News: DC: Telling The Story Of The Watermelon Kick

[Reality]

Telling The Story Of The Watermelon Kick

It s one thing to see a zany onside kick pay off in a win. But listening to special teams coordinator John Fassel tell the origins of the Watermelon Kick makes the story even better.

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[conner01]

Telling The Story Of The Watermelon Kick

It s one thing to see a zany onside kick pay off in a win. But listening to special teams coordinator John Fassel tell the origins of the Watermelon Kick makes the story even better.

Read Full Story

It worked
That’s all that matters
But the emphasis on special teams will win us more games
And the fakes help the coverage because they take another second or two to drop back in coverage

 

[Redball Express]

I don't know about you guys..

but that play just froze it time for me.

It's right up there with the Leon Lett mistake of trying to recover the ball in the endzone against the Dolphins on Thanksgiving Day in the snow and giving the game to the Fins.

Or when Lett failed to cross the goal line for a TD in the first SB with Buffalo when Don Beebe caught him from behind and knocked the ball out of his hand as Lett was about to celebrate.

Victory snatched from the jaws of defeat.

When a ball is spinning that way like that was..it's reasonable to understand a player hesitating to try and stop it and not being ready..

If you try to stop it and fail..the ball goes live and it becomes you who goofed if it isn't recovered.

If you let it just roll out of bounds..penalty ensues and you take the ball there..

or let them kick over and incur the penalty.

I can understand how you might hesitate in the situation.

The media as usual wants to make the Falcons appear to be boobs. I just thought it was improbable and wacky.

We really did not deserve that victory.

What do you guys think after some thought?

 

[grgnfg420]

I can only assume they thought i thought when it was happening... there’s no way that ball is going ten yards. Then it kind of sped up in that last yard or two and they froze

 

[viman96]

We really did not deserve that victory.

Dallas 100% deserved the victory. Falcons choked when the Cowboys kept applying pressure.

 

[JayFord]

That whole game played out just like Buffalo in 2007

only thing different is I didnt hide behind my couch and then peeked out to see if Big Z kicked the FG to win it

 

[CapnB]

They pooped the bed... brain fert.... whatever you wanna call it. How none of them knew they get just jump on the ball at any point is beyond me. You would think at least ONE would have thought of it

 

[Reverend Conehead]

I was wondering if the Falcons thought they had to wait for it to go ten yards.

 

[CarolinaFathead]

Didn’t deserve it?

In my book, if you win you deserved it. Lots of games come down to events that luckily break positively for a team but at the end of the day the players have to produce and ours did. Luck is not as much of a factor as preparation, talent, and on the field production. We deserved it.

440-1 lol

 

[JayFord]

Can you imagine the media if Dallas had did what Atlanta did?

 

[Redball Express]

I can only assume they thought i thought when it was happening... there’s no way that ball is going ten yards. Then it kind of sped up in that last yard or two and they froze

Strangest play I ever saw.

When I saw the camera do the close up..

I just assumed we were waiting for the tee to be placed.

Then when the kicker spaced his foot next to the ball and kicked it from a standing position without a run up..

I just went..

"This is coming back plus a 10 yd. penalty for delay of game..."

And then time stopped.

That will be in football history forever.

 

[Cowboy4ever]

it was a unique situation. I doubt they didn't know the rules. I can't believe that at the pro level. I don't think the front row guys were expecting it, Their job is to block for the hands guy behind them and let them get the ball. So when it was just sitting their spinning, they froze and didn't know if they should risk going after it or not. My guess is that if someone tries that again, all those front row guys will pounce on it as soon as they can. It was the element of surprise at it's finest and the first ever kick like that. It just simply caught them completely off guard which caused them to freeze instead of react. It was brilliant, hate we had to waste it in the 2nd game of the season.

 

[Redball Express]

Can you imagine the media if Dallas had did what Atlanta did?

Stephen A Smith would die of..

