I saw some confusion around here on what happened on the play and wanted to clear it up/get the story straight. Here's the breakdown:
1 - The weakside safety comes screaming down trying to time to ball on a blitz:
2 - Weakside safety ends up at the LOS. I froze the frame as soon as UCF's center snapped the ball. You'll see the safety is incredibly close to crossing the line of scrimmage. UCF's center is trained to snap the ball for a free play if someone jumps offsides, even in UCF's wildcat. You'll here this called a "fire route", especially from the NFL guys. It' s a simple concept that employs a predetermined deep route (usually a go, sometimes a fade) to take advantage of the free play. The reason I'm evaluating this play as a mistake is the refs did not throw a flag for defensive offsides.
3 - Notice Bowser is rolling, JRP is releasing and yet nobody on the OL has moved. OL wasn't expecting the ball to be snapped (at least not yet) and this is a crystal clear indicator of a fire route.
In conclusion: This was a mistake specifically by UCF's center who incorrectly identified a free play. We got bailed out by the PI (assuming JRP doesn't catch the ball). I watched the broadcast this morning, I'm sorry the announcers were dogshit and had no idea how to evaluate this for you guys.
1 - The weakside safety comes screaming down trying to time to ball on a blitz:
2 - Weakside safety ends up at the LOS. I froze the frame as soon as UCF's center snapped the ball. You'll see the safety is incredibly close to crossing the line of scrimmage. UCF's center is trained to snap the ball for a free play if someone jumps offsides, even in UCF's wildcat. You'll here this called a "fire route", especially from the NFL guys. It' s a simple concept that employs a predetermined deep route (usually a go, sometimes a fade) to take advantage of the free play. The reason I'm evaluating this play as a mistake is the refs did not throw a flag for defensive offsides.
3 - Notice Bowser is rolling, JRP is releasing and yet nobody on the OL has moved. OL wasn't expecting the ball to be snapped (at least not yet) and this is a crystal clear indicator of a fire route.
In conclusion: This was a mistake specifically by UCF's center who incorrectly identified a free play. We got bailed out by the PI (assuming JRP doesn't catch the ball). I watched the broadcast this morning, I'm sorry the announcers were dogshit and had no idea how to evaluate this for you guys.
