covered skill players

This drove us nuts against UCF:

This drove us nuts against Colorado:

This shouldn’t be happening. To understand why we have to go back to the rules of football.

Ends and Backs

Football evolved from a rugby-like game, with forward passing added almost a generation later. The running sport and the passing sport never perfectly coalesced into one—even today there are offenses that treat their quarterback as a primary rusher or primarily a passer. You can also trace the problem of linemen blocking downfield on passing plays back to this awkward marriage of two games. So they had to make rules: You can block here but not there. The rule that matters to us is this guy is an eligible receiver and that guy isn’t.

[After THE JUMP: What’s a legal formation, why teams do this, and a jazzy snazzy video]