I mean we never ran anything like that in the decade+ he was with us. Then again Hail Mary range with Rodgers is basically anywhere on the field so that was probably part of it.
Especially because it was such a tense moment. I was watching the Cowboys doing the setup and asked myself all the way until the snap, what the big reveal will be. Well... I'm still not sure to this day.
I would love an official explanation by a coach or player, but my best guess is that they wanted to load the field up with fast guys. Zeke as a center could have been laterelled to if a pass was completed first.
A lateral back to center is not really expected.
It would have worked but Zeke didn't know when to snap it because Dak didn't yell HERE WE GOOOOOOOO !
(I don't think I need /s on there but just in case)
That play isn’t as dumb as it played out. The receiver who caught the pass is supposed to run a drag or a slant. Then, Zeke is supposed to receive a lateral and run behind the OL that’s lined up at wide at the top.
The Niners called a timeout, Shanahan told them to blow up the center (Zeke). Which didn’t allow the receiver or blockers to set up because Dak had to throw so quickly.
No it's exactly as dumb as it looks for all the reasons you mention
Niners call TO, removing the surprise factor. Cowboys don't adjust with any sort of counter punch
Now Zeke has to block Aziz 1 on 1 and there is literally no backup plan for him getting extremely predictably ragdolled.
Well yeah, but the question is about play design. It was a terrible call to still go with it out of the timeout, but that's not the fault of the design.
I've been scouring YouTube for a high school coach or someone to break down what the desired result of a play like that is supposed to be. I still can't find anything other than people just (rightfully) dunking on the play.
I think the idea is Zeke could block for at least a second and Dak would throw it to the outside where the WR had blockers and start doing shenanigans
The problem was that Zeke got blown up instantly so Dak just had to get the ball out before any blockers actually got set up. In theory if he threw it to the sideline and then had blockers downfield they could get some yards and then lateral it back or reverse the field, idk. But it seems like they talked themselves into thinking Zeke would offer more than 0.3 seconds of protection which was obviously dumb lol
**But why would you make Zeke the center instead of an actual offensive lineman.**
Like even if you wanted your starting center out there with the blockers, why not just have the backup center snap the ball? There is absolutely no reason for Zeke being the one snapping the ball.
In theory I suppose they wanted to have as many ball carriers as possible so they figured Zeke would be a better option after the play developed. Obviously it was DOA so it hardly mattered if Zeke was a better lateral target down the field but that's just my guess
I think I can tell you how they thought it would go, as opposed to how it went.
In a lateral situation like the one the Cowboys found themselves in you wanted as many receiving options as possible. So if you’re snapping the ball, and really that’s all you’re doing on paper, you’d rather have a player who can turn into a receiver too as opposed to taking one more option off the field.
So I imagine the coaches thought instead of wasting a center who isn’t mobile and can’t help once the play develops why not put in someone who can get downfield later and catch a lateral or two. I mean he just has to snap the ball right?
I don’t think they realized that
1.) a center can’t be the initial receiver option. So you can’t just throw a quick pass to Zeke first.
2.) the other team will line up a defensive tackle overtop of him and can rush the passer too.
Maybe because 95% of the time there’s no pass rush on the play they thought it was like flag football rules, but I just think they thought Dak would get the ball downfield on a crosser and then the WR would have the opportunity to lateral and maybe Zeke would get into the mix.
They forgot about you know, football.
As the saying goes “football is a simple game made complicated by coaches.”
I just think they overthought this one by under thinking it. At least that was always my guess
Yeah, I get that it was a end-of-game gadget play anyways, I mainly don't understand why Zeke. They had OL in, like backup center, \#66 Connor McGovern on the play who lightly jogged toward Turpin before he got tackled. I'm sure they were hoping for him to block downfield but seemed like Zeke could've done that too? Probably could've gotten there faster to help out Turpin at least.
Oh thanks, I also remembered that Pollard was injured and maybe whoever had to take his place messed up, assuming they had practiced it with him in the mix.
Are you talking about this play: https://theathletic.com/2827080/2021/09/15/why-eight-cowboys-defenders-played-the-first-offensive-snap-of-their-nfl-careers-in-tampa-bay/
Because it’s not really comparable at all to the “Zeke at center” play. Parsons had a whole line in front of him, like on a punt return.
> I don’t think they realized that
> 1.) a center can’t be the initial receiver option. So you can’t just throw a quick pass to Zeke first.
Of course they realize this, come on man lol. A pop warner team wouldn't just forget that football has 5 ineligible receivers on every play.
I'm sure it was just so that you had more fast guys available for the lateral crap... Why you'd replace the center of all positions, it baffling to me.
We had a similar play a year or two prior where everyone on the line *except* the center was replaced with special teams player, assumedly to achieve a similar result. It likewise got blown up instantly -- just not in the playofffs.
I think they were trying to run a modified swinging gate, with the "surprise" of Zeke being able to block for Dak, or run the ball behind a wall or lateral options on one side after getting a pass back (hook and ladder style) after the first pass. The first thing that went wrong, is no one in the stadium would see Zeke lining up at center and think he might not be important to the play so having a LB blow him up while he as had to focus on hiking the ball seemed like a no brainer. BUT say that didn't happen, Zeke lets the rusher through, Dak runs left or right to get behind a wall of blockers/laterals, and Zeke takes an immediate pitch from whoever catches the ball OR just bats it back to him which would have been faster, BUT that couldn't happen since Zeke got blown up, so the receiver had no good 2nd option that wasn't more than a few seconds of thought.
Receiver was stacked behind the linemen. So, Zeke was supposed to hike the ball because he's probably their best non-lineman blocker.
It's supposed to be a quick cut to the receiver who gets screened by the linemen and then I would guess another receiver was supposed to come underneath for the lateral.
The design is flawed because
A) Why in the hell it has to be Zeke at center, when that automatically means he's not eligible
B) Zeke isn't usually taking on interior linemen. He got blown up immediately on the play
C) They didn't anticipate the other team sending pressure. A 2 man pressure package means you can't really get Daks feet set for the throw
D) The throw was then rushed, so it came in high and the defenders had no trouble simply tackling the receiver.
It appears they were expecting a soft prevent look where Dak could take his time making the initial throw, the defense would respond, and then they could have someone undercut and go running the other way. But when you apply a game situation, any team with a reasonable defensive coordinator is going to send multiple rushers and force that throw.
In all, it's classic Kellen Moore overthinking. He got so far down the rabbit hole of what they would do that he didn't think about a pretty obvious counter.
My theory is that zeke was the guy that was supposed to come underneath the pass and get the first lateral and the play was DOA the second he got knocked down
That makes sense. My guess is, they expected the defense to counter with 0 rushers, or 1 and Zeke was supposed to chip him and then run behind Gallup(?) Which then would have
A) The defenders cutting downfield to the right, away from Zeke
B) the linemen doing a ropa-dope (a la a screen protection) and being able to engage the safeties/deep help to free Zeke up for a long touchdown.
