The Mesh Point
I was wondering about other peoples thoughts about what I saw in the Spring Game. I thought that Tate did a great job of holding that mesh point a little longer like Juice Williams on the hand offs and looked much improved there. I thought Denard did pretty good too, but I think he was looking to run sooner than Tate. With the QB's not live I didn't see much value in wether or not they made the correct read, just how their technique looked in carrying it out.
For those in the know. Do the coaches want the fakes carried out as completely on pass plays, because it seemed on the pass plays it was pretty lame and apparent the rb's weren't getting the ball?? I think it might waste time the qb's dont't have to carry out the fakes so I'm not sure which way the coaches would go there. Maybe the half ass fake does a good enough job vs increasing the chance of a sack.
April 19th, 2010 at 12:55 PM ^
The mesh point on a zone read option RUN is going to last longer because the QB spends part of the time choosing whether to hand off the ball or keep it. He literally puts the ball in the RB's belly and then chooses whether to pull it back out or not.
The mesh point on a play action PASS is simply to hold the linebackers in place for a split second longer. The ball isn't supposed to be put in the RB's belly and, therefore, won't be as misleading of a fake. You'll see the quarterbacks rock their arms back and forth in practice to simulate this PA fake, but that's all it is - it's a formality more than anything.
I thought he actually did a good job on the most part on his fakes. We do need to improve somewhat on fakes on pass plays though.