Wednesday, November 23

Hypothetical: 15 on 1

Thanks to everyone for last week's conversation on Tracy McGrady. It was a complete success and my top goal was accomplished- you made me reconsider my position, and eventually change my mind. Once the idea of Tracy standing under the basket and only allowing 12 foot jumpers came up, I realized that we really didn't stand much of a chance. I had only imagined holding him to something along the order of 75% shooting tops, and I certainly don't know four other people who shoot 75% free throws, especially not with a 6-9 dude coming at them. Thanks again.

This week we'll move on to football, namely Mike Vick. Initial discussions began with an 11 on 1 scenario, which quickly moved to 20 on 1. For the sake of argument, we'll split the difference and call it you and 14 of your buddies versus the leagues most under-utilized wideout. This is a standard, 60 minute game of football, all NFL rules applying, aside from the fact that there's one pro quarterback versus 15 post-grads.

As I did last week, I'm taking me and my buddies. While we'd have some trouble scoring consistently in a basketball game, I can't see anyway Vick could ever stop us from getting a first down. He goes left, we throw right. He plays deep, we throw short. Tackling him is going to be a little tougher, but with a little teamwork, there's no reason we shouldn't be able to stop him once or twice, and that's the ballgame. I have to believe that he's at a major disadvantage returning kicks; we'll recover at least 8/10 onside and start driving all over again. I'd put the line on this game at US (-21.5) vs. vick.

Enjoy.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I see zach's points, but I still think Team Hal (or any group of walking, once reasonable athletes) would be modest favorites. Vick will lose, because football is a lot about having bodies in the right places, which would inevitably happen a lot when you have 10 open guys on every play (I figure Vick can cover 5 at once). However, he would be hard as hell to prevent from moving the ball. Obviously, 15 will pull him down, but not before 3+ yard gains, giving him a methodical marching offense. Plus, think about how many bad throws, dropped passes, and fumbles you expect in your local thanksgiving day pick-up football game. Now picture the same group of pick-up players listening for Michael Vick's footsteps. I'd call it Team Hal (-7) over Vick.

Anonymous said...

Has anyone ever taken into account the fatigue factor that would set in? Being tackled by 15 guys on every play would wear anyone down, especially an injury prone QB.

Hal, unless your 14 teammates are spawns of corky from the "facts of life," you should be able to easily beat Vick. Now if it was a much larger athletic freak, like say Jevon Kearse, it could be a different story.

Armando said...

I say we win the coin toss, take the kick off back for a touchdown, and give him the ball on offense. First play, he runs wild and picks up 65 yards. Second play, he gets blindsided, hurts his knee and is done for the season. Back up Matt Schaub then comes in and throws the deep ball to himself and defeats us soundly.

Anonymous said...

I don't think there is any way that Vick could beat 15 guys. First of all there is no way to stop 15 guys from scoring on any given play. Think of the number of laterals that each play would involve. This would entail Vick running back and forth across the field and this would tire him out so much that he would either not be able to run around after 15 minutes, or would have to let Team Hal score every time to save his energy for offense. On defense I find it hard to believe that he could avoid 15 guys. Obviously he isn't going to throw it any great distance to himself, so that leaves like 12 guys on the line. If he gets to do the shotgun it gives him a little chance, but if he starts on the line he has to run 10 yards back to have any chance of getting around the line. His only chance would be to run 30 yards back and run around to tire everyone out on side to side pursuits, which wouldn't work too badly. But assuming that Team Hal has any discipline not to leave gaps, they could corner him without too much effort, I would hope. I don't think there would be too much trouble tackling him, assuming help was only a couple yards away.
Bottom line Team Hal wins by a lot.