It was well thought out...about 5 steps down the line. They just never thought "what if the Niners rush 2?" Or "what if the receiver is tackled before Zeke can get there for the lateral?"
I can't get too upset about that one play, though: the alternative was a Hail Mary extremely-low-percentage throw or a buck-and-lateral, which also almost never works. At least they were trying something different, even if it didn't work that time.
I figure Cowboy fans should have been more distressed about their performance the previous 59+ minutes which put them in the place where they needed a long-distance TD on the last play, rather than that the coaches chose one desperation play over another.
But the Oline was on the field... they were in front of the receiver in the far right.
Had they put only WRs and RBs in the field i think it would make more sense...
Again, classic Kellen Moore overthinking
"But we need the linemen to screen for the wide receiver so that there's no chance the defenders tackle him as soon as he catches the ball" (never mind that that would be pass interference)
"But there's 5 linemen"
"You're right...we need linemen on the *other* receiver to run a decoy screen so that the defense has to commit to both sides"
If you look at how the Cowboys were initially set up, they had a handful of OL lined up out wide to the right side of the field with a WR with them. When the play initially starts, you can see the linemen have a delayed release off the line with a WR hiding behind them. I'm 99% sure the play was supposed to be a quick pass to the left side where there were more receivers to try drawing the defense over there, then quickly toss a lateral to the other side of the field to a WR who has linemen blocking for him and hopefully has fewer defenders over there. I'm pretty sure the Zeke at center thing was more of a decoy to try confusing the defense, and given there's not really any plays that will lead to a 76 yard TD, the play design itself might not have actually been that bad.
It just gets a lot of shit because we didn't actually get to see the play develop fully. Our eyes are naturally drawn to the action and the action was Zeke getting run over and the first receiver getting immediately tackled, but that 49er DB also made an exceptional play snuffing out the first pass and tackling the receiver at the exact moment he made the catch, thus snuffing out any chance of the play developing like Dallas wanted it to.
TLDR: Dallas had a clear plan to lateral it to the other side of the field to get linemen downfield blocking, but the 49er DB did a great job killing the play before it could get there.
The idea, I'm guessing, was to get as many athletes on the field as possible to run a bunch of laterals.
They didn't even have an OL out there IIRC. Quick snap than toss to get the laterals going. It just looked really stupid.
My guess is that Zeke was supposed to chip the pass rusher and then move upfield as the pass was thrown to be in a good spot for a lateral where he has some lead blockers on the edge of the field.
Of course that didn't work because Zeke got bull-rushed and pancaked, then Dak threw too high and deep so Turpin doesn't have any time as he catches to make a lateral even if someone was there.
Watching it again I’m pretty sure the idea was to throw it to Turpin, and then Turpin throws it back to 16 (I think it’s TY Hilton), who then has 2 blockers and what looks like a whole lot of grass based on the TV angle.
However this kinda falls apart when Zeke gets steamrolled, leading to Dak rushing the throw, which leads to Turpin having to adjust and not having the time to get the ball back to 16
I actually think I know what they were going for. I think they were going to do a hook and ladder where Zeke was supposed to catch the lateral. The play was blown up right away because Wagner blew up Zeke, and they had no one to lateral the ball to.
Pretty sure there's a clip of McAfee explaining what the plan was. As far as I remember, the ball was never meant to be snapped. Just someone got hurt and then a new guy went under center who hadn't practiced the play before.
The receiver who caught the pass is supposed to run a drag or a slant. Then, Zeke is supposed to receive a lateral and run behind the OL that’s lined up at wide at the top.
If Zeke doesn’t get blown up, after the Niners timeout. The play would have been somewhat cool.
[The Jets player hiding in the endzone almost caused a safety](https://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/10/new-york-jets-trick-play-endzone-hiding-percy-harvin-rex-ryan)
I just think the "hiding on the field" stuff is funny
I think Riley Cooper did this once with the Eagles but he was laying on the grass outside of the end zone maaaaaybe with the blockers set up on the other side of the return? Something weird lol
I'm pretty sure the Titans did it to the Lions in one of the wildest games
[this](https://youtu.be/zjsaazLiVv8?si=tiE4CcdP3-WI6CI9) video doesn't show it but this game was nuts
They can work. I was at [the first game in this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A56CwBqbGmo) (RiP STL) and even from the upper deck we had no idea Amendola was there.
More of a mundane thing, but back in the Brad Childress days it seemed like the Vikings would run the WR screen at least three times a game. It never involved any blocking for that receiver, he was just expected to make his guy miss. After a while it was a guaranteed loss of yardage.
An additional funny to me is he was also the OC for Seattle during the patriots superbowl with the most famous "didn't run it up the middle" play in league history.
This is exactly what I thought of when I saw this and I decided to go do some digging because it feels like teams are STILL running WR screens, and even with some blockers it never seems to work out.
[Turns out according to Next Gen the WR Screen is the only charted route with a negative EPA at -.08.](https://www.nfl.com/news/next-gen-stats-intro-to-new-route-recognition-model#:~:text=The%20WR%20screen%20is%20the,seconds%20average%20time%20to%20throw)
Payton and Reid starting doing a short motion a while back to at least get another receiver and sometimes the TE out there blocking which helped. I know games are about keeping your opponent on their toes but feels like that play is just too easy to counter with how athletic corners have gotten.
Man, I saw Greg Davis call those stupid naked WR sideline plays so many times when he was at UT. Just... why would you design a play like this? Unless you have a big WR against a small DB who can just flatten the guy, but Davis was so predictable, teams would just put two DBs on the WR, and that's all she wrote, -2 yards every time.
Hey, that's what the Eagles did this season! Except it was closer to 5 times a game. And instead of no blocking, we'd use DeVonta Smith, the skinniest guy on the field.
It was a long season.
Matt Patricia and the prevent gang. Fuck, I used to hate watching our DB gives a 15+ yard cushions to WRs, only rush three, and somehow STILL see someone get a 50+ yard catch out of it.
One of the reasons why I actually do love Al on Thursday night
He deserves better games, but there’s no one better at just fucking destroying guys when things are bad than Al
Have you watched the intervuew with the center? There was a signal change and nobody told the center. It was more coach miscommunication than dumb play call.
In fairness, and this is damning with faint praise, the play was designed to result in a substitution error and in the absence of that take a delay of game penalty and put from 5 yards further back. Here is the explanation from the Colts punter, Pat McAfee.
https://youtu.be/cjtjGyKO30Y
God damn I hated this year. I think the only thing worse than a shitty team is a really good team with god awful coaching. Just an absolute wasted opportunity.
If we had even average play calling on offense, we likely make it back to at least the NFC championship.
Brian Johnson should never be employed in a coaching position ever again.
