Josh McDaniels defends New England Patriots offensive sets
By Phil Watson
New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels went on the defensive Wednesday to defend his controversial ineligible receiver offensive sets.
Tony Dungy calls it “nothing but an intent to deceive and they are doing it very well.”
Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh said his problem with them lies with officials not giving his defense enough time to match up against them.
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In any event, New England Patriots defensive coordinator Josh McDaniels played a little defense on Wednesday, trying to clear up any confusion about his offense’s proclivity for running plays with ineligible receivers.
“One thing about that that I’d like to clear up is we didn’t do any of those things [with ineligible receivers] without huddling,” McDaniels said, via ESPN Boston. “When we did those things the last couple of games, we huddled every time we did it with the ineligible player. We substituted, we huddled, we declared him ineligible, the official declared him ineligible and then we lined up.”
The Patriots used those plays three times in their Divisional Playoff win over the Ravens and twice against the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship.
It was actually an injury to center Bryan Stork that prompted the Patriots to use the tactic against Baltimore. They were having reserve tight end Michael Hoomanawanui line up at left tackle, but on one play they covered an eligible receiver—running back Shane Vereen—on the line of scrimmage, making Hoomanawanui an eligible receiver.
An uncovered Hoomanawanui went straight down the middle of the field and caught a 16-yard pass from Tom Brady. Vereen simply dropped back off the line of scrimmage, as if he had run a route, New England would have been penalized for an ineligible man downfield.
Vereen was announced as ineligible before the play, with Hommanawanui not needing to report as eligible because he wore the number of an eligible receiver, No. 47.
Offensive linemen wear Nos. 50-79 and must declare as eligible before a play if they are going to be lined up as such.
The New York Times broke it all down.
Against the Colts, left tackle Nate Solder caught a 16-yard touchdown pass out of a running formation when the Patriots covered a sixth offensive lineman—backup Cameron Fleming—with tight end Rob Gronkowski.
The principles resemble, at least a bit, the controversial A-11 offense that has been around for several years now. In the A-11, every player on offense wore the number of an eligible receiver, with players being declared ineligible on a play-by-play basis.
The offense had gained some steam at the high-school level until it was banned by the National Federation of State High School Associations in 2009.
The offense had two quarterbacks and pods of three receivers on each side of the formation.
There used to be a loophole in the rules that allowed all 11 players to be potentially eligible in what is known as a scrimmage-kick formation, provided no one is wearing a jersey number between 50 and 79.
When the offense was banned in 2009, the NFSHSAA closed the loophole, requiring teams to have at least four players wearing between 50 and 79 on all plays run on first, second or third down.
But even in the pass-happiest era of football on record, some of the old mindset about the game still is out there—call it the three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust mindset.
It still exists although the game hasn’t actually been played that way for decades.
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