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The 49ers Believe In The Magic Of Pre-Snap Motion

Anyone who follows football and can fog a mirror knows that winning the turnover battle is important. Games often hinge on a team getting an extra possession, and when analysts have tried to quantify the edge, they’ve found that it’s large: Teams win around 78 percent of the games in which they have a positive […]

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Why Did NFL Teams Score So Much This Season?

The 2020 NFL season was explosive. A year that began with historic levels of scoring ended with 100 total touchdowns scored in Week 17, the most for the final week of the season since at least 2001. That bounty pushed season totals to all-time highs. Teams passed for 871 touchdowns — more than at any […]

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Scoring Is Way Up In The NFL. Which Teams Does That Help?

If you’ve watched the NFL this season and thought that there’s an awful lot of touchdowns being scored, you’re not wrong. Scoring is up across the NFL. Way up. Going into Week 5, teams had reached the end zone 371 times, the most through four weeks in NFL history. Teams are passing for 1.8 touchdowns […]

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The NFL Was Weird Last Season

The 2019 NFL season will be remembered for a host of unusual storylines. Early in the season, New York Jets quarterback Sam Darnold came down with mononucleosis and missed the next three games to sickness and concerns about a swollen spleen. Shortly after he returned, as New York was trounced 33-0 by the Patriots in […]

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College Football Is The True Home Of The Play-Action Pass

Kyler Murray’s lone college season as a starting quarterback was, in a word, overwhelming. Here was a would-be professional baseball player operating at warp speed, casually wrecking defensive coverages and sending opposing fans into Surrender Cobra mode before the fourth quarter had even started. There has perhaps never been a QB more preternaturally gifted at […]

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