The Pre-Season!

[Dudeman]

Alrighty folks it looks like the pre-season is well on it's way, and now more than ever I love to hate it.

How does one really sum up the pre-season? Obviously from a coaching perspective it is vital to their ability to evaluate players in game and post game with video analysis of their performances. Without the pre-season the task of building a team is a lot more daunting. So from a training standpoint it is an essential tool for teams. Yet from a "strategy" standpoint it's counter-intuitive. So many coaches talk about not wanting to "show their hand" yet aren't putting the better game plan forward to highlight player strengths and skills? The match ups are mix n mash at best with no forward thought to who is matching up to who and why or how they will match up with them. Argh the pre-season is such a tease!

Which is why I feel like a lot of fans (myself included) at times just really don't understand the pre-season. In so many ways it's often a game of two winners since the games don't matter in the standings. It needs to be looked at like a simulation of a real game, but there are times where as a fan that it is easy to forget that it isn't a true football game. It certainly costs as much as a "real game", and oftentimes you get better effort from the 2nd/3rd team guys than you get from the starters. It's puzzling to watch at best, let alone track all the different players shuffling in and out of the line. Furthermore, even from a coaches perspective you have to take some of the evaluations of performances with a grain of salt. An example of this is comparing Laquan Williams to Torrey Smith's performance last night (like a lot of fans on here have done.) As exciting as Williams was last night, he was going against practice squad quality players. Yet would he have done better going against starter quality corners? But wouldn't that also be Joe throwing him the football?

It's so confusing, and from a fan it's frustrating. There are so many questions that need too many answers, and the discussion is endless to the point of exhausting.

As a fan I want to see the tackles being made, the passes being caught, and the blockers pancaking guys to the ground. But most of all we want, is to roar at the top of our lungs when we get touchdowns on the board whether it's the pre-season, regular season, post season, or super bowl.

[hawkprey]

Well stated, but you didn't really bring up anything to discuss. I'm not even sure what kind of replies you were expecting.

[Dudeman]

[quote name='hawkprey' timestamp='1313194501' post='749198']
Well stated, but you didn't really bring up anything to discuss. I'm not even sure what kind of replies you were expecting.
[/quote]

Touche? Lol

I guess that may have come across a little at random. I don't know really what kind of responses I was expecting, other than I was really just expressing my feelings on the pre-season. It's just one of those things where I understand it, but when I think about it in depth it just nags at me.

I kind of liked the whole idea of having more games instead of pre-season games. But the value of the pre-season, or the impact of having games added to a season, is undeniable. But this question I do ask, is that what kind of evaluation process is going on for the guys in the second half? At best it must be a mixed bag of results, where certain values are artificially inflated because of different circumstantial situations like the one I mentioned with Laquan going against mediocre coverage. Stephen Mcgee played like Tony Romo yesterday but he wasn't going against starters/a team desperately trying to win/a coaches game plan, etc.