#RPO is so real for having this option <3
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#ts4#*ts4gameplay#z#RPO is so real for having this option <3#milo is a week older than ruthie and he's aging up so i have to cut it off#later loser!!#*ruthie#*milo#*sunday save#*sunday save gen 1
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15+ mods for adding realism to your gameplay
i wanted to group mods that i use together for different kinds of gameplay, along with some brief explanations so i can come back later to reference if i ever needed to.
please remember that these are just my own preferences for mods. i will update this post as mods are added to my game.
explanations under the cut <3
the mods
🤍 basemental drugs (21+) by basemental
🤍 child birth mod by pandasama
🤍 education overhaul by a.deep.indigo
🤍 home regions by kuttoe
🤍 language barriers by frankk
🤍 pets everywhere by kuttoe
🤍 relationship & pregnancy overhaul by lumpinou
🤍 simnation travel by a.deep.indigo
🤍 simzlink by lot 51
🤍 wicked whims (18+) by turbodriver
🤍 all mods by simrealist
mod explanations
🤍 basemental drugs: add a partying element to your gameplay with this mod. you can assign dealers to sell you a variety of flavors of drugs, but don't get caught by the police! i'm pretty sure this mod comes with some aspirations and the 'adhd' trait.
🤍 child birth mod: i've only used this once so far, so i can't speak on it much. but the delivery is more like real life instead of a baby popping into existence. you have options for surgery machine, natural birth, c-section, and also at-home births in a pool! there's a new ultrasound feature added, too!
🤍 education overhaul: education career, preschool, new education enrollment options, boarding school, new projects and assignments, study different subjects, detention, field trips, snow days, new school hours, i'm just listing some of the main points of the mod. haha.
🤍 home regions: this mod keeps sims in their native region. this means that if you live in willow creek, you won't be getting any vampires coming to your home or neighborhood.
🤍 language barriers: every world is assigned a language that is natively spoken. most worlds use simlish, but there are other languages spoken that your sim can learn through simlingo or by having someone who speaks the language teach your sim. this mod is incredibly customizable, so be sure to read the instructions carefully!
🤍 pets everywhere: this brings stray animals, dog walkers, and more to every region/world and not just exclusively to brindleton bay.
🤍 relationship & pregnancy overhaul: simply put, it's an overhaul for relationships and pregnancy, lol. it adds menstrual cycles and more that i cannot put into words at this very moment.
🤍 simnation travel: this mod requires you to have a license, subway pass, bicycle, passport, etc. in order to travel to other regions. there's a whole application process for a passport and going to the dmv.
🤍 simzlink: this brings an internet service provider and a new career. you can sign up for an internet subscription and install a router and whatnot. it's also compatible with snbank by simrealist (linked before the cut!), so you'll actually get charged for basic or premium internet every "month". like real life, only the internet never goes out. lol. this mod goes more in-depth on their website. it's very thorough!
🤍 wicked whims: the nsfw version of wonderful whims. there are archetypes, attractiveness, and impressions that adds more depth to relationships. there's also a menstrual cycle in this mod (like rpo), but it can be turned off.
🤍 all mods by simrealist: it's literally in their name to make things more real! there's snbank and addons (financial center, bills), real estate, private practice, mortem, organic, and home and land co. just check out their site for the info on these because they're too good!
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Get to know a simmer
Okay, soooo I was tagged by @silentsundown (thank you so so much for tagging me, I really love to talk, ramble and even most of the time overshare on this blog, so thank you! I really appreciate you tagging me, I hope you're having a really nice time of the day!! 💗)
1. What’s your favourite sims death?
Meteorite death in The Sims 3, definitely! And maybe werewolf bite death and I'm not sure if it's a mod, buut I love when humans die by being sucked out too much blood by a vampire, like blood loss death or? Oh! And being eaten by the cowplant. Also, death by a myth from High School Years pack. It's super creepy for me personally. Please note that I'm not really a player, so I don't remember much deaths, I'm sure there's so much more interesting. creepy and kinda funny ways to die in Sims 4!
2. Alpha or Maxis Match CC?
It's both! I equally love alpha and maxis match, and mix those two styles because honestly? There's too much gorgeous and unique cc to both of these styles to just choose or prefer one.
3. Do you cheat when your sims gain weight?
No? Maybe because they don't because even when (actually it's IF) I play I cheat their needs :DD OH, and I also have some MCCC marks or whatever it called in English (метки) so their appearance won't be reseted or be able to change because I'm too tired of their presets changing for some reason when I enter live mode.
4. Do you use move objects?
HOW CAN YOU FUCKING NOT USE THIS CHEAT????????
5. Favorite mod?
I don't really remember all my favorite gameplay mods, but there are some I can't play without (not including some obvious ones such as MCCC and WW and UI Cheats and cooking mods that I have a lot):
ALL mods from SpinningPlumbobs, especially the Expanded Mermaid and Werewolves! These are super detailed and amazing for players who mainly focus on occult sims. It makes occults so much more interesting to play and it brought me back to somehow enjoying gameplay.
ALL mods from PERSEA, but especially Realistic Life & Pregnancy mod because it has so much cute interaction and it truly brings in so much depth and a sense of feelings to sims. Like real emotions and buffs, also cute dialogue options!
ALL mods from Lumpinou. But especially RPO, Open Love Life, Psychic Sims and Rambunctious Religions (if you wanted to have a cult in your game, esp occult cult - it's possible!!! And god I LOVE having sexy priests that are really priests in my game). Actually, every single mod of this creator is my must-have for gameplay, so YEEEEAH.
ALL mods from Maplebell. I do think that the Acting overhaul was a very needed mod for the game, as well as the socials & more kisses mod!
ALL mods from Adeepindigo, but especially education system overhaul AND PARANORMAL CAREER & GHOST HUNTERS!! Family activities and custom nuptials are the mods I find myself using the most, as well as Pet Care Activities. Also, the tweaks & small mods are VERY useful! The only mod I don't use from this creator is dental care - although it's super cool and realistic, but it's too overwhelming for me (thanks OCD), same with the most recent - Divergent sims, it's incredibly detailed but I'm not ready to deal with the same shit I go though every day in The Sims too lmao. It's overwhelmingly realistic & very detailed!
There's so much more, but my brain is super dumb, so I can't remember, but! If you see any detailed occult mod esp for vampires - you KNOW i'm already using it because that sort of mods are the most amazing for me. I love gameplay mods. although I don't really play a lot, but I have much of them.
6. First expansion/game/stuff pack you got?
I'M A FUCKING PIRATE HOW DO I ANSWER? I got them all at ones time yeeeeeah I'm too cool for this question 😎😎😎😎😎 But if I'm being serious, although I got on a pirate ship when I was a teen, I started playing sims 4 when I think Cats & Dogs came out? So that can count as the first thing I got just because I started there. But If i'm being serious, I don't remember lmao. When I was a teen, I was pirating everything I saw on russian torrent websites, but I remember being instantly more interested in TS4 when pets expansion came out. SORRY I'M STUPID AND MY MEMORY IS TERRIBLE
7. Do you pronounce “live mode” like aLIVE or LIVing?
aLIVE. But overall, I have no idea how it should be pronounced. And with LIVing it sounds so dumb I'm sorry-
8. Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made?
ANSEL ANSEL ANSEL ANSEL ANSEL ANSEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH AND- LUCINDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN'T CHOOSE! THEY'RE MY FUCKING KIDS!!!! I LOVE THEM ALL!!!!!! IT'S CRUEL TO PICK SOMEONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
9. Have you made a simself?
Lucinda is enough of simself. I think. She has my appearance for the most part, and tbh, she's my vent OC so I guess?...
10. What sim traits do you give yourself?
I DON'T KNOW. WAIIIIT I searched for the post-reblog with traits, so yeeeeeah I found it! My brain doesn't know English today bc I just forgot how the traits translates in English, so....
LONER 🐺 DOG LOVER 🐕 PARANOID 👀 GLOOMY 🌧️ BOOKWORM 📚
11. Which is your favorite EA hair color?
ALL THE NEW 6 COLOURS SIMS ADDED IDK 2 YEARS AGO?? BUT ESP THE NEW BLACK & NEW VERY BLOND SOFT ALMOST WHITE COLOUR IIIII CAN'T HAVE ENOUGH OF ITTTTTTTT
12. Favorite EA hair?
Wait, howwww they even look? I haven't used any EA hair in the recent months or even years, so I had to look them up in CAS lmaooooo. Okay, so! Probably all HYS & Growing Together hair, almost all black hairstyles! AND I LOVE DREAM HOME DECORATOR AND NIFTY KNITTING HAIR!!! they're so good wowwwww! and i'm a fucking fan of Paranormal mullet! AND ALL THE HAIR FROM COTTAGE LIVING TOO! The way I didn't know about them until I started writing this tag 👁️👁️👁️
13. Favorite life stage?
YOUND ADULT. I'm scared of aging and death everywhere, so I have NEVER played a sim older than young adult. It may be oversharing (which is my love language btw and I just can't shut up SO BEAR WITH ME and my loud personality here), but the only thought about elders make me extremely sad and almost makes me hystericly cry for hours- NO IM NOT OKAY but my phychiatrist says it's getting better you know!!!! ALSO. My god infants are incredible cute and I love playing with kids because my god they're so adorable in game! I'm a child hater btw, but the game infants are super cute!
14. Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay?
I'm sorry but NEITHER. But if i need to choose, I'm choosing building because it's so good but also! Not nessecerealy building, but decorating! I don't build I'm fucking dumb & scared of floorplans, roofs and terrain painting. But decorating? Anytime, please!!
15. Are you a CC creator?
NO- At least yet, but we'll see! Btw, I almost forgot that I wanted to recreate a fucking pose from the sexy french anti-smoking campaign poster 👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️
16. Do you have any simblr friends/a sim squad?
!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY MUTUALS ARE MY FRIENDS BY THE ONLY FACT WE'RE MUTUALS EVEN IF WE INTERACT ONE TIME YOU'RE MY FRIEND AND I'D KILL FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
17. What’s your favorite game?
Ummm... Bloodborne & The Forest & Alien: Isolation?? But if we're talking about Sims, then it's TS2! The townies are the best although I didn't really grew up on The Sims in the way most simmers did, I played TS2 with my older sister all the time and this game has such amazing humor (although yeah it's pretty crude and mature BUT THAT'S SO COOL WWAAAAAAH) and personality, It's super good!
