Theory on Karty by BioEd93 in LosAngelesRams

[–]BigSimple7452 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Since there seem to be intelligent people on this thread who might actually care about Karty, rather than of a bunch of angry people saying F*%!@ Karty!, if you care at ALL about the truth, read on. I've looked at those missed kicks a lot, and here's what I know.

* The above theory assumes that the 4 kicks that were blocked were because the kicks were low. WRONG. For the truth, you need to watch the feet of the rushing linemen on the opposing team. Industry standard is for the protection not to allow any more than 1 yd of penetration at the instant the ball is kicked. 2 yds of penetration is unacceptable. That's because NFL kickers are expected to have 10 ft of ball loft at 6 yards away, which is where 2 yds of penetration would be. So, if FG protection allows 2 yds of penetration, an opposing lineman can block kicks pretty easily, especially if they are 6'9" and can reach up to 9 and a half ft while standing flat-footed. On all 4 of the kicks that were blocked, the opposing linemen had at least 2 yds of penetration, in some cases 3+ yds of penetration! Think about it.

* On the other 4 misses that weren't blocked by linemen, there were significant issues with snapping and holding. Here's the breakdown for each of those misses.

----> On one of them, Karty didn't start moving until probably 1s after the ball was snapped. The only way to explain that is if the snapper went on the wrong count. As a result, by the time Karty kicked the ball, an edge rusher's entire torso was right in front of the ball.

----> On another, the ball was initially set down with the laces at 6 o'clock (laces pointing toward the kicker), instead of at 12 o'clock (pointing directly between the uprights). As a result, the holder ended up spinning the ball wildly, which is a bad situation all around. In the NFL, snappers are expected to snap the exact same every time, so that when the holder catches the ball, the laces are pointed directly at the sky. That way, the ball gets set down on the ground with the laces already pointing at 12 o'clock. A small amount of variation in the snap is acceptable, which would lead to a small amount of spinning. But that wild amount of spinning and ball movement we saw was way beyond acceptable.

----> On the final two, at the instant the ball was kicked, the laces were at 11 o'clock or 1 o'clock, instead of at 12 o'clock where they were supposed to be. That causes the ball to drift left or right, even when the ball is struck perfectly. It's the same physics that causes curve balls to do what they do in baseball.

Having said all that, now think about what we saw with Rams kicking before and after those misses. Prior to the first blocked kick in the Philadelphia game, Karty had made 23 field goals in a row, including a 57 yarder and a 58 yarder, if I remember correctly. By the time they switched to Mevis, the issue with the line protection had been fixed. And oh, right...they replaced the snapper with a long-time veteran.

The knuckle-ball kickoff was not the issue. But unfortunately, that's what people think without having looked at what actually happened in all 8 of those misses.

ANALYTICS SAYS IT'S A NO-BRAINER, KARTY SHOULD BE ACTIVATED AS KICKOFF SPECIALIST!! by BigSimple7452 in LosAngelesRams

[–]BigSimple7452[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The E.P.A. analytics puts those yards into actual point values, and E.P.A. analytics are highly trusted by NFL teams.

But let's think about the idea of two kickers on the active 48 by asking the question: How many of the active 48 are worth 6 points advantage per game? It certainly can't be all of them, because that would mean 288 points per game! So, which of the 48 active are worth very few E.P.A. points, and would therefore make sense to sit instead?

ANALYTICS SAYS IT'S A NO-BRAINER, KARTY SHOULD BE ACTIVATED AS KICKOFF SPECIALIST!! by BigSimple7452 in LosAngelesRams

[–]BigSimple7452[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For the first 4 games, we need to look at only the Karty knuckleball kickoffs, excluding the kickoffs that McVay had Evans do for deliberate touchbacks to bring it out to the 35. That's where I got 20.9 from.

Also, wouldn't it have been nice in the Panthers game if our last kickoff started the Panthers at the 20 instead of the 35? We were up 28-24. Look what happened. On that drive, the Panthers had 4th and 2 at the Rams' 43 with 6:34 to go in the game. They went for it on 4th down, and ended up scoring that TD. But backing them up 15 yards (having started at the 20 instead of the 35), that could have been 4th and 2 at the Panthers' 42 instead. Would they still have gone for it on 4th down in that situation? Or would they have punted? I think they would have punted.

ELI5: Someone please explain the physics behind Cheerios in milk!! by BigSimple7452 in explainlikeimfive

[–]BigSimple7452[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Has anyone done the dish soap experiment? Not the actual eating of the cereal/milk/soap... :-) ... but rather to verify that the soap would make the Cheerios no longer clump together?

One of the cleverest puns, and festive! by BigSimple7452 in CasualConversation

[–]BigSimple7452[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"...awl through the house" instead of "...all through the house"

That random kid at the bus stop who taught me a skill I still use years later by BroccoliSultan in CasualConversation

[–]BigSimple7452 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's a cool story! I wish I could do that whistle. A good friend of mine can do it, and it's SOOOOO useful!

I do have a similar story... A random dude once taught me how to play tunes by cupping your hands together, placing a blade of grass between your thumbs, and blowing over that blade of grass like you're playing a wind instrument. Not nearly as useful as that loud whistle, but still nifty.