Sweet 'N' Sour Play: New England had fallen behind 28-14 in the third quarter and seemed to be staring down the barrel of yet another postseason loss to Baltimore. The home crowd -- it's been some time since TMQ has called the place where the Patriots play the "Our Next Razor Will Have 12 Vibrating Palladium Blades Plus GPS Stadium" -- was eerily silent. As the Patriots' offense slouched onto the field, its body language was all wrong. The Flying Elvii looked beat. Then Belichick did something he never does: he gave the green light to trick plays.
Reaching second-and-6 on the Baltimore 24, the Patriots had tailback Shane Vereen report ineligible. He split wide right as part of a double-double formation, with two guys wide on each side. Vereen was a split tackle in an unbalanced line. Looking at the Patriots' seven men on the line of scrimmage from Tom Brady's perspective, it was an unbalanced line of tight end Michael Hoomanawanui; left guard; center; right guard; tackle No. 1; tackle No. 2 (Vereen); right end. Looking from the Baltimore defensive perspective, Vereen seemed like a wide receiver while Hoomanawanui seemed like the left tackle.
At the snap, Vereen stepped backward -- he couldn't go downfield -- while Hoomanawanui shot up the field uncovered for a catch to the Baltimore 10. The play not only positioned the Patriots to score a touchdown but also electrified the crowd, getting home energy back into the game. Sweet.
There's no rule there must be five offensive linemen on the field, only that there must be five ineligible players on the line of scrimmage, known as ineligible to the defense. New England complied. Offensive linemen could place themselves all along the line of scrimmage -- they do sometimes at Oregon, and in
this standard Emory & Henry alignment. There's no rule saying the ball must be snapped by a guy at the center; it can be snapped by anyone on the line of scrimmage. Five huge guys bunched in the middle is a custom, not a rule. Sour that Baltimore didn't know this -- and especially sour that, confronted with a very unusual formation, the Ravens didn't simply call time.
After the touchdown that followed the trick formation, Baltimore went three-and-out. New England called a wide receiver pass with Julian Edelman, a quarterback in college, lobbing a 51-strike to an uncovered man. In the past three seasons, New England has been running an ungodly number of hitch screens: the play began by looking like a hitch screen, drawing up the secondary. Sweet. Suddenly the contest was tied, with Baltimore losing a 14-point lead in less than three minutes. Sour.
