Quote:Go back to your Madden NFL game and play it again.  Perhaps you'll stop embarrassing yourself by saying that there was nobody close to Bortles that could have gotten a sack.  Perhaps you will come to the conclusion that the closest player to him (as shown in the screen shots) was not someone that Thomas had beaten.  I would like to see your "evidence" that Robinson was open, and that would have been a better play.  Look at "the tape" which is nothing more than an NFL highlight reel and show us.

 

I would be interested in your take about how a guy that doesn't have a defender covering him is not "clearly open".  I clearly understand what I am looking at.  If a receiver doesn't have a defender within 5 yards of him, I would call that open.

 

You seem to be fixated on the defender's hips.  Look at the first screen shot that I posted.  Are you looking at the hips, or perhaps a region close to the hips?

 

I'll explain it one more time for you. Your first picture clearly shows the corner (22) doesn't have his hips turned (parallel to the line of scrimmage) to pursue Robinson. His hips are to the inside of the field, which is why he's so easily able to turn and come back to hit Thomas low. Bortles likely had already decided he was going to Thomas before he even looked at the downfield coverage. As I said earlier (and NYC4Jags confirmed) the correct target in that case would be Robinson on the sideline as the corner wasn't committing to him and appeared to have a good idea about what Bortles was going to do on the play. Whatever the reason is for the corner deciding to not commit to coverage of Robinson is what should have been Bortles' key on where to go with the pass, not whether a guy two yards downfield had a trailing linebacker or a rusher 7-10 yards from him was any threat as he rolled to the sideline (which the rusher wasn't). JT was the wrong read on the play due to what the corner was doing. If JT makes a great play and the corner makes a bad one it's decent gain, but if Bortles lofts it downfield and Allen Robinson makes a good play it's likely at least a 25 yard pass and if it's a good pass and the safety does a poor job, maybe even a TD.

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