Super Bowl 50

Its practically a zero sum game. If there are more passing attempts, there are less running backs who end up like Earl Campbell.

 

Your point aside, there were also two less games in 1973.

Gabriel averaged 33 attempts per game. Add two games, and he'd have 526 attempts.

526 attempts this season would have tied the 49ers for 24th in the league.

John Reaves, his backup, threw 19 passes that season. Even assuming he wouldn't have played in those two additional games, and add those 19 passes to Gabriel's pro-rated 526 and that is 545 passes, which would have ranked them 22nd in the league.

Your point is correct in terms of the average number of pass attempts per team. In 1973, teams averaged 340 attempts in 14 games, while in 2015, they average 571 attempts in 16 games.

 

NFL Network is running a Super Bowl marathon, with games shown in their entirety.
Pats-Seahawks is on now, followed by Ravens-49ers. They're also showing Super Bowls 43, 42, 36 and 32 before it wraps up around noon tomorrow. Neat stuff.

 

As a kid I loved it when ESPN would run the NFL Films versions of the SBs in the 24 hours leading up to the game.

 

NFL Network does it now the Saturday-Sunday the week before the game. Showing these marathons is a much better idea. It's like methadone for the fans facing nothing but college basketball, figure skating and golf on the tube.

 

That's a funny analogy, since there's actually a graphic on the screen that says #FootballWithdrawal.

 

I think it would be better showing a random game from the last five years where you may not know how it finishes.

 

I finally caught it last night. I agree; not having the Super Bowl Shuffle was a huge miss.
I really liked the Singletary with Ryan stuff. And having Ryan's letter read at the end was a cool touch.