18. Do you have any sims merch?
DO YOU NOT KNOW HOW MUCH DELIVERY TO GERMANY COSTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Although I want to have the merch maybe like?? Plumbob headphones or like headband? That would be so cool!
19. Do you have a YouTube for sims?
NO. I wanted to be simtuber for some time, but I'm too scared of hate that comes with particiapating in youtube community, so NEVER THANK YOU!
20. How has your “sim style” changed throughout your years of playing?
I have no idea, I'm sorry. And I don't really have my much older sims or screenshots or save files? But I think I started being more risky and using much more CC and using heavy alpha CC which I adore! Also, my sims started to become more and more gorey and dark-themed. Like- I feel like my sims were less horror-like few years before, they were casual occults. GOD I HOPE ONE DAY WE CAN HAVE TRUE BODY HORROR (MORE EYES PLEASE!!!!!!!! I WANT MY SIMS TO HAVE EYEBALLS EVERYWHERE ON THEIR BODY AND I WANT THEM INSECTS GROWING UNDER THEIR SKIN PLLLLSSS!), like imagine having open lungs. more than two hangs or other body parts?? OR BLOODY DEER ANTLERS OR- sorry im fucking unhinged and maybe one day I'd get my lazy ass and create it all myself BECAUSE I CLEARLY NEED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
21. What’s your Origin ID?
It's a secret. There's nothing and I was banned for piracy while sharing sims (no CC ones btw, and they were fucking normal like USUAL sims) TWICE. So nope!
22. Who’s your favorite CC creator?
I have 300+ GB mods folder how do i answer this.... Okay, let's do it! And BTW, I'm scared of tagging creators and tagging in general, so I won't do it this time so I won't spam or annoy anyone and won't be this anxious myself.
@pralinesims EVAN I'M SORRY BUT I'M TOTALLY TAGGING YOU!!! You- First of all, as I remember, you were the first creator with whom my journey with CC began and even then, you had a superior quality CC, and it was and still is the best CC content ever! I know I've said it a million times before, but! Your CC is a true must-have for me, I literally can't imagine CAS without it, it changes so much and adds necessary little details that give my sims a lot more personality :') AND SPECIAL THANK YOU FOR THE GORE!!!! gore forever!! I love gore!! AND FOR THE EYES!!
@lady-moriel (I know I tagged you twice in this post, but it's for a different purpose 😭😭 pls forgive me) has the most amazing fantasy/ occult cc which is really high quality AND MY GOD THE ARMOR!! AND DRUID STUFF!! It's so unique and done just so amazingly, all the details- it looks beautiful in game and I fucking swear, I can't live without your CC! And I still can't get over your Leshey set, because my god... I can talk about it for hours, it's just- It's a perfection, and you need to know that it's only thanks to you I can have literally Zone Blanche in my game-
Now, creators I'm afraid to tag in this ramble thingy. IT'S GOING TO BE SUPER LONG SO BE PREPARED LMAOOO
23. How long have you had a simblr?
Favorite skin details/skins creators — @/obscurus-sims, @/northernsiberiawinds, @/poyopoyosim, @/ddarkstonee, @/sims3melancholic, @/lamatisse, @/nesurii, @/angissi, @/twisted-cat, @/squea, @/thisisthem, @/simbience, @/sammi-xox
Favorite presets creators — @kashisun (!!!!), @/hi-land, @/viagosims, @/cinnasims, @/meeshi, @/ssspringroll, @/sammi-xox, @/arenetta
Favorite clothes creators — @/backtrack-cc, @/eunosims, @/nucrests, @/gorillax3-cc, @/plbsims, @/lumysims, @/trillyke, @/amelylinaa, @/arethabee, @/liliili-sims4, @/cinnamon-sims I don't remember more I'm sorry- I use much cc but do I remember creator names? mainly not 😭😭 my brain is not braining i-
Favorite hair creators - @/sheabuttyr, @/simandy @/ebonixsims, @/icchixxxxxx1, @/clumsyalienn, @falsogod, @/0o0ghost0o0, anto, @/leahlillith, @/aladdin-the-simmer, @/simstrouble, @/zaozzaa, darknighTt on tsr, @/1-800-cuupid THERE'S SO MUCH I'M JUST DUMB AND I HAVE MEMORY LIKE A FISH-
I came here in March, I believe! So like... 3 months? And my god I never felt this accepted in any community before, although begging was very scary and still is a bit, but the more I shared my OCs, edits and screenshots with you, the more accepted and loved I felt and my god, this is such an amazing feeling when you see how everyone share their amazing creativity and love for franchise and just- It's truly amazing to see everyone's amazing creativity and I still can't believe how different everyone's sims and game is! IT'S JUST SO COOL! I love seeing such different and unique visions being connected by the one game.
24. How do you edit your pictures?
OOOH It's a lot! First of all, I have pretty heavy and detailed reshade (but my PC is very much okay with this, so don't worry), I have a couple of favorite presets that make the game look SO MUCH DIFFERENT AHH! But keep in mind that I change a lot of settings and have my MXAO's set differently. The ultimate favorite of mine is Softee preset by Lustrousims! Its truly amazing and I use it every time. What I love about it is colour scheme and the way it DOES work with POC sims which is AMAZING! So for gameplay or build (which i have like... three, maybe?) or cas posts I don't really edit anything, maybe use a couple of color ajustments + dust + light leaks + resolution enchance + blur background a bit or make some details pop, but that's all!
But when It comes to my edits.... I do use blender, so you can see a few of my renders here. I edit them and in-game pictures either in GIMP or Photoshop (I pirate it too btw) for psd actions or if i'm editing while at work or while going somewhere - i use mobile editing apps such as Photoshop Express & Lightroom, Glitch Lab, Polarr, Vaporgram! Sometimes mobile apps are more useful for specific things than GIMP or Photoshop on PC lmaooo, so yeah.
Thirdly, I enchance resolution on PC by Topaz AI and on mobile with Remini, which is super useful because it does add details and really unblur pics.
25. What expansion/game/stuff pack is your favorite so far?
OKAY SO. Please keep in mind that my opinion may be weird, but that's because I never paid a single euro for The Sims 4, I KNOW most of TS4 packs and content in general is super overpriced and bad if you keep in mind how much you paid for it, but I haven't, I have it all for free, so I just mostly enjoy everything when I truly explore or play it. I do still shame EA tho lmaoo.
Expansions: Get to Work (mainly because of aliens and active careers), Cottage Living (HAVE YOU SEEN THE CUTEST COWS??HAVE YOU SEEN THEM??), Cats & Dogs, Growing Together, Island Living.
Game packs: Vampires (OBVIOUSLY!), Strangerville, Realm of Magic, Werewolves
Stuff packs: PARANORMAL, Vintage Glamour, Movie Hangout Nifty Knitting, Tiny Living, Laundry Day!
26. What expansion/game/stuff pack do you want next?
Okay, sooooooo......
Expansion: music groups & choirs & opera pack that will bring more ACTIVE careers for musicians, more music instruments, PLEASE GIVE ME OPERA AND BALLET THEATERS (... my russian side truly wants to have it, like pls), tours and trip-hop as in-game genre! Also, It would be amazing if they'll add something like church choirs or something like that.
Game pack: FAIRIES. And bigfoot. Please. I want to have those in my game so bad! Also, I think it would be amazing if we'd another pack where we'll get the whole funeral system, like funerals and graveyards! I WANT TO HAVE THOSE SO BAD. And I want this pack to have maybe mortician career. maybe even an active one? As well as active funerals, more coffins with cross-pack compability so that vampires can sleep in them too. Also! You know this message your sim sometimes get about their very far relative passing away and giving them money? I want it expanded & it's a great ability to add an option for a sim to own a multiple homes and apartments, like having their own and the house that was passed for them by a grand-someone.
Stuff packs: something for toddlers and infants, maybe including functional strollers & new interactive toys (like a mini piano or a book that can sing them songs) and more clothes and bb objests. I think we need more gameplay for toddlers and infants! And also, maybe a separate stuff pack for kids? ALSO WE FUCKING NEED THE SPOOKY STUFF REFRESH!
Lastly, I'm tagging @alinelie, @lady-moriel, @lunarspellsims, @noeyinthemist, @the-daydream-archives, @2013trait, @isthisdesire98. I know it's not a lot of you, but I don't remember who I've seen doing this tag, so yeah! Please feel free to ignore this and I also apologize in case I annoyed you. I hope you're having a good day! I love you all just so much!
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Dawn Of The Simfected Set-Up
Meet Charles, a nightshift dock worker, a loner that likes to curl up with a good book and avoid social interactions. When the neighbours start to get a bit bitey, Charles manages to avoid becoming a Sim-burger and finds himself in charge of a small group trying to make it to tomorrow and not only survive but thrive. Or do they? Try the challenge and see.
To begin:
When selecting a new game, select the story option where you answer questions to create a Sim. Select young adult and then just click randomly on the answers. Don't change too much about the Sim created. You can also use https://perchance.org/random-sim-generator. Best is to start with a male Sim.
Your Sims will have to be tested for the virus on a regular basis. The test is simple, just roll the dice and if you get even numbers, your Sim is safe. Uneven number means your Sim is infected so roll again and if you roll even numbers, they stay alive. Uneven numbers means your Sim didn't make it. If your Sims rolls clean or survive, they are immune for two rolls. When your Sim “dies” because of a roll, you can either have them die for real and have Grim come get them or change them into a zombie and move them out.
