Bert Faibish
Ticats.ca
Anatomy Of A Play
This play starts out of the shotgun with the team’s base personnel look on the field. You can see how Ticats receiver Chris Bauman’s motion to the right of the formation sucks Calgary’s secondary inside a bit before the ball is snapped.
You can see that the play is designed to run through the hole between the tackle and guard, but Calgary’s defensive line gets pretty good leverage and is able to sniff out the direction of the run. Thigpen can see his hole closing in front of him and makes a quick decision to bounce the run outside.
After gaining the outside edge Thigpen can see that he has nothing but space up the sideline. The offensive line does a good job of not blocking any defenders in the back as they try to follow Thigpen up field, but the real praise needs to be heaped on the receivers. Chris Bauman maintains his block for a long time and adjusts as Thigpen cuts the run back inside. Not to be outdone, receiver Reggie Fish is about to contribute in a big way.
As Thigpen runs out of room on the sideline he makes another quick decision and uses his agility to stop short, turn and cut the run back inside. Notice how Bauman holds off on blocking Calgary linebacker Malik Jackson (#11) in the back, while Reggie Fish see’s Thigpen about to cut back inside and decides to help him out by putting #11 directly in his sights.
Fish throws a devastating block on his man and gives Thigpen the room he needs to split the last two defenders and race into the end zone. Thanks to some improvisation from Thigpen, a short gain was turned into a 30-yard score.
Coaches love it when plays work exactly as they were drawn up, but more often than not the defense throws a wrench into those plans. The vision and speed of a guy like Thigpen makes anything possible and even when one avenue is closed, one missed tackle opens up several more. His ability to ad lib makes him a threat to score from anywhere on the field and as his role with the offence increases, teams need to begin to account for him at all times.
