what preseason is primarily about, judging young players and fringe players.

The mistake is the owners charging regular price and including these games in the season ticket prices. That is criminal.

Unless you are a season ticket holder(in which case I do understand the hate), using emotion to hate a practice game is beyond silly. Think about where you are expending your energy, and it makes zero sense. If you don't hold season tickets, then you should start asking yourself why you care so much about hating preseason games. Don't like 'em, don't watch 'em.

Me? I enjoy watching the youngsters play hard and struggle to make the team.

Different strokes, I don't hate them but I don't watch them, any of them. When I played Fantasy, we called them Fool's Gold because every year some stud rookie shows up in preseason, you draft him and wait....and wait.

There is no real game planning because no HC is spilling his popcorn in the lobby and the level of competition can be all over the place.

 

[blueblood70]

No. It's the reason why Dennis Houston was exposed as a fraud. Camp isn't preseason at all.

Yes that is very true but we're not talking about the guys trying to make rosters we're talking about not playing the main starters the core players... There are a lot of camp heroes that turn into nothing and live games but it's still necessary to see them in preseason, yes..

 

[Bobhaze]

@Bobhaze I am going to add to my previous comment. I had to do it this way since I ran out of time to be able to add to my previous post to you. Please check this out... It's a 1988 Texas high school football schedule for powerhouse Odessa Permian.

As you can see, Odessa Permian had 3 non-district games to start the football season. You could call those games "preseason" or "non-district", but they were all actual live games where the public would pay to watch. Also, many times in August, it was common for a team to schedule an actual scrimmage or two with other non-district teams. That's the way it was in South Texas, obviously up in Northwest Texas, and to my understanding, throughout the State of Texas.

Right…but those are regular season games, not ps games. Stats and records count and they count toward state rankings. So in that sense they aren’t ps games. The UIL counts them as regular season games.

 

[phildadon86]

I’ve always found it interesting that neither college nor high school football requires pre-season games to prepare for their regular season start. In fact, on college and HS campuses right now all across our country, teams are preparing for their first regular season game the old fashioned way- in regular practices. Some HS’s will have one controlled scrimmage. But College football starts in 3 weeks without a single ps game.

Let me make clear, I don’t have a problem with our fans who love PS games. I get it- it’s football and we’ve all waited a half a year to see some kind of pigskin play. if you enjoy PS games, keep enjoying them because the owners fight tooth and nail to keep them for cash purposes. They aren’t going anywhere.

But I have evolved to the point where I would never play a single starter even one down in a meaningless pre-season game. Here are my reasons:

• Practices, not PS games are where teams really prepare for the games that matter.New offensive and defensive wrinkles and systems are not perfected in a PS game. It’s in practice.
  • PS games have no game planning, the absolute most vanilla of offensive plays and defensive alignments are called. Nothing big from the playbook is rolled out in PS games.
  • Opponents in PS games also usually only use their most vanilla play calls and don’t care who wins.
• PS games should be used to decide roster spots.
• PS games can showcase the potential of rookies or backups and how they handle competitive situations.
• PS games can decide kicker, punter, backup QB and many other (mostly backup) positions.
• Practice is where teams prepare for the real regular season games each week. That’s where the coaches game plan, learn about players strengths and weaknesses, etc.
• In today’s NFL with the veterans who are on big contracts in the cap era, it makes zero sense to risk a huge portion of your cap space in a meaningless pre-season game.

As I said at the beginning- IMO if college and HS football don’t need pre-season games to get ready for the regular season, NFL starters can get ready for the games that matter in practice too.

I would never risk a big portion of cap space in a meaningless game. I know that’s not a popular opinion with fans, but it makes the most sense the way the game is structured these days.

Yeah. It’s a good thing Bill Belichek rested Brady all those pre season before they won superbowls…..

Oh wait.

 

[Shane612]

I 100% agree with everything you said.

I just hate the way it's turned into Camp Cupcake in the NFL.

So, are you saying that these "cupcake" practices aren't enough to evaluate the players thoroughly. Therefore, some PS games are necessary?

 

[LonnieElam]

Will this still be your stance after Dak sits out all pre-season, and looks terrible in week one, losing a very important divisional game?

 

[cowboyblue22]

the mental part of football is so important now practice is what is really important

 

[America's Cowboy]

Right…but those are regular season games, not ps games. Stats and records count and they count toward state rankings. So in that sense they aren’t ps games. The UIL counts them as regular season games.

That's OK. I remember my high school teams would also play 2 - 3 scrimmages (no fans) during August on the practice fields. I know all the other high schools in the area were doing the same.