As Indianapolis coach Chuck Pagano has endured harsh criticism for the bizarre fake punt his team tried to run Sunday against New England, former Washington coach Jim Zorn’s name has been in the news. Zorn, of course, called an infamous swinging gate fake field goal in a Monday night game against the Giants. That play, like the Colts’ trick play, failed miserably.
Reached today by PFT, Zorn said he feels for any coach who has to handle withering scrutiny when a play doesn’t work.
“They called that play thinking it was going to be successful. I’ll tell you this, that coach didn’t call that play thinking about the ridicule he might get if it didn’t work,” Zorn said.
Zorn didn’t have the game on when the Colts called the fake punt on Sunday night, but he said he understands why coaches try unconventional plays even if they look silly if they don’t work.
“It’s always hard when a play like that -- when you have something you think you can take advantage of. It’s not so much to trick them, but it’s unconventional to take advantage of maybe a misalignment or something like that,” Zorn said. “If it doesn’t work, it really is a disaster because even coaches would say, well gosh, maybe we could have just run another play, no question. That’s a very difficult task as a coach, to look at it, be convinced it will work, have what you feel will be a perfect situation to call it in, call it, and it flops -- it just doesn’t work. Sometimes it’s not even a quote-unquote trick play, I even cite the play call that everybody questions almost every day in Seattle, with the Super Bowl, the goal line play. That wasn’t a trick play, but it was the same result: If it didn’t work, now it’s ‘Why didn’t the Seahawks run the ball?’ I would say it’s one of the most difficult tasks, to try to defend it when it doesn’t work. You’re not a genius when you call it and it does work, it just means that something unconventional the opponent wasn’t ready for instead of you being criticized for trying to do something that’s unconventional. It really is the agony of the coach and the staff who designed it, and ultimately the head coach was responsible for it, because that head coach must know that it could work in the game and also know that he’s got to explain himself. Quite frankly, it’s one play. Did it win or lose the game?”
Zorn pointed to a trick play that did work in another game on Sunday, when the Seahawks ran a flea-flicker in which Marshawn Lynch initially looked like he was going to run, but then pitched the ball back to Russell Wilson, who threw deep downfield to Ricardo Lockette for a touchdown. Zorn noted that it’s a brilliant call because Lockette made a great catch in the end zone, but it could easily have turned into a bad call if the players hadn’t executed.
“The Seahawks last week as well, they tossed it to Marshawn, he tossed it back to Russell, he threw it up and the guy who really made the play was Lockette,” Zorn said. “That was such an incredible catch because he had to jump over him -- he almost climbed over the defender. I just thought it was a fantastic play. Was that a great call? Well, they were hoping it would work and they had enough confidence in the athletes executing it. You don’t call a play you think is going to fail, that’s for sure.”
Zorn noted that trick plays always get a lot of attention.
“Everybody wants to see them because they’re fun,” Zorn said.
At least, they’re fun when they work. When they flop, they’re a reason to ridicule the coach.