December 3, 2009

When in Doubt Stay Perfectly Still and Hope No One Notices



Sporting Nerd blogger The Phoenician dropped this video on me last night and it took me a while to figure out WTF is going on. Admittedly I spent several minutes laughing as the FSU QB scrambles for his life and the tackle just sits there. It's obvious that the lineman saw a defensive back or linebacker move offsides, and as they are all trained to do the lineman froze in place in order to facilitate getting a penalty. He's definitely well trained I suppose, cause that guy aint moving. I would assume however that as the play develops and there clearly are no whistles blowing and the rest of the line has moved and your QB is running for his life that one would be dynamic enough to stand up and hit someone, you can actually see that other lineman freeze too but end up moving because the play clearly is continuing to develop. I guess it isn't clear what coaches like more: a player that is so well trained that they will blindly follow all your instructions to a T, or a player that can assimilate what's going on around them and make a good decision on their own. I guess one's just easier to find than the other.

"Both teams played hard...goodnight and godbless."

2 comments: