Not quite the Watson-Bailey endzone tackle, but in the same ballpark

[GoWhalers]

I was re-watching the big Devonta Freeman catch in the 4th quarter of the Super Bowl. The defense had been playing well and the Pats momentum was high following the 2-point conversion to narrow the gap to a one-score game. The Falcons were pinned deep, and suddenly the defense gives up a seemingly uncovered huge catch and run to Freeman that could really have reversed momentum.



I was kind of in disbelief that nobody would have had Freeman as their assignment, so I wanted to see where the screwup came from.

In the video, it looks like Elandon Roberts is responsible for spying Freeman, but once he recognizes the play action I cannot tell what he's doing as he turns his back on Freeman and starts running with Sanu. Worse than that, he stumbles and falls, leaving him on the ground in the middle of the field.

By the time Roberts gets to his feet, Freeman is literally running past him 10 yards away. Harmon -- the last line of defense -- comes up to make the tackle and whiffs on Freeman's juke completely, not even getting a hand on him. Its pretty ugly, although I'm inclined to forgive given Freeman's free release.

It's all daylight for Freeman -- no one left to stop him. He is fast in the open field, and has a good chance to score here. Except Roberts stays with the play, and runs him down from behind!

Big props to Roberts here. Even if he did make a mistake on the coverage (I'm not qualified to say so), I thought that was a huge physical and mental effort from a young player to stay with the play and do his job.

 

[aluminum seats]

I was re-watching the big Devonta Freeman catch in the 4th quarter of the Super Bowl. The defense had been playing well and the Pats momentum was high following the 2-point conversion to narrow the gap to a one-score game. The Falcons were pinned deep, and suddenly the defense gives up a seemingly uncovered huge catch and run to Freeman that could really have reversed momentum.



I was kind of in disbelief that nobody would have had Freeman as their assignment, so I wanted to see where the screwup came from.

In the video, it looks like Elandon Roberts is responsible for spying Freeman, but once he recognizes the play action I cannot tell what he's doing as he turns his back on Freeman and starts running with Sanu. Worse than that, he stumbles and falls, leaving him on the ground in the middle of the field.

By the time Roberts gets to his feet, Freeman is literally running past him 10 yards away. Harmon -- the last line of defense -- comes up to make the tackle and whiffs on Freeman's juke completely, not even getting a hand on him. Its pretty ugly, although I'm inclined to forgive given Freeman's free release.

It's all daylight for Freeman -- no one left to stop him. He is fast in the open field, and has a good chance to score here. Except Roberts stays with the play, and runs him down from behind!

Big props to Roberts here. Even if he did make a mistake on the coverage (I'm not qualified to say so), I thought that was a huge physical and mental effort from a young player to stay with the play and do his job.

Absolutely. He was close to being gone.

 

[Simpelton]

Lot of kids would have an emotional reaction to making a misread like that and getting beat, and in the time it took them to have it Freeman would be gone. good on him forgetting back into the play. One of many underrated plays that kept the Patriots just this side of dead for long enough for them to come back. Thanks for bringing attention to it

 

[Tony2046]

It looks like Roberts was playing Robber or something. He was clearly following Ryan's eyes. But it does look like he allowed Freeman to run free. I don't know enough to say.

I wouldn't call Harmon's non tackle a whiff exactly. He forced Freeman back to the inside which allowed Roberts and McCourty to get to him. Butler was close by as well. If freeman had gotten to Harmon's outside or to the sideline it would have been a race.

But yeah that could have turned out a lot worse.

 

[TBR]

I don't think Roberts stumbled & fell. Sanu shoved him to the ground.

Look at the 23 second mark of that video.

 

[scott99]

I was watching that and thinking, where the **** is everyone. He had so much open field to run. Big tackle by Roberts after Harmon got juked out of his jock.

 

[1960Pats]

That play was discussed in one of patfanken's threads.

It looked to me like Roberts made the mistake to let Freeman get wide open then made the game-saving tackle. The only other Patriot with a chance to make a tackle was Logan Ryan and he was covered by a blocker. That was a TD.

 

[Mac&Barmore FTW]

It reminded me a lot of the Seahawks first play of their final drive in Super Bowl XLIX when Lynch caught a big pass on Collins right at the 2 minute warning.

 

[bradydaman29]

Speaking of the Watson play. On that pick six in the SB, I was hoping one of our players would pull a Watson and swipe the ball from Alford as he was hot dogging his way into the endzone.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Speaking of the Watson play. On that pick six in the SB, I was hoping one of our players would pull a Watson and swipe the ball from Alford as he was hot dogging his way into the endzone.

Right. Brady whiffed big time not making the swipe play there.

 

[demerit]

That play was discussed in one of patfanken's threads.

It looked to me like Roberts made the mistake to let Freeman get wide open then made the game-saving tackle. The only other Patriot with a chance to make a tackle was Logan Ryan and he was covered by a blocker. That was a TD.

Thank god he made that play. Freeman was running wild in the game with like 7 yards per rush.