Walkthrough

Statistics don't measure everything. Take "swagger," that mysterious, manly saunter that separates winners from losers in professional sports. Mike Tanier tackles the tough swagger questions, scouring game film and historical archives to learn more about how to walk like a champion.

Three-back formations are suddenly making a comeback in the NFL. Mike Tanier examines the rise of the inverted wishbone alignment: what it is, where it came from, and why it has become so popular.

How big is this week's Bengals-Steelers matchup? So big that it's one of the twenty most important games in Bengals history. Mike Tanier ranks the most significant games ever played by the orange-and-black: Super Bowls, freezer bowls, blood feuds with the Browns, and more.

Bad defenses produce high tackle totals. Good defenses produce low tackle totals. Mike Tanier examines the inverse relationship between tackle totals and defensive quality and wrestles with the difficulty of creating meaningful statistics for defensive players.

You have to cover a lot of ground when you drop into The Zone. This week, Mike Tanier tackles some third-and-forever situations, sets the record straight about the Steelers clock malfunction, reminisces about some major officiating blunders, and visits (figuratively) some Seattle strip clubs.

Chris Palmer is out as the Texans' offensive coordinator; Joe Pendry is in. Mike Tanier examines the coaching change in Houston: what led to Palmer's dismissal, how the Texans' offense will be different, and what challenges Pendry faces as he tries to make adjustments on the fly.

Chris Carr, Jordan Carstens, and Mike Labinjo aren't household names, but they've become part of the story of the 2005 season. Mike Tanier tells how a bunch of undrafted rookies and practice squad fillers earned a sliver of the NFL limelight.

As they are inducted into the Cowboys Ring of Honor, Mike Tanier remembers The Triplets the way only a lifelong Eagles fan can: as an unholy trinity of killjoys who dashed his favorite team's hopes at every opportunity.

What good is a hard drive full of stats, a pile of preseason annuals, and weeks of research if you can't even pick division winners correctly? Mike Tanier searches for a system to out-pick the experts and learns a hard lesson about the folly of preseason prognostication in the first edition of his new weekly feature, the Too Deep Zone.

Mike Tanier goes deep inside the psyche of Philadelphia sports fans as they hope for a championship on Sunday but secretly prepare to have their winter ruined by the Eagles. Guaranteed to be the only column in Football Outsiders history with a Charles Shackleford reference.