800 receiving yards in 6 consecutive games

[BigBucs]

I read the title like should read "over 6 consecutive games"

[Champ]

How don't you guys remember that chad Johnson year? I had him on my FF team

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[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

The two that immediately came to mind were Isaac Bruce in 05 and Chad Johnson in 06. What is more interesting, is to look at touchdown spreads and totals and W's and L's...

Bruce, for example, had that awesome stretch in 95, super consistent...7 touchdowns...you could say his receiving performance is the reason they beat Atlanta...but overall, 4-4 record over the first stretch of 8 games.

Ochocinco, had that monster three games, where he went bonkers on San Diego and singlehandedly beat the Saints. 5 touchdowns in only two games...he beat the Saints, but overall...another 4-4 record.

[KINGOFOOTBALL]

Great thread.

Heading to bed but at first glance Id think the likely culprit is Zone defense. It was considered space age and progressive to "only" have 5-6 guys at the line till the 50s. Zone defense was in its infancy in the late 60s and really didnt take shape until the 70s where a fuller understanding of the 4-3 and Zone coverage in general and what it offered took off.
You simply cant handle a hot or top tier WR even with those old rules unless you had someone of similar physical talent in front of him or hurting the QB. With a Zone defense you can scheme your way to slowing down a WR (or any particular guy) with coverage alone regardless of lack of talent.
Complexity in offense and in the passing game may also dictate this. The more decision making there was at the line the more likely it was for the go to guy to be taken out of the play by the QB before the ball is snapped.
Im actually stumped at the question I asked myself. But at what point did on field pictures and printouts become the norm ? The biggest benefits of those were between QB reading secondary and defense identifying play tendency.

None of the above would stop a guy from a hot day , but would serve to slow down momentum in a big stretch.


From a strictly physical standpoint. WR is a completely reliant position. You can just man your way to a good stretch at RB , or carry the team at QB. But a WR requires every other piece to be executing. Its the easiest position to do your job every play and still have a bad game.

[Diivox]

ahhh Torry Holt. I will never forget that guy. there was 2-3 year period there when Bruce sort of passed the torch to him. Goddamn was he electric. it seemed at times that he had a gear that other guys on the field just couldnt match. Like everyone else was in slow motion and he was on fast forward.

and that bengals team with Housh/Johnson/Henry really should have gone further. Looking back on those teams, it hurts Carson Palmers reputation even more that he had that kind of talent to throw to and still didn't win anything.

on a mostly unrelated note, Chris Henry was definitely in the Jacquez Green/Az Hakim/Bethel Johnson "guaranteed 100 yards a game" slot reciever Madden hall of fame. If the computer ever dared played a base defense against 3 wide, it was a lock you were hitting a 30 yard pass on the crossing route every time...

[Senser81]

Great thread.

Heading to bed but at first glance Id think the likely culprit is Zone defense. It was considered space age and progressive to "only" have 5-6 guys at the line till the 50s. Zone defense was in its infancy in the late 60s and really didnt take shape until the 70s where a fuller understanding of the 4-3 and Zone coverage in general and what it offered took off.

Complexity in offense and in the passing game may also dictate this. The more decision making there was at the line the more likely it was for the go to guy to be taken out of the play by the QB before the ball is snapped.

Im actually stumped at the question I asked myself. But at what point did on field pictures and printouts become the norm ? The biggest benefits of those were between QB reading secondary and defense identifying play tendency.

Yeah, I think the zone defenses of the late 60's by the 1968 Colts and 1969 Vikings led to a huge downturn in deep passes and big receiving yardage games. And the zones really took away passing in general...not many WRs had 1000-yard seasons in the 1970s, and in the mid-70's before the 1978 rule changes you had RBs like Chuck Foreman and Lydell Mitchell leading the NFL in receiving.

I think the gap in the 1980's and 1990's was due more to the West Coast Offense than anything the defenses were doing. Teams were passing for yardage, but the passes were spread around more and most of the time the QB was throwing short. Hard to rack up big receiving yardage totals.

EDIT: I've read that the first coach to utilize in-game photography to see defensive patterns was Vince Lombardi. Thought that was interesting.