ASU Football: A Closer Look at the “Jael Mary”

Saturday night’s theatrics in LA will be talked about by ASU fans for a long time.  The “Jael Mary” play at the end of regulation propelled ASU to a much needed victory.  Let’s look at how it happened.

A typical Hail Mary play is a well rehearsed play by the offense.  It usually involves the tallest receiver posting himself about 3 yards in the end zone.  Other receivers will act as “hangback” receivers.  They will surround the tall, posted receiver waiting for a possible tipped ball.

To defend this play, the defense will only use 3 men to rush the quarterback.  They may leave one linebacker to spy that quarterback in case he tucks it and runs.  That leaves 7 defensive backs to protect the end zone.  Defensively, this play is practiced as well.  The defense will usually put their tallest DB’s in the end zone while corners will cover the individual receivers.  The defenders are taught to “high point” the ball, which obviously means to go up and meet the ball at the highest point that they can.  They are coached to knock the ball down, if not secure it by catching it.

That’s what USC was supposed to do.

After watching the play several times and listening to the coaches from both sides talk about the play, it looks as if USC may have been a little confused on that last play.  They may have assumed that ASU was going to try to throw one more pass towards the sideline in 5 seconds to set up a last second field goal.  They didn’t have their prevent defense set up.  When it became apparent that ASU quarterback Mike Bercovici was throwing deep, the USC defense had to scramble to get set up.

It looked like they were in position.  USC defenders were deep.  Linebacker Hayes Pullard was in perfect position to catch that ball.  But instead of high pointing it, he sat back and waited for it like he was fielding a punt.  That was a huge mistake.  That difference of about ten feet allowed ASU’s Jaelon Strong to step in front of Pullard and snatch the ball high and walk into the end zone.

No doubt that effort will haunt Pullard and the entire USC program.

Credit ASU for executing their Hail Mary properly.  They did their job and they earned the victory.  Now the Sun Devils can enjoy that victory for another day or so, and it’s on to Stanford.