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Chicago's Almost PR for a TD


Veretax

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Did any of you guys see this play near the end of the Green Bay game?

http://www.nfl.com/videos/chicago-bears/09000d5d8228f7c4/The-punt-return-that-never-was

I'm telling you, every Special Teams coach should take that video and lecture their teams on it. Yeah it came back with a hold, but even without the hold, man lots of teams could try something like that. Could washington with Banks/Someone else? Maybe.

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I thought the play design on that was immaculate. Truly, truly creative. It was a pleasure to watch. Of course, the whole league will be onto it now, but I'll be damned if we don't see it attempted a few more times, by various teams, before the year's out.

Look for it in the playoffs.

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I thought the play design on that was immaculate. Truly, truly creative. It was a pleasure to watch. Of course, the whole league will be onto it now, but I'll be damned if we don't see it attempted a few more times, by various teams, before the year's out.

Look for it in the playoffs.

That's what Zorn thought with the Swinging Gate play until......you know.....

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Really great play. Unfortunately, that was the last time they'll be able to run it. No way they'll get another team to bite on it.

I'm still trying to figure out where the holding was on that play. They called #21 for it, and it didn't even look like he touched another player.

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Tim Masthay, the Punter, was the only one not fooled on the play. I think the rest of the team will have more faith in his punt placement from now on. The play was designed to be a punt to the left and everyone bit believing it went to the right.

Also, gotta love Masthay's effort making a diving tackle-attempt (rather than just kinda falling down in a forward direction to give the impression of attempt) after getting off a block trying to prevent the TD.

NBIlalK4spM

---------- Post added September-26th-2011 at 02:33 PM ----------

Great play. I always love when teams think outside the box like this.

For the record, I still contend the swinging gate was a great play that was defended well. In theory it's a great idea.

It could have been great if he caught them off-guard with it, but after they swung the gate, the defense called a timeout to figure out what to do. They went right back to the swinging gate after the timeout and the defense was prepared.

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In theory, you can run that again and again...unless you're going to ask your gunners to locate the punt while they might get decked by blockers, they almost have to respect any hint by the returning team as to where the ball is. So, you could have two guys pretend to field punts every now and then to split the coverage unit in half...

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In theory, you can run that again and again...unless you're going to ask your gunners to locate the punt while they might get decked by blockers, they almost have to respect any hint by the returning team as to where the ball is. So, you could have two guys pretend to field punts every now and then to split the coverage unit in half...

the thing is, they should know the area of the field the punt is going to. You don't just punt the ball away to a random spot on the field, but rather punt to the middle, or left, or right. The gunners should know where the punt is designed to go.

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the thing is, they should know the area of the field the punt is going to. You don't just punt the ball away to a random spot on the field, but rather punt to the middle, or left, or right. The gunners should know where the punt is designed to go.

Right...they should. And the punt "should" go there. But kickers miss sometimes and hit the ball wrong. I'm not saying you'd see the same result of a guy running untouched for a TD, but I think you'd cause confusion until the kicking teams came up with a system (probably within a week or less...:ols:) of notifying the coverage team where the ball was.

Still, if you're a gunner and you look up to find Hester looking like he's about to field the punt...I think you'd rather react to that than assume it's a bluff.

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Ignoring the penalty and callback, the Bears were fortunate that the punter managed to kick it so close to the sideline without actually having the ball go out of bounds. Had the punt been closer to the middle of the field the odds are pretty good that someone besides the punter would have been close enough to Knox to realize what was going on. It's a great trick play but, like all trick plays, it only works under very specific circumstances.

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Ignoring the penalty and callback, the Bears were fortunate that the punter managed to kick it so close to the sideline without actually having the ball go out of bounds. Had the punt been closer to the middle of the field the odds are pretty good that someone besides the punter would have been close enough to Knox to realize what was going on. It's a great trick play but, like all trick plays, it only works under very specific circumstances.

From the ESPN analysis of the play. Sounds to me like luck didn't have much to do with it. Perfect play call anticipated by the coaching staff and players.

With 1 minute, nine seconds remaining in the game, the Packers called for Tim Masthay to punt toward the left sideline on a fourth-down play at the Bears' 46-yard line. According to receiver/returner Johnny Knox, the Bears "knew he was going to kick it that way because their scheme and what hash they were on."

As a result, Bears special teams coordinator Dave Toub called for a return the team had practiced but obviously not run in a game. Knox, lined up as a "jammer" against Packers "gunner" Jarrett Bush, turned and sprinted down the left sideline at the snap. At the same time, Packers punt returner Devin Hester sprinted toward the right sideline, along with eight Bears blockers.

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