My sneaky favorite football moments of 2019

So this is a thread Iā€™m going to use to write some enjoyable (maybe to me only) moments during the the 2019 season.

The App game even though we lost, you could tell it was a different team and leader when we did not fold in the second half when we had plenty of chances. It made me look forward to the season.

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So the first one:
Game 9 against Middle from the Rich on 11/2

Before we start, letā€™s go back in time shall we? The date, October 15, 2016. The brash Niners, coming off their first conference win ever, have a 10 point lead on FIU under interim head coach Ron Turner. On 4th and 17, with 10:30 left in the game, FIU punts. The Niners take over at this point with a 94.5% win probability.
While the next ten plays were great for the Niners and the drive culminated in a FG and a 13 point lead, the drive on took 3:11 off the clock. That right, the average play took 19 seconds to run. There were also one completed pass and one incomplete pass thrown (the incomplete pass was on 2nd down on FIUā€™s 20 to freshman RB, but I digress). I ran the numbers and decided that if we had done the same play calling and USED the entire play clock, that even if Muscarello misses the field goal (making the field goal dropped the chance of winning to 90.7%), FIU gets the ball back down ten with just 3:50 left on the clock. The rest of course is history. There are several reason besides clock management that we lost this game, the first to me was depth on defense. The guys were gassed.

So let get back to the Rich in November 2019ā€¦ There is 8:36 left in the game and despite a 14 point deficit the momentum has swung to Middle as they have scored 13 points in 6 minutes (and only a fantastic strip from BFW in the 3rd quarter kept the score this far apart). Middle is moving the ball at will, the defense is gassed.

But, the Niners have the ball, and the next 15 plays to me were among my favorite of the season. Missing both Lemay and McAllister, Reynolds and Finger proceeded (with the exception of one pass to Tucker on the second play of the drive with drew a man on Tucker and out of the box for the rest of the drive) to march down the field. The longest play was eight yards, it was mostly down the middle. The OL and the misdirection off the snap kept the DLā€™s busy just long enough to give our undersized rushers the space to get positive yards. The Niners burned 8:30 and three time outs to kill Middleā€™s chances. And to top it off, Healy went for the kill shot to Tucker in the end zone on 4th down with just 25 seconds left. We would see that again 21 days later.

This fifteen play drive was one of my sneaky favorite football moments of 2019.

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So work isnā€™t busy so here is sneaky favorite moment number two.

November 9th El Paso.
While the game started out rough, the Niners come back from down 21-7 to get it to 21-16 pending the PAT. The Niners go for itā€¦

Cut to the previous week against Middle, up 24-7 and after a 6 minute drive to start the half, Americaā€™s team finds itself 2nd and goal from the one. Middle seems to be in man with the box loaded. With Tucker and Ringwood wide left and Roberson off the line right, Reynolds play action to McAllister right, Middle bites on the fake, and Reynolds throws back left to an open Roberson. The WRā€™s have taken the DBā€™s with them and this was an easy play for Roberson and Reynolds.

So back to El Paso. Hunt is lined up right with Roberson actually lined up in the backfield. On the snap Reynolds fakes to Finger on a run wide left, UTEP bites on Finger (ha) and Reynolds hits Roberson who is open on the right at the goal line and itā€™s 21-18. The OL blocked left. Hunt also seemed to be open seven yards deep running a parallel route as Roberson. Ringwood who had lined up on the left also ran right and was open flashing in the middle.

Cut to seven minutes left in a tied game, 3rd and 3 on the UTEP 20. Charlotte lines up in a similar set as the two point conversion except itā€™s a three TE set with Carrire on the line, Hunt about 2 yards off the line on the left and Roberson in the backfield. Roberson goes in motion and ends up 2 yards behind Hunt.
Cut to beautiful Greensboro North Carolina, where Iā€™m watching this game. Iā€™ve seen the previous administration run this play a zillion times. Line big to one side and cram your running back their hoping you power enough to get three yards. The biggest instance of this was in 2018 in the first half against FIU and they stuffed poor Benny on downs. Iā€™m looking at eight UTEP guys on the left side of the center against our seven and my PTSD knows this will be a McAllister into the left side of the line for no gain and a Cruz FG.

