The Hurry Up Near The Goal Line

Is it time for the Pats to give up on the hurry up when they get close to opposing goal line? I can't remember the last time it worked. Every time they do it the play is a run and it always gets stuffed. If we all know it's a run the opposing team does also. They tried it twice in a row on the drive that stalled at the goal line yesterday.

In a route like yesterday it doesn't really matter but in a close game I don't want to see them waste 2 downs on the goal line running the hurry up.

glad you raised that, totally agree. Does nothing but cost them a down, and it's always a Vereen run

It has worked many times.

Ha! I was thinking the exact same thing. I'm pretty sure it worked against SF in 2012 as well as the Texans a time or two, but there are way more times when it gets stuffed even if they were moving at ease beforehand.

Certainly I haven't seen a notable improvement to their success rate.

Maybe they just need to add a quick-snap play action pass play so they can go with either one?

It works quite a bit. A lot of times an offense will get a defense on their hells, put them in sub personnel, and get down near the goal line. One of the primary advantages of having a tight end as dually capable as Gronk is that it enables you to run against pass personnel. If a team has, say, dime personnel on the field it is clearly advantageous for the offense to run the ball when the required yardage is under five yards. By remaining no-huddle you keep the defensive personnel on the field and do not allow substitution. Football is a game of matchups and that is a matchup advantageous to the offense that should be fully exploited. In most cases it works in favor of the offense (including in the passing game as having sub personnel on the field in goalline usually mandates run blitzing), and in others the defense executes well and wins. Such is the nature of the beast, but it's way more along the lines of fundamental football than it is poor strategy.

Haley said:

Maybe they just need to add a quick-snap play action pass play so they can go with either one?

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yep. In one of the big games they will actually go Pass in one of those hurries and it will be fun to see. It is being setup through the entire season.

....having said all of that I'd still like to see them implement an Urban Meyer style pop pass in that no huddle goal line look.

jays52 said:

....having said all of that I'd still like to see them implement an Urban Meyer style pop pass in that no huddle goal line look.

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Are you talking about the "jump" style pass, Jay?

Have to be able to run in the red zone and I expect they will continue to look for ways to make it work.

supafly said:

Are you talking about the "jump" style pass, Jay?

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Yeah, exactly. It's really more rooted in the option than anything, but it'd be dumb easy to have Gronk just release towards the goalpost and have Brady pull up off a sneak look and dump it to him. Look at how teams are defending the Brady sneak. They're pinching and cutting the linemen and both the tackles and the linebackers are doing it. There's open space in there for the pass to work. At the very least putting it on film will keep defenses honest moving forward.

jays52 said:

Yeah, exactly. It's really more rooted in the option than anything, but it'd be dumb easy to have Gronk just release towards the goalpost and have Brady pull up off a sneak look and dump it to him. Look at how teams are defending the Brady sneak. They're pinching and cutting the linemen and both the tackles and the linebackers are doing it. There's open space in there for the pass to work. At the very least putting it on film will keep defenses honest moving forward.

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True, but they also could be setting it up. Teams know it's almost always gonna be a run. But you can catch teams with their pants down in key situations.

Haley said:

Maybe they just need to add a quick-snap play action pass play so they can go with either one?

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I cannot imagine that a Bill Belichick coached team doesn't have a complementary play action pass in the goal line play book.

They were trying to pound the ball in from the 1 yard line yesterday because:

a) Good teams need to be able to pound the ball in from the 1 yard line.

b) The most times you pound the ball in the from the 1 yard line in October, the better chance you have of being successful with play action pass from the 1 yard line in January.

They got stuffed. Something they need to improve . But, I seriously doubt that it was because they didn't have a play action pass in the playbook.

Boomer B said:

Is it time for the Pats to give up on the hurry up when they get close to opposing goal line? I can't remember the last time it worked. Every time they do it the play is a run and it always gets stuffed. If we all know it's a run the opposing team does also. They tried it twice in a row on the drive that stalled at the goal line yesterday.

In a route like yesterday it doesn't really matter but in a close game I don't want to see them waste 2 downs on the goal line running the hurry up.

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Question. Why not have, spread formation, with 5 wideouts. Then, Have Brady sneak? This makes the DL line thinner. I mean they knew Patriots will run and stacked the middle.

zipster9 said:

Question. Why not have, spread formation, with 5 wideouts. Then, Have Brady sneak? This makes the DL line thinner. I mean they knew Patriots will run and stacked the middle.

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I think NE had confidence that they could do it without any trickery... and wanted to see if that confidence was warranted. Come playoff time, you might get your wish.

I'm more OK with a play action pass mixed in than a run every time.

the Pats scored FIFTY ONE POINTS yesterday...WTF are you lunatics complaining for???

Joker said:

the Pats scored FIFTY ONE POINTS yesterday...WTF are you lunatics complaining for???

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I'm literally laughing out loud and I'm one of the lunatics to whom you're referring! I'll blame it on my next to the last day of beer on the SW Florida beach. Good point!

I think most guys would be expecting the run if we were hurrying to the line, so that makes the play-action on 1st down ideal IMO. I see it all the time and it works more often than not. It seems like the hurry up run is 50/50 for us.

Joker said:

the Pats scored FIFTY ONE POINTS yesterday...WTF are you lunatics complaining for???

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I don't believe that they NEED the 7pts, that is the issue.

It's the play calling & maybe the execution, that is in question. You need to practice this in REAL TIME. As it may come up in any game, like the Broncos...