Chapter 170 168: Tactical Wisdom
The entire Candlestick Park erupted!
The gloom and oppression of the first half vanished in an instant. Everyone was cheering and roaring with abandon. The consecutive successful long passes had dealt a heavy blow to the Cowboys' confidence and massively boosted the 49ers' morale. In that moment, it was as if they had already won the game, furiously venting all their pent-up frustration.
But on the field, the 49ers' offense wasn't celebrating, not even Logan, who had just made that spectacular play. They all gathered together again, listening to Lu Ke's tactical instructions.
"Vernon Davis is on the field!" Kirk exclaimed in the Fox Studio. "He's replacing wide receiver Kyle Williams! The 49ers are going to use a two-tight-end formation!"
Wide receivers are agile and light, while tight ends are powerful and heavy-hitting. Wide receivers run a variety of routes, whereas tight ends' routes are relatively simpler, often relying on brute force to get open. Generally, teams in the League prefer a "three wide receivers, one tight end" combination to increase the flexibility of the receiving corps and diversify the route tree.
Now, the San Francisco 49ers had sent out a two-tight-end formation. Could it be that they were preparing for a power-on-power showdown in the short and intermediate passing zones?
Vernon was full of questions.
The entire team knew that Vernon and Lu Ke didn't get along. Moreover, while running backs might be rotated in and out for different styles and wide receiver combinations were constantly changing, tight ends generally had a similar style. As a rule, the starting tight end, much like the starting quarterback, was not easily replaced.
On the first drive of the second half, at Lu Ke's strong insistence, the team had subbed Vernon out for Logan. And Logan had actually caught a touchdown pass, his form revitalized. At the time, Vernon had been on the sidelines, kicking over a water bottle to vent his frustration.
But now, why was Lu Ke demanding he go in? 'Isn't he worried I'll deliberately drop the ball, or miss the catch on purpose, and sabotage the team?'
He walked onto the field, his mind a swirl of doubts. As Vernon stood to the side, listening to the play call and mulling it over, he heard his name. "Vernon, are you sure you can catch the ball? If not, you and Logan can switch roles. I have no problem with that."
Lu Ke had assigned Vernon to be the receiver, not Logan. This wasn't a simple decision.
First, he needed all the team's offensive weapons to be active. Otherwise, if Logan got locked down, he'd be helpless. Second, Logan had already made two consecutive long catches, so the safeties were bound to tighten their coverage on him. Logan needed someone to draw their attention away. Third, Lu Ke didn't care if Vernon liked him. More than personal grudges, Lu Ke needed a win. Only a win!
In this play, with two tight ends, one would be used for blocking and one for receiving. Just as Lu Ke had said, if Vernon intended to cause trouble, he could simply have him block while Logan ran the route.
Vernon didn't have time to think it through. He just felt the disdainful gazes of all his teammates, as if they were questioning his "butterfingers" moment from the first half. It wasn't just an attack on his character, but on his ability. Before Logan, he had been the biggest star among the receivers! The angry words tumbled out of his mouth, "Fuck! If you can throw it, I can catch it!"
"Good!" Lu Ke replied crisply. Then, ignoring Vernon, he turned back to his teammates. "Any more questions? If not, game on!"
All of Vernon's complaints and curses were choked back in his throat as he got into formation, his mind racing. 'Is this a trap? What is that guy planning?'
'I have to take a leap of faith and try trusting Vernon this one time,' Lu Ke thought, ignoring Vernon's muttering. On the field, he had to trust his own teammates more than his Cowboys opponents. 'If it fails? Then it fails. It's just one down. I can afford that gamble!'
Lu Ke stood in the Pistol Formation. Although he and Jim Hubble had agreed that this would be another pass play—the running game wasn't working today and they needed surprise plays to gradually open things up—he still began to read the defense meticulously.
'Good. The Cowboys are scared. They've changed their defensive formation again.'
After halftime, the Cowboys' defense had completely collapsed. Aside from one sack, they couldn't get a single defensive stop. Meanwhile, the 49ers' offense was playing as if divinely inspired, scoring a touchdown in just four downs on their first drive and crossing midfield on the very first pass of their second.
Such prowess was truly terrifying.
More importantly, the Cowboys still hadn't figured out a solution. Their advantage in pass defense had completely evaporated, and now they had no idea what the opposing quarterback's tactical plan was. 'How can this be? The quarterback looks like two completely different people between the first and second half!'
After giving up that long pass for big yardage, the Cowboys changed their defensive formation.
