Nate Burleson Barely Avoids an Interception

by John Morgan on Sep 14, 2009 2:05 PM PDT

Seattle motions T.J. Houshmandzadeh from right to left and sets in a two wide left, two tight end right, single back formation. The Rams are 4-3 man and flash their outside linebackers in "A" gap blitz before the snap. David Vobora blitzes, Will Witherspoon drops back. Seattle gets good push. Only Sean Locklear sags. The Rams match defensive tackle, playing end, Darrell Scott against Locklear and the bull rush bullies him back. Then a funny thing happens. A crease appears between Locklear and Rob Sims, but Jones dips behind Locklear and takes a circuitous path to the outside. He rushes for eight. Bad decision/good outcome?

Seahawks stretch right, but Steve Vallos is driven deep into the pocket and Jones must break a tackle well before reaching the line. Vobora and Chris Long finish for a loss of one.

Nate Burleson slants but stops before contacting Jonathan Wade. Matt Hasselbeck throws to the spot instead of the man and only Wade's bobble prevents Burleson from creating a pick.

Punt.

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Vallos was destroyed on that play

Thankfully, it was a running play and resulted only in a loss of one (as I recall, it was the only rush for negative yards by Jones all day). Vallos actually had a pretty decent game, by his standards at least. But I noticed his failure in real time on this play, it really stood out. It was probably his most embarrassing moment of the game.

I didn’t realize that Burleson failed to finish his route, at the time it happened I just assumed it was good coverage. Burleson deserves some credit for swatting the defender and contributing to the non-interception, but it sounds like the blame falls on him for not running his route correctly. This is why I love reading this tape installments. So much stuff is in the game of football that you can’t see in just 1 viewing.

by kearly on Sep 14, 2009 4:17 PM PDT reply actions