Puddinhead |
10-07-2004 09:28 AM |
And the Answer is :
Quote:
I wonder if Gandy and Riley were arguing with him about tipping the snap.
I think he may lift his foot about a half second before the snap and Riley and Gandy are getting embarrassed by speed rushers, leading to the off-sides problems.
Brooks may want to see the film for himself before he accepts blame.
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That\'s the shotgun \"silent count\" signal to the center....QB lifts foot when everyone is set after any shift, and he\'s ready for the ball. Center then snaps the ball without waiting for an actual verbal command. If you notice, usually the center will be looking back between his legs like a long snapper when a team is in the shotgun until the QB gives the \"foot lift\" signal that all is ready. Then the center will lift his head to take one last look at the defensive alignment to make sure no blocking scheme changes have to be made, and then snap the ball when he\'s satisfied with the blocking scheme. The rest of the offense just has to do one simple thing....watch the ball. Of course, the tackles are usually split out pretty wide to match up with the outside rush, and they try to \"cheat\" their way back off the line (although the refs are enforcing that more now) to build in a better blocking angle for an outside speed rush, so it\'s difficult for them to actually watch the ball like the guards can do. So what they often end up doing (a little too much, if you ask me) is to use their peripheral vision to sort of rely on a \"feel\" for when everyone else starts. Which gets them in trouble when anyone along the defensive front flinches or bluffs toward the line. But the foot lift isn\'t some kind of \"tip\" the defense is picking up, like Babe Ruth sticking his tongue out of the corner of his mouth when he was going to throw his curve (when he was still a pitcher with the Red Sox)--it\'s simply a signal to the center that everyone else on the offense is ready, and it\'s up to him to initiate the snap. If the defense is starting to time the period between the foot lift and the actual snap and is getting a \"jump\" on the blockers, it\'s up to Bentley, not Brooks, to vary the timing between the signal and the snap to keep that from happening. Perhaps he\'s unwittingly fallen into a tendency to snap it on the same rhythm after the foot lift, and defenses are picking up on it. The alternative is to drop the \"silent count\" concept completely for the shotgun, and go to a verbal snap count for that formation as well...but that can cause problems when you\'re playing on the road in some of the noisier venues. It wouldn\'t have mattered last Sunday, probably...but down the road you know it would lead to burned timeouts when the line couldn\'t hear the count.
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