Bert Faibish
Ticats.ca
The Anatomy Of A Play
Beginning this week, I will try to breakdown a highlight type of play from each game and bring you, the fans, closer to the action. This week feature’s Marcus Thigpen’s 118-yard missed field goal return, which was the first MFG returned for a touchdown by a Ticat since 2004 when Craig Yeast did it. Here’s how it went down:
When Alexis Serna misses the field goal wide to the left, Marcus Thigpen takes it out of the endzone and starts to run to his right, making the Winnipeg cover team adjust their lanes to compensate. When he see’s them change their angles, he makes a sharp cut back inside to his left.
#23 Will Heyward makes a smart decision to not block Winnipeg’s #65 Adam Bestard in the back, instead allowing Thigpen to cut to the right and avoid his clumsy tackle attempt. A block in the back penalty would have pinned Hamilton deep in their own territory and completely negated the touchdown that resulted instead.
Winnipeg’s #9 Mike Renaud has an opportunity to cut Thigpen off but an excellent block by #94 Khari Long turns him to the outside and completely takes him out of the play. #35 Otis Floyd makes sure that Winnipeg’s kicker Alexis Serna doesn’t even seriously consider trying to tackle Thigpen as he takes advantage of the wide open area in front of him.
Thigpen uses his speed to outrun any would be tacklers and scores on an electrifying 118-yard missed field goal return. While his speed and vision was one of the main factors in the play, he couldn’t have succeeded without key blocks from his teammates up field and one key “non-block” at the beginning of the play.