Start in Spring in San Myshuno in 17 Culpepper House in the spice market. Set life span to long and seasons to max, turn off the celebrity system, turn on the basic living system in lot challenges and you're only allowed to have the cheapest of the cheap furniture. Open the calendar and go to the first day of autumn. Create a holiday called "supply run" and choose fighting as a tradition(this holiday can be deleted once done). After a few days in game, go to the first day spring and create a holiday called "The Beginning" so your Sims can always celebrate this day. Set funds to $500.
Go to Strangerville to the Sigworth household. Give Jess the pack items(by pressing shift on Jess and going to pack cheats), put her in a hazmat suite and open all the doors to the motherplant at the secret lab to activate the Strangeville storie. When she returns to her lot, zombie proof it the way you'd think someone with a military background and in a hurry would do. Give her ammo, a weapon and a radio from the zombie mod and listen to the broadcast to activate the zombie event. Do one event every day for 3 days.
Mods for this challenge:
⦁ Deaderpool's MC Command Center
⦁ Sacrificial's Zombie, Life Manager, Release Bladder Anywhere
⦁ Zero's historical mods
⦁ Turbodriver's Wicked or Wonderful whims
⦁ Frankk's Language Barrier
⦁ LittleMsSam's Miscarriage
⦁ Pandasama's Child Birth
⦁ NeedCoffee4That's Begging and Pick-pocket
⦁ Lumpinou's RPO Collection and Rambunctious Religions
⦁ Midnitetech's Hunter, Gatherer and Crafter careers
When moving over to stage:
⦁ Kuttoe's Enlist in war
⦁ adeepindigo Health redux
⦁ Basemental's drugs and gangs
Supernaturals are "infected" so they can't be added to your household.
World Setup:
Rooftop lot in the City: should be on one of the roofs with a campfire, generator, water tower, tents, washing line and tub. This lot will have water and power but the simple living trait.
In the spice district create a clinic lot with a army feel to it on one of the ground lots in the spice district.
Create a groceries store in the city.
Build a vet clinic that doubles as a hospital. Willow Creek, Newcrest, Windenburg, Evergreen, Mt. Komberi, Tartosa and San Sequoia are all available.
Build a "trader" post on the bar lots in Henford, Brindelton, Chestnut and Sulani.
Build a military base in Oasis Springs with family housing
Build a science facility in Strangerville with family housing
In Henford, Brindleton and Chestnut on the largest lot build a town (think Hilltop from The Walking Dead). Make it a rental property so many Sims can live in your town.
All towns are destroyed. It's the apocalypse, seed your worlds accordingly.
This challenge is ever evolving. I'm trying to use every world, every pack and use every bit of what Sims 4 has to offer.
Next post you'll get to meet the Sims your going to find in game. I've uploaded most of them to the gallery already or you can create your own. Gallery ID: suesimming
#the sims 4#gaming#simblr#thesims4#the sims challenge#the sims gameplay#the sims legacy#thesims#simfected#simfection#thesims4 simblr#DawnOfTheSimfected#the sims community#sims 4#sims#apocalypse#post apocalyptic#zombie
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7 Steps to Help You Find the Perfect Recruitment Process Outsourcing Software
You’ve decided that recruitment process outsourcing software is the way to go, but you’re not sure which specific RPO software best meets your business needs? The good news is that there are many different options available on the market, but the bad news is that choosing the right one can be a challenge. The following 7 steps will help you take the guesswork out of finding the perfect recruitment process outsourcing software solution so you can get down to business and start making real progress with your RPO project.
Step 1: Have an Idea of What You Need
Without a doubt, the first step in finding any software is having an understanding of what you need it to do. The same goes for recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) software. Before beginning your search, ask yourself some key questions:
-What specific tasks do you need the software to perform?
-How will the software fit into your current recruitment process?
-What is your budget?
-What level of customer support do you need?
Step 2: Be Realistic
Trying to find software that will do everything you want is a recipe for disaster. Be realistic about your needs and wants and you'll be able to find a software that's perfect for your business.
1. Make a list of your must-haves and nice-to-haves.
2. Research, research, research! Try out demos and free trials.
3. Check out online reviews.
4. Compare pricing plans.
5. Get input from your team.
6. Make a decision and go with it!
7. Don't forget to review and update your list as your business grows and changes
Step 3: Read Reviews From Clients and Potential Customers
When you’re looking for a software, it’s important to get input from people who have actually used it. Reviews can help you understand the pros and cons of a software and see if it’s the right fit for your business.
To get started, try reading online reviews from trusted sources like Capterra or G2 Crowd. You can also check out recruitment forums to see what users are saying about different software options.
When you’re talking to potential customers, be sure to ask them about their experience with the software and if they would recommend it to others. This will give you a well-rounded view of the software and help you make a decision.
Step 4: Check Out the Company’s Website
When you’re looking for the perfect recruitment process outsourcing software, it’s important to do your research. Checking out a company’s website is a great way to learn more about them. See if they have any case studies or testimonials from happy customers. Also, take a look at their blog to see if they provide helpful resources that can assist you in your search for the perfect software.
Step 5: Test Out the Software Before Hiring Them
Many companies make the mistake of not testing out the software before hiring them. This can be a costly mistake, as you may find that the software doesn't meet your needs or is difficult to use. Before making a decision, take some time to test out the software yourself. This will help you make sure that it's the right fit for your company.
Step 6: Ask Around From Other People Who’ve Used The Same Software
When you’re narrowing down your options for recruitment process outsourcing software, it’s important to get input from other people who have used the software. They can give you insights about things you may not have considered. Here are a few questions to ask:
-How easy is the software to use?
-Is the customer service responsive?
-What kind of results have you seen?
-Would you recommend it to others?
-What do you wish was different about the software?
-What features do you find most helpful?
-Is there anything else I should know about the software?
Step 7. Don’t Rush Into Any Decision
The decision of whether or not to outsource your recruitment process is a big one. It’s important that you take the time to do your research and find a software that will work best for your company. There are a lot of options out there, so don’t feel like you have to make a decision right away. Sleep on it, talk to other businesses in your industry, and get as much information as you can before making a final decision.
Recruitment process outsourcing software may sound like a buzzword, but it’s an essential tool in the corporate world these days. Whether you’re recruiting new employees or applying to jobs yourself, you’ll find that there are numerous advantages to using recruitment process outsourcing software — and even more disadvantages if you choose not to use it. If you want to know what recruitment process outsourcing software can do for your company, read on to discover seven steps you can take to find the perfect recruitment process outsourcing software.
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What is High Availability Architecture?
High Availability Definition
A highly available architecture involves multiple components working together to ensure uninterrupted service during a specific period. This also includes the response time to users’ requests. Namely, available systems have to be not only online, but also responsive.
Implementing a cloud computing architecture that enables this is key to ensuring the continuous operation of critical applications and services. They stay online and responsive even when various component failures occur or when a system is under high stress.
Highly available systems include the capability to recover from unexpected events in the shortest time possible. By moving the processes to backup components, these systems minimize downtime or eliminate it. This usually requires constant maintenance, monitoring, and initial in-depth tests to confirm that there are no weak points.
High availability environments include complex server clusters with system software for continuous monitoring of the system’s performance. The top priority is to avoid unplanned equipment downtime. If a piece of hardware fails, it must not cause a complete halt of service during the production time.
Staying operational without interruptions is especially crucial for large organizations. In such settings, a few minutes lost can lead to a loss of reputation, customers, and thousands of dollars. Highly available computer systems allow glitches as long as the level of usability does not impact business operations.
A highly available infrastructure has the following traits:
Hardware redundancy
Software and application redundancy
Data redundancy
The single points of failure eliminated
How To Calculate High Availability Uptime Percentage?
Availability is measured by how much time a specific system stays fully operational during a particular period, usually a year.
It is expressed as a percentage. Note that uptime does not necessarily have to mean the same as availability. A system may be up and running, but not available to the users. The reasons for this may be network or load balancing issues.
The uptime is usually expressed by using the grading with five 9’s of availability.
If you decide to go for a hosted solution, this will be defined in the Service Level Agreement (SLA). A grade of “one nine” means that the guaranteed availability is 90%. Today, most organizations and businesses require having at least “three nines,” i.e., 99.9% of availability.
Businesses have different availability needs. Those that need to remain operational around the clock throughout the year will aim for “five nines,” 99.999% of uptime. It may seem like 0.1% does not make that much of a difference. However, when you convert this to hours and minutes, the numbers are significant.
Refer to the table of nines to see the maximum downtime per year every grade involves:
As the table shows, the difference between 99% and 99.9% is substantial.
Note that it is measured in days per year, not hours or minutes. The higher you go on the scale of availability, the cost of the service will increase as well.
How to calculate downtime? It is essential to measure downtime for every component that may affect the proper functioning of a part of the system, or the entire system. Scheduled system maintenance must be a part of the availability measurements. Such planned downtimes also cause a halt to your business, so you should pay attention to that as well when setting up your IT environment.
As you can tell, 100% availability level does not appear in the table.
Simply put, no system is entirely failsafe. Additionally, the switch to backup components will take some period, be that milliseconds, minutes, or hours.
How to Achieve High Availability
Businesses looking to implement high availability solutions need to understand multiple components and requirements necessary for a system to qualify as highly available. To ensure business continuity and operability, critical applications and services need to be running around the clock. Best practices for achieving high availability involve certain conditions that need to be met. Here are 4 Steps to Achieving 99.999% Reliability and Uptime.
1. Eliminate Single Points of Failure High Availability vs. Redundancy
The critical element of high availability systems is eliminating single points of failure by achieving redundancy on all levels. No matter if there is a natural disaster, a hardware or power failure, IT infrastructures must have backup components to replace the failed system.
There are different levels of component redundancy. The most common of them are:
The N+1 model includes the amount of the equipment (referred to as ‘N’) needed to keep the system up. It is operational with one independent backup component for each of the components in case a failure occurs. An example would be using an additional power supply for an application server, but this can be any other IT component. This model is usually active/passive. Backup components are on standby, waiting to take over when a failure happens. N+1 redundancy can also be active/active. In that case, backup components are working even when primary components function correctly. Note that the N+1 model is not an entirely redundant system.