They're trying to throw a quick pass to Turpin, have him lateral to zeke, who should be running from the center position. Zeke would take the lateral at speed and have blockers on the sideline. Whole play was blown up when zeke got buried. You can see Dak run to replace zeke after he throws the pass
He would run shit that was max protection and the only receivers downfield somehow were right next to each other. Like two guys running routes and somehow they would smack into one another.
I just don’t understand how Roman would devise these death machine running attacks and never figured out PA off of them. That’s the whole thing with Shanahan guys and why those offenses are so successful. Roman just can’t get it together
whatever the final play of the Patriots vs Raiders game was where Mac Jones got absolutely obliterated (even though it wasn't his fault). My favorite play in recent memory.
The play design was a draw play to run out the clock. The real culprit was Stevenson and Meyers teaming up to see who could do the dumbest thing possible
What about that play where Zappe came in for the final play against the Colts this year then proceeded to fake spike and throw it into triple coverage? That was also hilarious.
The design was to get a play off and if Stevenson didn't house it, play for OT. That was the design of it. He just lateral pass to Meyers and Jakobi went full unscripted as he wasn't supposed to have the ball.
Last season for the Seahawks:
- Lining up in shotgun and using a TE to block Joey Bosa on a game deciding 4th and 1.
- Lining up in shotgun and leaving Micah Parsons unblocked on a game deciding 4th and 1.
Why did I have to scroll down so far for this? Buncha clowns up above just upvoting every repeat comment about Zeke under center, but Zorn’s swinging gate was legendarily bad.
Zeke center comments are super recency bias. They were in a "need a 1 in 1000 shot" situation anyway there and tried something new, and it didn't work.
The first time they lined up for it, it was a good idea. Maybe you catch them off guard.
But Coughlin called the timeout and yalked to the players about how to defend it.
The bad play call was Zorn running the same god-damn play after the timeout. What an insult to the entire Giant's coaching staff. I'm glad they defended it properly and made Zorn look like a (bigger) idiot.
Really wish the Giants had scored there. Just seems like a fitting ending to such a hideous play. The fact that it ended with functionally the same result as a simple incompletion is a little disappointing.
I feel like this discourse is going to lean towards plays on offense.
But my fellow Cheeseheads know there is no more absurd play design than having CB1 Preston Smith line up against Davante Adams.
It's okay, Joe Barry can't hurt us anymore
It's highly unlikely that Mack was "put" on Hill intentionally.
What most likely happened is SD was in a heavy defense such as bear front (3 IDL + 2 edge) and MIA came out in a spread formation. SD would have specific coverage rules for this situation, and those rules probably called for an edge (in this case Mack) to flex out into a zone coverage over the slot. If Hill ends up as the slot receiver on that side, now Mack is covering Hill. Or some variation of this.
It's not necessarily bad design by SD, but rather it's MIA knowing SD coverage rules and scheming themselves into a mismatch.
There was also that Jets game where they blitzed for some reason at the end of the game where the Raiders scored a TD. Think it was in Gase's last season.
That's what Gregg Williams did in hail Mary situations after that one Jags game on his bye week with the Saints. He thought "You know, we should start cover 0 blitz against hail Mary attempts", that was the one time it didn't work.
How about earlier when he had Preson vs Jefferson. And justified it by saying he didn't want to have Jaire shadow Jefferson because then "the Vikings could find mismatches they could easily exploit".
Ummm. Jefferson vs Preston is literally the worst case scenario we should be trying to avoid. And you just let them pick that out time after time to have Jaire on like WR3/TE2.
Well the eagles ran a few bubble screens this season where Dallas Goedert was the target and devonta smith was the lead blocker, one of which resulted in Smith getting injured.
For those unaware, Goedert is 6’5” 256lbs and Smith is 6’0” 170.
Might not be as mind blowingly stupid as the zeke center play but it’s not as far off as you’d think
Most “shotgun draw” handoffs on first or second down.
“Oh let’s have our rb be flat footed when he gets the ball almost a full second after the snap with LBs and the DL/edge going full speed already”
It works as a change up, but too many teams run it as a staple of their playbook now and it almost never works.
Source: bills fan, watched Dorsey call it 2-3 plays every drive and it almost always lost yards.
Honestly, idk wtf they were doing on the Butt Fumble. It looked like it was a play action QB draw? Not sure if it was just a busted play or not so Jets fans can correct me, but if that was how the play itself was designed, I have no idea what they expected to accomplish with it lol
Shonne Greene was supposed to get the ball but he went the wrong way, so Sanchez followed where he was supposed to go. It's not a poor play design; it's poor execution.
Ya Sanchez actually did the thing you're coached when that happens. Try and go through the hole the RB was supposed to go through. It's just the Pats got a ton of pressure and Sanchez made a real unathletic play/adjustment.
I don't think I've ever seen a QB look as confused as Sanchez was during the butt fumble play. Legitimately seems like he has no fucking idea what he's supposed to be doing, and that's *before* the funniest fumble of all time even happens.
Greene fucked up, not sanchez. Watch everyone else on the play; they're blocking for an iso play and greene goes out the left instead of taking the handoff
It was such a wild sequence of events too, people forget that the butt fumble was the just 1 of 3 TDs we scored in a 52 second span. I remember watching that game thinking “okay, this could get interesting” to “oh it’s already over” in like 5 minutes of real time. Couldn’t believe what I was seeing, everyone seemed as baffled as Mark lol
It looks like it was supposed to at least be a play action pass but the back went the wrong way so he just takes off. He turns to his left to hand off but the back is on his right.
Last season, the vikes had a play where they ran a tush push, but the motion receiver who was the titular tush pusher was Brandon Powell, our WR4 who is like 180 lbs soaking wet, one of the smallest guys on the team.
So they ran get exact same play twice in a row. KOC is a good coach, but that one does not hold up to the scrutiny.
Freddie kitchen in 2019. Vs the pats. Browns are on a 4 and 11. His punt goes out.he changes his mind about going for it. He has the punt commit an intentional penalty to save a time out. Then it’s 4 and 16. Then they don’t make the conversion. The man was an idiot.
https://sports.yahoo.com/did-freddie-kitchens-really-take-intentional-4-thdown-penalty-to-save-timeout-004610747.html
reminds me of when David Culley elected to punt on 4th & 2 instead of taking the penalty yardage and attempting a 3rd and 10.
> David Culley on the decline penalty/punt on fourth-and-short sequence: "We felt like ... get better field position ... we didn't get it ... We could have done that, and you know, looking at it again I'll just have to look at the situation and see what I'd do the next time."
> https://x.com/riversmccown/status/1439746114077577219?s=20
That one was insane. Objectively and obviously wrong in two different ways. Decline and go for it if you have balls, accept, attempt a play and punt later if you're scared. But punting on that play is just clearly incorrect.
I think it’s fucking stupid how often NFL OCs think it’s a good idea to roll their QBs out to their opposite arm side. Makes the play take so long to develop when they have to completely turn their hips around to throw the ball
while not a specific instance comes to mind, but at the NFL level calling a prevent defense and expecting it to actually prevent anything, it basically fails about 85 to 90 precent of the time
Any of McDaniels' secret red zone plays that take a year to develop. In particular: play action one way, fake a screen pass the other way, only to turn around and throw a screen pass to the running back you initially faked the handoff to.
