Quote:
Originally Posted by TheGuardian
There's Pat missing a wide open Rice.
Yes there's a lot of miscommunication going on but there's been a LOT of Pat missing wide open dudes all season too.
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He misses him, but let's play armchair QB for a second. go to about :17 seconds, and run it from there. Stop it at :22 seconds, or as close as you can to that. Travis and the defender that picks him up are basically right in front of Pat, Travis is beginning to make his move to his right (or Pat's left). In that same second, Rice is almost directly behind the S, they're all basically in a line at about :23 seconds. So, Pat really can't see Rice for a fraction of a second.
Now play it and stop it when Rice passes the 'N', right before he runs behind the other Safety at about the 'P.' That's less than 1 second, according to the clock in the clip. Probably about 0.5 seconds. And Rice also runs nearly full speed through there, so Pat would have to lead a rapidly moving target, and he'd have less than 1 second to make that decision and pull the trigger into a rapidly shrinking window.
Has Pat made tougher throws? yes. Is it an easy thing to do? Probably not. I've never played QB at any level beyond the backyard, but I've shot plenty of moving targets with a handgun at ranges up to 20 yards. It's much tougher to be accurate when the target is moving quickly across your field of view, than to hit a stationary or slow-moving target at the same ranges. If it's barely moving, I can hit almost anything you want, head, chest, left shoulder; if it's moving fast, it's going to be 'somewhere in the middle.'
However, if Rice had recognized the zone coverage and just throttled back or even stopped on the 'N' maybe Pat pulls the trigger there, because it would've been a much easier pass to make, rather than try to lead Rice, but not so much lead that the other S to his right could make a play on the ball.
Again, not saying Pat played it completely right there, but Rice could've helped him make that a much easier pass, that's all.