The N+2 model is similar to N+1. The difference is that the system would be able to withstand the failure of two same components. This should be enough to keep most organizations up and running in the high nines.
The 2N model contains double the amount of every individual component necessary to run the system. The advantage of this model is that you do not have to take into consideration whether there was a failure of a single component or the whole system. You can move the operations entirely to the backup components.
The 2N+1 model provides the same level of availability and redundancy as 2N with the addition of another component for improved protection.
The ultimate redundancy is achieved through geographic redundancy.
That is the only mechanism against natural disasters and other events of a complete outage. In this case, servers are distributed over multiple locations in different areas.
The sites should be placed in separate cities, countries, or even continents. That way, they are entirely independent. If a catastrophic failure happens in one location, another would be able to pick up and keep the business running.
This type of redundancy tends to be extremely costly. The wisest decision is to go for a hosted solution from one of the providers with data centers located around the globe.
Next to power outages, network failures represent one of the most common causes of business downtime.
For that reason, the network must be designed in such a way that it stays up 24/7/365. To achieve 100% network service uptime, there have to be alternate network paths. Each of them should have redundant enterprise-grade switches and routers.
2. Data Backup and recovery
Data safety is one of the biggest concerns for every business. A high availability system must have sound data protection and disaster recovery plans.
An absolute must is to have proper backups. Another critical thing is the ability to recover in case of a data loss quickly, corruption, or complete storage failure. If your business requires low RTOs and RPOs and you cannot afford to lose data, the best option to consider is using data replication. There are many backup plans to choose from, depending on your business size, requirements, and budget.
Data backup and replication go hand in hand with IT high availability. Both should be carefully planned. Creating full backups on a redundant infrastructure is vital for ensuring data resilience and must not be overlooked.
3. Automatic failover with Failure Detection
In a highly available, redundant IT infrastructure, the system needs to instantly redirect requests to a backup system in case of a failure. This is called failover. Early failure detections are essential for improving failover times and ensuring maximum systems availability.
One of the software solutions we recommend for high availability is Carbonite Availability. It is suitable for any infrastructure, whether it is virtual or physical.
For fast and flexible cloud-based infrastructure failover and failback, you can turn to Cloud Replication for Veeam. The failover process applies to either a whole system or any of its parts that may fail. Whenever a component fails or a web server stops responding, failover must be seamless and occur in real-time.
The process looks like this:
There is Machine 1 with its clone Machine 2, usually referred to as Hot Spare.
Machine 2 continually monitors the status of Machine 1 for any issues.
Machine 1 encounters an issue. It fails or shuts down due to any number of reasons.
Machine 2 automatically comes online. Every request is now routed to Machine 2 instead of Machine 1. This happens without any impact to end users. They are not even aware there are any issues with Machine 1.
When the issue with the failed component is fixed, Machine 1 and Machine 2 resume their initial roles
The duration of the failover process depends on how complicated the system is. In many cases, it will take a couple of minutes. However, it can also take several hours.
Planning for high availability must be based on all these considerations to deliver the best results. Each system component needs to be in line with the ultimate goal of achieving 99.999 percent availability and improve failover times.
4. Load Balancing
A load balancer can be a hardware device or a software solution. Its purpose is to distribute applications or network traffic across multiple servers and components. The goal is to improve overall operational performance and reliability.
It optimizes the use of computing and network resources by efficiently managing loads and continuously monitoring the health of the backend servers.
How does a load balancer decide which server to select?
Many different methods can be used to distribute load across a server pool. Choosing the one for your workloads will depend on multiple factors. Some of them include the type of application that is served, the status of the network, and the status of the backend servers. A load balancer decides which algorithm to use according to the current amount of incoming requests.
Some of the most common load balancing algorithms are:
Round Robin. With Round Robin, the load balancer directs requests to the first server in line. It will move down the list to the last one and then start from the beginning. This method is easy to implement, and it is widely used. However, it does not take into consideration if servers have different hardware configurations and if they can overload faster.
Least Connection. In this case, the load balancer will select the server with the least number of active connections. When a request comes in, the load balancer will not assign a connection to the next server on the list, as is the case with Round Robin. Instead, it will look for one with the least current connections. Least connection method is especially useful to avoid overloading your web servers in cases where sessions last for a long time.
Source IP hash. This algorithm will determine which server to select according to the source IP address of the request. The load balancer creates a unique hash key using the source and destination IP address. Such a key enables it always to direct a user’s request to the same server.
Load balancers indeed play a prominent role in achieving a highly available infrastructure. However, merely having a load balancer does not mean that you have a high system availability.
If a configuration with a load balancer only routes the traffic to decrease the load on a single machine, that does not make a system highly available.
By implementing redundancy for the load balancer itself, you can eliminate it as a single point of failure.
In Closing: Implement High Availability Architecture
No matter what size and type of business you run, any kind of service downtime can be costly without a cloud disaster recovery solution.
Even worse, it can bring permanent damage to your reputation. By applying a series of best practices listed above, you can reduce the risk of losing your data. You also minimize the possibilities of having production environment issues.
Your chances of being offline are higher without a high availability system.
From that perspective, the cost of downtime dramatically surpasses the costs of a well-designed IT infrastructure. In recent years, hosted and cloud computing solutions have become more popular than in-house solutions support. The main reason for this is the fact it reduces IT costs and adds more flexibility.
No matter which solution you go for, the benefits of a high availability system are numerous:
You save money and time as there is no need to rebuild lost data due to storage or other system failures. In some cases, it is impossible to recover your data after an outage. That can have a disastrous impact on your business.
Less downtime means less impact on users and clients. If your availability is measured in five nines, that means almost no service disruption. This leads to better productivity of your employees and guarantees customer satisfaction.
The performance of your applications and services will be improved.
You will avoid fines and penalties if you do not meet the contract SLAs due to a server issue.
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Is the good version of Mitchell Trubisky for real or a fluke?
Mitchell Trubisky has had a couple of solid performances for the Bears after a mostly rough 2019.
This week, Geoff Schwartz discusses whether you can trust Trubisky’s recent performances, where he’d like to see Ron Rivera coach, and which teams he’d want to run his favorite plays.
Welcome to the Friday mailbag, Week 14 edition. It’s been a busy past few days. Ron Rivera was fired in Carolina, while things aren’t looking good for Jason Garrett after the Cowboys lost again on Thursday night, this time on the road to the Bears.
We got some awesome questions as usual, so thanks for that. Please don’t hesitate to hit me up on Twitter or Instagram if you have questions for next time.
This week, we’ll start with some recent developments in the NFL and then end with possibly my favorite question I’ve gotten so far.
Has Mitchell Trubisky really turned a corner, or are his latest performances a fluke? —@cater123
No, no he hasn’t. I know we love to get excited about recent performances because we are a reactionary culture, but that’s not me. I tell y’all how it is, even if it’s not happy news. And while Trubisky has played better of late, he hasn’t even played up to his levels from last season.
Here’s a good tweet showing his EPA from this year to last:
Let's remember that going into 2019 the thought was "Trubisky needs to take a big step forward".
He hasn't. Last night was his best game in terms of EPA/play all year. He had four games better than that last year.
2018: 0.17 EPA/Play
2019: 0.00 EPA/Play
He's gotten worse. pic.twitter.com/bVbSObiBhj
— Lee Sharpe (@LeeSharpeNFL) December 6, 2019
He’s barely been above replacement this season, and using a two-game sample size against the miserable Lions and the half-ass Cowboys is a bad faith argument for his future success.
Some of his better play the last two weeks is on coach Matt Nagy, who’s been dialing up quicker passes where Trubisky doesn’t have to think as much. Also, using his legs more often is a huge plus for Trubisky, who is able to run well.
All of this makes the offense look competent lately but remember, we need to look at the schedule as well. The Bears beat the Lions (definitely not a defensive juggernaut) and a lifeless Cowboys team. Next, they get the Packers, Chiefs, and Vikings to finish out the season. We will know more after those games, but I don’t think it goes well.
If you’re a Bears fan, do you want Trubisky to play well? If he plays well, the Bears are likely to be more excited about picking up his fifth-year option, which would be a mistake. It’s rare for quarterbacks to be below replacement over their first two starting seasons and then turn into an elite player. And guess what? Trubisky was drafted second overall. He SHOULD be elite.
We often don’t take into account where a player was drafted when we evaluate them. Is it Trubisky’s fault these are the expectations? Nope, but that’s what happens when you’re drafted that high. So that’s how Trubisky should be graded. Just being “OK” or average isn’t good enough.
Where would you like to see Ron Rivera coach next? — @bearsforfears
I don’t think Rivera would ever take this gig, but I’d love to see him in Cleveland. The Browns are super talented, but they need an adult leading them, not a coach who’s wearing t- shirts mocking his division rivals.
Rivera, as he stated in his farewell press conference, often had to be the public relations arm for the Panthers during some of the controversies they’ve had. The owner never spoke and the general manager rarely did. And the team stayed together, played hard, and won games. Rivera knows how to manage a wide range of personalities, and he connects with this players because he’s a former one. He’d bring some much-needed discipline to the Browns.
It’s fourth-and-3 at midfield with $1 million on the line? What’s your play and 2019 team to run it? — @JDB_219
Oh my, what a question. I love it. Thank you. And there’s so much to discuss here, and I’m going to expand on this a bit to discuss my favorite plays in general.
I think the easy answer right now would be some RPO-type play with Lamar Jackson on the edge. No one can tackle him. And if they try, you’d hope he can hit the “pass” option for a first down. I love plays with multiple options.
But to expand on this question, three plays come to mind that I’d use in this situation, assuming you have the personnel to make it happen. The first play I’d use is mesh or mesh sit. It’s an excellent play against man coverage, as the slot receivers crossing near each other could knock off potential man defenders. Or, if it’s zone, they just sit in the hole. I love the addition of the running back against man coverage.
The second is “Hoss Y Juke,” a favorite play of the New England Patriots. It’s an awesome concept and has answers for everything. Plus, it spreads out the defense and you can see the entire picture before the snap.
