The Eagles were down eight to the Panthers with under 30 seconds left, and the Panthers were lining up for a chip shot field goal. The Eagles needed a block if they wanted any hopes of tying the game. And they had something drawn up for just that. It didn’t work, but... close:
The Eagles tried to jump Carolina’s line to block a pivotal kick and it nearly worked
More and more teams are trying to hop the long snapper. The Eagles almost changed their matchup with the Panthers.
That’s Eagles linebacker Bryan Braman leaping over the Panther’s long snapper and trying to knock the field goal. But he came up juuuust a bit late.
This is a move that’s been popular of late. Just last week, the Patriots’ Jamie Collins pulled it off for an extra point block against the Colts. And last year, Kam Chancellor did it *TWICE* against these very Panthers, although both were called back for penalties not related to the jump.
But there’s a difference between those successful jumps and Braman’s. Look at one of Chancellor’s leaps from last year:
Chancellor had a huge running start and leaped the line at the exact moment the ball was snapped. And he did it twice. So either he’s a soothsayer, or the Seahawks were aware of a tic about the Panthers’ field goal unit that allowed him to time it perfectly.
Braman wasn’t queuing off a tic. He just started running when the snapper began his snap:
Chancellor -- and Collins, and the Rams’ Daren Bates last year -- landed around when the holder caught the ball, and had time to jump again and block the kick. Braman jumped around the same time the holder was getting the ball, and was basically just able to throw his arms up and hope for the best.
The other recent examples of this play seemed to be teams knowing they’d spotted an opposing tip that allowed them to steal points. This seems different -- it seems the Eagles just called this play because they really, really needed a field goal block. It’s interesting to know teams are using the long snapper hop for that purpose too.
See More:
