TUESDAY TIDBITS: "40 Men Together Can't Lose"

By TJ Troup 

George Allen and his Bears defense

Today is George Allen's birthday, and while there are so many excellent quotes could use, chose one of his most famous for the title of this narrative. Allen figures prominently in what could be a War and Peace saga, yet will attempt to focus as much as possible. Has been a while since have written here at the Journal, yet have been digging deep on an area of research that should have been discussed years ago. Ready? 

Here goes—How many times during a broadcast or an interview with a coach do we hear the phrase "we must win the battle of the turnovers". While this is an accurate statement, the statement is murky since a win% is not applied to the statement. 

Years ago became known across the country for my in-depth research on interception returns, yet there is also another way to take the ball away from the opposition. Recover an opponent's fumble. The NFL began keeping individual opponent fumble recoveries in 1945, thus now have virtually complete individual opponent fumble recoveries for each team for the past 80 years. 

Would you be surprised to know that the league, and many so-called accurate research databases do not have accurate data in this category? Possibly since it was the last category on the scoresheets, or maybe even an afterthought—is time for this fascinating category to be accurate, in-depth, and tell the tale. Having so many valuable resources has allowed me to make corrections. Especially Steve Sabol and the film he sent me. 

Hopefully there will be teams, or websites that would interested in having this data, and would relish hearing from them. Are there questions that all of us might find intriguing? Which team has recovered the most opponent fumbles in league history? Which team has the highest win percentage of all the teams when they recover an opponent fumble? How many players have achieved the double take-away historically ( recovering an opponent fumble and intercepting a pass in the same game), and, finally how many players have recorded a sack, and an opponent fumble recovery in the same game? What player holds the league record for most consecutive games recovering an opponent fumble? 

Since this is a territorial game, which team holds the record for most yards advancing an opponent fumble in a game? For the sake of discussion, what is the win percentage of a team that returns opponent fumbles over 100 yards in a game? There have been many coaches that "preached" the takeaway, yet George Allen remains in that small fraternity that had success in doing so. 

When he became the defensive coordinator of the Bears during the '62 season, he was attempting to put a quality defense on the field. The Bears championship season of '63 remains one the best ever for a team in taking the ball away, but in '64 (his only losing year) the Bears did not take the ball away. 

A rebounding and contending season in '65 led him to Los Angeles, and then Washington; all winning seasons and years in which his defense took the ball away. As always, sure look forward to comments you have regarding this article.