As previously covered last Sunday’s NFL games produced some pulsating finishes perhaps no more so than in New Orleans when The Oakland Raiders elected to try to win the game with a two-point conversion and turned down the safer option of kicking the extra point and taking the game into overtime.
The move ultimately worked for the Raiders and allowed Coach Jack Del Rio to poke fun at those who questioned his strategy.
To the victor goes the spoils. So with the help of the NFL Gamepass app lets take a closer look at why the Raiders two-point play was successful.
The Raiders tried to spread out the Saints goaline defense by lining up with two wide receivers either side of the formation and an empty backfield. Quarterback Derek Carr, then calls number 49 JAMIZE OLAWALE across the formation. Olawale is the Oakland fullback, who for his 4-year career has only 21 receptions. His purpose is to provide extra protection for Carr by acting like an extra blocker.
In an added wrinkle, Olawale fakes towards Carr as if he is going to run causing a Saints defender to come up and engage with him. This fake leaves Michael Crabtree at the bottom of the screen one on one with his defender and that’s were Carr elects to throw the ball at the isolated Crabtree for the game winning score.
Lost in the aftermath of the game and something I didn’t realize until looking back either is the Raiders actually converted another two-point play earlier in the game. What makes the winning score even more remarkable is that the earlier two-point ball was pretty much the exact same play as you can see for yourself.
The Raiders lined up with two wide receivers to one side of the formation again except the only difference is that this time they have a player in the backfield.
They once again fake to run only for Carr to go to the reciver isolated one on one with his defender this time Amari Cooper which results in the successful two-point conversation. One interesting thing to note that is that as you can see from the next picture Carr had a receiver completely open with no one covering him at all at the bottom of the screen and it would have been a much easier throw.
The Saints were caught out twice by the same play both times a New Orleans defender was covering no one when the score happened.
