Day one of the NFL Divisional round is in the books and the Patriots and Seahawks emerged victorious from a couple of very exciting games. As can be said about almost every close game, these two matchups came down to a few key, game-changing plays by key, game-changing players. Let's take a look at a few.
NFL scores, news and highlights: What happened Saturday in the playoffs
The top seeds in the NFC and AFC advanced with big wins in a pair of thrillers Saturday.
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New England rallies
The Patriots and Ravens played a back-and-forth game that saw multiple momentum shifts, attacks, and counterattacks. Baltimore jumped out to a quick 14-0 lead only to find New England even things up with just under four minutes remaining in the first half. Joe Flacco then capitalized on a Tom Brady interception by hitting Owen Daniels in the back of the end zone, putting the Ravens up 21-14 to take an advantage into halftime. They would push that lead back out to two touchdowns early in the third when Flacco dumped it off to Justin Forsett for a 16-yard score.
Now down 28-14, New England really needed to get something going or face the prospect of letting the game get out of hand. It wasn't desperation time, quite yet, but it was getting there. That's when Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels decided that the ace they had hidden up their sleeves would not be of much use to them as they sit on their couches at home, watching the AFC Championship Game next weekend. So, they decided to put them into play.
The Patriots came out in an abnormal personnel grouping -- two tight ends, three receivers, a running back and only four offensive linemen -- but lined up in what appeared to be a fairly normal formation.
“We had six eligible receivers on the field, but only five were eligible,” said Bill Belichick after the game. “The one who was ineligible reported that he was ineligible. No different than on the punt team or a situation like that.”
Teams may have five eligible receiving options (players who can go downfield) and must have seven men on the line of scrimmage. The Patriots satisfied this requirement but instead of having a normal left tackle, left guard, center, right guard and right tackle, New England lined up their tight end Michael Hoomanawanui as the "left tackle" and had five players -- three receivers, a tight end and a back -- out wide. This, frankly, confused the hell out of the Ravens.
“You could see how frustrated they were on who to cover and this and that,” Hoomanawanui said later, “so it turned out to be great plays for us.”
In the still photo above, you can see Ravens’ defenders shuffling about, trying to figure out what was what, and you can even see John Harbaugh complaining to the referees about New England’s weird formation/personnel grouping. Below, you can see the gaping hole in the defense that’s left when they ignore Hoomanawanui.
What Harbaugh, nor any of the Ravens' defenders knew was running back Shane Vereen had reported himself ineligible to the referee, who announced it on the PA system.
What resulted was confusion on the Ravens’ part, and they did not expect, nor react to “left tackle” Michael Hoomanawanui heading downfield in a pass route. Brady quickly hit him in stride for a pickup of 14 yards.
Ravens’ coach John Harbaugh was incensed, and he ran onto the field, drawing a penalty. “We wanted an opportunity to be able to ID who the eligible players were,” he explained. “What [the Patriots] were doing was they announce the ineligible player and then Tom [Brady] would take them to the line right away and snap the ball before we had a chance to figure out who was lined up where. That was the deception part of it. It was clearly deception.
“So the officials told me after that they would give us the opportunity to do that, which they probably should’ve done during that series but they didn’t really understand what was happening. That’s why I had to take the penalty, to get their attention so they would understand what was going on because they didn’t understand what was going on. ... That’s why guys were open, because we didn’t ID where the eligible receivers were at.”
Brady, for his part, didn’t really buy that particular point of view. “I don’t know what’s deceiving about that,” he said. “Maybe those guys gotta study the rulebook and figure it out.”
The Patriots actually used this card three times with much success.
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With the help of some ingenuity as a jumpstart, New England now found themselves at the 5-yard line with a fresh set of downs, the perfect chance to get themselves back into this game. That's when Tom Brady's pre-snap mastery would come into play. There were several plays that could have been highlighted from this game that showed just how in command Brady was/is at the line of scrimmage pre-snap, but this is as good as any because it resulted in a touchdown.
