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Toney Punt Return From the Five was a trick play that would have been an easy TD

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Jonnyblaze said:
Anyway to verify this with the team?
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They shouldn't confirm it even it was real. But they don't need to. It's obvious that was the plan but the punt was so crazy good, so deep with so much hang time, that Toney didn't have time to setup and throw it across the field. Also it being so close to the end zone makes Toney nervous since if the pass is off target it might go into the end zone.
 
ssvir said:
It was a 60 yd bomb punt at the worst possible time for us.

I'm in favor of your execution though
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“Worst possible time” was a common theme, no?

Seasons over, dust off your ***** collection brother. I’m going to watch basketball.
 
Handsome Squidbum said:
I think you pull that one out of the bag when they are punting from further back in their own territory and the ball won't go further than the 20 yd line. Not Tuesday Morning QBing- you have to practice expecting good punts (again- Indiana doesn't make a lot of mistakes like bad punts so plan for a good kick). If it is, you let it go into the end zone and save it for later. At the 5 yd line if he throws it laterally it is probably to the 3 yd line or maybe into the end zone. If the receiver drops it that's a safety or worse. If you do that at the 20 and the receiver botches it, he still has time to jump on the ball since no one else is around. Calling that at that yardage is being too clever by half.
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I agree that it wasn't ideal field position but if 24 gets a hand on the gunner and slows him down just a bit, we still got a play here.
Punter made a **** good kick and you can argue that Mali should have just let it go for a touch back but him fielding that punt had nothing to do with the block that occurred 4 plays later. 87 ignoring the rusher allowed the block whether we kicked from the 15 or 25.

I'm not trying to pile on 24 because I don't blame him for the back shoulder plays but man if he slows the gunner that play works
 
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Had we gotten closer on the last drive I also think there was design like this to Toney throw a ball into the end zone
 
Speaking of ST’s. Not sure if anyone noticed this, but the IU kicker was struggling big time in pre game and half with FG’s.

That’s why they went for it on the 4th on our 37, though I was surprised they went for the 4th and 5 on the 9?

Cignatti goes from genius to chump, if Mendoza doesn’t get the 1st/TD.
 
O'Connor didn't even touch the gunner on the left sideline.

If he simply gets a hand on him, that play unfolds exactly the way it was drawn up.

1/2 a second and Toney can make the throw. D@mn that hurts to see.
 
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Insane that we analyze offense and defense of these two teams for 10 days. We said Miami is more physical OL and DL and we were exactly right. The DL did it all game. Totally neutralized their offense and Cignetti even said all they could do was throw the back shoulder and we were whipping them up front. The OL did their thing in the 2nd half and looked the part. It held true. We talked about playing clean and not turning it over and we did until the final play.

No one mentioned a thing about Special Teams. Maybe some thought into our kicking game and their kicker on the injury report. D$ said multiple times that he thought we would return a kick/punt for a TD (maybe he knew this play was in our bag?).

But really no mention of the true importance of ST in this game and surprising because of how many punts Indiana had blocked on the year and just in the game prior against Oregon. Then, the kicking game ended up being the entire difference. The missed FG, a blocked punt, fielding the punt backed up that far to begin with, now knowing there was a trick play that would have been a house call that got neutralized (all 3 of those intertwine because Toney doesn't field it if there's no trick play designed and thus the block probably doesn't happen or at least isn't recovered in the end zone). Toney had a decent return that set us up around the 40 only to be negated by a penalty on Pruitt and put us back to the 20-25.

100% the game was solely decided by Special Teams. You may be able to add in coaching with balls vs no balls. One team goes for it on 4th and 5 and scored a TD and the other kicks the FG on 4th and 2 and misses.
 
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