What makes this play so versatile is you don’t need to have the tight end in the slot to make it happen. You can stay in base personnel, flex the tight end out wide, put your best WR in the slot, and get a great mismatch. Look at how the Patriots used this in last year’s Super Bowl:
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The Pats threw to Julian Edelman on the first play, followed by a hitch to the RB against man coverage on the second. On the third, they hit the seam against single high. Amazing.
The third one I’d pick is for the 49ers to run the Y throwback play. You’d need some big stones to call this for $1 million and would need to make sure there’s no pressure by the defense on this play or the QB won’t have the time. But it’s almost always open and always catch for a long gain.
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Five Things the Eagles Need to Fix to Return to the Super Bowl
Let’s get it back to the Eagles.
Training camp starts this week, which means… not a whole lot really, but its a hell of a lot better than voluntary workouts and mandatory minicamp. It means we’re getting closer to the first preseason game, which will be played on August 8th, at home, against the Titans. That’s just 17 days away.
I figure the theme surrounding this Eagles’ season is “Super Bowl or bust.” Fair? I think so. We’re talking about a team that has what it takes to get back to the big game, and if this truly is “the new norm,” as Doug Pederson said after the 2017 victory parade, then we should be expecting nothing less than an NFC East title and Super Bowl 54 appearance.
Here are five things I think the Eagles need to fix to get back to their marauding and highly-efficient 2017 form, a list that does not include “staying healthy.” That’s obvious. No duh they need to stay healthy, and if they can’t, then it might be another slog of a season here in Philly.
Real points here:
1. Downfield passing and explosive plays
The Birds took a step back in the big plays department last season, as Carson Wentz completed just 37 passes of 20 yards or more and only five passes that went for more than 40 yards. Those numbers were down from 40 and nine in 2017, respectively.
If it feels like that first batch of numbers is low, it’s because, well, it is. It really is. For context, Pat Mahomes led the NFL with 75 passes of 20+ yards and 15 passes of 40+ yards. Closer to the middle, you had a guy like Matt Ryan, who threw 56 passes of 20+ yards and nine passes of 40+ yards.
Carson just wasn’t getting the football down the field, partly because the Eagles lost Mike Wallace in week two and simply didn’t have a deep threat on the roster, but also because he just wasn’t pushing the ball down the field with the frequency or accuracy that he was in years prior.
I put his 2017 and 2018 charts side by side so you can take a look for yourself. These are via the NFL’s NextGen Stats page, and portions of the field in green and yellow are above and at the league average, while red is below league average (after the jump):
Carson was excellent throwing deep to his left on the few occasions he did this season, but he really fell off in the other two deep areas, putting up passer ratings of 20.8 and 26.3, down from 67.0 and 79.9 in 2018. That’s why you need to look at his 2018 numbers with nuance, because while he did improve his completion percentage by 9.4 points, he threw a lot shorter on average last year, frequently hitting Zach Ertz, for example, on shorter routes.
To illustrate it another way, we can use the “explosive plays” metric, which has become more popular in recent years.
At Sharp Football Stats, an explosive running play is defined as a play that goes for 10 or more yards, while an explosive passing play goes for 15 or more.
In 2018, the Eagles put up these explosive play numbers:
32 explosive runs (24th in NFL)
44 explosive passes (16th in NFL)
9% combined overall explosive play rate (25th in NFL)
They just weren’t ripping off huge chunks of yards on a consistent basis, and while they did successfully chew up the clock and control the game with some long and sustained drives, being able to stretch the field and make big plays was something they really did not do enough of in 2018.
2. Give and take
Turnovers were a killer last year, and one of the categories where the Eagles fell apart most significantly from the Super Bowl campaign.
Case in point, here’s how the team did in 2017:
19 interceptions (4th best)
12 fumble recoveries (4th best)
31 takeaways (4th best)
9 interceptions thrown (6th fewest)
11 fumbles lost (8th most)
20 giveaways (tied for 11th best)
+11 turnover margin (4th)
Excellent stuff across the board. The Eagles had a fumbling problem on offense, but Carson Wentz and Nick Foles threw few interceptions while the Birds defense finished top-five with 31 total takeaways. All of that combined resulted in the team finishing with the NFL’s fourth-best turnover margin.
Here are the 2018 numbers:
10 interceptions (25th)
7 fumble recoveries (19th)
17 takeaways (22nd)
11 interceptions thrown (10th fewest)
12 fumbles lost (3rd most)
23 giveaways (12th most)
-6 turnover margin (25th)
Everything fell off, and rather significantly, too, resulting in a -17 overall turnover margin swing from 2017 to 2018. That’s a massive drop, from 4th in the NFL all the way down to 25th.
The one positive here is that interceptions were a top-10 number in both seasons, so it wasn’t like the Eagles were getting picked off left and right. Wentz’s problems last year were in the fumbling department, and if he’s healthy and more mobile, then he’ll probably do a better job of protecting the football and moving around the pocket than he did last season.
3. Running the football
Sometimes I think we forget how efficient the Birds were when running the ball in 2017.
They put up these regular season numbers:
473 attempts (6th most)
4.5 yards per attempt (3rd best)
132 yards per game (3rd)
They only scored nine touchdowns on the ground that year, and fumbled a league-worst 11 times, but the important thing is that they remained committed to the run and didn’t fall too far into the that lopsided pass/run skew that we had seen at times from Doug Pederson, which was a byproduct of his time working with Andy Reid.
Last year, the Eagles did this in the run game:
398 attempts (20th)
3.9 yards per attempt (30th)
98.1 yards per game (28th)
It was a struggle across the board, and because they didn’t run well, they didn’t pass as well either, being unable to use the same play-action and RPO looks with the efficiency you saw in the year prior.
Jordan Howard will help with this, certainly as a guy who has run for 1,000 yards twice in his three-year NFL career. The Eagles will still pass the ball about 55-60% of the time in a typical game, but having a legitimate first and second down back as opposed to the rotating cast of Josh Adams, Wendell Smallwood, and others, should really help opens things back up.
In simpler terms, the Eagles must listen to these guys:
4. Get off the field on 3rd and 4th down
Believe it or not, there was not a huge statistical drop off in the first category.
In 2017, the Eagles finished 3rd in the NFL as they held opposing teams to a 33.6 third down conversation percentage. Last year, that number was 36.2%, which was 8th overall in the league.
So the decline there was not as bad as I thought it would be when I looked into the numbers. They went from ‘elite’ to ‘very good,’ in third down defense, which you can certainly live with.
The problem was fourth down, where this happened:
2017: opponents converted 4 of 18 fourth down attempts (22.2%, tied for #1 in the NFL)
2018: opponents converted 11 of 19 fourth down attempts (57.9%, 19th in the NFL)
That really just killed the Eagles last year. It cost them the Tennessee game and bit them in the butt on too many other occasions.
That manifested itself in time of possession as well, where the Eagles actually finished 4th overall in 2018, but #1 overall in 2017. Similar to the third down number, the margins there aren’t very wide, but think about what would have happened if the Birds were able to get off the field on fourth down closer to a 30-35% opponent rate instead of 57.9%. They again likely would have been #1 in the league at controlling time of possession.
These plays were just total killers:
What in the world is Corey Graham defending? pic.twitter.com/ZPfhpVJzc0
— Joe Giglio (@JoeGiglioSports) September 30, 2018
5. Bully defenses in the red zone
I wrote an entire sidebar on this topic, but it’s worth repeating some of those points in this article because it’s uber-important that the Birds improve here.
In 2017, Philly finished 2nd in the NFL with a 64.06 touchdown percentage in the red zone. That number dropped to 59.02 last year, which pulled the Birds all the way down to 17th overall.
That happened despite the team putting up 365 yards per game, which was the same exact number they put up in 2017. That season, those 365 yards became 28.6 points per game, while this past year the number dropped to 22.9. They were moving the ball between the twenties, they just weren’t putting it into the end zone with the required frequency.
Carson Wentz has a lot to work with this year in terms of red zone options, some he had last year and some he didn’t have. But what I like most about this 12 personnel grouping below is that all four receivers can make contested catches, while the running back is a no-nonsense, downhill guy:
I’m looking forward to seeing something like that on the ten yard line. There’s gonna a mismatch out there somewhere, and it’s up to Wentz to execute, because he’s going to have no lack of options in this department.
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Bill Tower’s Amazingly Advanced 1956 SR-2 Corvette: Decades Ahead of Its Time!
There were exciting things were underway inside of Chevrolet in 1956. The Corvette received its first body refresh, there was an optional dual-quad, 225-horsepower 265 engine (RPO 469, $172.20) and a Special High-Lift Camshaft option (RPO 449, $188.30) that bumped the power of the dual-quad 265 to 240 horsepower, plus fuel injection was in the works.
Corvettes set records at Daytona Beach and took a class win at the 12 Hours at Sebring; memorialized with the now classic “Real McCoy” print ad. Things were looking up for Corvette.
Meanwhile, an unlikely series of events happened in Corvette creator, Harley Earl’s house; that could have become the Z06 of its day. Earl’s son Jerry bought a Ferrari with the intention of going racing. When Harley learned of his son’s plans, he hit the roof! “No son of mine is going out there with an Eye-talian car!” he allegedly bellowed. As GM’s VP of the Art and Color Division, Earl could do anything he wanted, so he charged top designer, Bob Cumberford, with the task of designing a race car for Jerry. The completed car was called “SR-2.”
Cumberford and his team took the all-new 1956 Corvette body and extended and lowered the nose, created a vented hood, short twin wind screens, side air scoops on the doors and a low vertical stabilizer fin on the trunk lid. Decked out with Halibrand knock-off wheels and metallic blue paint, the SR-2 was a great-looking Corvette. Jerry picked up his customized, basically stock Corvette on May 24, 1956, and raced the car at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, through the summer months. The car was a hit, thanks to its unique looks, but at 2,900 pounds, it was heavy and quickly ate up its brakes. The SR-2 was not competitive.
Earl’s successor, Bill Mitchell, was two years away from taking over as VP of Design had enough clout to order an SR-2 built for him. The Jerry Earl SR-2 was more of a styling study, Mitchell directed his SR-2 to be an all-out lightweight racer.
