Your RBR Word of the Day: rara avis

to me is that most journalists, bloggers, and hardcore fans analyze statistics to find answers. Your average coach and player has the perception that football, unlike baseball, is not a statistical game and therefore a player or team’s worth cannot be measured purely by statistics.

I always found this interesting, because I like to analyze things when coaching and try to trim 80 or more yards per game with good special teams and another fifty to 100 yards with better tackling, angles, and by forcing teams into obvious passing situations with big defensive plays on first down. I guess there is some merit in certain statistics, but sometimes it’s just about executing. Nine out of ten players honestly have no idea how many yards, catches, touchdowns, tackles they have until someone points it out to them after the fact.

Even to this day, I still don’t consider football a statistical game even though I’ve been known to crunch a few numbers now and then. I look at as a matter of tweaking, execution, modification, and placement based on what I have available and what I see in front of me (film, field).