Interesting note on Gabriel from Al Davis

[Gumby]

An example of what you cite is Kevin Faulk's lack of situational awareness in the Miami game when on the flea flicker he throws the pass way in front of Brady. Knowing their relative positions was key to the play's success. I'm a Faulk fan but that was a very big mental lapse.

Everybody has been saying that about that play; blaming it all on Faulk. But I blame Brady just as much if not more.

Faulk threw the ball to where Brady WAS; yes he led Brady a little, but he was also under pressure with the defenders coming at him.

Brady was the one who instead of running parallel to Faulk after handing it off that ran diagonally forward. IMO he displaced himself and at that point he should have been situationally aware enough to tuck it down and get what he could on the play.

 

[Michigan Dave]

Everybody has been saying that about that play; blaming it all on Faulk. But I blame Brady just as much if not more.

Faulk threw the ball to where Brady WAS; yes he led Brady a little, but he was also under pressure with the defenders coming at him.

Brady was the one who instead of running parallel to Faulk after handing it off that ran diagonally forward. IMO he displaced himself and at that point he should have been situationally aware enough to tuck it down and get what he could on the play.

Brady ran to where the ball was going, Faulk tried to make a play, but ended up throwing ahead of the receiver. Throwing across field is tough enough, let alone when you are a RB with defenders bearing down on you. Criticizing this play is pretty weak, IMO. They took a chance, and it didn't work. Move on. It's about as much of a "lack of situational awareness" as when a back or receiver is stopped for an 8 yard loss on a busted reverse.

 

[captain stone]

In Michigan, we call that a "Tyler Ecker" play. Ecker is our tight end. At the end of the 2005 Ohio State game, we had no timeouts, and he caught a pass and tried to make a play in-bounds and the clock ran out.

1 month later, we're playing the bowl game against Nebraska. We run that crazy 9 lateral play, and Ecker is running to the end zone for the winning score among the chaos, with no time on the clock. Right next to him is Steve Breaston, probably one of the best players in college football running with the ball. Breaston is SCREAMING for Ecker to lateral him the ball. There is 1 big, hulking Husker between Ecker, Breaston, and the end zone. Naturally, Ecker runs out of bounds, ending the game.

I remember watching the end of that game. I don't remember, however, if I saw replays of it from different angles. It did appear at the time, though, that Ecker could have done something better than what he did. Too bad, because had Michigan scored, that return would have gone down in history, only slightly behind the California-Stanford game.