"I told you they were an accident waiting to happen.You see that?"

 

[Redball Express]

it was a unique situation. I doubt they didn't know the rules. I can't believe that at the pro level. I don't think the front row guys were expecting it, Their job is to block for the hands guy behind them and let them get the ball. So when it was just sitting their spinning, they froze and didn't know if they should risk going after it or not. My guess is that if someone tries that again, all those front row guys will pounce on it as soon as they can. It was the element of surprise at it's finest and the first ever kick like that. It just simply caught them completely off guard which caused them to freeze instead of react. It was brilliant, hate we had to waste it in the 2nd game of the season.

Truly.

 

[catiii]

Zuerlein and Bones Fassel are strategic geniuses!! Our ST will kick arse this year.

 

[Future]

I wish people would stop acting like this is the first time this type of kick has happened.

 

[Cowboys22]

It will never work again so they better be working on something else or hope they never have to try and onside again. It was amazing and amusing but it’s not lost on me that the team can’t put a whole 60 minutes of solid football together on both offense and defense. If they could, they would have beat Atlanta by 24+ points. That is the frustrating part for those of us labeled haters. Yes, they can be explosive and Dak can be exceptional but they are those things about 25% of the time and I have to ask why? Why do they consistently do dumb things that kill drive after drive and waste possessions that lead to being in close games when they should be dominating a very mediocre team? It’s not all Dak. Many times it’s stupid play calls like a run up the middle on 2nd and 8 that gets stuffed for no gain creating a 3rd and long. There are just so many wasted possessions every game due to bad play calling, mental mistakes, penalties, drops, etc. with the players they have and these new coaches, it’s time to clean all that crap up and go play clean for 60 minutes and dominate with the talent they have on offense. They should be asking the defense for only 3 or 4 stops a game and easily out scoring the other team if they get them.

 

[Diehardblues]

Can you imagine the media if Dallas had did what Atlanta did?

Yea, the unbelievable reaction by the Falcons made me wonder if they weren’t familiar with the rules or intentionally throwing the game

 

[Redball Express]

Dallas 100% deserved the victory. Falcons choked when the Cowboys kept applying pressure.

It was not meant as a slur on us.

Of course we won on a sequence of improbable events.

Julio Jones dropping an easy catch for a TD..

and Atlanta dealing with their own ghosts of failures at the end of games.

I am happy with the win as all of us are.

 

[glimmerman]

I don't know about you guys..

but that play just froze it time for me.

It's right up there with the Leon Lett mistake of trying to recover the ball in the endzone against the Dolphins on Thanksgiving Day in the snow and giving the game to the Fins.

Or when Lett failed to cross the goal line for a TD in the first SB with Buffalo when Don Beebe caught him from behind and knocked the ball out of his hand as Lett was about to celebrate.

Victory snatched from the jaws of defeat.

When a ball is spinning that way like that was..it's reasonable to understand a player hesitating to try and stop it and not being ready..

If you try to stop it and fail..the ball goes live and it becomes you who goofed if it isn't recovered.

If you let it just roll out of bounds..penalty ensues and you take the ball there..

or let them kick over and incur the penalty.

I can understand how you might hesitate in the situation.

The media as usual wants to make the Falcons appear to be boobs. I just thought it was improbable and wacky.

We really did not deserve that victory.

What do you guys think after some thought?

I think the way the Offense played minus the 3 fumbles that we would have walked out of there with a victory. The mistakes spotted the falcons about 20 points. Eliminate the mistakes and we could have won straight up. The Offense even missing the 2 O-Linemen is getting it together. But that LB for the falcons I think punched all 3 of those balls out. The one on Shultz looked like he hit him in the helmet first and could have been a penalty. He ended up getting injured and left the game. We can’t afford to spot the seahags anything this week. Start quick and we have a shot. Hope our Defense can contain and pressure the QB. Maybe we get a turnover ourselves.