In the secondary, two safeties covered the deep part of the field. The two cornerbacks were clearly playing off the line, positioned at the edge of the intermediate zone, ready to move up to help on short passes or drop back to defend long ones.
Up front, the defensive formation had changed to a 4-3. The biggest difference from the first half was that the defensive line now had four players to increase the pass rush, because they had to put pressure on the quarterback and not let him comfortably set up, execute the play, and complete the pass.
Lu Ke could spot the weakness in the short passing zone, sensing a golden opportunity.
"Set..." Lu Ke drew out the word, his pupils contracting slightly as he tracked the movements of the defensive players. He called out again, "Set..." A three-dimensional map of the entire field came alive in his mind, and then he barked, "Hike!"
Jonathan Goodwin snapped the ball. After Lu Ke received it with both hands, the entire offensive line surged forward, smashing head-on into the Dallas Cowboys' defensive line. BOOM! CRACK! The muffled impacts exploded like a string of firecrackers.
On the left, two wide receivers; on the right, two tight ends. They all broke off the line at the same time.
Interestingly, the two wide receivers ran identical routes, shaped like foxtail grass. They started with a dead sprint, pushing their 40-yard dash speed to the limit. At the seven-yard mark, Ted Ginn Jr. stopped first, mimicking the drooping head of a foxtail by curling back slightly in a small semicircle. Michael Crabtree continued forward to the fifteen-yard mark before copying Ginn, tracing the same pattern and curling back.
Even more interestingly, the two tight ends also ran identical routes, looking like a mirror image of the wide receivers. They sprinted forward, then stopped, turned, and curled back. Logan Newman was the first to stop, followed by Vernon Davis.
The spread-out routes of the four players, all with potent vertical threats, completely shattered the Dallas Cowboys' zone defense strategy. They were forced into man-to-man coverage, with the cornerback defending the first receiver to break, and the safety rushing up to cover the second.
Here was the twist: unconsciously, two linebackers were also drawn in the direction of Logan's route.
Because Logan stopped at around the five or six-yard mark, almost directly behind the linebackers, the seemingly empty short-pass area was actually heavily guarded. But in turn, this left only five of the Cowboys' seven men on the line, and their pass rush instantly softened.
"Arm up, pass... Newman is open! Oh, not Newman, it's Davis! Vernon Davis!"
Troy shouted, he could practically feel the panic among the Dallas Cowboys players on the field. With all four receivers in one-on-one coverage, they all had a certain amount of space to make a catch. And Lu Ke had chosen the right side, but not his old reliable partner Logan Newman—he went to Vernon Davis, the man who caused an interception in the first half.
"The Cowboys' defense is in disarray! The 49ers' offensive line is holding strong, watertight! The pocket protection is solid, giving Lu Ke enough time to survey and pass, but Lu Ke's release is incredibly fast! It's a... a twenty-yard pass, wow! Twenty yards, Lu Ke makes another bold twenty-yard pass! Vernon Davis has the catch! Davis turns and starts running with the ball!"
Not a short pass, but a deep one!
Troy had wanted to check Lu Ke's release time, but there was no time for that—Vernon Davis was already breaking away.
"Now the only one left on this side of the Cowboys' backfield is Danny McCray. It's Danny McCray again! Davis accelerates, then accelerates again, a sharp stop and turn, a beautiful spin! Whoa, a spin move juke, McCray misses the tackle! He couldn't stop Davis's run! Twenty yards, fifteen... no one can catch him! The Cowboys' defense has completely lost its balance. The closest player is a full twenty-five yards away, he can't catch up... Ten yards, five, Davis is even slowing down, but he still scores the touchdown with ease! Touchdown!"
After finishing his call, Troy paused, blinked, and only then did it register: the San Francisco 49ers had scored another touchdown? Since the start of the second half, the offense had been on the field twice and scored two touchdowns. Such efficiency was absolutely unheard of!
A series of gasps erupted in the Fox Studio, but the voices of Kirk and Teddy seemed insignificant, because the entire Candlestick Park had exploded. All the fans—all the home fans—were on their feet, jumping and screaming. The tsunami of sound shook the stadium, making even the whistling wind seem trivial.
"Two offensive plays, two passes, a one-hundred percent completion rate, one for thirty yards, one for twenty, touchdown, complete!" Kirk exclaimed into the microphone. At this moment, any other words seemed too pale. Simply listing the stats was enough to convey the shock and amazement.
The touchdown came too quickly, too easily. It was as if they had just taken a leisurely stroll. A total of six offensive downs—four passes, one run, and one sack—and they had scored two touchdowns. More importantly, they had wasted almost no time. The speed and efficiency of the offense were simply terrifying!