Welcome to Monday On The Margins, a weekly examination of how small the margins are between winning and losing. A bevy of games (including Illinois-Penn State, Oklahoma-Kansas, Oklahoma State-Iowa State, and Washington Football Team-Green Bay) come down to fourth down conversions, red zone execution, and measurements by referees.
Tom Brady and Michael Jordan are two of the most iconic athletes of all time. However, both rose to the top of their professions using drastically different motivational techniques. What is the best pathway to success?
At the highest level of any profession, everyone can find success. What separates the best from the rest is the ability to sustain that success. Two years ago, LSU and coach Ed Orgeron were celebrating a national championship; this week, they are parting ways. What changed?
The College Football Playoff rankings will be released two weeks from today. How will the top 5 (Georgia, Cincinnati, Oklahoma, Alabama, Ohio State) be ranked? Will the playoff committee ever treat a non-Power 5 team with respect?
Welcome to Monday On The Margins, a weekly examination of the fine line between winning and losing in college football, the NFL, and sports gambling. The funkiness of Buccaneers-Eagles on Thursday leaks into the weekend and portends strangeness in Kentucky-Georgia, Purdue-Iowa, and Cowboys-Patriots.
There are many different ways to play quarterback and find success. In the past, small, mobile quarterbacks were (in large part) ignored by the NFL. Now, Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals are showing what happens when an offense is built with a quarterback’s unique skills in mind.
NFL teams are going for it on fourth down at unprecedented rates. New Chargers coach Brandon Staley is continually making aggressive in-game decisions that fly in the face of conservative, traditional coaches of the past. Is he helping to usher in a new era of fourth down attempts and conversions?
Opinions are divided about the positional value of running back and the interchangeable nature of the position. Is there truly a separation in talent at RB, or do your surroundings dictate your ability to perform to such a degree that nothing else really matters? And how important is it to be able to run the football in a passing league?
Welcome to Monday On The Margins, an examination of the weekend’s football games and the marginal difference between winning and losing. Amidst a plethora of tight games (like Oregon-Stanford and Titans-Jets), Tom Brady returned to New England in a game that could only end in one way: a field goal doink.
When is the correct time to move on from a franchise icon? For teams with championship aspirations, it’s imperative to find a balance between patience and urgency. As Ben Roethlisberger struggles with the Pittsburgh Steelers, what can be learned from the final years of Drew Brees with the New Orleans Saints?
You are what your surroundings say you are. The NFL season is only 3 weeks old and hot takes are flying. This rookie quarterback class is garbage! Sam Darnold and Teddy Bridgewater are great! Matt Stafford is the MVP of football! While individual talent obviously plays a role, the ultimate ceiling of each of these players will be defined by their situation.
Every college football season is comprised of moments of truth, games that give us a window into who you are as a football team. This weekend features plenty of matchups for contending teams: Arkansas-Georgia, Mississippi-Alabama, Cincinnati-Notre Dame. What is the truth for each of them?
Welcome to Monday On The Margins, a weekly examination of the miniscule differences between wins and losses (like in Nebraska-Michigan State or Clemson-NC State), good bets and bad bets (hello, Akron-Ohio State and Notre Dame-Wisconsin), and public opinion surrounding clutch play (HELLO, Lamar Jackson-Justin Tucker and Aaron Rodgers-Mason Crosby).
QB is the number one position in sports that is evaluated improperly. Criticism abounds for quarterbacks who play in a non-traditional manner, or haven’t won a Super Bowl, or both. Two quarterbacks in particular (Lamar Jackson and Baker Mayfield) carry this criticism despite otherworldly college careers and so far, successful NFL careers.
Herm Edwards said it best: “You play to win the game!” A startling amount of teams and coaches don’t abide by this rule to the fullest extent. The very best coaches, from John Harbaugh to Bill Belichick, create weekly gameplans based upon what gives their team the best chance to win. In a sport where the margins between winning and losing are so small, every possible edge matters.
Who merits inclusion in a four-team college football playoff? Through the early weeks of the season, Clemson and Ohio State have fallen while a slew of other teams (Penn State, Oregon, Iowa, Mississippi, Arkansas) have impressed. Three squads in particular (Cincinnati, BYU, and Coastal Carolina) present a good litmus test for the college football playoff selection committee: how serious will non-Power 5 programs be treated in the national title race?
Welcome to Monday On The Margins, an examination of the tiniest, strangest things that decide the outcome of a football game: players, coaches, refs, weather, and simple twists of fate. This weekend featured a wide variety of games that boiled down to one play or one decision, including NYG-WFT, Florida-Alabama, Auburn-Penn State, Chargers-Cowboys, Vikings-Cardinals, and Chiefs-Ravens.
