BILLS, BUCS SHOULD HAVE HELD TIGHT IN DYING SECONDS
Hall-of-fame quarterback Fouts breaks down what went wrong in late collapses
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Buffalo Bills might still be alive in the Super Bowl hunt if they'd just done near the end, defensively, what Dan Fouts touts.
Both NFL teams were in similar situations Sunday, in the final minute of the fourth quarter in their respective divisional playoff games.
The Bucs were tied with the Los Angeles Rams with 42 seconds left, when the Rams got the ball at their 25-yard line. Overtime seemed imminent, but quarterback Matthew Stafford set up the Rams' game-winning field goal at 0:00 by hitting star wideout Cooper Kupp on two passes, the second one deep. That last one badly burned Bucs defensive co-ordinator Todd Bowles, who called a blitz with no safety help deep — a 95 out of 100 on the aggressiveness/reckless scale. Final score: Rams 30, Bucs 27. A few hours later in Kansas City, the Bills had just taken a three-point lead with only 13 seconds left. After the Bills unwisely kicked off deep for a touchback, which bled no time off the clock, Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes — like Stafford and the Rams earlier — needed to move the ball at least 40 yards to get into reasonable field-goal range.
Bills defensive strategists Sean Mcdermott (head coach) and Leslie Frazier (co-ordinator) called for a soft, prevent zone on consecutive plays. Buffalo sent just three pass rushers at Mahomes with a fourth (a spy) hovering in support, behind which were two far-deep safeties, and in between two lines of defensive backs and linebackers spaced far apart vertically and horizontally, in zone coverage — a 1 out of 100 on the aggressiveness/reckless scale.
On the first snap, an untouched Mahomes hit Tyreek Hill underneath, and he darted straight up the field for a quick and easy 19 yards. Timeout. Then, with seven seconds left, Mahomes hit tight end Travis Kelce on an even simpler line route, between two Bills defenders, for a quick and easy 25 yards. Timeout.
Next play, the Chiefs kicked a 49-yard field goal to force overtime, then won eight plays into OT on a touchdown toss from Mahomes to Kelce.
Final score: Chiefs 42, Bills 36. So, super aggressive proved an epic failure for Tampa Bay, just as super safe proved an epic failure for Buffalo.
What should those defences have done? And what's the last thing a quarterback wants to see?
I asked these questions of Fouts — a Pro Football Hall-offame passer from 1973-87 with the Chargers before enjoying a three-decade career as an in-game broadcast analyst.
Fouts revealed something he'd been hesitant to share publicly, because “I hate to give up secrets to defences,” and “I like to always be on the offence's side.”
First, Fouts said, the last thing a defence should ever do is allow receivers in those desperate, end-of-game situations a “free release” off the line of scrimmage. Meaning, when no defender bumps them, or jams them, or otherwise tries to physically thwart the receiver from running freely where he and the quarterback both know he's going. Then Fouts said it:
“Do anything but let them free release. You can even HOLD them, and get a five-yard penalty. Time goes off the clock, even with the penalty. So hold them all, and give them five yards. Anything but a free release.
“It's a five-yard penalty from what, 75 yards away? Big deal! Now you're still 70 yards away. And three, four seconds go off the clock. Do it again — there's another three or four seconds.”
Now, the NFL did put in a rule five years ago mandating that “a team may not commit multiple fouls during the same down in an attempt to manipulate the game clock. The penalty for a violation is 15 yards. The game clock will also be reset to where it had been prior to the previous snap.”
It's also illegal to commit deliberate fouls on consecutive plays to burn time.
So, while you cannot order all your defensive backs in tightman coverage to tackle or bearhug their receivers, the rulebook cannot stop one such foul, perhaps even if egregious.
Thus, whenever only a dozen or so seconds remain, and the offence has half or more of the field to go, then if you're a defensive coordinator, why wouldn't you consider doing this at least once? Place your fourth or fifth best defensive back, or linebacker, in the face of the foe's most dangerous receiver, then after the snap have him commit a certain but not galling defensive-holding infraction.
Just don't do it on the last play, as a game cannot end on a defensive penalty.
Ethical? Well, nothing in the rulebook seems to prevent a single deliberate infraction, or even on every other snap; you'd just have to take your chances that the QB would not burn you with a different receiver.
So, in a final drive, with the game on the line, what type of defence would Fouts, the quarterback, have least wanted to face?
“Press coverage,” he said, “because that's going to take time — a couple of (extra) seconds, whatever. And you only have so much time in the pocket. But if my receivers get a free release, then I can read them going down the field based upon the coverage, the leverage of the corner — whatever. But if there's bump-and-run, it makes it more difficult.”