... From TMQ

Sour Play of the Week : Game tied at 20, New Orleans faced second-and-10 on its 38-yard line with 25 seconds remaining. Where oh where might the pass go? Maybe up the field! Yet Carolina corner Ricky Manning played Saints receiver Joe Horn as if expecting a short pattern. Manning never turn around and ran full speed as Horn did a deep slant. Completion for a 25-yard gain, and the stage was set for New Orleans' last-second field goal.

 

And the whole time I was screaming at the top of my lungs "turn your head".

 

apparently the plan was to press and stop the short pattern because there was just tooooo much time to give up a short pass in that situation. i think it's been argued on this board by someone that it was good defense and that we didn't really have a better option.

 

It seems to me that it was Manning's on-field mistake, not the coverage. I've gone through a couple pro defensive playbooks, and am working on getting a Fox one from NY around 00, but I'm pretty certain I've never seen a defensive call that reads "Nickel 94 Pro Flip 3, Manning don't turn around."

 

Gotta love guys that improv on the plays. Love them, than kill them with 3 a days...

 

yep. you can always blame the players even if the plan sucks

 

You sure can. You see a player screw up on the field, and you can logically surmise that it's not even related to where he was lining up? Sure. You blame the player that actually screwed up.

 

good plans do give the player so much opportunity to screw up. pressing with your weakest DB on ther best WR with 25 seconds left in the game is stupid. lucas would have trouble there. manning has vertually no chance. even if plays it well by his standards he is still gonna get beat on that play ... maybe just won't look as bad as he did.

 

No, dude, YOU'RE stupid. The defensive call was fine, we just didn't execute and you have to give credit to the Saints for making a play that was tougher than you seem to think.


#1) Please don't waste anyone's time by continuing to claim that you don't hate Trgovac. Being biased is bad, but being an outright liar is obviously a lot worse, and make no mistake, comments such as the ones in this thread prove that you're lying about it.

#2) The absolute best thing that Manning does is press. He just didn't get a jam, which was his fault.

#3) Pretty much every single team in the league puts its 3rd corner on the man in the slot, no matter who that man is. This has already been explained to you, so you can't claim ignorance, just stupidity.

#4) Manning didn't turn his head around, but by the same token, it's wrong to insinuate that Horn was wide open. If you look at the tape, Manning's right foot is just shy of our 45, while Horn is leaping at just the other side of the 45. Manning has both his arms raised, but Horn leaps over him to make the catch. It was a perfect pass from Brooks (which is shocking in and of itself) and a great adjustment by Horn (which is not at all surprising).

Obviously you'd like to see Manning get his head around, but it wouldn't have helped. The part where Manning screwed up was in not getting that initial jam. Horn darted to the left before cutting upfield and Manning didn't get a hand on him. That's where the play was made, or more precisely, that and the great pass together.

 

That's also true. You can't play press and not actually jam. There's no point. There isn't a corner in the league that can pull that off.

So yeah. Manning screwed up in two ways on one play. It's kinda hard to fault the call for his screwups, and I like the guy.