Denver Broncos wide receiver Wes Welker was definitely picking New England cornerback Aquib Talib on the crossing route, when Demaryius Thomas dropped Peyton Manning’s throw. Welker’s assignment on the play was to get in Talib’s way as he crossed the field in pursuit of Thomas.
Normally, the pick is executed up high, with the picking receiver bumping into the defender who is covering his teammate. Even if the defender simply tries to avoid the picking receiver that’s usually enough to get the targeted wide receiver open. Welker wasn’t willing to give up his body by running into the much bigger Talib. He did a cowardly thing, by going low.
I don’t think Welker went into the play thinking of going low on Talib. He was thinking of simply getting in his way, but saw how big Talib was and how fast he was running and decided to be a coward and go low.
This is okay when an offensive lineman is bearing down on a defensive back. The defensive back will cut him rather than take him on. That’s fine because the offensive lineman can see the defensive back. You don’t that when a guy can’t see you, it’s cowardly and dirty play.
One of the rules that’s enforced by players throughout the league is that you don’t cut players who aren’t looking at you. Talib had his eyes on the guy he was chasing, Thomas. Here you have Welker going low on him out of nowhere. Many of the guys who were asked about it after the game and a day after the game, haven’t had enough time to see the replay and think about it, plus they don’t want to get caught up in a controversy.
This was also a major turning point in the game.
With Talib sidelined, Thomas torched the Patriots. Some coaches could have decided to retaliate by sending one of their wide outs out there to do the same thing to the Broncos defensive backs, but Bill Belichick didn’t do it. He waited until the day after the game and went after Welker verbally.
This is a play which the league cannot tolerate. Pick plays are run all the time, but the thought of going low on a defender, who isn’t looking at you is no different than hitting a defenseless receiver. It’s no different that cutting a player anywhere on the field that can’t see you.
I don’t think it was intentional, but it was cowardly. I’ll bet you if you asked Welker about it without a camera and microphone in his face, he would tell you he shouldn’t have gone low. He’s been a stand up guy throughout his career, but in this case, he let himself down.
The league must fine Welker for that play, or they’re opening a can of worms.
he should be suspended for the super bowl. bull shit play. completely changed the game.
Was a cheap move by Welker. Not impressed.
Used to be all the point of emphasis was on low shots – especially at the knees – this coming after guys like our own Andre Waters, Bo Orlando and the like were making a living torpedoing themselves at guy’s knees.
That behaviour eventually stopped, but was replaced by the torpedoing at the head. Consequently (and for other financial and public image reasons) the league’s point of interest is now the head (and rightly so I think). WIll we now see players diving low?
I will be interested to see if Welker is fined or not….if it isn’t, you might see a lot more similar low shots in the future…..both from offensive and defensive players.
No fine. NFL says the play was legal.
Oh please – you folks need to look at the video. The pictures on the site give a slanted view. Watch the video – period. Watch the video he hit him high, and after the initial hit went to the ground. Talib is an all-pro … he knew what was coming as he went across the middle – he chose to try and run through it and not around it. “Cowardly” …. that’s completely unfair. And, in case you didn’t watch the whole game – Edleman did it too. Oh by the way, the Eagles do it as part of their offense too.
he shouldnt have hit him anywhere. its a dirtbag play and welker went out of his way to make contact.
yes. birds do it all the time. Picks are part of the game. Some of these cats wouldn’t know that though.
It’s called a pick- should have flagged for it but its not a dirty play. Thats like saying holding is a dirty play if someone gets hurt on it. Or better yet….. a db gets hurt on a push off. Picks happen on many many plays. Dirty? no. Give me a break guys. The guy is 1/2 his size and they would never send him out there to take out a guy this big. No fine coming.. well… now that the Pats are crying so much you may see something small but I doubt it.
**Eagles News**
Bill Musgrave has been hired as the Eagles new QB coach, according to my source..
My source told me that at 1:39. My source is not a secret it was pro football talk…
Many can recall that Musgrave worked for the Eagles back in 98′ as the QB coach. Hes now 46 yrs old..
G.Cobb scraping the bottom of the barrel: I’ve seen good portions of maybe 4-5 NE games this year and Talib went off due to injury in 2 of those games.
While Talib is a good player his injury had very little effect on the final outcome.
The pick play is a main staple of the Eagles offense. We began running it frequently when early in the year our receivers were failing to get open with any consistency. Kelly made two major moves to start getting receivers open…1. Putting DJax in motion and running him out of the back field more frequently..2. running numerous pick plays from various formations.
The results were receivers running wide open frequently!
yeah that and the QB read the progressions instead of looking at one receiver and then taking off! all that went into the receivers being open!
Didn’t see Vick doing much of that Cigar so I don’t know what you mean by that.