I just do not see how this was such an amazing play call. In fact, my guess is that a bomb to Miller wasn't even the call. I think the purpose of Miller's route was to clear out an underneath sideline route, but the Packers blew the coverage.VikingLord wrote: ↑Thu Jan 28, 2021 11:01 am Despite what you're saying, I still can't see either Zimmer or Cousins doing what Arians and Brady did in that situation. Not in a meaningless late season game between bottom feeders, but in high-stakes championship game with a Superbowl appearance on the line.
Let's run it back.
The Bucs had 8 seconds left. They were on the 40, so effectively out of FG range, but close enough to FG range that they could get there with one more completion. They had no timeouts. It's very likely that Miller's job was to run a go route and clear the zone, with a receiver working to the sideline behind him. But Green Bay got greedy. They were in Cover 3, selling out to stop the sideline routes. They wanted to prevent TB from even getting 3 points. Brady came to the line and was probably surprised to see that he had Miller singled up, with no safety help to that side. Brady immediately knew that if Miller could get a good release, there was a great chance to hit him deep. At the snap, reading deep to shallow, Brady saw that Miller had a step, so he let it fly. Definitely give credit to Brady for making the read and for making a pinpoint throw downfield. But I don't think that was the call.
I'd bet my house that if you put the Vikings in that situation, they would have dialed up a similar play. And I'd further bet that if Kirk Cousins saw the same coverage Brady saw, he would have made the same read Brady did.
The difference is whether Cousins actually would have made the throw ... which to comes down to coaching and philosophy.
Bruce Arians encourages his QBs to take the deep shot if it's there. Doesn't matter the situation. Brady has the freedom to take a shot without fear of retribution if it fails. Arians would rather take a shot at the big score and get nothing than play it safe and get 3.
Zimmer, on the other hand, is a completely different animal. He's gonna be absolutely furious if his QB gambles there and fails. With the scary prospect of a maniacal, red-faced Zimmer screaming at him, Cousins probably would have opted for the safest throw possible.
Conversely, if you put Cousins in Arians' system, he probably would have made the same throw Brady did. Not saying he would have been successful. But I bet he'd make the throw.
This is what I mean when I say that Zimmer has coached the gunslinger out of Kirk Cousins. Zimmer hates gunslingers, even when gunslinging is the right thing to do.