When the ball is snapped, McAllister and Reynolds run a play fake right and eight UTEP guys follow the fake. Meanwhile, two UTEP guys check Roberson, while Jacob Hunt slips through untouched and makes Reynolds has an easy target for the go ahead TD. Unrelated to the play, Ringwood was open in the middle as well.

Instead of running the usual play, the OC and Healy get creative and use a version of a play that has worked twice in two games to get a big play when it was needed.

And thatā€™s why this is one of my sneaky favorite plays of the season.

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This was a super important play for the ā€œcultureā€ of our team, IMO. On 1st, 2nd and 3rd down, with what would clearly be the waning moments of the game on the clock, we ran it up the middle to keep the clock moving (as well we should have, to keep the ball and win the game). But on 4th down, with the game clearly over, Healy/Atkins calls a 100% unnecessary shot deep to Vic on the last play of the game. It was obvious to anyone who knows the history that Healy/Aktins wanted to remind MTSU that the Niners football program will not forgot the classless way they called plays in our first match-up a few years back (and that was before any of Healyā€™s staff got here!) and this isnā€™t the same Niners program they played before. I absolutely LOVED that they called for that shot at the endzone to end that game. I was sitting behind the MTSU bench that game, and the students and fans were giving Stockstill and his guys shit the entire game. I wish so badly Tucker could have come down with that ball.

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My third favorite sneaky moments of the 2109 is what Iā€™ll guess is the skinny post.

Where we were terrible from 15-18 was our inability to score off a big pass play. There were exceptions (Duke against G state, Bostick against UAB,). Part of this was the lack of Qb arm, part was no speedy receivers, part was play calling. Defenses could stack the box on us and Phillips, Washington and Lemay (he might get a whole new thread about he made my Saturdayā€™s in the fall better for the the last three years. I hope he makes a zillion dollars in the nfl) made them pay a lot of the time, but just not enough.

Ok back to 2019, we tore up GW, gave App all they wanted, and so here we are on a amazingly hot September night again Umass, a game a lot of us called a must win if we wanted to bowl.

So we get the ball to get the ball, rag a couple of plays into Umass territory. On first down, we call what I will call a skinny post into the seam. Cam Dollar is open, Reynolds makes the thread the needle throw, Dollar fights off a couple of tackles and next thing you know Niners are up 7-0 90 seconds into the game.

Cut to UNT about six weeks later. UNT is kicking our ass. Offense isnā€™t playing a great game and evidently Healy blows the out the team at halftime. So we stop them on their first drive. We get the ball on our 1 and work the ball to the middle of the field. On third and 1, which a Lambert running play and not a terrible call, Healy runs the sland post this time to Ringwood for six. I dare say Iā€™d we donā€™t score on this play, we run out of time later. Not saying it was the play of the game,butā€¦

Fast forward to week 12 in Norfolk, Iā€™m so worried that we have the hangover like we did in El Paso after destroying Middle. We stop them on first down and the offense comes in. After a couple of first downs moves the ball to the middle of the field. Again slant post, this time to Tucker, and itā€™s almost identical to Ringwoods against UNT. Safety is late and you arenā€™t catching Tucker, Niners up 7-0

And for the first time as seventh year 49er football, season ticket holder, and the biggest die hard we have, I relaxed in the first quarter, ā€˜cause I knew our guys were kicking the crap out of these clowns today.
That cold day watching in Greensboro in late November was probably the first time in 15 years that Iā€™ve witnessed a Charlotte 49ers sporting event in 15 years that Iā€™ve watched relaxed with total assurance that our talent on the field, coaching on the sidelines, and chutzpah the fan base
was vastly superior to our opponents this day.

And this why the return of the Duke-esque ā„¢ļø Receiver kills shot and knowing we have them all coming back in 2020 along with Elder made the slant post my sneaky favorite Charlotte football moment in 2019

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