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发帖数: 2796 | 1 http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/breaking-down-vic
Down by 27-19 with 6:59 left, the Giants faced a third-and-2 at their 20-
yard line. They lined up in a shotgun spread formation with “11” personnel
up in the slot to the boundary and Victor Cruz was in the slot to the wide
side of the field.
Before the snap, the Bucs showed a blitz despite their two-high-safety look.
As Eli Manning progressed through his snap count, the Bucs’ linebackers
continued to creep toward the line, as did safety Ronde Barber.
Let’s take a step back and examine Manning’s cadence. I think it’s
essential to understanding what happened. Before the snap, you could catch
Manning’s verbiage on the television broadcast: “Red 19, Red 19, set hut.
59’s the Mike, 59’s the Mike. Bingo. Omaha, Omaha, set hut.”
When the Giants run a play with a traditional snap count, they snap the ball
after Manning’s first “set hut.” If Manning had called the play and then
uttered “on one” in the huddle, the ball would have been snapped
following the first “set hut.”
On this particular play, however, Manning issued an “Omaha” call. “Omaha
” isn’t any sort of audible, but rather a snap count indicator. Like an
indicator used by third-base coaches in baseball, Manning’s “Omaha”
indicator alerts the offense that the snap count is now “live.” When
Manning called “Omaha” in the huddle, it told the offensive players that
anything he says before “Omaha” is meaningless. Thus, the “Red 19, Red 19
, set hut” that Manning yelled meant nothing to the Giants on this play.
So why use it? Because by running through a fake snap count, Manning can get
the defense to show their intentions. They don’t know the initial cadence
is a “dummy” one (because the Giants don’t use an “Omaha” call on every
play), and thus they often show what they’re planning to do.
Had Manning not issued an “Omaha” call on this critical play, he may not
have noticed the Bucs’ blitz. They initially showed a Cover 2 shell, but
they were really in man coverage.
The Bucs rushed six defenders, leaving five in coverage — four underneath
defenders in man coverage and a single-high safety deep. The Giants picked
up the blitz well, allowing Manning to step up in the pocket. Manning
immediately looked to the Giants’ primary advantage on the play: Cruz
matched up on safety Ronde Barber. When the Bucs slot cornerback who was
lined up over Cruz blitzed Manning after the snap, Manning knew he’d have
Cruz working on Barber.
From Manning’s point of view, you can see just how open the deep right half
of the field appeared. The single-high safety was inexplicably shading the
boundary, leaving Barber in true man coverage on Cruz. With no defenders in
his face, Manning’s decision to step up and look to Cruz was a no-brainer.
Knowing the Giants needed only two yards for a first down and thinking he
may have some help over the top, Barber squatted on Cruz’s route. You can
see him sitting flat-footed as Cruz ran around him. I’m not sure if Cruz
was supposed to run a wheel route on this play or if he had a seam route
called, but he took it outside when he noticed the position of the single-
high safety, but either way he gave Manning a whole lot of green to make the
throw. Manning said of Cruz, via the Giants’ Web site: “It was a great
decision by him. We had been running a similar play all day and we said on
the sidelines that next time they did that you could run right by the guy
and get to the sideline, and that’s exactly what he did. He saw the safety
coming down to guard him and he ran right by him, widened, and outran
everybody. “
Cruz made an easy catch down the sideline and took it in for the game-
changing score. Just how big a play was this? According to Advanced NFL
Stats’ win probability chart, the Giants’ chances of winning increased by
400 percent. Facing two home losses to open their season, the Giants rallied
behind Manning to get right back in the thick of things in what may be the
N.F.L.’s most competitive division. |
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