The body was so thin that the fiberglass matting can be seen at certain angles. While the nose of Mitchell’s SR-2 was similar to Earl’s car, Mitchell’s SR-2 had a tall vertical stabilizer fin that was integrated into the driver’s headrest. Hidden inside the headrest were a rollbar and a racing fuel filler cap for the 48-gallon fuel tank. The side scoops were ducted through the rear of the door and doorjamb, directly to the rear brakes. Yes, functional external rear brake scoops, just like a modern Z06. The interior had lightweight fiberglass racing bucket seats with racing seatbelts; a full instrument cluster; a custom-designed teakwood steering wheel with a column-mounted 8,000-rpm tachometer; stainless steel gas, brake and clutch pedals; lightweight door panels with tuck ’n’ roll door panels and a single door-close strap.
Under the hood of Mitchell’s SR-2 is a tricked-out, Smokey Yunick-built, fuelie 283 small-block Chevy engine. Keep in mind that the SBC had just come out. Advanced parts included Packard Electric solid-core stainless steel high-tension ignition wires and a higher-voltage ignition coil. The generator was mounted on the left side to give the tension-side of the belt better grip on the water pump pulley. Inside the engine was the Special High-Lift (Duntov) Cam. Most unique was the fiberglass ram-air box that connected to the driver-side inner fenderwell and was ducted to the front grille opening. The engine dynoed to 310 horsepower, a lot for 1956.
The suspension was straight out of the RPO Racer Kit parts catalog and included heavier front springs, five-leaf rear springs, larger 13/16-inch front sway bar, larger diameter 1-3/8-inch stiffer shocks, quick-ratio 16.3:1 steering and rear torque rods (traction bars). The rear axle was the new Multi-Disc Limited-Slip Positraction unit. Brakes were aluminum-finned drums with cast-in steel liners and Bendix Cerametalix brake shoes.
The SR-2 used every aerodynamic trick of the day. “Streamlining” was the buzzword of the day, just like today’s “downforce.” The SR-2 had headlight cones, short windscreens and a faired in headrest with an aircraft-style vertical stabilizer fin for high-speed stability. We see the same concept on the modern prototype road racing cars.
Although aerodynamicist Wunibald Kamm invented what we call today the “Kammback” design that is very aerodynamically efficient, automotive designers and stylists favored the tapered teardrop-style for high-speed cars. While not as extreme as the long tapered speed record cars from Europe, the design of the 1953-’60 Corvette’s rear section tapers down.
Because of the rear vertical stabilizer fin, the large trunk section was hinged at the back and opens to the back. Both the front and back of the SR-2 were void of bumpers and are very clean-looking.
The SR-2’s Smokey Yunick-built engine was special inside and out. Production 1956 Corvettes had 265-cid small-block engines, but the SR-2 had the 283-cid engine. The unreleased Rochester fuel-injection system was part of the SR-2’s engine setup and was part of the fuelie’s development program. Deep inside the 283, the bumpstick was a pre-production high-lift “Duntov” cam. Steel-tube headers were a novel item in 1956. Yunick’s engine dynoed to 310 horsepower.
The airbox was a trick setup in 1956 and showed how serious the SR-2’s designers were about looking for as much horsepower as they could get. The concept is alive and well and is today a popular and easy add-on for C5, C6 and C7 Corvettes. And there it was, back in 1956!
What’s most amazing about Mitchell’s 2,200-pound SR-2 is that it was built by fabricators at Chevrolet that were not race car builders, but were damn good builders. Later, they built Duntov’s Corvette SS. But the SR-2 met the same fate as the Corvette SS; the 1957 AMA Racing Ban. In December 1956, Mitchell campaigned the car in the Nassau 70-mile Governor’s Trophy Race finishing 10th overall. In February 1957, Mitchell took his SR-2 to the Daytona Beach Speed Week, outfitted with an enclosed canopy, full Moon disc wheel covers and semi-enclosed rear wheels, a red and white stripped rear fin and Zoomy headers! Buck Baker drove the SR-2 to a Modified Class win with an average standing-mile speed of 93.047 mph, and was first in the Flying Mile at 152.866 mph. Then in March 1957, Mitchell’s SR-2 competed at the 12 Hours of Sebring, coming in 16th place overall.
After the AMA Ban, the SR-2 was sold and bought, and was eventually owned by Don Yenko’s private plane pilot, Cookie Knuth, who didn’t do much with the car. In 1980, Chevrolet development engineer Bill Tower bought the car from Knuth and set it aside, as he was very busy working for Chevrolet. After some consideration, since the SR-2 was only missing a few parts, Tower chose to simply put it back together.
Tower had an interesting encounter with retired Bill Mitchell in a meeting that was supposed to last 15 minutes that turned into 3 hours. The first thing Mitchell said was, “You got my damn car and I want it back! That one got away from me. I got in a lot of trouble with those cars.” The two men benched raced about all kinds of things, with Mitchell telling Tower that he’d help him get a set of fiberglass buckets for the SR-2. When the two parted, Mitchell said, “You take care of that car and don’t wreck it! That car is very special to me!”
Tower’s SR-2 is driveable, but he hasn’t taken it out on the streets take after a near T-bone incident. Now he only drives the SR-2 after it has been transported to special events. In 1982, Tower was invited to bring the SR-2 to the Daytona 500 to the Chevrolet tent along with the new IROC Camaros. Bill Mitchell and Bill France, Sr. were there as well. After “a few,” Mitchell and France wanted to take the SR-2 out for a few laps, to which Tower said, “Like hell you will!” At the 1986 Indy 500, Tower and Pace Car driver General Chuck Yeager took a few laps in the SR-2. Later in 1986, Tower was invited to display the SR-2 at a special Chevrolet event on Mackinac Island in Michigan. Chevrolet luminaries such as Clare MacKichan, Vince Piggins, Bill Mitchell and other GM executives were there along with Linda Vaughn and singer Neil Diamond.
Since then, Tower doesn’t show the car very often and it is mostly seen via visits to his private museum. In 2016, retired VP of Global Design Ed Wellburn visited Tower and was totally blown away with the SR-2. He couldn’t get over how many key design elements on the C7 were also on the SR-2. Tower says, “Of all of my cars, the SR-2 is most special to me. Look at everything that’s in the car. And it was built in 1956!” Vette
Although on the surface the SR-2 was a toy for Bill Mitchell to go racing with, the SR-2 was an official Development car. Tower says that the numbers on the stamped metal plate attached to the top of the radiator indicate the different projects that were done to the SR-2. The overall SR-2 project didn’t have an “X” or “EX” number indicating that it was an experimental car.
The Halibrand 15×6 wheels were cast in magnesium. Take note of the five slots in the wheel’s design. That style was used when Kelsey-Hays developed the 1967 steel Rally Wheels. Knock-off wheels helped speed up pit stops, but many knockoff wheels came off of cars because the spinners weren’t properly tightened.
The SR-2 was a serious lightweight race car, but the spartan interior was nicely finished. The teakwood and stainless steel steering wheel went through over a dozen different diameter and offset variations until Mitchell got what he liked.
Even the dash was made of thin fiberglass. Note that the dash is unique, as the production Corvette’s dash had a mirrored hump on the passenger side. Serious racing instruments mounted to brushed-metal plate replaced the stock instruments.
When Tower bought the car, the original SR-2 seats were long gone. During his 3-hour meeting with retired VP of Design, Bill Mitchell, the design legend told Tower, “I’m going to help you with your SR-2 project.” A few weeks later a set of fiberglass seats arrived at Tower’s home. The seats had RPO number molded into the fiberglass, indicating that at some point, Chevrolet was considering offering racing seats as part of the Corvette’s RPO program.
The doors were gutted of their window mechanisms to make room for the side scoop vents that lead back to cool the rear brakes. The interior door panel was tuck ’n’ roll aluminum with vertical ribs and a door closure pull.
The finish and attention to detail on the SR-2 is extraordinary. While the SR-2 race car was built by fabricators that were not race car builders, they were the same people that built the Motorama cars, so they were highly qualified craftsmen. The instrument panel looks like a component from a Ferrari. Note the metal pedals that didn’t come on Corvettes until 1997.
The one single element on the SR-2 that did not belong on the car is the big toothy grille. But, you have to consider that the build of the SR-2 was being directed by Harley Earl and Bill Mitchell. Both men had an acute sense of how things presented and looked. Even the 1957 Corvette SS racer had a big grille up front.
The functional rear brake scoops was one of many design elements that blew away retired GM Global Design Chief, Ed Welburn, when he visited Tower’s museum. Welburn said, “We didn’t put this on the Corvette until the 2001 Z06!”
In our time, we don’t associate Corvettes with NASCAR. But from 1936-1958 Daytona Beach was where speed records and Stock Car racing happened. Tower’s SR-2 and his Betty Skelton 1956 Corvette both set speed records on the nearly 2-mile-long beach straightaway part of the Daytona Beach and Road Course in 1957.
“What’s with the big fin?” you ask. Speed records provided street cred for performance cars back in the day. Logic of the day said; since vertical stabilizers are essential for airplanes and jets, a tall, long fin could only help a speed record seeking race car.
For many years road racing cars had to carry a spare tire. In case of a blowout the driver was required to change his own tire off on the side of the track. Because of the headrest and rear fin, the trunk lid had to be hinged from the rear. Tower has a unique lead mallet designed by Proto for knock-off Indy car wheels. The slightly loose handle gave a second hit on the knock-off spinner.
The twin windscreens were beautifully handcrafted by the Chevrolet master fabricators.
Bill Mitchell hated hood pins that stuck up and had to have their pin retainer and attachment cord in the wind. He insisted on flush-mounted, aircraft-style latches for the hood and trunk.
The vented hood was another detail that rocked Ed Welburn. This functional design element didn’t make it into production until 2014. Venting the hood helps the engine keep cooler, plus reduces frontend lift. This concept would have helped the 1963-’67 Sting Rays a lot.
