Late in last Sunday’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, 2nd-year RB Armando Allen registered his first career rushing touchdown to the delight of Chicago fans (and Notre Dame fans) everywhere. Even though the play happened in garbage time with the Bears already carrying a 34-3 lead, a lot of “good” happened on this play that was by-and-large overlooked.
The Jaguars defense was masterfully blocked by the Bears on this play. They were may have been simply going through the motions at this point, but that should not diminish what you’re about see.
First off, we need to discuss who all was on the field for this play. A lot of credit needs to be given to the blocking on this play, so we need to make sure our praises are bestowed upon the correct players!
WR: Sanzenbacher, Weems
TE: Davis, Spaeth
RB: Allen
QB: Campbell
OL: Webb, Rachal, Garza, Louis, Carimi
On this particular play, Weems is sent in motion from the right sideline to just right of TE Spaeth. Notice the formation, with Davis lined up as a FB. The Jaguars are correctly assuming this will be a run play and have 8 men in the box. The only player on the field that you don’t see right now is Jacksonville’s deep safety. Carimi (yellow circle) will run across the line at the snap and block the outside linebacker, while Davis (pink circle) will attempt to run straight forward to pick up the Safety who is playing in the box.
This play is set up perfectly. By design, if everyone makes their block correctly, Allen will only need to make the deep safety miss to score on this play. In this still, you’ll notice not only Davis and Carimi making the correct blocks, but eight (!!!) Bears are engaged in a block on this play, and Sanzenbacher (bottom of the screen) effectively blocks his CB shortly after this still. Only the cornerback at the top of the screen and the deep safety are not being blocked.
With all the correct blocks being made, Allen indeed has only the deep safety to beat. A quick stutter move (and a pretty terrible attempt at a tackle) clears the pack for Allen’s first career NFL TD.
Upon a view of the Coach’s Film, you can see just how important Carimi’s block may have been. Notice Carimi driving his block away from the center of the field, creating the hole for Allen to run through.
Carimi made some pretty glaring mistakes in this game, and we all know Davis (and, well, the offensive line…) has blocking issues, but especially in dominant wins I do want to see Bear Nation praise the plays that were executed flawlessly. Again, this was late in the game with a 31-point lead, so perhaps it could be taken with a grain of salt, but I for one would like to give Kudos to Carimi and the entire offense on this play. I’m pretty sure the former Golden Domer would agree.
Bear Down!
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The following video of the play was created by CCS’ Own 94SupraTT! Check out his Youtube Channel!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeH8X0_XoZA&feature=plcp
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(This article is written for ChiCitySports.com. Like the article? Like talking Chicago Sports? Sign up here!)
Great breakdown. Looks like a well executed counter. Thanks!
Brian Urlacher is a beast. He can sack, cover dep, and catch misthrown psses and run. If Devin Hester recieves the ball lookout, the train left the station.