Turning Point Play: Wells Botches Snap/Wagoner

[RamBill]

Turning point play: Wells botches snap

By Nick Wagoner | ESPN.com

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/11996/turning-po

EARTH CITY, Mo. -- Here's this week's look back at the turning point play from the St. Louis Rams' 34-31 loss to the Dallas Cowboys:

The situation: With 42 seconds left in the first half, the Rams had a 21-7 lead and faced a third-and-1 at the Dallas 44. Quarterback Austin Davis had hit receiver Kenny Britt for a 9-yard gain on the previous play to put the Rams in position to keep their drive alive. The Rams used a timeout after the completion to Britt but still had two remaining.

The play: The Rams lined up in a tight two-by-two formation with Austin Pettis lined up wide right and Stedman Bailey in the right slot. To the left, tight end Jared Cook was in the slot with Britt wide left. Davis lined up in the shotgun with running back Trey Watts set to his right. Before the snap, Davis sends Watts in motion to his right but center Scott Wells appears to snap the ball before Davis is ready. But it didn't matter because somehow Wells snapped the ball as though Davis was under center rather than in the shotgun. Davis flinches thinking the ball is coming before he's ready but that would've been better than what actually happened.

Wells let go of the ball as he would any other normal snap under center and the ball fell softly to the ground. Cowboys defensive tackle Henry Melton recovered at the Dallas 47.

"Obviously, he thought we were under center and brought the ball up and we were in gun," coach Jeff Fisher said. "That’s pretty much all on Scott. Fortunately, we were able to hold them to a field goal.”

The fallout: The Rams were indeed able to hold the Cowboys to a field goal after the aborted play but the repercussions of the mistake were felt well into the second half. Instead of keeping a drive alive and adding either another field goal or a touchdown before the half, Dallas got a 29-yard field goal to cut the Rams' lead to 21-10. The swing of six or possibly 10 points was a big one and the Cowboys continued their surge by opening the second half with a 68-yard touchdown pass to Dez Bryant to continue cutting the Rams' lead. Bryant's touchdown catch and a few other plays could easily have been this week's turning point play, but the turnover on the snap was the first domino to fall as the Cowboys surged back to steal the victory.

 

[mr.stlouis]

Yeah, we were on the 50 and moving, too. It was a tremendous turn in the game. My gosh...

 

[raised_fisT]

Lots of turning point type plays in this one. Coulda, shoulda, woulda... But learn from it and build off it is the only thing to do.

 

[RamzFanz]

Damn, I was hoping it was a Davis mistake. Not that the result is any better, but I could forgive that much more easily.

Can a center keep the ball and fall down?

 

[CodeMonkey]

This sort of comment really bothers me from a head coach:

coach Jeff Fisher said. "That’s pretty much all on Scott."

I may be old school but imo a coach should never, ever throw a player under the bus like this. Everybody knows who messed up. He doesnt need to do that. The appropriate response is something like, "I take responsibility for not getting the players prepared.". I always hated when Martz used to call players out by name in his pressers. To me (and it may be just me) thats just not the way to be a leader. If you want to yell at the players in the locker room that's one thing but a coach shouldn't ever call a player out like that in public statement.

 

[iced]

This sort of comment really bothers me from a head coach:

I may be old school but imo a coach should never, ever throw a player under the bus like this. Everybody knows who messed up. He doesnt need to do that. The appropriate response is something like, "I take responsibility for not getting the players prepared.". I always hated when Martz used to call players out by name in his pressers. To me (and it may be just me) thats just not the way to be a leader. If you want to yell at the players in the locker room that's one thing but a coach shouldn't ever call a player out like that in public statement.

I disagree - especially since Wells is a salty vet with a big contract..You treat men like men if you want them to respond

 

[Barrison]

This sort of comment really bothers me from a head coach:

I may be old school but imo a coach should never, ever throw a player under the bus like this. Everybody knows who messed up. He doesnt need to do that. The appropriate response is something like, "I take responsibility for not getting the players prepared.". I always hated when Martz used to call players out by name in his pressers. To me (and it may be just me) thats just not the way to be a leader. If you want to yell at the players in the locker room that's one thing but a coach shouldn't ever call a player out like that in public statement.

I agree but when that happens it's kinda common sense who's fault it is and I probably would have done the same. Can't do that when they wanted you to start because of your experience, we could have Barnes in there if we wanted someone to make stupid mental mistakes. JUST DO YOUR JOB AND BEAT THE MAN IN FRONT OF YOU!