The fuel filler door is located just behind the headrest. Note the rollbar tubes. NASCAR didn’t like exposed rollbars back then. The filler cap indicates that Mitchell and his team intended to race the car the following June at Le Mans. See the ring tab that’s close to the fill cap latch? A special seal was put on the fuel cap at the beginning of the race. The seal could not be broken before a car’s first pit stop for fuel.
The SR-2 sure makes Marilyn look good, doesn’t it? Marilyn Monroe was on her way to Miami for a screening of her new movie Bus Stop. At the Sebring Airport she got a ride to the racetrack on the Thursday practice session. She posed with several cars, including the SR-2. Attendees and drivers couldn’t believe it was her.
Photo: SportsCarDigest.com
Here is Bill Tower at the inaugural Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance receiving the Earl B. Hadlow Award for his 1956 SR-2. From left-to-right is; Sting Ray and Daytona Cobra designer Peter Brock; National Director for Hospice; seated in the SR-2 is Betty and Bill Tower; standing next to Tower is Sir Stirling Moss; representative from Barnette Bank; and stylist Larry Shinoda.
Photo: Bill Tower Photo Collection
The “Jet Age” began in the late 1940s and by the mid-’50s car designers were adding jet aircraft styling elements to their car designs. This photo was taken at the GM Tech Center before being transported to Daytona Beach. The SR-2 was decked out with an enclosed canopy, full Moon discs, semi-enclosed rear wheels and Zoomie headers. Tower pointed out that because of the small 283-cubic-inch engine, the dragster-style headers didn’t provide enough scavenger effect and didn’t help the car’s performance.
Photo: GM Archives
Here’s the tricked out “Jet Age” SR-2 on at the Daytona Beach Speed Week event. The SR-2 took a Modified Class win with an average standing-mile speed of 93.047 mph and was first in the Flying Mile with a speed of 152.866 mph. Impressive for a 310-horsepower car 283 car.
Photo: Bill Tower Photo Collection
The SR-2 raced at Sebring in 1957 with Paul O’Shea and Pete Lovely doing the driving. Race car suspensions have come a long way since 1957.
Photo: Bill Tower Photo Collection
Posing in a relaxed moment, perhaps after Marilyn’s visit, the SR-2’s pit crew and drivers Paul O’Shea (with the sunglasses) and Pete Lovely. Sebring is hallowed ground for Corvette racing history. All of the greats of Corvette lore—past and present—have been there.
Photo: Bentley Publishing
The post Bill Tower’s Amazingly Advanced 1956 SR-2 Corvette: Decades Ahead of Its Time! appeared first on Hot Rod Network.
from Hot Rod Network https://www.hotrod.com/articles/bill-towers-amazingly-advanced-1956-sr-2-corvette-decades-ahead-time/
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4 reasons Clemson vs. Notre Dame’s an enticing potential game
Both have great defenses and emerging QBs. They should get a chance to repeat their memorable 2015 game.
Championship Saturday is over, and three of the top four teams from the most recent College Football Playoff rankings won. Two of those teams were Clemson and Notre Dame, previously Nos. 2 and No. 3 respectively.
There’s no real reason for the Playoff rankings to change from one through three, because Alabama beat Georgia, Clemson handled Pitt easily, and Notre Dame was at home, getting an extra week of rest. Nobody behind the Irish was so impressive that they should jump ahead of them. So, things might change, but probably not.
Heading into Championship Weekend, S&P+ had the Tigers as about 7 points better than the Irish on a neutral field. That’s kind of tight, relatively speaking. Alabama’s been at least an 11-point favorite in every game it’s played all year. There’s more to the matchup, though.
1. Both of these teams are great, but it’s been a while since either’s gotten to show its stuff against an elite opponent.
Notre Dame hasn’t gotten a chance to do that since it beat Michigan in Week 1. Clemson hasn’t had that kind of shot since ... last year’s Playoff against Alabama, though the Tigers did play and win a hard road game against Texas A&M in Week 2.
2. Both teams also have outstanding defenses.
Clemson is No. 1 in S&P+. It’s not surprising, given the dfensive line boasts four likely high-round NFL picks in Clelin Ferrell, Austin Bryant, Dexter Lawrence, and Christian Wilkins.
All are great. They’re also fun. Wilkins also has an ability to play basically anywhere on a football field. Both he and Lawrence have scored rushing touchdowns this year.
You could’ve figured coming into this season that defense was going to be a Notre Dame strong suit, too, as the Irish brought back talent at every level from a top-30 unit last year. But things have still been better than was widely expected; Notre Dame’s No. 3 in Defensive S&P+ and has yet to give up more than 27 points in a game.
The Irish do a great job limiting explosive plays. They haven’t let up a single 60-yard scrimmage play all year, and they’re No. 3 in Marginal Explosiveness allowed, an advanced stat that measures how successful plays are based on the down and distance.
3. Both teams have looked even better since making QB changes.
While Clemson’s defense is a nice anchor for them, the offense has added a new downfield dimension with five-star freshman Trevor Lawrence at quarterback. He was able to fine-tune his game throughout the year against Clemson’s weak schedule.
And with explosive receivers like Tee Higgins, Justyn Ross, and Amari Rodgers (and an all-world running back in Travis Etienne), he’s developed into a star since Kelly Bryant announced after four games he would transfer. He’s also thrown a bunch to senior Hunter Renfrow, who caught Deshaun Watson’s title-winning touchdown pass two years ago.
Notre Dame’s in a similar boat. The Irish were winning games with Brandon Wimbush at quarterback, but things were slow at times. The offense has been more prolific with Book usually at the helm since late September. The former three-star has turned out to be an ideal fit for Brian Kelly’s offense:
What Book is bringing to Notre Dame is conceptually similar to what Tua Tagovailoa is bringing to Alabama. With a versatile skill set that includes the ability to distribute the ball in spread-option schemes, RPOs, and play action, the defense gets into a bind. It has to either confuse Book about where the ball’s going or beat some talented player man-to-man.
If the QB matchup were Bryant vs. Wimbush, it’d still be a good game. But the two teams have made significant strides since they made changes.
4. The last time Clemson and ND played, it was ugly and memorable
Playing in Death Valley during Hurricane Joaquin, Clemson went into the fourth quarter up 21-3, but the Irish stormed back with a trio of touchdowns to make it a two-point game. Except, on their two-point conversion attempt, Notre Dame did this:
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24-22, Clemson. Final. That win was key in the Tigers making it to 2015’s Playoff, where they almost beat Bama in the national title game. They haven’t missed a Playoff since.
These teams are capable of providing us with another great one.
And this one won’t happen during a hurricane.
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How RPOs work differently in college than in the NFL
College rules give RPOs more flavor, but as the NFL playoffs showed, they still work at every level.
Super Bowl 52 marked the final “we’ve arrived!” for run/pass options, the packaged play-calls that have been common in college and high school for years.
While NBC’s Chris Collinsworth didn’t seem terribly clear on what exactly is an RPO — they necessarily involve true run blocking, and aren’t just play-action calls — they were an important component of the Eagles’ strategy. These playoffs cemented RPOs as neither a college nor pro thing, but a football thing.
Still, there are major differences between how RPOs look in the college and pro games. In college, a forward pass beyond the line of scrimmage is illegal if any offensive linemen are more than 3 yards down the field. In the NFL, it’s a flag if a lineman is more than 1 yard downfield. That rule difference alone has a considerable impact, as college defensive coaches often point out.
Here’s a primer into some main differences between how these plays are used at each.
1. The NFL doesn’t run many RPOs on downhill run concepts.
The whole idea is that the defense can’t know whether the play will be a run or a pass, because only the QB knows. On every RPO, the line has to block as if it could be a running or passing play.
That can be difficult to navigate on run schemes like power or inside zone. Those plays are all about shoving defenders down the field with double teams or quickly releasing linemen up to the linebackers.
College linemen only have to make sure they don’t get more than 3 yards downfield. The QB has to be careful to make a read and get the ball out quickly, so he doesn’t put his linemen in an impossible situation. For NFL teams, the 1-yard rule makes these concepts nearly impossible to pull off without risking a flag.
Consequently, you don’t see many NFL RPOs that combine the threat of a quick-hitting inside run. Here’s Philadelphia using play-action to run a bubble screen and still nearly committing a penalty ...
... whereas the smashmouth spread offense at the college level is predicated on combining a pass option with downhill, lead run plays:
Even though there’s a chance the QB will throw a hitch route if he sees the right coverage, his linemen are freed up by the rules to attack.
Instead, NFL RPOs rely on run concepts that aren’t designed to send linemen vertical. In particular, the NFL likes the outside-zone play and various sweeps that rely on pin blocks and OL pulling outside, movements that should buy time for the QB to punish aggressive defenders with quick-hitting passes.
Even on this sweep option, Nick Foles is forced to double-clutch before throwing the ball. That results in center Jason Kelce, who’s pulling to block for the sweep, getting too far downfield by the time Foles releases the ball. The Eagles are fortunate not to get flagged.
There’s no margin for error in the NFL and a high risk of either committing a penalty or forcing a throw off a bad read. So their RPOs are designed to be quick and generally only include hitch routes, slants, and outside runs.
2. College RPOs make greater use of vertical routes.
They take longer to develop than RPO routes in the NFL, but that’s another benefit of linemen getting 3 yards of downfield real estate.
One of the most popular and devastating RPOs is the glance route off a downhill run. Alabama blew the title game open against Georgia by punishing late safeties with it.
Backside routes attached to runs are generally the missing ingredient to a complete RPO attack.
The challenge for a spread offense that wants to run is controlling the extra man that the defense can drop into the box. If an offense can’t throw the bubble screen, it has to worry about the nickel cornerback or Sam linebacker coming off the edge to stuff runs. So the screen is a constraint:
If they can force the nickel (N, above) to cover down on the slot receiver (Y), the next concern is that free safety (F), who could slip down into the box and serve as the extra man the offense can’t account for with a blocker. The best way to control him is with a route to that X receiver isolated against the cornerback.
