What do you watch in a football game?

Oh wow! I've found a home! For the last few years I thought I was the only pathetic soul re-watching each game on Sunday mornings and breaking down what went right and/or wrong. I've watched every game of the Harbaugh era at least twice, save for the Crime in Columbus, and Trouble With The Snap. My wife has often expressed concern when I'm breaking down film and suggesting playcalls. 

However, on first watch - gameday - I'm too amped to watch for anything other than the play result. I can't help but see certain things (free blitzer, open man, run lane) but I don't focus on any one element of a play except for the result. 

My seats at the stadium are up high even with the goal line of the south end zone.  So, I watch the substitutions and formations both on offense and defense.  On offense, as the game goes along, you can begin to see the packages and plays and predict the plays.  If I’m predicting better than the opposing defense, then I’m happy.  If the other guys see what’s coming (a common experience in the Borges days), then I get worried.

Quickly look at the personnel and make sure there is nothing odd going on... Then my eyes are glued to the line, tells me where to look next.

On TV, I watch the lines, which tells you if the play has a chance or not, and sometimes tells you everything. Then I scan back and hit the edge of the screen and curse whatever network it is for not providing an all-22 feed which I would really rather watch. I really don't need close-ups showing me if Shea missed a spot on his eye black.

Live, I do the same but as I scan out, I go to the ball if it's a run and to the secondary if it's a pass.

But I'm not good enough to get much out of all that info. Only really obvious stuff. Even when I re-watch in slow motion, some plays I watch 8 or 9 times just to see what was going on with each individual player.

That's actually one of my favorite things about football: how it rewards close study.

Start with the right guard (assuming qb isn't a lefty), then the tight end, qb or wr depending on what the te does. Unless the rg is obviously run blocking, then I go to the rb. I don't know if that's the best way, but it's what I do.

Get thread. I often think about this. I watch games with fans on extreme ends of the spectrum. Some choose a team based on colors or a location of the team. The other end can identify formations and variations of said formations. Nothing wrong with either fandom. I tend to dive full force into whatever I'm doing, so I am the latter.

Well, I've learned to scan out and have a better view of what's happening around the field rather than just staring at the ball. I can sometimes tell ahead of time when a receiver has gotten or will get open, when a defense has beaten the play or when a rb will spring free, etc.

I'll also try and pay attention to who's in the game, not that it does me a whole lot of good.

As far as the nuts and bolts of what I'm looking at, usually no idea. I wait for write ups for that kind of stuff.

It really baffles me how many people watching a game live just stare at the video board.  I try to take in as much as I can.  Sometimes I watch line play, sometimes I watch to see what the defensive backfield is doing.  I know if I rewatch the game at home later or watch a replay in stadium, I will be able to watch the ball and what is going on there. Between plays, I scan the sidelines to see if I notice anything the coaches, trainers, or players are doing that seems out of the ordinary.  It sometimes gives me a heads up to someone being injured, coaches spatting with someone that might influence what will happen on the field.

At the snap, I watch the center, which gives me a peripheral view of the guards. The guards' respective first steps will tell you what the play is. So if I see a down block from one and a pull across from the other, I know where the ball is intended to go. If I see a good block at the intended hole, I usually make some unintelligible excited noise, which causes the people around me to wonder if I'm having a stroke, since they generally only see the QB turning around to make a handoff. 

Watching in the stadium, I'm usually a full second ahead of the crowd cheering, which bothers my wife to no end. She treats it like I'm spoiling movies. A lot of the time, I'm wrong about a big hole because those things tend not to stay open and I don't often see the backside linebackers. I often wish I could just chill out and just watch the ball. But I'm trained a certain way and the ball doesn't interest me at all, really. 

I usually watch the refs to see who they are giving the calls to. I am a degenerate gambler and I believe games are fixed one way or another. 

Go Blue!!