Before we go any further, we need to define what a mayday field goal actually is. Broncos coach Sean Payton said he calls it “hurricane” now, and other teams might refer to it as “lightning,” but whatever you call it, teams have similar parameters.
- Running clock
- Offense has no timeouts left in the half
- Third down, in or near field-goal range
- Inside of 40 seconds, all the way down to 17 seconds on the clock
The Athletic talked to two recently out-of-the-game special teams coordinators and three other current NFL staffers who work closely with coaching decisions, and all five agreed that an NFL team should not sub out their existing defense for the field goal block defense when they are operating in a “mayday” field goal situation. There’s not enough time to guarantee a clean substitution (under two minutes, the officials don’t stand over the ball to allow a man-for-man substitution) and the chances of blocking a field goal are miniscule.
“Defensively, we would never substitute an opponent’s mayday situation for the exact reason (of) what happened the other night,” said Mike Priefer, longtime special teams coordinator for four NFL teams, most recently the Cleveland Browns.
Over the past five seasons, just 2.2 percent of all field goal attempts have been blocked across the NFL (86 of 3,925), and it’s been even less common with the game on the line. Over the same span, just 1.8 percent of all potential game-tying/go-ahead field goal attempts in the fourth quarter or overtime have been blocked (7 of 392).
Buffalo has actually had better-than-average results on this play. The Bills have blocked 2.7 percent of all opponent field goal attempts under head coach Sean McDermott, the seventh-highest rate across the NFL since his first season in 2017. That includes 7.1 percent of potential game-tying/go-ahead attempts in the fourth quarter or OT by their opponents (1 of 14).
But that’s still not enough reward to risk a more likely and unnecessary result: Having too many men on the field.
“You don’t want to give them a second chance,” Priefer said. “Whatever 11 is on the field, in a mayday situation, nickel or dime, keep them out there and make sure you don’t have more than six on the line of scrimmage on one side of the center or the other, and make sure you come off the edge.”
The Bills got confused and thought that was the Toronto Series, thus they assumed they could play with Canadian rules — 12 men.
They also called two timeouts beforehand…
So the answer is “idk”
What if you want a defense that goes higher than 11?
…but this one goes to eleven.
Cause we dumb
Twitter said the extra guy was Hamlin, which makes sense since he’s a 5th string DB and not normally on the field. Which is all the more reason not to change, too many backups for a 1/50 chance.
It was also an odd decision from the Broncos that only worked because of the 12 men penalty. Sucks for the Bills, but if they had not tried to substitute we would be Tuesday morning quarterbacking the Broncos instead.
This sub was probably licking their chops at the thought of a hate thread after seeing Paytons mayday field goal fail.
Seriously, why would their offensive coordinator do this?
Me personally, I would’ve tried not putting 12 men on the field
Yeah ok, let me just use my rocket science degree to come up with a plan that genius.
Coach of the year. Calling it
It’s what happens when the writers strike ends and you get the original script writers back instead of replacements.
/s
One of the few times ‘Are they stupid?’ receives a ‘Yes’.
I came here to shoehorn in an “are they stupid?” joke in and I’m glad you just about covered it.
Now here’s a productive discussion!
What’s even more questionable is that the Broncos weren’t running real offensive plays beforehand only kneel downs so there was no reason why the Bills couldn’t have started with their field goal unit on the field
Poor job of situational coaching by the Bills. Broncos decided to put the kicker under intense pressure when they didn’t have too and the Bills bailed them out.
Isn’t there quite a few pretty odd rules for field goals though? Like he already mentioned the no more than 6 on either side of the center. And then there’s things like can’t hit the center and the snap is different too. I imagine if you’re a guy who hasn’t really played much special teams itd be more likely to get a pre snap penalty or just a penalty in general, especially if you’re an entire unit of players not typically on special teams.
Gonna start by saying Priefer is a garbage human.
But he ain’t wrong. Whoever was responsible for making that substitution should have been the one to be canned.