Play 10
Situation: 3rd and 3 at HST 49
Description: Q3 - (7:10) (Shotgun) T.Savage FUMBLES (Aborted) at HST 44 and recovers at HST 43. T.Savage to HST 43 for no gain (B.Werner).
Savage mishandles the snap, but quickly recovers it. Not that it would have mattered much as the outside linebacker came in completely unblocked and would have had an easy sack.
Play 11
Situation: 2nd and 9 at HST 23
Description: Q3 - (1:48) (Shotgun) T.Savage pass deep left to D.Posey pushed ob at IND 47 for 30 yards (V.Davis).
DeVier Posey beats his man (Vernon Davis) with a quick chop step and cut out and up. Notice how the safeties are lined up on this play. They have one deep on Hopkin’s side of the field to prevent his deep threat ability, while allowing Vontae Davis to cover the 3rd string outside receiver Posey one-on-one with no over the top help.
The shallow safety picks up Damaris Johnson who’s running the out route. Savage recognizes this and sees Posey has a one-on-one and an opening on the sideline. The deep safety has no way of getting in to break up the pass so it’s all on Davis who loses a step to Posey and is unable to get to the ball in time. This is great recognition by Savage and an absolutely perfect throw. He did just about everything right on this play.
My one complaint, is the throwing motion that Savage uses on this play. He throws off his back foot with a bit of an open stance to where he’s aiming. It’s almost like he squared up with where he wanted to place the ball. His follow thru also looked very odd like he didn’t mean to throw it the way he did. Unlike most of his other throws, this was a complete arm throw by Savage. He’s also falling away from his throw instead of stepping into it. I’m not sure what happened on this play because he never does this throwing motion again for the rest of the game, and only makes a couple more arm throws in the entire game. Regardless, the throw was still perfectly placed which just makes this play even more unusual.
Play 12
Situation: 1st and 10 at IND 34
Description: Q3 - (:10) (Shotgun) T.Savage pass short middle to A.Foster to IND 31 for 3 yards (J.Freeman).
Technically this is a pass, but this play is really just a handoff to Foster.
Play 13
Situation: 1st and 10 at HST 14
Description: Q4 - (12:22) (Shotgun) T.Savage pass incomplete short right to A.Foster. PENALTY on IND-G.Toler, Defensive Holding, 5 yards, enforced at HST 14 - No Play.
Savage pumps once and throws for Foster on the sideline. Lots of good things from Savage on this play. He’s light on his feet and almost dancing in the pocket. Savage alternates his feet which allows him to quickly set and throw. Savage also stands in the pocket with a rusher coming straight for him and delivers a throw right to Foster that is only dropped because of the hit.
Play 14
Situation: 2nd and 13 at HST 16
Description: Q4 - (11:20) (Shotgun) T.Savage pass incomplete to D.Hopkins. PENALTY on IND-A.Studebaker, Defensive Offside, 5 yards, enforced at HST 16 - No Play.
Savage does a nice pump fake and quickly progresses to his second read and throws up a ball for Hopkins, but the throw sails on him (which doesn’t happen very often) and winds up out of bounds. Also notable on this play is how Savage once again stands in the pocket composed and in control even though three of his linemen are being pushed into him. I have a feeling Savage also saw the offside and decided to take a shot because Johnson hadn’t even gone into his break yet when Savage moved on from him.
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