There’s a much higher degree of difficulty in executing these throws, which would make them appealing to the NFL, except that it becomes nearly impossible to execute them safely without breaking the professional game’s 1-yard rule.
3. NFL teams don’t use the QB as a runner like college teams do.
The typical counter to RPOs, particularly in the NFL, is to play man coverage. The RPO is built around creating conflict for defenders on whether to play their run fits or their coverage assignments. The QB then punishes indecision or an aggressive run fit with the quick pass. Man coverage erases that conflict by telling the defenders to stick to their men and dropping a safety down to ensure they still have enough numbers in the box to stop the run.
The reason Philadelphia threw fewer RPOs against New England than Collinsworth claimed was that the Patriots played a lot of man coverage. Normally, NFL teams punish man coverage by attacking it with routes designed to free up receivers, such as mesh, switch routes, and wheel routes.
College teams often have a simpler way to punish good man coverage that requires less skill and chemistry: They just run the QB.
College teams love to mess up a linebacker’s reads. Gaining a numbers advantage by deploying QB run schemes and giving him an RPO is perhaps the deadliest way to do it.
This play combines almost every facet of the college RPO game you don’t see in the NFL. Boise State is executing a downhill power run play, with the QB reading the middle linebacker to see if he stays home (in which case he throws the bubble to the motioning RB) or if he chases the RB (in which case the QB keeps the ball and runs on the counter play).
The Eagles often made good use of this when Carson Wentz was taking snaps. Then Wentz got hurt, which shows why NFL teams don’t like to rely on QB runs.
“The biggest concern with RPOs is the quarterback getting hit,” Oklahoma State OC Mike Yurcich says. “After all, part of the deal here is that they are blocking as if it’s a run play; they are not protecting the passer. [ESPN’s] Jon Gruden calls it ‘Ridiculous Pass-protection Offense,’ and I understand what he’s saying. We’ve got to get to where it’s sound, so we feel the quarterback can make a read, and if he’s correct in what he sees, then he shouldn’t take a hit.”
In the NFL, RPOs are a nice addition to a pro-style offense that can help force man coverage or bring better angles and numbers for the run game.
Without rule changes, they won’t be more than a way to give the QB a fast option to punish an aggressive run defense.
In the college game, they can serve as the main focus of an entire playbook, the same way the old triple option did.
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Five Things the Eagles Need to Fix to Return to the Super Bowl
Let’s get it back to the Eagles.
Training camp starts this week, which means… not a whole lot really, but its a hell of a lot better than voluntary workouts and mandatory minicamp. It means we’re getting closer to the first preseason game, which will be played on August 8th, at home, against the Titans. That’s just 17 days away.
I figure the theme surrounding this Eagles’ season is “Super Bowl or bust.” Fair? I think so. We’re talking about a team that has what it takes to get back to the big game, and if this truly is “the new norm,” as Doug Pederson said after the 2017 victory parade, then we should be expecting nothing less than an NFC East title and Super Bowl 54 appearance.
Here are five things I think the Eagles need to fix to get back to their marauding and highly-efficient 2017 form, a list that does not include “staying healthy.” That’s obvious. No duh they need to stay healthy, and if they can’t, then it might be another slog of a season here in Philly.
Real points here:
1. Downfield passing and explosive plays
The Birds took a step back in the big plays department last season, as Carson Wentz completed just 37 passes of 20 yards or more and only five passes that went for more than 40 yards. Those numbers were down from 40 and nine in 2017, respectively.
If it feels like that first batch of numbers is low, it’s because, well, it is. It really is. For context, Pat Mahomes led the NFL with 75 passes of 20+ yards and 15 passes of 40+ yards. Closer to the middle, you had a guy like Matt Ryan, who threw 56 passes of 20+ yards and nine passes of 40+ yards.
Carson just wasn’t getting the football down the field, partly because the Eagles lost Mike Wallace in week two and simply didn’t have a deep threat on the roster, but also because he just wasn’t pushing the ball down the field with the frequency or accuracy that he was in years prior.
I put his 2017 and 2018 charts side by side so you can take a look for yourself. These are via the NFL’s NextGen Stats page, and portions of the field in green and yellow are above and at the league average, while red is below league average (after the jump):
Carson was excellent throwing deep to his left on the few occasions he did this season, but he really fell off in the other two deep areas, putting up passer ratings of 20.8 and 26.3, down from 67.0 and 79.9 in 2018. That’s why you need to look at his 2018 numbers with nuance, because while he did improve his completion percentage by 9.4 points, he threw a lot shorter on average last year, frequently hitting Zach Ertz, for example, on shorter routes.
To illustrate it another way, we can use the “explosive plays” metric, which has become more popular in recent years.
At Sharp Football Stats, an explosive running play is defined as a play that goes for 10 or more yards, while an explosive passing play goes for 15 or more.
In 2018, the Eagles put up these explosive play numbers:
32 explosive runs (24th in NFL)
44 explosive passes (16th in NFL)
9% combined overall explosive play rate (25th in NFL)
They just weren’t ripping off huge chunks of yards on a consistent basis, and while they did successfully chew up the clock and control the game with some long and sustained drives, being able to stretch the field and make big plays was something they really did not do enough of in 2018.
2. Give and take
Turnovers were a killer last year, and one of the categories where the Eagles fell apart most significantly from the Super Bowl campaign.
Case in point, here’s how the team did in 2017:
19 interceptions (4th best)
12 fumble recoveries (4th best)
31 takeaways (4th best)
9 interceptions thrown (6th fewest)
11 fumbles lost (8th most)
20 giveaways (tied for 11th best)
+11 turnover margin (4th)
Excellent stuff across the board. The Eagles had a fumbling problem on offense, but Carson Wentz and Nick Foles threw few interceptions while the Birds defense finished top-five with 31 total takeaways. All of that combined resulted in the team finishing with the NFL’s fourth-best turnover margin.
Here are the 2018 numbers:
10 interceptions (25th)
7 fumble recoveries (19th)
17 takeaways (22nd)
11 interceptions thrown (10th fewest)
12 fumbles lost (3rd most)
23 giveaways (12th most)
-6 turnover margin (25th)
Everything fell off, and rather significantly, too, resulting in a -17 overall turnover margin swing from 2017 to 2018. That’s a massive drop, from 4th in the NFL all the way down to 25th.
The one positive here is that interceptions were a top-10 number in both seasons, so it wasn’t like the Eagles were getting picked off left and right. Wentz’s problems last year were in the fumbling department, and if he’s healthy and more mobile, then he’ll probably do a better job of protecting the football and moving around the pocket than he did last season.
3. Running the football
Sometimes I think we forget how efficient the Birds were when running the ball in 2017.
They put up these regular season numbers:
473 attempts (6th most)
4.5 yards per attempt (3rd best)
132 yards per game (3rd)
They only scored nine touchdowns on the ground that year, and fumbled a league-worst 11 times, but the important thing is that they remained committed to the run and didn’t fall too far into the that lopsided pass/run skew that we had seen at times from Doug Pederson, which was a byproduct of his time working with Andy Reid.
Last year, the Eagles did this in the run game:
398 attempts (20th)
3.9 yards per attempt (30th)
98.1 yards per game (28th)
It was a struggle across the board, and because they didn’t run well, they didn’t pass as well either, being unable to use the same play-action and RPO looks with the efficiency you saw in the year prior.
Jordan Howard will help with this, certainly as a guy who has run for 1,000 yards twice in his three-year NFL career. The Eagles will still pass the ball about 55-60% of the time in a typical game, but having a legitimate first and second down back as opposed to the rotating cast of Josh Adams, Wendell Smallwood, and others, should really help opens things back up.
In simpler terms, the Eagles must listen to these guys:
4. Get off the field on 3rd and 4th down
Believe it or not, there was not a huge statistical drop off in the first category.
In 2017, the Eagles finished 3rd in the NFL as they held opposing teams to a 33.6 third down conversation percentage. Last year, that number was 36.2%, which was 8th overall in the league.
So the decline there was not as bad as I thought it would be when I looked into the numbers. They went from ‘elite’ to ‘very good,’ in third down defense, which you can certainly live with.
The problem was fourth down, where this happened:
2017: opponents converted 4 of 18 fourth down attempts (22.2%, tied for #1 in the NFL)
2018: opponents converted 11 of 19 fourth down attempts (57.9%, 19th in the NFL)
That really just killed the Eagles last year. It cost them the Tennessee game and bit them in the butt on too many other occasions.
That manifested itself in time of possession as well, where the Eagles actually finished 4th overall in 2018, but #1 overall in 2017. Similar to the third down number, the margins there aren’t very wide, but think about what would have happened if the Birds were able to get off the field on fourth down closer to a 30-35% opponent rate instead of 57.9%. They again likely would have been #1 in the league at controlling time of possession.
These plays were just total killers:
What in the world is Corey Graham defending? pic.twitter.com/ZPfhpVJzc0
— Joe Giglio (@JoeGiglioSports) September 30, 2018
5. Bully defenses in the red zone
I wrote an entire sidebar on this topic, but it’s worth repeating some of those points in this article because it’s uber-important that the Birds improve here.
In 2017, Philly finished 2nd in the NFL with a 64.06 touchdown percentage in the red zone. That number dropped to 59.02 last year, which pulled the Birds all the way down to 17th overall.
That happened despite the team putting up 365 yards per game, which was the same exact number they put up in 2017. That season, those 365 yards became 28.6 points per game, while this past year the number dropped to 22.9. They were moving the ball between the twenties, they just weren’t putting it into the end zone with the required frequency.
Carson Wentz has a lot to work with this year in terms of red zone options, some he had last year and some he didn’t have. But what I like most about this 12 personnel grouping below is that all four receivers can make contested catches, while the running back is a no-nonsense, downhill guy:
I’m looking forward to seeing something like that on the ten yard line. There’s gonna a mismatch out there somewhere, and it’s up to Wentz to execute, because he’s going to have no lack of options in this department.
The post Five Things the Eagles Need to Fix to Return to the Super Bowl appeared first on Crossing Broad.
Five Things the Eagles Need to Fix to Return to the Super Bowl published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/
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