Posted on 01/12/2015 10:44:35 AM PST by BenLurkin
The divisional playoff game between the Patriots and Ravens on Saturday evening at Gillette Stadium featured a number of bizarre and unbelievable twists and turns. Among them was a rarely seen strategy employed by Tom Brady’s offense, one that helped the Patriots climb back to cut a 14-point deficit in half, and one that had Ravens head coach John Harbaugh furious on the sideline.
The strategy in question involved Bill Belichick’s offense employing four offensive linemen instead of the standard five on a number of plays midway through the third quarter. Running back Shane Vereen lined up off the right side of the formation, and he declared himself an ineligible receiver. In essence, Vereen had become the fifth lineman, though with considerably different duties.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.cbslocal.com ...
It is clearly deception, and it’s 100% legal. And in the end isn’t most of football deception, both the offense and the defense are constantly trying to make the other side confused and react incorrectly.
It is.
And whining when you lose is part of being a Harbaugh.
Except he actually stole this formation from Nick Saban.
As much as I hate the Pats (and will whine and b*itch and moan when they beat the Colts forcing me to root for Seattle against my will), from what I saw in that game, it was more a factor of "keep doing the same thing until the defense stops ya". NE started the second half with a 3-n-out, and then were down 14, making the passing game that much more urgent (plus the failure to run in the first half).
After that, the passes went:
11 yds, 16, 9, 11, 4, 14, INC, 5*TD...
9, 10, 51*TD...
INC, INC, INC...
7, 8, 8, INC, 4, 6, 9, 6, 23*TD...
Aside from a 3-n-out in the middle, he had a run of 18-of-20 for 221 and 3 TDs in 3 drives. They had no incentive to run until the Ravens stopped Brady... and they never really did (except for the one short 3-n-out in the middle there). When you average just over 9 yds per attempt for a half, there's no reason to try anything else.
In which case, player eligibility should not have been an issue [and for people who actually know football, it isn’t. Just RatBird’s fans.]
I think the point was, the Pat’s didn’t need to run, since the RatBird’s couldn’t cover.
The refs announce normally ineligible but now eligible players before every down. It’s a normal part of the game. The twist here is that you can make normally eligible player ineligible for a down, but nobody ever does it.
Pittsburgh “couldn’t run against the Ravens” because of Cincinnati, not because of anything the Ratbird’s did.
According to Peter King the announcement of ineligibility were 7 seconds, 10 seconds, and 7 seconds before the snap. That’s plenty of time to make adjustments, or at the very least to decide you’re totally confused and call a time out. It really is NO different than announcing a player eligible, and was handled the same way. It’s a 45 second play clock, the offense doesn’t have all day to hang out after the announcement.
The eligible announcement happens over the PA for every play. The refs don’t go to the sideline for that, why should they for an ineligible announcement? The rules were followed. Harbaugh’s boys were just confused. You can tell they heard the announcement because they were adjusting before the snap, the problem is they weren’t sure what adjustments they should make. This is a gambling play because if the defense actually understands what they were just told you now have a completely useless player hanging in a wide out spot (all he’s allowed to do at that point is block) and you’re basically playing 10 on 11 for a down when they ignore him. But if the defense just can’t understand that that guy out there can’t catch the ball and covers him, or in the case of these plays yelling at each other trying to figure out if they should cover him, it’s a winner.
Being from the Cleveland area, so do I, and everyone I know!”
The Browns go 11-5 in 1994 and Model announces he's moving the team to Baltimore in 1995 and the team tanks. What did Belichick do (other than being a dink in press conferences) to get so hated by Browns fans. They went 11-5 the year before they moved, I would think that deserves a statue in Cleveland!
Yeah, I understand. But he was such a dickhead in responding to fans and the media. Good coach, horrible personality!
Balto lost the wife beater but Forsett stepped up for the remainder of the season. Pittsburgh lost Bell and their fans make nothing but excuses. No depth, or feckless offensive line...or both? Maybe next year.....
What a bunch of whiners.
Expect to see them trounced the next game.
That won’t happen.
They might get trounced by the Seahawks, but not the Colts. Last week was the AFC championship.
They could have called a time out. Sure, not optimum, but it would have ruined it for the next time it happened.
They should have been writing up a plan in the booth FOR the next time it happened. Having them run it three times made the Ravens defense look stupid.
If the players on both sides didn’t know the declared ineligible were declared ineligible, then Harbaugh has a point.
Harbaugh’s defensive coordinator is not stupid enough to allow his defense to defend ineligible receivers, unless he didn’t know about them.
Can’t stand the Patriots. Period. Cheated to begin the dynasty, and they’ll cheat at the drop of a hat.
His comment to the Ravens. His “I’m a f***in’ machine” comment last week when asked about playing in cold weather. Many other reasons. Very talented QB, no doubt. Just don’t like his attitude.
Who won the Division?
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