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Wednesday, December 17, 2003

Clearly I am an unrecognized football genius....

Sometimes my brain is so powerful and amazing that I have to stand back and applaud myself.

Here's an idea for those last second, prevent defenses against the Hail Mary pass:

First, here's the scene -- you see it all the time: Last play of the half, and more often, last play of the game. Ball near midfield, and the team with the ball has no choice but to throw the bomb in a desperate attempt to score a touchdown. The defense's job is under no circumstances to let the ball go into the endzone in an offensive players hand.

Okay, here's what to do: Line up all defensive players (that's all eleven of them) on the goal line. Put two guys on every receiver that crosses the goal line, more if you can. If the QB passes into the endzone, have all eleven guys turn their heads towards the ball and try to catch it. If he throws the ball short of the goal line, send all 11 guys to where the ball is going, and do the same thing. If the ball crosses the line of scrimmage on a run, defend it like a kickoff, swarming all eleven guys towards the ball. If they dink pass out in front of the offensive line, then swarm towards the runner, again like on a kick off.

The key thing to remember here is that the offensive lineman can't be downfield on a pass play! They can't run down and start blocking until the ball is thrown, and on a long pass, there is no way they'd even be a factor. They wouldn't be a factor on even a medium pass. For a short pass, they might be, but the play will have lost all its momentum as the receiver would have to wait for the blocking to get ahead of him, and by then, eleven guys are running full speed at the ball-carrier. If they do throw it into the endzone, you have eleven guys making a play on the ball. As long as they turn and look for the ball, and try to make a play on it, they really can't be called for pass interference.

Why NFL defensive coordinators don't think this stuff up and I do is a great mystery.

posted by Nick at 14:02 | [Permalink] (0) comments

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