Why Was Jetro Pugh In the Gap?

[Boom_70]

We've all seen it hundreds of times - Bart Starr sneak in the ice bowl.

The question I keep wondering now is why did the Cowboys line up Pugh in A-gap instead of head up . It left Kramer with perfect angle and too much ground for Leroy Jordan to make up and fill B gap.

Know this won't be much of a thread but something I had to get off my chest.

 

[Montezuma's Revenge]

Why was Jethro Pugh in the Gap?

Because he has pedestrian taste in clothes?

Because he has fallen on hard times, and it's the only job he could get?

Sorry, that's all I've got.

 

[zeke12]

Because Jethro Tull was busy?

 

[dooley_womack1]

Because Jethro Bodine needed new courting and sparking clothes?

 

[zeke12]

Because the sign told Jethro to "Mind the Gap"?

 

[The Big Ragu]

It was a QB sneak with wedge blocking. That's pretty impossible to stop for only a yard, unless you are specifically trying to stop it. And even if you are, a good offensive line can often create the space for only a yard. In that situation, the sneak was a ballsy call. If they didn't make it, the clock would have run out and Dallas would have won. So Dallas had to stay equally ready for a run or pass. If Starr dropped back or rolled out the way he often did, he could either throw the winning TD or stop the clock with an incomplete pass and still have time to kick a field goal to send it into OT. Which means Dallas might have been thinking pass even before the run. Just to stay semi-alert for both, they probably didn't stray too far from their base 4-3, which I'm guessing had one tackle taking the B gap, the other tackle (Pugh) taking one A gap and the Mike (Jordan) taking the other A gap.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

I thought this was going to be a thread about one of the Beverly Hillbillies at the mall.

 

[suburbanite]

FWIW, NFL Films once showed that Kramer beat the snap count by a fraction of a second, which helped him to submarine Pugh and take his legs out from under him.

 

[Boom_70]

It was a QB sneak with wedge blocking. That's pretty impossible to stop for only a yard, unless you are specifically trying to stop it. And even if you are, a good offensive line can often create the space for only a yard. In that situation, the sneak was a ballsy call. If they didn't make it, the clock would have run out and Dallas would have won. So Dallas had to stay equally ready for a run or pass. If Starr dropped back or rolled out the way he often did, he could either throw the winning TD or stop the clock with an incomplete pass and still have time to kick a field goal to send it into OT. Which means Dallas might have been thinking pass even before the run. Just to stay semi-alert for both, they probably didn't stray too far from their base 4-3, which I'm guessing had one tackle taking the B gap, the other tackle (Pugh) taking one A gap and the Mike (Jordan) taking the other A gap.

Pugh gets all the blame but he was lined up in the a gap. All Kramer had to do was block down. Dallas DE - Willie Towns was lined head up on tackle ( Forrest Gregg and OLB Chuck Howley was outside of Townes .

Line up left B gap uncovered - exactly where Starr went.