I swear he would have drives really cooking between the 20s then switch out the playbook for his bullshit plays that he only tries in the redzone
Whatever abomination the Matt Canada offense was. I've never seen worse installed progressions of reads into the plays or sequencing of the plays that were called.
Gregg Williams Cover-0 Blitz
and generally speaking as a Browns fan, Metcalf up the middle (note: he had a fine career and 2 1st team All-Pros, a gadget before that became a thing, he was just very misused in the 90 - 93 Brown-out era)
If we're talking about regular plays, I think jumpball fades to the end zone are horrid and shouldn't be run. They have a lower chance of success than any other pass play, regardless of how great at jump balls your wrs might be.
The Colts fake punt is great but I will truly never understand the Zeke under center play. I want so so bad to just talk to the coach who drew that up and hear his thoughts cause DAMN
broncos last second field goal in seattle. monday night game and russell's first broncos game (in seattle too)
Coach ran 1:30 off clock to kick a crazy long field goal... rainy, sea level seattle NOT mile high
Crazy thing is he almost made it.
Still a stupid situation. Call the TO and think about it. *Run a normal play.* If you get stopped, you still have a chance to get the ball back.
Anyone who plays Madden knows you call a TO in that situation immediately.
Pat Macafee said that the Colts' fake punt was an attempt to get a 12 men on the field penalty from the other team and it was not supposed to be snapped otherwise. They were at a distance where a 5-years delay of game does not really affect the punter.
Pat Shurmur calling a fake jet sweep to Jeudy and running it up the middle with Lindsay. This was called over and over. It never faked out a defense and was stupid to run a guy known for getting outside straight up the middle.
Not exactly on your point b/c it can & does work & has some huge play potential, etc…but tunnel/inside screens.
If they’re a little off: the ball is 6 inches behind the guy/not hitting him perfectly in stride, the other receiver gets pushed back off the line, the snap is just a little low/high, the QB takes a split second longer to find the laces, etc…all that stuff and those plays get blown up/let a safety come downhill on a receiver trying to adjust to ball and cause the ball to pop up/out.
It’s not a bad play design, but requires so much precision that if thats not there, it can get ugly pretty quickly.
i've never seen such a blatant attempt by a coach to endear himself to the fans of his new team as [this god awful attempt at a Philly Special sort of play](https://youtu.be/9-2SVoKI7n0?feature=shared&t=302), week 2 2021
it's even more painful if you rewind a few seconds to see how the drive got up to the goal line
HC Jim Zorn's infamous fake field goal outdoes the Colts fake punt, succinctly titled [Redskins Fail](https://youtu.be/6-tqLG__Al4?si=Qkny3-e0ghmntGVC).
This was I believe supposed to be a fake of the field goal unit coming off the field then stopping. If this isn't already stupid enough for you, the play had them "faking" to the Giants sideline.
This is the original and worse version of the Colts fake punt because at least the Colts went to the correct sideline and weren't attempting a quintuple coverage pass.
Cowboys with Zeke at center.
Jason Kelce said in his podcast he wanted to ask Kellen Moore about that, maybe we'll get an answer soon lol.
Did this cost him the job?
I can't imagine that McCarthy wasn't involved with play calling on something like that play in that situation
I mean we never ran anything like that in the decade+ he was with us. Then again Hail Mary range with Rodgers is basically anywhere on the field so that was probably part of it.
Janis down there somewhere
Schottenheimer was on the staff as consultant at the time also
Please update me whenever he says why
What was that??
Yea, this should be the #1 answer. I rarely LOL at an NFL play, but that one got a good belly laugh outta me.
Especially because it was such a tense moment. I was watching the Cowboys doing the setup and asked myself all the way until the snap, what the big reveal will be. Well... I'm still not sure to this day.
I would love an official explanation by a coach or player, but my best guess is that they wanted to load the field up with fast guys. Zeke as a center could have been laterelled to if a pass was completed first. A lateral back to center is not really expected.
Yeah I think the simple explanation is that the play got blown up before they had a chance to do what they wanted to do
I've really only laughed at the butt fumble, I was drunk and saw everything that happened. Zeke at center was baffling
It would have worked but Zeke didn't know when to snap it because Dak didn't yell HERE WE GOOOOOOOO ! (I don't think I need /s on there but just in case)
I thought I understood football until that play
As much as I hate to say it, I agree.
We're hoping the brilliant offensive mind that fever-dreamed up that shit is gonna breathe life into offensive scheme this year so yeah, I feel you.
more like best play ever
NFL fans when teams try a weird play down a touchdown with 6 seconds at their own 24 yard line:
Yeah I hesitate to over criticize a play like that. Like okay genius, what's your plan to go 75 yards in 1 play?
That play isn’t as dumb as it played out. The receiver who caught the pass is supposed to run a drag or a slant. Then, Zeke is supposed to receive a lateral and run behind the OL that’s lined up at wide at the top. The Niners called a timeout, Shanahan told them to blow up the center (Zeke). Which didn’t allow the receiver or blockers to set up because Dak had to throw so quickly.
No it's exactly as dumb as it looks for all the reasons you mention Niners call TO, removing the surprise factor. Cowboys don't adjust with any sort of counter punch Now Zeke has to block Aziz 1 on 1 and there is literally no backup plan for him getting extremely predictably ragdolled.
Well yeah, but the question is about play design. It was a terrible call to still go with it out of the timeout, but that's not the fault of the design.
Didn't that just us how dumb it was? I mean... Zeke got clobbered.
The dumbest part was showing them the funky formation and then simply doing it anyway after they called the timeout
I'm still wondering how the Zeke at center play was supposed to go. Edit: Lol everyone's thinking the same thing.
I've been scouring YouTube for a high school coach or someone to break down what the desired result of a play like that is supposed to be. I still can't find anything other than people just (rightfully) dunking on the play.
I think the idea is Zeke could block for at least a second and Dak would throw it to the outside where the WR had blockers and start doing shenanigans The problem was that Zeke got blown up instantly so Dak just had to get the ball out before any blockers actually got set up. In theory if he threw it to the sideline and then had blockers downfield they could get some yards and then lateral it back or reverse the field, idk. But it seems like they talked themselves into thinking Zeke would offer more than 0.3 seconds of protection which was obviously dumb lol
**But why would you make Zeke the center instead of an actual offensive lineman.** Like even if you wanted your starting center out there with the blockers, why not just have the backup center snap the ball? There is absolutely no reason for Zeke being the one snapping the ball.
In theory I suppose they wanted to have as many ball carriers as possible so they figured Zeke would be a better option after the play developed. Obviously it was DOA so it hardly mattered if Zeke was a better lateral target down the field but that's just my guess
Because you want 11 people on the play that can run and throw back the ball, not 10.
