Mongo_76
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Last week (week 8), we saw a very rare occurrence: Cutler was able to hit his receiver on a deep pass, in full stride. And talk about accurate. The throw was pin-point.
The problem?
The receiver didn't turn around. And the ball, somehow, made it through the defenders and hit him in the head.
The play came on second down in the 2nd quarter.
The Vikings were in cover-2 and sent a LB on a blitz. The Blitz was only partially slowed down.
The open question, is why this wasn't a completed pass. Was Alshon being lazy and gave up on the play? Or was Jay throwing into double coverage, and with Alshon not being the primary, he thought "there's no way he's throwing it my way".
I'll let the film tell the story. Before I go into it, there were a few pre-snap adjustments made where Jay called out the Blitzing LB. But no audible. So the reality is we don't need a lot of images to tell the story:
Image 1: this is right after Jay released the ball. The yellow circle represents Alshon who is in blanket coverage. The Purple circle shows the safety over the top who is breaking on the throw. The red circle is (best I can tell) where the ball is. And the Orange circle is the actual open receiver....
Image 2: Same image from the end-zone camera. Unfortunately, in this image, you actually can't see Alshon. It almost looks like the throw is going to Royal. But that's just the weird angle. Again, you can see Cutler is definitely under pressure from the blitz. You can also still see the actual open receiver (I'm not sure who that actually is as the # is never in focus)
Image 3: This is a millisecond before it hits Alshon in the head...
Again, it's hard to say that Alshon gave up on the play as he was running a full sprint. However, why he didn't look back is my question. Did he feel because the coverage was so tight on him, and there was help over the top, that there is no way Jay would try to fit it in? Or did he just not "finish".
At the end of the day, there are only 2 things that are facts:
1) Jay did not throw to or hit the "open" receiver.
2) Jay did hit the covered receiver in a tight window where the receiver should have caught it.
Thoughts?
The problem?
The receiver didn't turn around. And the ball, somehow, made it through the defenders and hit him in the head.
The play came on second down in the 2nd quarter.
The Vikings were in cover-2 and sent a LB on a blitz. The Blitz was only partially slowed down.
The open question, is why this wasn't a completed pass. Was Alshon being lazy and gave up on the play? Or was Jay throwing into double coverage, and with Alshon not being the primary, he thought "there's no way he's throwing it my way".
I'll let the film tell the story. Before I go into it, there were a few pre-snap adjustments made where Jay called out the Blitzing LB. But no audible. So the reality is we don't need a lot of images to tell the story:
Image 1: this is right after Jay released the ball. The yellow circle represents Alshon who is in blanket coverage. The Purple circle shows the safety over the top who is breaking on the throw. The red circle is (best I can tell) where the ball is. And the Orange circle is the actual open receiver....
Image 2: Same image from the end-zone camera. Unfortunately, in this image, you actually can't see Alshon. It almost looks like the throw is going to Royal. But that's just the weird angle. Again, you can see Cutler is definitely under pressure from the blitz. You can also still see the actual open receiver (I'm not sure who that actually is as the # is never in focus)
Image 3: This is a millisecond before it hits Alshon in the head...
Again, it's hard to say that Alshon gave up on the play as he was running a full sprint. However, why he didn't look back is my question. Did he feel because the coverage was so tight on him, and there was help over the top, that there is no way Jay would try to fit it in? Or did he just not "finish".
At the end of the day, there are only 2 things that are facts:
1) Jay did not throw to or hit the "open" receiver.
2) Jay did hit the covered receiver in a tight window where the receiver should have caught it.
Thoughts?
