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New York Jets at Minnesota Vikings: Charting the Offense

Matt Simms was quoted as saying, "Dat booty."
Matt Simms was quoted as saying, "Dat booty."
Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

For most of the season, I've had this idea for a project where I chart our offense. The idea is to look for tendencies, similar to what actual teams do. Since our games have mostly been awful, I've been putting it off. The team simply hasn't had enough sustained drives where you can glean any meaningful information.

This sort of charting is something every team does for every game of every opponent. Once they've reviewed every play, they'll look for tendencies. For example, it could be that every third down, they go to shotgun formation. Maybe they use certain personnel for certain types of plays. These sorts of tidbits can change games, and it requires a deeper sort of analysis than most fans have attention span.

Charting plays are one reason that it's often said that football is one big chess game. Normally, it's done for both an offense and defense and for the entire game. For the purposes here, I just did one half of offensive play, just so you can get a glimpse of what I'm talking about. The table is sortable, so you can look at every down individually and every formation, etc. Take a look and comment below if you see any notable tendencies.

# DN DIST HASH YARD LN RUN/PASS NOTES GN PERSONNEL FORMATION QTR
1 1 10 R -23 Pass INT 0 12 Shotgun 1
2 1 10 M -20 Run 2 20 Shotgun 1
3 2 8 M -22 Run 1 12 Offset I 1
4 3 7 R -23 Pass 1st down 45 00 Shotgun Trips Right 1
5 1 10 M 32 Run 0 11 Shotgun 1
6 2 10 R 32 Pass 0 21 Pistol 1
7 3 10 L 32 Pass Punt -12 12 Shotgun Trips Left 1
8 1 10 R -35 Run 1 12 Single Set Back 1
9 2 9 R -36 Run 4 13 Single Set Back 1
10 3 5 R -40 Pass Penalty 0 10 Shotgun 1
11 1 10 L 41 Run 4 30 Diamond 1
12 2 6 M 35 Run 0 12 Wildcat 1
13 3 6 L 35 Pass TD 35 20 Shotgun 1
14 1 10 L 35 Run 2 11 Shotgun 1
15 2 8 L 33 Pass 1st down 8 11 Shotgun 1
16 1 10 R 25 Run 3 21 I 1
17 2 7 R 22 Run 5 11 Single Set Back 1
18 3 2 M 17 Run FG -1 11 Shotgun Trips Left 1
19 1 10 L -20 Pass 0 11 Shotgun 2
20 2 10 L -20 Run 2 11 Single Set Back 2
21 3 8 L -22 Pass 1st down 14 10 Shotgun 2
22 1 10 R -36 Run Penalty 5 11 Shotgun 2
23 1 15 R -31 Pass 1st down 17 11 Shotgun 2
24 1 10 R -48 Run Penalty 1 11 Shotgun 2
25 1 20 R -38 Pass 17 20 Shotgun 2
26 2 3 L 45 Pass 1st down 7 11 Shotgun 2
27 1 10 R 38 Run 7 21 I 2
28 2 3 L 31 Run 1st down 3 21 I 2
30 1 10 L 28 Run 1st down 16 11 Shotgun 2
31 1 10 R 12 Run 7 21 I 2
32 2 3 L 5 Run Fumble 3 11 Shotgun 2
33 1 10 L -35 Run 6 12 Single Set Back 2
34 2 4 L -41 Run 2 21 I 2
35 3 2 L -43 Run 1st down 4 11 Wildcat 2
36 1 10 L -47 Pass 0 11 Shotgun 2
37 2 10 L -47 Run 5 11 Shotgun 2
38 3 5 L 48 Pass Penalty 0 20 Shotgun 2
39 1 10 R 39 Pass Scramble 7 11 Shotgun 2
40 2 3 L 27 Run 2 11 Shotgun 2
41 3 1 R 25 Run 6 11 Shotgun 2
42 1 10 L 19 Pass 0 20 I 2
43 2 10 L 19 Pass 4 12 Shotgun 2
44 3 6 R 15 Pass FG 0 21 I 2