You demurred very nicely, and this got plenty of likes due to a convincing writing style, but you really could have just said you were a "film grinder" and have been done with it. It's the same old argument between film guys and analytics guys, and you take the side of film.
I personally weigh both authorities when evaluating an individual player. The game tape certainly matters, but so don't analysis and data. When we have sets of usable data, we can rely on it also. Jacobs's stats last year, even in context, were fair to poor. Per Football Outsiders, His DYAR was a -54, his DVOA a -12 and his success rate clocked in at 51% percent, placing him twenty-third among qualified backs. As you might know, Football Outsiders measures game data against outcomes from every play that has ever happened in football. It does not lack for context nor specialized situations. It has incorporated so much data that its measurements are a useful tool in evaluation of players. It can, in short, tell you all about somebody's effectiveness on 3rd and one.
It's nice to sound reasonable and inviting, but you've actually taken a position that is decidedly one-sided and erroneous in its assumptions about data and context.