One of the reasons that Rob Gronkowski is so good is he can line up pretty much anywhere and do the job of a tight end, a lineman, or a receiver with equal efficiency. Here, New England has him flexed out to the left as the split-end, and the Ravens put safety Will Hill on him in coverage.
Prior to the snap, Baltimore has a standard two-deep look and shade the coverage with safety Darian Stewart over toward Gronk's side to help Hill on the unanimous All Pro. However, as Tom Brady went through his cadence, he paused for a solid two or three seconds -- a methodical and purposeful pause -- and this prompted Stewart to show his hand a little too quickly. Stewart, trying to time the snap count, rushed forward to show blitz, along with two other Ravens.
Brady can’t know that Stewart will actually rush and not drop back into a zone in front of Gronk, but he plays his hunch. He motions to his tight end, who now knows what he’s supposed to do -- run the slant.
Stewart blitzes, which leaves Gronkowski on an island. This is exactly the look Brady wants, the one he expected, and it’s the one he exploits.
The Patriots cut the lead to seven, and with 6:52 left in the third quarter, it would be a whole new ballgame.
Seahawks nail the coffin shut
The Seahawks took the lead in their Divisional round matchup with 5:06 remaining in the second quarter and wouldn't relinquish it from there, but the Panthers did manage to make this an interesting game until well into the fourth quarter. Leading 17-10 with 10:33 remaining, the Seahawks were searching for a play that would help them solidify their lead, but were facing a 3rd and 10 from Carolina's 25-yard line. They'd get that play.
Running a quick zone-beater route combination against Carolina’s cover-2 zone blitz, Luke Willson’s role is to just run a quick slant, and Marshawn Lynch would run a leak-out route from the backfield behind him.
Willson’s route finds the soft spot in the defense while Lynch’s route holds the cornerback to the playside toward the sideline. With the room created by the zone-blitz up front, Willson settles in nicely.
The key, though, is getting the ball out quickly. Russell Wilson recognizes the zone blitz, he recognizes the coverage, and he guns the ball into Willson, who makes a few guys miss with his 4.5 speed and gets to paydirt. Watch how two defenders come in unblocked -- had Wilson hesitated even a second, he’d have been sacked.
It's terrible blocking up front by the Seahawks but Russell Wilson's quick decision and quick trigger helps Seattle move out to a 24-10 lead. Huge.
Of course, it didn't hurt that Willson caught the ball, maintained his balance, and beat Roman Harper to the end zone. It's really a pretty nifty, coordinated reverse pivot after the catch and he loses almost none of his forward momentum.
Like the play by Brady and Gronk above, Seattle took advantage of coverage mismatches that they identified, and Wilson, like Brady, was decisive and accurate on the throw.
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Of course, this game was not over by any stretch. And, in fact, the Panthers would mount a drive of their own to look to chip their way back into the game. Facing a 2nd-and-4 situation from the Seattle 13-yard line and down two scores, Carolina needed to punch this thing into the end zone. They had Cam Newton balling out -- he’d completed passes of 19, 12, and 31 yards on the drive to put them into this position, and he appeared to be getting into that zone you see quarterbacks get into.
Instead, disaster struck.
As Newton first looked left then came back to this tight end Ed Dickson, who had settled in at the sticks, Kam Chancellor jumped the route and took it to the house 90 yards to put the final nail in the coffin.
Below, you can see Chancellor settle into his zone drop. He’s got his eyes in on Newton as he “feels” where the route concepts are designed to take Carolina’s receivers. For whatever reason -- instincts, tape study, just a guess -- Chancellor jumps Newton’s intended target passing lane, secures the ball, and heads downfield.
It was the play of the day and a solid cap for a game in which the Seahawks forced three Carolina turnovers and nearly intercepted two more passes. His teammates liked it, especially Marshawn Lynch.
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