The Tackle Eligible Option

[ROCBillsBeliever]

Mods, my apologies if this was covered in another post. Feel free to combine.

 

I was pretty tied up cooking a bunch of food for friends (soooooo good to actually have people over, albeit in a limited, distanced fashion), so I didn't get to focus as much as I would have liked to on all the action. Watching the game back, afterwards, I noticed that on Josh's first TD scamper, Ryan Bates was a tackle eligible (see the first highlight clip, below; cred to ESPN):

 

http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=29878854

 

I think it was pretty sly of Daboll to call this with Bates, instead of Dawkins. Same sort of play, but with a target that nobody has seen on tape. Just a cool little snippet, but it points to what I'm really beginning to respect about Daboll: creativity. It may not always work, and it may not be necessary (as in this case, Allen just ran it in), but that kind of creativity and the options it opens up will lead to harder-to-come-by points against better defenses, like Baltimore and Pittsburgh. 

[freddyjj]

It worked because of 3 reasons:

1. Formation with 8 OL packed tight and strong side to the right with FB (Gilliam) and RB  (Moss) in I formation.  All shifted to short side of field.  Lots of green space to near pylon.
2. Beautiful execution of the fake sweep to Moss.  Spain pulling to the right from LG and Gilliam as lead blocker makes all but 2 jets, including all 3 second level guys, slide to right side of formation.  44 on Jets sold out entirely and neglected any coverage duties.
3. Bates takes outside edge protector into back of end zone from tackle Eligible position.  Dawkins/ Bates get enough of Anderson to make it a one on one footrace between a 300 lb DE and Josh to the pylon. 

The result was a walk-in TD!  If 48 from Jest stayed on edge, Josh flips it to Bates for easy TD.   

 

Any D will struggle to defend this play.

Edited September 15, 2020 by freddyjj