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Tale of the tape: First drive


Mickey

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Finally had a chance to take a close look at the tape of the first TD drive against the Seahawks. Here are some of the things that stood out:

 

MW was a monster. He hit on all of his blocks that drive but one. Took his man down or moved him around almost every time.

 

On the screen to Willis, Tucker missed his block so Teague had to take the guy out. That left Willis to beat two guys on his own. It was a nice gain anyway but we had the right play at the right time and would have scored if Tucker got his man down. Teague would have been able to lead Willis and take out one of the two left and Willis would have done the rest. Yeah, it was a good play but it should have been 6.

 

On the TD run, Willis hit the wrong hole. The play was designed to go between Jennings and Tucker on the left side. Shelton hit that hole hard and took out a LB but Willis took it inside to the backside of the play. He must have saw an opening. It closed quick and he saw the guys coming early enough to pull up and stop before he hit the pile and people could get a hand on him. Then he just went to where the play was originally designed and fortunately, because Jennings, Shelton and Tucker killed their blocks stuck with them, the hole was still there. Willis gets all the credit for that run because at first glance it looked like the line failed to make a hole and he just did it on his own. WRONG. Tucker especially nailed it, he just plowed people out of there and Shelton vaporized that LB.

 

You can tell that the hole was originally on the left because that is where the FB went. Right off the snap you see this huge gap between Jennings and Tucker and a LB rushing to try and fill the hole. I don't think Willis thought anyone was going to get that LB so he took it inside but Shelton nailed him as went into the hole and knocked him back. Look at the tape, you will see Shelton still standing in the endzone when Willis goes in. How often does a blocking FB charging into the line on a goal line play to throw a lead block stay on his feet? Not often, only when he knocked the LB back.

 

That was great blocking and frankly, suspect running so give it up for the line. Don't get me wrong, Willis is great but that time it was the line. I think it was that play in particular that Willis was thinking about when he was praising Shelton.

 

 

Second Drive:

 

Jason Peters was in as a TE on the left side and blew a seal block on the DE on a sweep to his side causing Willis to lose 5 yards. That set up the 2nd 15 play that led to a pick.

 

On the pick, the defense blitzed the LB that was covering the TE in the slot on the left so he was uncovered. Campbell looked to be running a seam route just outside the left hash. For some reason, he slowed down almost to a walk just as Drew cranked it right where he would have been if he kept running. I think Campbell saw the safety and decided to slow up to stay in that open patch of field vacated by the LB. The deeper he ran, the closer to the safety he was going to be so he pulled up. Problem was that Drew was under a blitz and had no way of knowing what Campbell was doing so he threw it exactly where it was supposed to be.

 

Whenever you see a pass that off, you know somebody screwed up. No QB at this level is that inaccurate. I ran this in slow mo over and over. Drew had his arm in midthrow when Campbell was pulling up. Tough to blame either. If Campbell keeps going he has a chance at it and I think there would have been no pick, incomplete at worst. However, if Drew somehow managed to see what Campbell was trying to do, it was a sure completion and a nice gain.

 

Rest of half:

 

 

A nice reverse with Bledsoe throwing a key block is nullified by a penalty against Jason Peters for not reporting as eligible. He is not having a very good half. We try it again on the other side with MW leading the way. There is only one guy out there to stop the play but MW engulfs him so Evans goes for 15 and a first down. The drive ends when Drew throws a deep one to Evans who had single coverage. It was single coverage all right but the guy was all over him. The pass was a little overthrown and with coverage that good, it ended up a nice pick. Drew went to the right receiver and you would like to think Evans would beat the guy one on one. Oh well.

 

Last drive of the half:

 

Willis goes for 18 yards on a sweep to the left. MW again hit a great block taking out a LB. Teague was pulling and was the lead blocker but he caught a guy knifing in from the middle out of the corner of his eye. Teague somehow stops his sprint outside and lunges inside to take the guy out before he got to Willis. Campbell also makes his block on the DE and Willis did the rest. Again, the line did a great job.

 

From that point it was the Bledsoe-Evans flying circus right into the endzone.

 

Nice half of football. Seattle was lucky it wasn't worse than 17-3.

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It has been reported that Peters did in fact report and the referees screwed up.  Wouldn't be the first time.

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I'd like to know what a guy has to do to report as eligible... Which ref does he tell? Can't one of the coaches call it in to the ref as Peters comes out?

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I\ll take WM almpst blowing TDs chances but barely making them 4 times a game every week if that is the problem we have to deal with. 

 

i hands down agree, FFS. That first TD did indeed look busted, but the mark of a great back (Thurman, Emmett, Faulk, Martin, WILLIS) is to improvise and cover your mistakes, if one was made. Willis pretty much took care of that!

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i hands down agree, FFS.  That first TD did indeed look busted, but the mark of a great back (Thurman, Emmett, Faulk, Martin, WILLIS) is to improvise and cover your mistakes, if one was made.  Willis pretty much took care of that!

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It was improvising that got him into trouble on that play by taking it inside rather than into the hole on the left where it was designed to go. What he did do is see that he made a mistake in just enough time to stop before he got to the pile and got tied up. From there he simply went where it was designed to go and the hole was still there because of some great blocking.

 

Again, this is not to be critical of Willis at all, I just want to see the OL and Shelton get the props they deserve for their efforts on that play.

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I'd like to know what a guy has to do to report as eligible... Which ref does he tell? Can't one of the coaches call it in to the ref as Peters comes out?