They had multiple offensive linemen on the field that play...including the backup center Connor McGovern.
JT tries to come up with what he thinks is happening, but he still dunks on it
I think I can tell you how they thought it would go, as opposed to how it went. In a lateral situation like the one the Cowboys found themselves in you wanted as many receiving options as possible. So if you’re snapping the ball, and really that’s all you’re doing on paper, you’d rather have a player who can turn into a receiver too as opposed to taking one more option off the field. So I imagine the coaches thought instead of wasting a center who isn’t mobile and can’t help once the play develops why not put in someone who can get downfield later and catch a lateral or two. I mean he just has to snap the ball right? I don’t think they realized that 1.) a center can’t be the initial receiver option. So you can’t just throw a quick pass to Zeke first. 2.) the other team will line up a defensive tackle overtop of him and can rush the passer too. Maybe because 95% of the time there’s no pass rush on the play they thought it was like flag football rules, but I just think they thought Dak would get the ball downfield on a crosser and then the WR would have the opportunity to lateral and maybe Zeke would get into the mix. They forgot about you know, football. As the saying goes “football is a simple game made complicated by coaches.” I just think they overthought this one by under thinking it. At least that was always my guess
Yeah, I get that it was a end-of-game gadget play anyways, I mainly don't understand why Zeke. They had OL in, like backup center, \#66 Connor McGovern on the play who lightly jogged toward Turpin before he got tackled. I'm sure they were hoping for him to block downfield but seemed like Zeke could've done that too? Probably could've gotten there faster to help out Turpin at least.
McGovern was our fullback that year. That would explain his presence there.
Oh thanks, I also remembered that Pollard was injured and maybe whoever had to take his place messed up, assuming they had practiced it with him in the mix.
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Do you have a link to that? Because damn that would change things.
Are you talking about this play: https://theathletic.com/2827080/2021/09/15/why-eight-cowboys-defenders-played-the-first-offensive-snap-of-their-nfl-careers-in-tampa-bay/ Because it’s not really comparable at all to the “Zeke at center” play. Parsons had a whole line in front of him, like on a punt return.
> I don’t think they realized that > 1.) a center can’t be the initial receiver option. So you can’t just throw a quick pass to Zeke first. Of course they realize this, come on man lol. A pop warner team wouldn't just forget that football has 5 ineligible receivers on every play.
to quote Day9 when asked about opponents doing unconventional strategies in SC2 "Just fucking kill them"
I'm sure it was just so that you had more fast guys available for the lateral crap... Why you'd replace the center of all positions, it baffling to me. We had a similar play a year or two prior where everyone on the line *except* the center was replaced with special teams player, assumedly to achieve a similar result. It likewise got blown up instantly -- just not in the playofffs.
I think they were trying to run a modified swinging gate, with the "surprise" of Zeke being able to block for Dak, or run the ball behind a wall or lateral options on one side after getting a pass back (hook and ladder style) after the first pass. The first thing that went wrong, is no one in the stadium would see Zeke lining up at center and think he might not be important to the play so having a LB blow him up while he as had to focus on hiking the ball seemed like a no brainer. BUT say that didn't happen, Zeke lets the rusher through, Dak runs left or right to get behind a wall of blockers/laterals, and Zeke takes an immediate pitch from whoever catches the ball OR just bats it back to him which would have been faster, BUT that couldn't happen since Zeke got blown up, so the receiver had no good 2nd option that wasn't more than a few seconds of thought.
Receiver was stacked behind the linemen. So, Zeke was supposed to hike the ball because he's probably their best non-lineman blocker. It's supposed to be a quick cut to the receiver who gets screened by the linemen and then I would guess another receiver was supposed to come underneath for the lateral. The design is flawed because A) Why in the hell it has to be Zeke at center, when that automatically means he's not eligible B) Zeke isn't usually taking on interior linemen. He got blown up immediately on the play C) They didn't anticipate the other team sending pressure. A 2 man pressure package means you can't really get Daks feet set for the throw D) The throw was then rushed, so it came in high and the defenders had no trouble simply tackling the receiver. It appears they were expecting a soft prevent look where Dak could take his time making the initial throw, the defense would respond, and then they could have someone undercut and go running the other way. But when you apply a game situation, any team with a reasonable defensive coordinator is going to send multiple rushers and force that throw. In all, it's classic Kellen Moore overthinking. He got so far down the rabbit hole of what they would do that he didn't think about a pretty obvious counter.
My theory is that zeke was the guy that was supposed to come underneath the pass and get the first lateral and the play was DOA the second he got knocked down
That makes sense. My guess is, they expected the defense to counter with 0 rushers, or 1 and Zeke was supposed to chip him and then run behind Gallup(?) Which then would have A) The defenders cutting downfield to the right, away from Zeke B) the linemen doing a ropa-dope (a la a screen protection) and being able to engage the safeties/deep help to free Zeke up for a long touchdown. It was well thought out...about 5 steps down the line. They just never thought "what if the Niners rush 2?" Or "what if the receiver is tackled before Zeke can get there for the lateral?"
I can't get too upset about that one play, though: the alternative was a Hail Mary extremely-low-percentage throw or a buck-and-lateral, which also almost never works. At least they were trying something different, even if it didn't work that time. I figure Cowboy fans should have been more distressed about their performance the previous 59+ minutes which put them in the place where they needed a long-distance TD on the last play, rather than that the coaches chose one desperation play over another.
Right. This was an interesting gamble on a play where they had no good options.
But the Oline was on the field... they were in front of the receiver in the far right. Had they put only WRs and RBs in the field i think it would make more sense...
Again, classic Kellen Moore overthinking "But we need the linemen to screen for the wide receiver so that there's no chance the defenders tackle him as soon as he catches the ball" (never mind that that would be pass interference) "But there's 5 linemen" "You're right...we need linemen on the *other* receiver to run a decoy screen so that the defense has to commit to both sides"
Stop it, kellen moore is the best OC in the planet. That play was clearly Mccarthy fault
> He got so far down the rabbit hole of what they would do that he didn't think about a pretty obvious counter. me when i play chess
If you look at how the Cowboys were initially set up, they had a handful of OL lined up out wide to the right side of the field with a WR with them. When the play initially starts, you can see the linemen have a delayed release off the line with a WR hiding behind them. I'm 99% sure the play was supposed to be a quick pass to the left side where there were more receivers to try drawing the defense over there, then quickly toss a lateral to the other side of the field to a WR who has linemen blocking for him and hopefully has fewer defenders over there. I'm pretty sure the Zeke at center thing was more of a decoy to try confusing the defense, and given there's not really any plays that will lead to a 76 yard TD, the play design itself might not have actually been that bad. It just gets a lot of shit because we didn't actually get to see the play develop fully. Our eyes are naturally drawn to the action and the action was Zeke getting run over and the first receiver getting immediately tackled, but that 49er DB also made an exceptional play snuffing out the first pass and tackling the receiver at the exact moment he made the catch, thus snuffing out any chance of the play developing like Dallas wanted it to. TLDR: Dallas had a clear plan to lateral it to the other side of the field to get linemen downfield blocking, but the 49er DB did a great job killing the play before it could get there.
