![]() ![]() At the snap of the ball, the two linemen pushed Huntley from behind, but rather than stay low, Huntley stood up and extended his arms to push the ball over the goal line. From the half-yard line, Baltimore quarterback Tyler Huntley was under center with three teammates lined up behind him - including two large linemen. It is very effective, but it can backfire as the Baltimore Ravens discovered during the fourth quarter of last weekend’s playoff game. The NFL once banned the assisting of a ball carrier via pushing, pulling or carrying, but in 2005 the league lifted the ban for pushing. For some reason it really didn’t catch on - the pushing of the ball carrier by his own teammates - until this season. Strangely enough, it has all become fashionable this season right smack dab in the middle of the era of passing and the spread offense. It is not quite the flying wedge - no one is linking hands and nowadays seven players are required to start on the line of scrimmage - but the concept is the same: Run over people en masse and push the ball carrier into the crush of defenders. It’s like a rush-hour traffic jam, with cars racing up to ram it from behind. Sometimes they push him at the line of scrimmage in a designed play at other times it occurs spontaneously, when a ball carrier’s progress is momentarily stopped. The offense lines up in a tight formation with two beefy players lined up in the backfield to push the ball carrier forward. Who knew they were ahead of their time? A tamer version of 1903 football has made a comeback in the NFL this season. The favored play of the day was the “flying wedge” in which players lined up in two wings on either side of the ball carrier, linking hands en masse and running straight at their opponents, while pushing the ball carrier forward. The players don’t even bother to disguise it - no receivers in motion, no huddles, no spread formations, no real strategy, just brute force. Does this sound like anything you’ve seen lately? ![]()
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