There is a simple question threaded through life, and sports: can you morph into something different, or will you always revert back to your base form? Nebraska heads into Saturday’s game against Oklahoma as fans wonder if the Cornhuskers possess the capacity to change their mistake-filled ways. Vic Fangio and the Denver Broncos head into a game against the Jaguars with Fangio seeking to expand his Week 1 coaching metamorphosis from conservative to aggressive. Is game-manger Jameis Winston here ...
It is rare to watch a player and feel like their ceiling is unlimited. Patrick Mahomes, entering his fourth season as starting quarterback of the Kansas City Chiefs and unquestionably the best player in football, seems destined to be an all-time great. What is his ceiling?
Football is great because the season is short. Every game seems (and to a certain extent, is) meaningful. With so few games compared to other sports, there is always a sense of urgency amplified by every loss. Week 1 of the NFL season is in the books and half the league (including the Packers, Bills, Browns, Jets, Jaguars, and Giants) is 0-1. When is the correct time to panic?
The largest part of a football coach’s responsibility is establishing the identity of a team. When it comes to a coach’s impact on wins and losses, this weekend featured a bevy of examples both good (Andy Reid, Kevin Stefanski, Mario Christobal) and bad (Mike McCarthy, Clay Helton, Mike Norvell).
One of the biggest questions of every NFL season is who can stay healthy. Last year’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers squad is a testament to the impact of good health, riding a talented roster and fortunate injury luck to a Super Bowl win. What role does injury luck play in shaping every NFL season? And what are expectations for star players (like Odell Beckham, Dak Prescott, Saquon Barkley, Nick Bosa, and David Bakhtiari) as they return from injury?
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers return all 22 starters from last year’s Super Bowl championship squad, an unprecedented blend of talent and continuity. On the opposite end of the spectrum are teams like the New York Jets and Jacksonville Jaguars, seeking to establish that continuity and cohesion with new coaching staffs and quarterbacks. In a sport that relies on 11-man units working in concert with one another, what is the value of continuity?
In present day, football is all about offense. Over the opening weekend of college football, however, multiple defenses (Penn State, Iowa, Georgia) seized the day. Is it possible for the sport to return to a balance of explosive offenses and ferocious defenses, with either capable of winning a national championship? Or is the transitioning of Alabama from defensive juggernaut to offensive powerhouse showing us that in college football, offense is king until Nick Saban says otherwise?
College football is anarchy presented as stable fact, a sport that emphasizes chaos over calm. Week one begins in earnest this weekend. What matchups seize the day? Ohio State-Minnesota or Boise-UCF? Penn State-Wisconsin or Indiana-Iowa? ULL-Texas or Alabama-Miami? How much chaos awaits in Georgia-Clemson? College football is back and it’s time to celebrate the most beautiful, imperfect sport in the world.
Nearly everything in life has a healthy dose of luck involved. Sports are no different, with one of the oldest cliches (“a game of inches”) continually ringing true. Football games can be decided by a fourth down mark (like 2016 Michigan-Ohio State) or even more absurdly, referee Gene Steratore measuring margins with an index card (like 2017 Cowboys-Raiders). When it comes to putting percentages on the PGA Tour, the difference 12 inches can make is vast. Many times it all boils down to luck....
Choking is one of the most common terms in the sports lexicon and for many, synonymous with losing. Bryson Dechambeau and Patrick Cantlay engaged in a scintillating duel at the BMW Championship with Cantlay emerging victorious after six playoff holes. This battle — one that featured emotional swings and incredible shot making in equal quantities — is the perfect place to ask and examine one simple question: what constitutes choking?
How do you find meaning in anything you do? There is no overarching answer to this question and motivation must be found on an individual level. Golf psychologist Bob Rotella once proclaimed you must “love the challenge of the day, whatever that may be,” words that contain revelatory truth for the Nebraska football program after a stunning season opening loss to Illinois. How does Nebraska embrace the challenge of rebuilding a once-proud program that makes the same mistakes, over and over, regar...
Warped narrative has gained popularity as hot take culture has consumed the world of sports. If people see something talked about enough, many times it becomes reality. In this vein, Tom Brady is acknowledged as the ultimate winner while Chris Paul has been stamped as a perennial loser. As narrative continues to battle reality, are the words of Paul — “nobody cares about your story unless you win” — true?
Four teams (Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma, & Clemson) have a stranglehold on their conferences like never before. College football has always existed under the umbrella of two truths: there will always be a ruling class, but who those teams are is cyclical. Since the playoff was instituted in 2014 that has not been the case. Is the cyclical nature of things being replaced by the status quo?
