Report: Winning TD in '16 B1G championship was actually a mistake by Moorhead

[tboyer]

This is a pretty interesting story from an article in The Athletic about the chaos of play calling. According to Ricky Rahne,

"Big Ten Championship Game, 2016. We’re playing Wisconsin and we’re losing but we’re coming back. Coach (Joe) Moorhead, who did such an awesome job in that game, he calls a play that — he miscalls a play. We literally ran a play that we’d never run — in practice, in anything. We’d never run it. We had no idea. But we had a pretty good system and we had obviously great players and Trace (McSorley) just kind of drops back and throws a touchdown — throws the game-winning touchdown pass to Saquon (Barkley) on a play that was miscalled and we were all panicking.

I remember Joe being like, “Oh, they’ll figure it out. They know what to do.” And they did. He was right."

 

[PSU Soupy]

That play showed that TJ Watt would never make it in the NFL.

 

[91Joe95]

 

[bvillebaron]

That play showed that TJ Watt would never make it in the NFL.

No that play simply showed he couldn’t cover Saquon. But that covers a lot of territory

 

[Wandering Spectator]

They were actually practicing that play during warmups from the same area of the field. It was right in front of us.

When they lined up I had a feeling they’d run it.

 

[AWS1022]

I’m sure many game winning plays were not designed the way they played out or they were the wrong call. The play for the 49ers that resulted in “the catch” with Dwight Clark was actually Montana trying to throw the ball away and ended up being an accidental TD catch.

 

[Waltwam]

This is a pretty interesting story from an article in The Athletic about the chaos of play calling. According to Ricky Rahne,

"Big Ten Championship Game, 2016. We’re playing Wisconsin and we’re losing but we’re coming back. Coach (Joe) Moorhead, who did such an awesome job in that game, he calls a play that — he miscalls a play. We literally ran a play that we’d never run — in practice, in anything. We’d never run it. We had no idea. But we had a pretty good system and we had obviously great players and Trace (McSorley) just kind of drops back and throws a touchdown — throws the game-winning touchdown pass to Saquon (Barkley) on a play that was miscalled and we were all panicking.

I remember Joe being like, “Oh, they’ll figure it out. They know what to do.” And they did. He was right."

I was there and watched the play. I'd call it many things.....but never a mistake! 😉

 

[pennstatepelly]

I was there and watched the play. I'd call it many things.....but never a mistake! 😉

Damned right!!!

 

[Obliviax]

the article doesn't name the mistake. I don't know Morehead's program well enough but most teams call "a play" they call personnel package, formation, and then a play (individual assignments). So he sends in two TEs, a RB and two WRs. The next thing is the formation and motion. (WR left and right, TE left and right, RB to the Right of the QB, TE on the left goes in motion to the right and ball is snapped with an overpowered formation to the right, QB reads the D and takes appropriate action).

So what was wrong with the play? wrong formation? wrong package? wrong assignments?

There is a famous play in the NBA where, after five games of a seven game series, the Cavs come out of a timeout and set up for the play. Cavs coach is yelling at Craig Ehlo but Ehlo can't hear him due to the crowd noise. Jordan goes to Ehlo and tells him he is in the wrong place for the play that was called. MJ knew the play based on the setup and formation better than Ehlo. The point here is that there is so much film study and familiarity that running a play out of the wrong formation may confuse the defense.

 

[SR108]

That play showed that TJ Watt would never make it in the NFL.

Not as a cover guy.