Comeback impossible without Ride 34 Direct Underappreciated play key to Super Bowl LI victory
Kevin Faulk, the former New England Patriots running back, watched last year's Super Bowl from home in Louisiana, not far from NRG Stadium in Houston. In the middle of his old team's furious comeback, a touchdown pulled them to within 10 points of the Atlanta Falcons. The Patriots lined up for a two-point conversion. Faulk saw quarterback Tom Brady stand in the shotgun. When running back James White motioned next to Brady, Faulk had inkling Brady might have called a play from his personal past. It was called “Ride 34 Direct.”
The meeting between the Patriots and Falcons on Sunday night will kindle memories from Super Bowl LI last February, when the Falcons built a 28-3 third quarter lead, only for the Patriots to mount a historic comeback and complete it in overtime. Highlights will predominate all weekend. They will replay linebacker Dont'a Hightower's fumbleforcing sack of Matt Ryan, Julian Edelman's miraculous, deflected catch made centimeters off the turf and White's game-ending, overtime touchdown plunge.
The reels will overlook the one play when the comeback became a reality, when the Patriots pulled within striking distance and the Falcons could have stepped out of the quicksand. Huddling on the field immediately after it, referee Carl Cheffers turned to head linesman Kent Payne. “Hey,” Cheffers said to Payne, “this could get interesting.”
It came when White scored a twopoint conversion on Ride 34 Direct, a direct snap to a running back, who runs through the middle of an offensive line using a zone blocking scheme. The Patriots could not have completed their comeback without converting a pair of two-point conversions. The first, when White plowed into the end zone with 5:56 remaining in the fourth quarter, brought the Patriots to within eight points. It made it a one-score game for the first time since early in the second quarter, and it rendered all of the other unforgettable plays meaningful.
The play illustrated the durability of the Patriots' reign under Brady and Coach Bill Belichick. In the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XXXVIII against the Carolina Panthers, in the same stadium, Faulk had scored a two-point conversion on Ride 34 Direct - an identical play to White's conversion. Faulk's score put the Patriots ahead by seven points, which allowed them to remain tied when the Panthers scored a late touchdown. They had practiced the play once a week, typically on a light Friday practice, without ever having run it until the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl.
“You run that play so many times during the course the of the year,” Faulk said. “You never know when you might use it.”
Belichick used the play twice, 13 years apart, in similar circumstances. It's such an effective two-point play because of how quickly the ball gets into the running back's hands, with the back already gathering momentum when he catches the ball. As long as the offensive line prevents penetration, the running back is assured the two yards necessary for a conversion. The Patriots also successfully ran Ride 34 Direct in a divisional round playoff win over the San Diego Chargers in 2006.
Against the Falcons, the Patriots added one pre-snap wrinkle. White lined up wide to the right of the Patriots' formation, with slot receivers on each side and tight end Martellus Bennett lined up a step behind the offensive line, to the right. White came in motion and settled to Brady's left, a half-step in front of the quarterback. Usually, he would line up over the tackle. Now, he lined up over the guard, closer to Brady.
“Whatever you need to get to catch the ball so it don't be on the ground,” Faulk said. “We try not to give it away.”
Faulk believes White's motion was a tactic to force the Falcons to show their coverage. When a defensive back followed White, it meant man-to-man defense. Had they showed zone, Faulk said, Brady likely would have changed the play.
The first potential pitfall lay in the hands of center David Andrews. Against the Panthers 13 years earlier, center Dan Koppen had one thought after leaving the huddle: “Alright,” Koppen thought, “don't mess up the snap.” The play is impossible to stop, but only if it is initiated properly.
“If the snap is bad,” Koppen said, “it's bad.”
And it's tricky. When Koppen wrapped his hand around the ball before the snap, he pointed the nose of the ball down and a little to the right.
Because White - or, in 2004, Faulk - would be darting in front of Brady, and he stands 5-foot-10 compared to Brady's 6-5 frame, Andrews would need to substantially lower his target. When the Patriots practiced the direct snap during the week, the change in routine had disrupted Andrews.
“He snapped it over - it was kind of at my head, so James couldn't get his hand up there to get it,” Brady told The MMQB in February. “So the ball is laying on the ground, rolling around on a two-point play, on a direct snap when it's supposed to be right in James' breadbasket.”
In the game, Andrews nailed the snap. Brady never touched the ball, but he still played a role. On the snap, he leapt in the air and spun, as if chasing an invisible ball snapped over his head. The histrionics take focus away from the running back bursting forward.
“Tom Brady should be in Hollywood for the acting job he does,” Faulk said.
The performance provided White enough cover to slip behind Andrews and over the goal line. The Patriots had sliced Atlanta's lead to 28-20, the first time they had come within reach.
Ride 34 Direct had again occupied a unique place in Patriots' lore, a testament to the Patriots' attention to detail. They had prepared all year, and over multiple seasons, really, just in case the appropriate situation arose. When it did, they executed flawlessly. It was a small play that explained so much giant success, a couple seconds that illuminated a decade-plus of football excellence.
In the aftermath, the Falcons may have felt one specific regret. They could have identified the play simply by noticing White's cozy alignment with Brady, the split Faulk had taken against Carolina all those Super Bowls ago. They could have seen what was coming.
“But things are happening fast,” Koppen said. “And we ran it three times in 17 years.”