There have been lots of talk about how the Giants were seemingly unprepared for the onside kick recovered by Riley Cooper and how Tom Coughlin and Giants special teams coordinator Tom Quinn were completely unprepared. Even though they inexplicably did not have their hands team out, some credit has to go to the Eagles for distracting the Giants. Actually a lot. Much more than initially meets the eye. None of this was captured on TV by Fox, but reports from the game and footage of the actual onside kick verify this astounding genius coaching move by Bobby April: The Eagles had 10 men on the field for the onside kick. While some may see that and think the Eagles got lucky from a mistake, the reports seem to verify that what you see pictured above was in fact a ploy intended to distract the Giants. A ploy that however dumb it might sound at first, sparked the greatest comeback in Philadelphia Eagles history.
Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News initially reported the details on what the Eagles did, how it worked, and how it caused the Giants to forget Tom Coughlin's warning of an onside kick.
Just before the kickoff an Eagles player came running off the field, leaving them with only 10 men on the kickoff team. And that apparently caused some momentary confusion for the Giants, who then forgot that Coughlin had just warned them to watch for the onside kick.
"They did something good," Blackburn said. "They ran a guy off right in front of everybody and they're all looking at each other saying, 'We've (only) got 10.' So we're doing the same thing, trying to recount. And then you forget about that 'alert' a little bit. That's kind of what happened."
Coughlin admitted his players were caught looking by the "well-disguised" ploy, but he also said, "That should not have been any kind of distraction." But it was and the Eagles converted it into a touchdown that cut their deficit to 31-24, en route to their 38-31 come-from-behind win.
You can say that no matter ho you do it, having 10-men on the field for an onside kick is dumb and that there is no way to smartly do it, but like Vacchiano did, the Eagles did it and it distracted the Giants. They forgot about the warning for a moment, and in that moment, Akers kicked the ball and Riley Cooper recovered it before the Giants had knew what hit them. Even though the Eagles had some questionable special teams play earlier in the season, there is a reason that you bring in Bobby April to coach your teams special teams, and this is exactly why. This simple ploy worked, ensured the Eagles recovered the onside kick, and the rest is history.
10 men on the field apparently isn't a penalty on defense or special teams. That's weird. I guess it's not illegal formation and it's a punishment in itself if things go wrong.
ReplyDelete@ SSR: I've seen several instances in football games where miscommunications on the defense yielded them only fielding 10 men for a play (I actually think I recall seeing 9 one or twice). Either it's' not a penalty, or a penalty that is never called, as I've never seen a defense or special teams unit flagged for it.
ReplyDeleteNot sure why that would be a penalty. 10 men on the field isn't quite the advantage 12 is. I definitely recall the Redskins deliberatively fielding 10 in a "missing man" formation, on the first play of the first game following Sean Taylor's death.
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