Hail Mary Offensive Line Strategy

By the time we publish this Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals will already have played the Seahawks on Thursday Night. However we want to go back and look at a protection scheme from the final Hail Mary against the Bills.

It’s no secret that the young athletic quarterbacks in the NFL and college football are dangerous when they break the pocket. Sometimes they break the pocket on their own accord but other times it is manufactured.

If you have not seen the Hail Mary pass that Arizona completed to beat the Bills you are living under a rock somewhere. What you may not have seen is the protection scheme that the Cardinals used to get Murray to the edge.

The Cardinals wanted to get Murray out to his left. This would buy him time and also allow the receivers to get to the end zone. The left tackle over sets the contain defender and attempts to get him to bite inside.

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This almost works. The left guard gives the center a little help before peeling around to the throw side. Once again, all of this is designed to get a smaller quarterback out on the edge to find a launch point.

Let’s go back and look at this play again but this time instead of focusing entirely on the incredible throw and catch, let’s watch the protection. The Bills played it pretty well but obviously not well enough. This is a protection scheme that you can use if you are in this same situation!