For whom November's bell tolls
The toll of a conference slate is starting to winnow the field of teams in play for championships and playoff participation.
It’s time for November football.
The style of play changes at this time of the year due to a large number of factors.
Blitzes start to lose value as offensive lines start to cohere and teammates figure each other out. Traditional pass-rush begins to take on tremendous value as teams start to wear down at different positions and the weather cools down, making it easier to maintain effort on D-line without having the heat sap your legs.
Tempo offense loses something with the increased awareness and focus of defenses and the decreased temperature, but then regains it all in a hurry if an offense is able to maintain drives deep into games and chip away at the legs and strength of battered down defensive units.
Depth matters greatly and so does having quarterbacks and other guys in infrastructure positions who know how to play through injuries. In general, this is where having upperclassman veterans vs flashy, athletic underclassmen makes all the difference. The hotshot freshman or sophomore may or may not know how to maintain diligent preparation every week, may or may not know how to use the training staff and take care of his body to stay in playing shape every week, may or may not know how to fight through bumps and bruises.
From a gameplanning perspective, everyone knows each other at this point in the season and it comes down to which teams can maintain winning effort and physicality when football becomes a grind and weather dips in temperature. Which teams can control matchups and grind out wins?
Let’s talk about how this is going in a few key championship races.
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