 

[CodeMonkey]

I disagree - especially since Wells is a salty vet with a big contract..You treat men like men if you want them to respond

Oh you skin his ass good when it’s just the guys. My problem is airing the dirty laundry in public. Everybody knows who screwed up. A HC calling out players by name like that just always strikes me as poor form. I’m sort of a “buck stops here” guy. It’s his place, in my opinion, to step up and take responsibility if blame must be placed then go back to said player after and kindly tell him that you had to just take a bullet for his ass out there and that you don’t much like doing that so he better damn well quit screwing up… And, drop and give me 20! It’s a style thing I guess. Like I said, Martz used to do this a lot, and that always bothered me.

 

[Blue and Gold]

That was only one play. The botched 4th and 1. The 44 yard bust-out by Murray, the pick 6 by Davis after Harkey let his guy hit Davis and Davis made mistake of throwing over middle (again gunslinger). The McCloud misread . . . he had a hadful of "supernegatives" and we had 2-3 "super postives" the pick 6 of our own, and the 51 yarder to Quick.

 

[theramsruleUK]

Well it's pretty simple. It was either wells at fault or Davies.

Fisher doesn't have a choice hear really, I guess he could just say it was a mid communication between the C and the QB, but why put any unnecessary blame on a rookie QB when he wasn't to blame at all

 

[bomebadeeda]

I think there's more to Fisher basically calling a couple out. It is true he rarely does this.....but this time for some reason it happened. There is a back story to this and I wonder if we will hear about it or the repurcussions in the next few days. (or in the lineup come next game....). It really was a turning point as so many decisions people have questioned that come after this play would have played out so differently. 4th and inches would not been attempted. The pick 6 that Davis threw....wouldn't have happened......the drop that Cook had.....might not have happened. This was the most important play of the game.

 

[MTRamsFan]

Damn, I was hoping it was a Davis mistake. Not that the result is any better, but I could forgive that much more easily.

Can a center keep the ball and fall down?

I think he can, but they may call him for a false snap which is essentially a false start. He did snap the ball and held it for a second or two before dropping it, with one guy running across the formation and Austin was moving in the backfield calling out some adjustment/snap count. It makes makes one wonder why there wasn't a false start because two guys in motion. Anyway, this should never happen. How the heck could Wells not know Austin's hands were not there "tickling" his butt.

 

[Selassie I]

That play was the absolute worst part of the entire game for me. I still can't believe I saw that happen to Wells in a Home game... mind boggling for me.

 

[A.J. Hicks]

Is it even worse if I point out that this play is coming out of a timeout? At least we didn't see Wells pushing Davis as if it was his fault (Cook).

 

[Athos]

Second it has happened to Wells in as many games. Deserved getting called out for it, as getting called out internally clearly didn't work the first time.

Dare I say we've gone "one too many times to the well(s)?"

 

[thirteen28]

That play was the absolute worst part of the entire game for me. I still can't believe I saw that happen to Wells in a Home game... mind boggling for me.

From a veteran no less. That's not something you can chalk up to the Rams being a young team.

 

[iced]

Oh you skin his ass good when it’s just the guys. My problem is airing the dirty laundry in public. Everybody knows who screwed up. A HC calling out players by name like that just always strikes me as poor form. I’m sort of a “buck stops here” guy. It’s his place, in my opinion, to step up and take responsibility if blame must be placed then go back to said player after and kindly tell him that you had to just take a bullet for his ass out there and that you don’t much like doing that so he better damn well quit screwing up… And, drop and give me 20! It’s a style thing I guess. Like I said, Martz used to do this a lot, and that always bothered me.

I disagree - and whats your excuse gonna be to the media? I mean flat out there is no one else you can blame but the center...Also don't forget - this is not just "a ball snapper" - he also calls the protections..Big time bone headed play and there's no one to blame but wells for that - and i have no problem calling out the old vet on it..Wells knows it, fisher knows it, hell the whole world and locker room knows it - so again i don't have a problem with it.

 

[CodeMonkey]

I disagree - and whats your excuse gonna be to the media? I mean flat out there is no one else you can blame but the center...Also don't forget - this is not just "a ball snapper" - he also calls the protections..Big time bone headed play and there's no one to blame but wells for that - and i have no problem calling out the old vet on it..Wells knows it, fisher knows it, hell the whole world and locker room knows it - so again i don't have a problem with it.

Hey, we can disagree. That's OK. As I said, its really a question of style. My answer to your question is in my first post. Something like "I should have prepared the player better." I'm an "uphill flow" kind of guy. When someone does something stupid, everybody knows who screwed up (hell the officials might even call your number out), its at least partly due to not being prepared after all. Isn't it? The stupid penalties indicate that we aren't prepared. That's on Fish (blaming subordinates such as the favorite whipping boy Shotty is pretty much the same IMO). The buck stops at Fisher. I think its even more impactfull/inspriational to a player when the boss takes a bullet so that you don't want to let him down next time vs dang I dont want to get thrown under the bus again because I know the boss doesnt have my back.