I originally went back and watched "the sneak" again because I couldn't figure out how Wattenberg managed to get 3 yards downfield, still standing, while his QB was stacked up at the line of scrimmage in a giant pile. It just seemed physically impossible for the center to have escaped that mess and literally have time to turn around and watch his QB get stopped for no gain.
But, after watching it again, Wattenberg actually engaged his defender and moved him 3 yards downfield. He was the only lineman that actually got any push. The rest of the line ... horrifying to watch.
Our right tackle and right guard get off the ball slow, and then slant left. They never directly engage the defenders in front of them. The defenders get off quickly enough that they just shoot the gaps between the guard/center and tackle/guard. The d-linemen are already a yard deep in our backfield before our o-linemen engage with them, and then when they do engage with them they push them directly into the path of Morris (or, in the case of our right tackle, he whiffs entirely).
This explains how Wattenberg managed to get so far downfield, on a sneak, relatively unscathed by the pile. As he vacated and got push on the d-lineman in front of him, the vacancy gets immediately filed by the other d-linemen that our o-line pushes into that spot ... stopping Morris in his tracks.
Worse than all of that, is our left guard. He does not make contact with the d-lineman that is across from him until AFTER Morris is already stopped. That's how late he was getting off the snap. I know that Morris slanted away from our left guard, but it's still stunning to watch how slow our left guard gets off the snap. Of all of our lineman not named Wattenberg, only our left tackle seems to get off the ball with any urgency, and since the sneak went to the right, it made no difference.
Our linemen were incredibly slow off the ball ... and worse yet ... the entire blocking scheme seemed designed to push defenders directly into the path of the QB, rather than firing out straight ahead and getting a 1.5 yard push. It's a mess.
You can fast forward this video to 15:40 if you want to see it for yourself. Have a vomit bag nearby.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPvtjo40UuY
Comments
Just kidding
I'm surprised their safeties aren't 20 yards off the line of scrimmage.
QB sneak on a long 1.5 yards was fucking retarded.
Not understanding that it was a tie game late in the 4th, you have 3 time outs, your defense is shit, and the play was probably going to determine the game so you try to draw them offsides and then call a timeout and make sure everyone is on the same page for a pleasant/mcgrew handoff after the timeout is extra special retarded
JFC I hate the tight sets with this shitting OL. They can barely handle normal blocking assignments, let alone the complications that occur when you pack everyone on the box.
I think if you’re efficient offensively then going for it makes sense and if you do then I’m probably looking to throw on some kind of run route or boot action … particularly given our tendencies
That said I don’t think going for it was a slam dunk … doing so IMO is an indictment on one’s thoughts on the defense to get a stop
Big picture is you can break apart in this single play all the different ways this team is poorly coached
Then a lot of what you do has to be running stretch / off tackle that gets the defense flowing one way and susceptible to play action going the other way