It's almost as if the Raiders should play football as though their career depended on winning. Yes, their careers do depend on winning.
Earlier articles were written to encourage the players to do their own self-study to determine their strengths, weaknesses and points of vulnerability.
Similarly, a study of the opponents' systems, strategies, plays, intelligence, intensity, integrity and stamina must be done on an ongoing basis.
So, a series of articles are discussing test models to determine reliable and simple measures of the places of vulnerability of the opponent's team if those places are measurable and identifiable.
A lot of data is archived and it is done for use to characterize what is going on with each player, each team, each division and so on.
Yes, it takes time and discipline to create arrays of numbers that tell a story that may not be discernible to most readers. Nevertheless, sometimes there are distinct patterns in each team's database.
The sports writer or researcher must find ways to make those patterns obvious and to make observations of those patterns.
Ideally, others will critique these methods. Of course, it is assumed that an explanation of the design of a given model will be presented simply and clearly so that others can engage in the discussion.
Once a good model that is valid and reliable is discovered by those writers who know the behaviors of each player and each team, they must tweak the model to make it more suitable for realistic interpretations.
Some of the models may eventually be suitable for forecasts or for descriptions only.
A helpful hint to understand this innovative process is to study the graphs and determine when one curve is above the other...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Oakland Raiders
