yeah, this didn’t work, but i loved the call. i said so in the open threads, too. i love the element of surprise. this kind of thing reminds me of our 2005 run to SBXL, and i think there is some real value to giving teams something else to think about – to keep them on their toes a little and constantly reacting to us rather than setting the tone. i was as bummed as anyone that it didn’t work, particularly when the replay showed how close it was to working, but i think that this only helps us in the next two games.

In the pre-snap picture the pulling blocker looks a lot like Timmons, not Hines.

A lot of people were arguing whether or not SD knew the fake was on after the game. I didn’t take many looks at the play, but if that really is Hines then they must’ve known something was up.

Success or failure aside, can we applaude Burger’s acting and finally give the man the credit he deserves?

We suck at going for 4th and 1 conventionally, as demonstrated on the goal line. Granted, there’s a little more space in the open field, but it’s still risky. Obviously a fake punt is pretty risky too, but I would never advocate that the current team go for 4th and 1 at their 50. At the goal line? Sure. If we fail we give our defense great position and they feast.

One thing in favor of doing a fake punt as opposed to conventionally – Ryan clark would have gotten a lot more than 1 yard. Check out downfield on this punt. The guys blocking our gunners had no idea it was a fake and followed our gunners all the way down the field. The only guy in the middle of the field had a decent block put on him by Hartwig. If clark gets through the line which with slightly better execution he would have, my guess is he picks up at least 20 yards. He could have taken it to the house with only 3 guys to beat and an open field.

Am always happy when the opposing team punts, don’t want to see the other team go for it on 4th regardless of field position.
So I like seeing the steelers going for it. The worst case is you give the ball back to the other team at the spot of the play.
With a punt, you not only give up the play and some T.O.P. but you tire out your special teams guys and run the risk of having the punt returned for even worse field position or an outright touchdown. The steeler d is much better than the special teams d. Between the 40s, with this defense, and the mediocre special teams, I say it is always 4 down territory.
Great breakdown of the play, always like this type of analysis, thanks for posting.

Just wanted to point out that the act Berger did made me honestly think the snap went over his head. lol..

I went from being pissed about the snap to being pissed about the failed fake. All in nano seconds. Funny stuff.

The special teams coach, reviewing films of the opponent, sees a “weakness” in a particular alignment. During the week, the special teams practices running a fake against this particular alignment. In the game, the coaches give Ryan Clark the ability to call for the fake if he sees the defense in the desired alignment.

So it was not so much that Tomlin wanted to go for it in this situation (if he did, a conventional play would have probably been the choice), but that he allowed for the possibility of a fake. San Diego happened to line up appropriately, and the fake was on.

I’m no special-teams expert, but in the photo, you can see that San Diego has placed four players to the (offensive) left of our center, trying to overload the three blockers on our line. But if Retofsky blocks left instead of right, we can get a blocker on all four Chargers on the right side of the line. With Timmons pulling, it should have opened up a nice hole for Clark.

Instead, Retofsky blocks left, leaving Applewhite free. Making things worse, Andre Frazier (54) double-teams one defender, leaving a second defender unblocked behind Applewhite. If the play had been blocked properly, it should have worked.

I agree with Blitz that it would have helped if Clark had started off deeper, giving Timmons time to get over. A conventional running play takes longer to develop due to the quarterback needing to drop back and hand off to the runner, giving the pulling guard more time. On a direct snap, it is better if the entire line just drive-blocks and lets the runner pick a hole quickly.

However, if I remember correctly, after failing to get the first we ran to the line real quick and were preparing to run a play. There was mass confusion on the Chargers side as well as the refs which caused the referee with the ball to delay placing the football on the line. He simply held onto it allowing the Chargers to make substitutions as well as think about the situation long enough to conclude a time out was necessary.

I’m not trying to start another “hate on the refs” post but I found it interesting he wouldn’t place the ball down. Indy runs plays like this all the time in an attempt to draw a “too many men on the field” penalty from their opponent.

In the end, after the time out, we decided on the fake punt. But why was it the ref wouldn’t place the ball earlier which allowed the chargers to make their decision(s).