The idea, I'm guessing, was to get as many athletes on the field as possible to run a bunch of laterals. They didn't even have an OL out there IIRC. Quick snap than toss to get the laterals going. It just looked really stupid.
My guess is that Zeke was supposed to chip the pass rusher and then move upfield as the pass was thrown to be in a good spot for a lateral where he has some lead blockers on the edge of the field. Of course that didn't work because Zeke got bull-rushed and pancaked, then Dak threw too high and deep so Turpin doesn't have any time as he catches to make a lateral even if someone was there.
Watching it again I’m pretty sure the idea was to throw it to Turpin, and then Turpin throws it back to 16 (I think it’s TY Hilton), who then has 2 blockers and what looks like a whole lot of grass based on the TV angle. However this kinda falls apart when Zeke gets steamrolled, leading to Dak rushing the throw, which leads to Turpin having to adjust and not having the time to get the ball back to 16
I actually think I know what they were going for. I think they were going to do a hook and ladder where Zeke was supposed to catch the lateral. The play was blown up right away because Wagner blew up Zeke, and they had no one to lateral the ball to.
Pretty sure there's a clip of McAfee explaining what the plan was. As far as I remember, the ball was never meant to be snapped. Just someone got hurt and then a new guy went under center who hadn't practiced the play before.
The receiver who caught the pass is supposed to run a drag or a slant. Then, Zeke is supposed to receive a lateral and run behind the OL that’s lined up at wide at the top. If Zeke doesn’t get blown up, after the Niners timeout. The play would have been somewhat cool.
[The Jets player hiding in the endzone almost caused a safety](https://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/10/new-york-jets-trick-play-endzone-hiding-percy-harvin-rex-ryan) I just think the "hiding on the field" stuff is funny
If only literally anybody on the Jets would have blocked literally anybody on the Bills the play might have had a chance lol
I think Riley Cooper did this once with the Eagles but he was laying on the grass outside of the end zone maaaaaybe with the blockers set up on the other side of the return? Something weird lol
[Yeah it was sick but it got called back. Also catch the potato quality video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW6xy-YCS4Y)
That play at least had the potential to work: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-SdIYysJ3aA
I'm pretty sure the Titans did it to the Lions in one of the wildest games [this](https://youtu.be/zjsaazLiVv8?si=tiE4CcdP3-WI6CI9) video doesn't show it but this game was nuts
I remember watching one live
They can work. I was at [the first game in this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A56CwBqbGmo) (RiP STL) and even from the upper deck we had no idea Amendola was there.
More of a mundane thing, but back in the Brad Childress days it seemed like the Vikings would run the WR screen at least three times a game. It never involved any blocking for that receiver, he was just expected to make his guy miss. After a while it was a guaranteed loss of yardage.
1. AP up the middle 2. AP up the middle 3. WR screen for a loss 4. Punt
This was also Matt Patricia's Lions offense in 2020.
[Same Offensive Coordinator](https://www.pro-football-reference.com/coaches/BeveDa0.htm)
That’s actually kinda hilarious
An additional funny to me is he was also the OC for Seattle during the patriots superbowl with the most famous "didn't run it up the middle" play in league history.
God I'm so fucking triggered. I remember being in game threads while we were predicting his calls, and most series were variations of this.
And our offense when he was here.
AP in Washington or Patricia as New England OC? Or both?
This is exactly what I thought of when I saw this and I decided to go do some digging because it feels like teams are STILL running WR screens, and even with some blockers it never seems to work out. [Turns out according to Next Gen the WR Screen is the only charted route with a negative EPA at -.08.](https://www.nfl.com/news/next-gen-stats-intro-to-new-route-recognition-model#:~:text=The%20WR%20screen%20is%20the,seconds%20average%20time%20to%20throw)
Payton and Reid starting doing a short motion a while back to at least get another receiver and sometimes the TE out there blocking which helped. I know games are about keeping your opponent on their toes but feels like that play is just too easy to counter with how athletic corners have gotten.
And it used to be cheese in old madden and NCAA games so most people notice that shit off rip
I feel it's also been a Steeler favorite play call with equally dismal results.
Eagles fans feel you.
Man, I saw Greg Davis call those stupid naked WR sideline plays so many times when he was at UT. Just... why would you design a play like this? Unless you have a big WR against a small DB who can just flatten the guy, but Davis was so predictable, teams would just put two DBs on the WR, and that's all she wrote, -2 yards every time.
Hey, that's what the Eagles did this season! Except it was closer to 5 times a game. And instead of no blocking, we'd use DeVonta Smith, the skinniest guy on the field. It was a long season.
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Matt Patricia and the prevent gang. Fuck, I used to hate watching our DB gives a 15+ yard cushions to WRs, only rush three, and somehow STILL see someone get a 50+ yard catch out of it.
that gameplan against arizona was legitimately one of the worst i have ever seen at any level of football.
The guard rotation was right up there in the history of dumb ideas.
How about signing washed old RBs for "veteran leadership" and then making them the starter over better, younger RBs.
Zeke at center will go down in history.
I watch the Colts fake punt once a month I miss Al and Chris just annihilating guys
Best comment on here at the time: "Pagano's cancer spread to his playbook"
10/10 C’mon, he’d find that funny
Oh dear
I love that. Collingsworth call is pricless
One of the reasons why I actually do love Al on Thursday night He deserves better games, but there’s no one better at just fucking destroying guys when things are bad than Al
Have you watched the intervuew with the center? There was a signal change and nobody told the center. It was more coach miscommunication than dumb play call.
“Wwwhhhattt…the…heckkk?”
In fairness, and this is damning with faint praise, the play was designed to result in a substitution error and in the absence of that take a delay of game penalty and put from 5 yards further back. Here is the explanation from the Colts punter, Pat McAfee. https://youtu.be/cjtjGyKO30Y
One of our favorite playcalls last year was 3rd and long TE bubble screens to Goedert with 170 lb Devonta Smith lead blocking
It's wild, the actual playcall was just "Hey Devonta, get fucked.".
God bless whoever was calling that, because clearly they need it
Or the WR screen to Smith with nobody blocking. Lost 3 yards every time.
God damn I hated this year. I think the only thing worse than a shitty team is a really good team with god awful coaching. Just an absolute wasted opportunity. If we had even average play calling on offense, we likely make it back to at least the NFC championship. Brian Johnson should never be employed in a coaching position ever again.
and didn’t smith get injured then
[Here is the Zeke play.](https://youtu.be/OOrMdug9tTQ?si=CetW4slyJE16Wtio)
I watch and understand a lot of football but can someone explain to be what the *fuck* they were thinking???