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The player (and only the player) is required to report to the Referee (the guy in the white hat, not side judges, umpire, back judge, etc.) of his eligibility on the following play. If he wants to be eligible on a consecutive play, he must report to the Referee again.

 

When a player reports as eligible, the Referee notifies the defensive captain of the player's number and eligibility. These days, the Referee generally makes an announcement via his mic to satisfy that requirement.

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How do you know where the play was designed to go? Often times a FB is used as a decoy. A D can key in a which direction/hole a FB goes to, and try to plug it up. Do you have a copy of the playbook? Just becaue there was a hole in one place does not mean that is where the play was designed to go.

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"A nice reverse with Bledsoe throwing a key block is nullified by a penalty against Jason Peters for not reporting as eligible. He is not having a very good half. WE try it again on the other side with MW leading the way. There is only one guy out there to stop the play by MW engulfs him so Evans goes for 15 and a first down. The drive ends when Drew throws a deep one to Evans who had single coverage. It was single coverage all right but the guy was all over him. The pass was a little overthrown and with coverage that good, it ended up a nice pick. Drew went to the right receiver and you would like to think Evans would beat the guy one on one. Oh well."

 

Look at the endzone view again. The ball was a badly thrown ball. Had it been thrown to the middle of the field or just inside the hashmark it would have been a TD. Instead it was thrown over/to the outside of the WR which was dead on for an int. Now this is not just me, even the commentators reviewed the play and showed the exact same thing. Evans had his man beat for 6 IF the ball is thrown in the right place.

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They should either tell the zebras before the game that Peters will be eligible all game long and to inform the opposing team of that (if that's legal), or give him a number in the 80's. I'm assuming that players wearing numbers in the 80's cannot lineup at one of the OL spots, but I doubt Peters sees time at OL, so better off to give him a number in the 80's.

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Thanks for analysis Mickey. I wondered about that first TD by Willis too. I've watched it a couple times now and to me, it does look like he zigged when he should have zagged. It does look like he saw another hole and went to it only to get stuffed and just bounced it left from there. Nice job by the line and Willis on that one

In reference to the Peters reporting/not reporting, when the penalty was called, the camera showed Peters on the sideline talking to one of the coaches telling them that he did report. The guy is a rookie and new to playing as of late but the look on his face was disbelief which leads me to think that he did report and the zebras blew it. Surprise Surprise!!

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They should either tell the zebras before the game that Peters will be eligible all game long and to inform the opposing team of that (if that's legal), or give him a number in the 80's.  I'm assuming that players wearing numbers in the 80's cannot lineup at one of the OL spots, but I doubt Peters sees time at OL, so better off to give him a number in the 80's.

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It's not legal, see my above post.

 

And since he's a tackle on the roster (or more accurately, he does play OL on Special Teams), he can't wear a number in the 80s. OL are required to wear 50-79.

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"A nice reverse with Bledsoe throwing a key block is nullified by a penalty against Jason Peters for not reporting as eligible. He is not having a very good half. WE try it again on the other side with MW leading the way. There is only one guy out there to stop the play by MW engulfs him so Evans goes for 15 and a first down. The drive ends when Drew throws a deep one to Evans who had single coverage. It was single coverage all right but the guy was all over him. The pass was a little overthrown and with coverage that good, it ended up a nice pick. Drew went to the right receiver and you would like to think Evans would beat the guy one on one. Oh well."

 

Look at the endzone view again. The ball was a badly thrown ball. Had it been thrown to the middle of the field or just inside the hashmark it would have been a TD. Instead it was thrown over/to the outside of the WR which was dead on for an int.  Now this is not just me, even the commentators reviewed the play and showed the exact same thing. Evans had his man beat for 6 IF the ball is thrown in the right place.

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On this play, I just wish we had followed the advice of more intelligent football people than our coaches and switched MW to left guard, Just think, if we had someone out there with the agility to play tackle it would not merely have engulfed him as MW did, but he would have put the defender over hs knee while pulling down his pants (probably revealing panties and given the defender a spanking on national TV. Boy, I would have loved to seen that. To think we have this to big non-agile guy playing tackle for us.

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Thanks for analysis Mickey. I wondered about that first TD by Willis too. I've watched it a couple times now and to me, it does look like he zigged when he should have zagged. It does look like he saw another hole and went to it only to get stuffed and just bounced it left from there. Nice job by the line and Willis on that one

 

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The key here is to mention that in no way would Travis Henry have had 4 TD's in that game.

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It was improvising that got him into trouble on that play

 

mickey, the end result was a TD. Your analysis was pretty accurate that he didn't hit the hole behind shelton, but he improvised and got a TD. Much better than taking a 3 yard loss by hitting the wrong hole and not correcting yourself. The end result is that he brings this dimention to the table, whereas guys before him don't. I really can't wait to see him develop even more.

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It's not legal, see my above post.

 

And since he's a tackle on the roster (or more accurately, he does play OL on Special Teams), he can't wear a number in the 80s.  OL are required to wear 50-79.

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Also, Danny Smith lectured the linemen last summer (2003 that is) on the process of reporting in. He made is VERY clear you must report "inside the numbers" on the field. Anything else was illegal procedure!

 

Simple as the tax laws! :D

 

Very nice review (I watched the tape a couple times myself). I do agree with the announcers and ICE (but don't tell him he'll get a swelled head :doh: ) that on the Evans reception, the ball was in the wrong place for the double covered receiver to catch. Straight up the hash marks - touchdown! Hey, sh-- happens. :D

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