Dbl Coverage Announcement: NFL Digest

In the first three months of our short existence, we at Double Coverage have been working hard to bring you the latest and greatest news on American football in the UK and US. Recently though we have been a little neglectful of the US part of this pledge, as we have been focused on improving our UK coverage.

It is with this in mind that we are pleased to announce a partnership with NFL digest, a UK based blog focused entirely on the NFL.

NFL DIGEST

NFL Digest is run by Nathan Sharrocks, a Journalism graduate from Central Lancashire and does work with the Lancashire Academy of American football. He also worked on Inside American Football with Gary Neesam, so has previous experience of writing about the British game as well.

He and his team have been going for a while now and we were so impressed with the quality of the work on the site that we asked to form a partnership with the site.

This means that both sites writers will work together to produce content for both sites, but don't worry, the amount and quality of the work won't drop on either site! NFL Digest will be working under Dbl Coverages Facebook page and will post regular updates linking you to their content, so be sure to like the newly branded page!

We will start with a two week trial period to see if the structure we have arranged will hold in the cold hard light of day, but we have every confidence that we will be working with Nathan and the NFL Digest team for a long time!

In the meanwhile NFL Digest will be using our Facebook page to keep you up to date with their awesome content and articles.

The Clinic: Effective Coaching

Todays article is written by GB Lions Sneior Head Coach Mike Callan and based on the presentation he gave at the North West Coaching clinic:

I have been coaching for what in the game probably wouldn’t consider a long time.  I have been doing it for only just over a decade.  There are quite a few aspects of coaching that get me excited, but none so much as going to or speaking at Clinics.  There is just something exciting about going to talk about football for a day with other coaches and the likely possibility that you will come away a better football coach that is exciting.

For the last three years I have been lucky enough to be asked to speak at the BAFCA NW Clinic that is run by a good friend of mine, Simon Purcell.  And I have to say, it is one weekend on the calendar that I truly look forward to.  The previous years I have talked about scheme on Offense, Defence and Special Teams.  I have gone over fundamentals with defensive backs and special teams players.  These are the bread and butter of football coaches.

Photo courtesy of Graham Beardsley

However, this year, Simon threw me a bit of a curveball.  He wanted me to speak on how to be an effective coach.  It took me a bit out of my comfort zone, I will not lie, because I think to myself that there are so many coaches out there who I have learned from and I aspire to.  I wondered if I was of calibre to be delivering this type of talk.  I decided that I was going to deliver it, but at the same time speak on how to be ‘more’ effective as a coach.  As coaches we can always do something better each time we step on the field and that is what I hope to get across in this piece.  These are just a few guidelines and there are probably hundreds more out there to be debated, but in the interest of time and space, I believed these were important to touch on.

Top 5 NFL teams that we want to see in the International Series

With the recent news that next year’s NFL international series will feature the St Louis Rams and the New England Patriots and that the Rams will feature in the international series during 2013 and 2014, we decided to dedicate this week’s top five on the top five NFL teams we would like to see play over here in Britain.

Note: Teams who have already played in the UK will not be included on the list.

As per usual we mention the teams that just missed the cut.

Atlanta Falcons – Atlanta are the new Indianapolis Colts (win in the regular season, choke in the playoffs). The Falcons surprisingly have a big fan base in the UK so would draw interest from fans involved in Britball. If the NFL does eventually send the Falcons over to play in the international series then they might as well play the Carolina Panthers, which would mean all of the NFC South have visited London (ED: I doubt the NFL or the teams would want to lose a divisional rivalry game though).

Pittsburgh Steelers – The Steelers have a huge fan base in the UK, so it makes sense for Pittsburgh to come over and play in the UK! Fortunately for the Steelernation fans in the UK, Dan Rooney is the US Ambassador to Ireland and said there’s a possibility that Pittsburgh could play in Ireland, so who knows!?

A Question of Timing

Is it better to be emotional on the sidelines, or the strong silent type? Last night showed the positives of the latter.

Towards the end of the Ravens @ Patriots game the cameras showed a passionate John Harbaugh pushing one of his coaches out of the way to call a time-out that the Ravens could ill afford to waste, at a guess because he didn't like the play call. This disarray on the sidelines would prove to be a harbinger of what was to come.

With only a few minutes left on the clock Ravens offensive coordinator had called his best drive of the season, picking on wide receiver turned defensive back Julian Edelman with Anquan Boldin in the slot (Edelman was responsible for a blown coverage that sprung Boldin down the sideline), but the drive started to stall inside the Patriots red zone and the Ravens unravelled when their goal within their reach.

The first marginally questionable Ravens call came on 2nd and 3 just inside the 15. The Ravens called a pass play that almost came off with receiver Lee Evans having the ball knocked out of his hands by former Raiders practice squad player Sterling Moore. If they had run for the first down (a high percentage play with the Patriots more likely to give up the first down instead of the score) and called a time out they would have had time for a couple of shots with 20 seconds on the clock and even the possibility of spiking the ball if a player came up short.

BUAFL Predictions

The only game in BUAFL this weekend sees Lincoln Colonials (2-1) visit Nottingham Trent Renegades. With the Navy and Pink at 2-2 following the opening day loss to Birmingham and a last-gasp heartbreaker against Derby, they will be all to aware that a slip against Lincoln effectively ends their post season hopes.

They will also be well aware that their remaining schedule holds bigger battles that this - particularly with a potentially crucial Superbowl Sunday clash with inter-city rivals Nottingham - but will still rely on full-back Danny Miller to do the legwork on offence as they bid to keep their season alive. Defensively, their strength lies in the backfield, with veteran safety Chris O'Dea marshalling a defence that includes one of the fastest defensive backs in the league in Marcus Boswell.

With the Colonials only serious offensive threat coming in the form of playmaking wide receiver Alex Preece, the battle between him and Boswell will be intriguing.

Lincoln, meanwhile, sit somewhat surprisingly with a winning record, but - while they have improved this season to beat Leicester and MAC whipping boys Worcester - they are not yet of the level required to seriously test NTU. If they can get the ball into the hands of Preece, then there is every chance they can notch up a couple of scores, but even with one eye on Varsity, the Renegades should have enough for a comfortable win.

Renegades by four scores.


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