Allen Lazard was the first Cyclone to score a touchdown in the NFL playoffs in 35 years

[psychlones]

Anybody have a link to this video?

 

[cyhiphopp]

Here you go. At the 2:00 mark.............

EDIT Correction - at the 0:47 mark and again at 1:41, sorry!

Best part is at 8 seconds where he yells "ALLEN!". A-aron can see what they're running and knows Lazard is going to be wide open.

 

[flycy]

I love Moneyball (the book and the movie) as much as anybody. They are both basically about how young White men with laptops can "upend the status quo" and "change the world," though, which seems pretty profound (and true) in 2003, but I am not sure that exact brand of capitalism and sports management is aging well.

The reason the 2002 Oakland Athletics were good was not because they had Scott Hatteberg playing 1B. The reason they were good is because they had excellent sluggers in Miguel Tejada and Eric Chavez and a three-headed monster of a starting pitch staff in Barry Zito, Mark Mulder, and Tim Hudson, ages 24, 24, and 26, respectively.

You know what all five of those guys had in common?

All of them debuted as Oakland Athletics and "came up" through their farm system.

That is, all five of those guys, the five best players on the team and all on very affordable rookie contracts, were identified, drafted, and developed by those same scouts and coaches the movie absolutely trashes.

It is pretty funny in hindsight when Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill eviscerate the scouts because the team-building the scouts did was the reason the Athletics were any good in the first place. The movie makes very little mention of any of these guys. It turns out the arbitrage advantaged described in Moneyball was of relatively limited value compared to simply hitting on good young players, which is either random or based on the skill of your scouts and coaches, depending on who you ask, and even that arbitrage was very easy to copy throughout the league once word of it got out.

So if everybody is equal on analytics nowadays, then what can teams do to gain an advantage?

Superior scouting and development of players to generate superior value of young guys on cheap contracts. That is, back to the traditional way of things, Moneyball being kind of obsolete when everybody does it.

The point -- Billy Beane's scouts were not bad. Far from it -- they were some of the best in the business. Everybody whiffed on Lazard (including the Packers). Scouts messed this one up, not caring to look deeply enough to see that his size, hands, blocking ability, and character/motor would supersede his lack of straight-line speed.

That is going to happen when you have to evaluate thousands of prospects per year.

It's Hollywood, whatever the story, odds are the truth is close to the opposite.

 

[clonehoodie]

I hope all the ISU players in the games this weekend do well.

 

[dirtyninety]

I love Moneyball (the book and the movie) as much as anybody. They are both basically about how young White men with laptops can "upend the status quo" and "change the world," though, which seemed pretty profound (and true) in 2003, but I am not sure that exact brand of capitalism and sports management is aging well.

The reason the 2002 Oakland Athletics were good was not because they had Scott Hatteberg playing 1B. The reason they were good is because they had excellent sluggers in Miguel Tejada and Eric Chavez and a three-headed monster of a starting pitching staff in Barry Zito, Mark Mulder, and Tim Hudson, ages 24, 24, and 26, respectively.

You know what all five of those guys had in common?

All of them debuted as Oakland Athletics and "came up" through their farm system.

That is, all five of those guys, the five best players on the team and all on very affordable rookie contracts, were identified, drafted, and developed by those same scouts and coaches the movie absolutely trashes.

It is pretty funny in hindsight when Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill eviscerate the scouts because the team-building the scouts did was the reason the Athletics were any good in the first place. The movie makes very little mention of any of these guys. It turns out the arbitrage advantaged described in Moneyball was of relatively limited value compared to simply hitting on good young players, which is either random or based on the skill of your scouts and coaches, depending on who you ask, and even that arbitrage was very easy to copy throughout the league once word of it got out.

So if everybody is equal on analytics nowadays, then what can teams do to gain an advantage?

Superior scouting and development of players to generate superior value of young guys on cheap contracts. That is, back to the traditional way of things, Moneyball being kind of obsolete when everybody does it.

The point -- Billy Beane's scouts were not bad. Far from it -- they were some of the best in the business. Everybody whiffed on Lazard (including the Packers). Scouts messed this one up, not caring to look deeply enough to see that his size, hands, blocking ability, and character/motor would supersede his lack of straight-line speed.

That is going to happen when you have to evaluate thousands of prospects per year.

Good post. I read book (first) and then the movie. This is a good case of maybe not believing the marketing in print or on 2D-screen spooned in front of you. What you say makes sense. I loved Zito.
But we agree.....the scout AND evaluation in place when Lazard was drafted was a total bust. The guy is a winner and a good teammate that should have held been valued as an intangible more than it was. How many games did HE win almost on his own shoulders? I can think of several.

 

[Cycsk]

That is awesome.

 

[Cycsk]

Best part is at 8 seconds where he yells "ALLEN!". A-aron can see what they're running and knows Lazard is going to be wide open.

That is even awesomer!

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

Sweet. A winner. So glad his journey ended where it should have and all those loser combine speed stat obsessers who passed him over in draft can go the way Billy Bean did with all his scouts.

He sure had enough speed to burn the corner and the safety for a touchdown the other night.

 

[VeloClone]

The NFL has gotten so specialized at certain positions - WR, kicker, CB and up to a few years ago QB - that they have gotten away from them being all around football players. The fact that Lazard gets so much credit for something as basic as blocking is a testament to that.

 

[Sousaclone]

Lazard on the Pat McAfee show today

If you look up Tuesday's Pat McAfee show on YT they have an interview with Aaron Rodgers that also breaks down that entire play and what was going on from the QB side. For someone who never played football it's incredibly interesting to listen to. Makes you appreciate just how in depth and the intricacies of what's going on out there.

 

[madguy30]

If you look up Tuesday's Pat McAfee show on YT they have an interview with Aaron Rodgers that also breaks down that entire play and what was going on from the QB side. For someone who never played football it's incredibly interesting to listen to. Makes you appreciate just how in depth and the intricacies of what's going on out there.

On the clip of the play, you can hear Rodgers calling out AL by first name and nodding downfield. He knew it was there and the Rams really couldn't do anything about it.

That's fun to watch QBs operate on that level.