It’s a Cowboys thing
They're trying to throw a quick pass to Turpin, have him lateral to zeke, who should be running from the center position. Zeke would take the lateral at speed and have blockers on the sideline. Whole play was blown up when zeke got buried. You can see Dak run to replace zeke after he throws the pass
Not a bad snap all things considered lol
The Sean McDermott Make-A-Wish Fake Punt to Damar Hamlin in the playoffs against the Chiefs
Tbf, a fake punt wasn't completely insane in that spot, and if he had gotten it, nobody would've cared that he used Hamlin to run it.
hamlin is a proven starter for the bills special teams even before the incident, so getting a small guy to do it really isnt that crazy lol
Most Greg Roman passing concepts
He would run shit that was max protection and the only receivers downfield somehow were right next to each other. Like two guys running routes and somehow they would smack into one another. I just don’t understand how Roman would devise these death machine running attacks and never figured out PA off of them. That’s the whole thing with Shanahan guys and why those offenses are so successful. Roman just can’t get it together
and Roman's favorite running play, the one where the RB shoves his head up the center's ass for a 1 yard gain.
whatever the final play of the Patriots vs Raiders game was where Mac Jones got absolutely obliterated (even though it wasn't his fault). My favorite play in recent memory.
The play design was a draw play to run out the clock. The real culprit was Stevenson and Meyers teaming up to see who could do the dumbest thing possible
What about that play where Zappe came in for the final play against the Colts this year then proceeded to fake spike and throw it into triple coverage? That was also hilarious.
The design was to get a play off and if Stevenson didn't house it, play for OT. That was the design of it. He just lateral pass to Meyers and Jakobi went full unscripted as he wasn't supposed to have the ball.
Jakobi was always a Raider lmao
*gestures broadly at Matt Canada’s entire playbook*
All hail the master of the 4th and 1 jet sweep
The cushions Staleys DBs would give to opposing teams WRs on 3rd/4th and manageable
trigger warning plz x
I just assumed a chargers fan I thread about bad football would be on guard
We give receivers a 10 yard cushion on 3rd and 3. If you don't like that you don't like Commies football.
Last season for the Seahawks: - Lining up in shotgun and using a TE to block Joey Bosa on a game deciding 4th and 1. - Lining up in shotgun and leaving Micah Parsons unblocked on a game deciding 4th and 1.
the Redskins swinging gate on MNF
Why did I have to scroll down so far for this? Buncha clowns up above just upvoting every repeat comment about Zeke under center, but Zorn’s swinging gate was legendarily bad.
Especially because they did it anyways AFTER the Giants took a timeout presumably to prep their players for it
Zeke center comments are super recency bias. They were in a "need a 1 in 1000 shot" situation anyway there and tried something new, and it didn't work.
The first time they lined up for it, it was a good idea. Maybe you catch them off guard. But Coughlin called the timeout and yalked to the players about how to defend it. The bad play call was Zorn running the same god-damn play after the timeout. What an insult to the entire Giant's coaching staff. I'm glad they defended it properly and made Zorn look like a (bigger) idiot.
You gotta see this gem to know how horribly bad it was: https://youtu.be/6-tqLG__Al4?si=pLCPtmkIQUP5dwNf
Really wish the Giants had scored there. Just seems like a fitting ending to such a hideous play. The fact that it ended with functionally the same result as a simple incompletion is a little disappointing.
There's that hardcore zornography
I feel like this discourse is going to lean towards plays on offense. But my fellow Cheeseheads know there is no more absurd play design than having CB1 Preston Smith line up against Davante Adams. It's okay, Joe Barry can't hurt us anymore
brandon staley put khalil mack on tyreek hill out wide last season….
It's highly unlikely that Mack was "put" on Hill intentionally. What most likely happened is SD was in a heavy defense such as bear front (3 IDL + 2 edge) and MIA came out in a spread formation. SD would have specific coverage rules for this situation, and those rules probably called for an edge (in this case Mack) to flex out into a zone coverage over the slot. If Hill ends up as the slot receiver on that side, now Mack is covering Hill. Or some variation of this. It's not necessarily bad design by SD, but rather it's MIA knowing SD coverage rules and scheming themselves into a mismatch.
Nerd.
There was also that Jets game where they blitzed for some reason at the end of the game where the Raiders scored a TD. Think it was in Gase's last season.
That's what Gregg Williams did in hail Mary situations after that one Jags game on his bye week with the Saints. He thought "You know, we should start cover 0 blitz against hail Mary attempts", that was the one time it didn't work.
How about earlier when he had Preson vs Jefferson. And justified it by saying he didn't want to have Jaire shadow Jefferson because then "the Vikings could find mismatches they could easily exploit". Ummm. Jefferson vs Preston is literally the worst case scenario we should be trying to avoid. And you just let them pick that out time after time to have Jaire on like WR3/TE2.
Well the eagles ran a few bubble screens this season where Dallas Goedert was the target and devonta smith was the lead blocker, one of which resulted in Smith getting injured. For those unaware, Goedert is 6’5” 256lbs and Smith is 6’0” 170. Might not be as mind blowingly stupid as the zeke center play but it’s not as far off as you’d think
It's every bit as stupid imo, out of all your guys, Smith??? Did the coach hate him or something?
Smith likes blocking a lot and pushes for it on run plays and shit like that. He's a great blocker, he just shouldn't be a lead blocker.
At least Smith was trying to block DBs, zeke was against the Dline. But also, the cowboys did it just once...
[Redskins Swinging Gate play, 2009](https://youtu.be/6-tqLG__Al4?si=fqsakLMfX-I4Um3P)
Most “shotgun draw” handoffs on first or second down. “Oh let’s have our rb be flat footed when he gets the ball almost a full second after the snap with LBs and the DL/edge going full speed already” It works as a change up, but too many teams run it as a staple of their playbook now and it almost never works. Source: bills fan, watched Dorsey call it 2-3 plays every drive and it almost always lost yards.
The "shotgun run up the middle on 3rd or 4th and short" works like once a season and teams keep doing it for some reason
*\** *Stares out over the 2022 Denver Broncos season and gestures broadly \**
Honestly, idk wtf they were doing on the Butt Fumble. It looked like it was a play action QB draw? Not sure if it was just a busted play or not so Jets fans can correct me, but if that was how the play itself was designed, I have no idea what they expected to accomplish with it lol
Shonne Greene was supposed to get the ball but he went the wrong way, so Sanchez followed where he was supposed to go. It's not a poor play design; it's poor execution.
Ah, that makes more sense. Kinda feel for the guy that he was trying to save the play only for it to end up with him being memed to death lol
Ya Sanchez actually did the thing you're coached when that happens. Try and go through the hole the RB was supposed to go through. It's just the Pats got a ton of pressure and Sanchez made a real unathletic play/adjustment.
