Mr. Magoo
Ayatollah of rock and rolla
- Joined
- May 1, 2008
- Messages
- 2,701
- Reaction score
- 32
It wasn't an all out blitz. The person may have meant that they had that mentality to finish the game, but that last play definitely wasn't. It was a zone blitz. The purpose of a zone blitz is to have a blitzer coming from each throwing lane/gap and have someone dropping back in an area that the defense forces the hot read to. Its something that coaches use after watching film on ANY team and gameplan for. Every offensive play have your first second and third options (except for the fins) and hot routes depending on the look.
The lineman wasn't standing. Came off the ball in perfect pass rush (first two steps forward) dropped back into coverage... and drifted as the play forces the qb to a certain direction. If you look at the replay the pass was dead on to an open quick route reciever but the dlineman made a hell of a play and its was a FANTASTIC call.
Just dropping knowledge... I know that Mallett throws picks and what kind of player he is... but any qb could have made that same mistake in that situation.
Dropping defensive lineman are very hard for even the best QBs to see at times. I agree. It doesn't mean it's acceptable but the tradeoff is that defensive lineman generally aren't very athletic or good in space. In this case, the guy made a very good play. As much as anything, that INT fit into Mallett's narrative. The people who've seen him a lot sort of expect that kind of thing and there it was, a mistake in a critical juncture.
A throw like a drive or two earlier where Mallett misread the zone and the corner drove on the ball to the outside and should have taken it to the house was a worse decision and throw, IMO. Only it was dropped. There were a few others before that were dropped, also. I guess that's a saving grace for the guy. He throws such a hard ball no one can catch it, offense or defense.