I heard the clip of Bo explaining the big play to Mims several times today. As a coach, I thought it might be helpful for the layman fan to have a breakdown on what Bo said.
Mug is how the defense lines up before the play. It means they are showing the QB a lot of pressure. They're threatening to blitz.
But they might:
- Blitz the quarterback.
- Drop back into pass coverage.
- Send one defender while another drops.
Palms is how the defense covers receivers after the play starts. It's a mix in coverage that tries to trick the quarterback into throwing where a defender is waiting.
Two defensive backs work together: a cornerback and a safety. Normally, the corner covers the outside receiver and the safety helps with the inside receiver. But in Palms, if the inside receiver runs a short route toward the sideline:
- The cornerback jumps down to cover that short route.
- The safety takes over the outside receiver running deep.
On the long pass to Marvin Mims:
- Arizona showed Mug, threatening to blitz.
- Bo anticipated that the defense might actually drop into Palms.
- The short outside route would attract the cornerback.
- That left Mims running deep against a safety who had to get across to cover him.
- Bo threw the ball before the safety could get there.
- He also identified Budda Baker's earlier disguise, in which Baker moved toward the middle before the defense settled into a two-high zone.
In plain English: Arizona tried to confuse Bo about who was rushing and who was covering. Bo figured out the trick and used Arizona's own coverage rules against them.
That's what makes the play impressive. He didn't just see Mims open. He understood why Mims was going to be open before he got there.
From a quarterback-coaching standpoint, this is a much more sophisticated play than simply finding an open receiver. Bo identified a likely coverage before the snap, understood the rules governing the defenders, and anticipated where the receiver would be open.
That's the difference between throwing to an open receiver and throwing a receiver open.
Thanks for listening.