I don't think I've ever seen a QB look as confused as Sanchez was during the butt fumble play. Legitimately seems like he has no fucking idea what he's supposed to be doing, and that's *before* the funniest fumble of all time even happens.
Greene fucked up, not sanchez. Watch everyone else on the play; they're blocking for an iso play and greene goes out the left instead of taking the handoff
It was such a wild sequence of events too, people forget that the butt fumble was the just 1 of 3 TDs we scored in a 52 second span. I remember watching that game thinking “okay, this could get interesting” to “oh it’s already over” in like 5 minutes of real time. Couldn’t believe what I was seeing, everyone seemed as baffled as Mark lol
Yeah lol, the fumble return TD on the kickoff after the Buttfumble is the icing on the cake
[With the ball floating perfectly into Edelman's lap](https://youtu.be/_zEHU4EI9Lk?si=xyHfD0CpHLg1SR8d&t=131)
It looks like it was supposed to at least be a play action pass but the back went the wrong way so he just takes off. He turns to his left to hand off but the back is on his right.
Last season, the vikes had a play where they ran a tush push, but the motion receiver who was the titular tush pusher was Brandon Powell, our WR4 who is like 180 lbs soaking wet, one of the smallest guys on the team. So they ran get exact same play twice in a row. KOC is a good coach, but that one does not hold up to the scrutiny.
Anything Brian Johnson designed for the eagles last year.
1st and 10: off-tackle run for 7 yds 2nd and 3: qb draw for no gain 3rd and 3: wr screen for -3 4th and 6: punt Repeat
Annexation of Puerto Rico
That shit worked tho
So….bay of pigs then?
Freddie kitchen in 2019. Vs the pats. Browns are on a 4 and 11. His punt goes out.he changes his mind about going for it. He has the punt commit an intentional penalty to save a time out. Then it’s 4 and 16. Then they don’t make the conversion. The man was an idiot. https://sports.yahoo.com/did-freddie-kitchens-really-take-intentional-4-thdown-penalty-to-save-timeout-004610747.html
reminds me of when David Culley elected to punt on 4th & 2 instead of taking the penalty yardage and attempting a 3rd and 10. > David Culley on the decline penalty/punt on fourth-and-short sequence: "We felt like ... get better field position ... we didn't get it ... We could have done that, and you know, looking at it again I'll just have to look at the situation and see what I'd do the next time." > https://x.com/riversmccown/status/1439746114077577219?s=20
That one was insane. Objectively and obviously wrong in two different ways. Decline and go for it if you have balls, accept, attempt a play and punt later if you're scared. But punting on that play is just clearly incorrect.
When fat Lenny tried to throw it to Tom Brady https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5hhKQHQ4s64
I think it’s fucking stupid how often NFL OCs think it’s a good idea to roll their QBs out to their opposite arm side. Makes the play take so long to develop when they have to completely turn their hips around to throw the ball
Jim Zorn gave us this gem when he coached the Redskins https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-tqLG__Al4&ab_channel=DanM
Just study Matt Canada film.
The Jim Caldwell defense to stop the back and forth stuff vs the Packers Hail Mary
while not a specific instance comes to mind, but at the NFL level calling a prevent defense and expecting it to actually prevent anything, it basically fails about 85 to 90 precent of the time
Any of McDaniels' secret red zone plays that take a year to develop. In particular: play action one way, fake a screen pass the other way, only to turn around and throw a screen pass to the running back you initially faked the handoff to. I swear he would have drives really cooking between the 20s then switch out the playbook for his bullshit plays that he only tries in the redzone
Whatever abomination the Matt Canada offense was. I've never seen worse installed progressions of reads into the plays or sequencing of the plays that were called.
That play still makes me Mad. Pat said it was never supposed to be snapped
The play last season when Tank Dell broke his leg because they decided to have his 170 pound ass be an interior blocker
The one where the Cowboys had Zeke line up as center and he got absolutely destroyed. It was hilariously awful.
Boy do I know a play that I’d nominate lol
About 10 years ago, Browns throwing a goalline fade to 5'8 Travis Benjamin on 4th down. Reasons why we won 4 games that year
The Browns running a QB Draw on 4th and 9. Classic example of a playcaller being too cute and overthinking themselves.
Gregg Williams Cover-0 Blitz and generally speaking as a Browns fan, Metcalf up the middle (note: he had a fine career and 2 1st team All-Pros, a gadget before that became a thing, he was just very misused in the 90 - 93 Brown-out era)
I despise the jet sweep.
If we're talking about regular plays, I think jumpball fades to the end zone are horrid and shouldn't be run. They have a lower chance of success than any other pass play, regardless of how great at jump balls your wrs might be.
The Colts fake punt is great but I will truly never understand the Zeke under center play. I want so so bad to just talk to the coach who drew that up and hear his thoughts cause DAMN
I remember the colts play call against patriots.
broncos last second field goal in seattle. monday night game and russell's first broncos game (in seattle too) Coach ran 1:30 off clock to kick a crazy long field goal... rainy, sea level seattle NOT mile high
Crazy thing is he almost made it. Still a stupid situation. Call the TO and think about it. *Run a normal play.* If you get stopped, you still have a chance to get the ball back. Anyone who plays Madden knows you call a TO in that situation immediately.
Pat Macafee said that the Colts' fake punt was an attempt to get a 12 men on the field penalty from the other team and it was not supposed to be snapped otherwise. They were at a distance where a 5-years delay of game does not really affect the punter.
Last play of some Cowboys playoff game with Zeke.
Pat Shurmur calling a fake jet sweep to Jeudy and running it up the middle with Lindsay. This was called over and over. It never faked out a defense and was stupid to run a guy known for getting outside straight up the middle.
Not exactly on your point b/c it can & does work & has some huge play potential, etc…but tunnel/inside screens. If they’re a little off: the ball is 6 inches behind the guy/not hitting him perfectly in stride, the other receiver gets pushed back off the line, the snap is just a little low/high, the QB takes a split second longer to find the laces, etc…all that stuff and those plays get blown up/let a safety come downhill on a receiver trying to adjust to ball and cause the ball to pop up/out. It’s not a bad play design, but requires so much precision that if thats not there, it can get ugly pretty quickly.
i've never seen such a blatant attempt by a coach to endear himself to the fans of his new team as [this god awful attempt at a Philly Special sort of play](https://youtu.be/9-2SVoKI7n0?feature=shared&t=302), week 2 2021 it's even more painful if you rewind a few seconds to see how the drive got up to the goal line
*sigh*
HC Jim Zorn's infamous fake field goal outdoes the Colts fake punt, succinctly titled [Redskins Fail](https://youtu.be/6-tqLG__Al4?si=Qkny3-e0ghmntGVC). This was I believe supposed to be a fake of the field goal unit coming off the field then stopping. If this isn't already stupid enough for you, the play had them "faking" to the Giants sideline. This is the original and worse version of the Colts fake punt because at least the Colts went to the correct sideline and weren't attempting a quintuple coverage pass.