ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Just last month, Joe DeCamillis, the Denver Broncos’ special teams coach, vehemently defended the NFL rule that allows players to leap over the snapper to block a field goal or extra-point attempt so long as any contact is incidental.
DeCamillis shared his thoughts after Arizona Coach Bruce Arians complained about Seattle linebacker Bobby Wagner’s leaping block of a 39-yard field-goal attempt in a frustrating 6-6 tie.
“The reason that is a prevalent play in my opinion is because of what they’ve done to field goals as far as your restrictions in trying to block things,” DeCamillis said.
“The way people are doing it now, they bury their heads and they cut block you so you can’t go through them. The only way to get a field goal blocked, against certain teams, is to go over top.”
He begged the league’s gatekeepers to keep this particular gate open and not to succumb to the notion that it’s an unsafe play.
“In my opinion, I think it would be a mistake to take that play out,” DeCamillis said. “I think you have to play it on the other side. I think the more you make things easy on people, the less coaching is involved.”
The antidote, he said, was the same mantra coaches tell kids from the time they first strap on shoulder pads and a helmet: “Heads up!”
The snapper has “to see what’s happening,” DeCamillis said, adding teams have to vary their snap count to keep opponents from timing their leap just right.
“There’s things you have to do, in my opinion, for that to not happen to you,” DeCamillis said. “I just think it’s another thing that doesn’t need to be taken out of the game. I don’t see that’s any bigger of a deal with safety than any other play that’s going on, a receiver going across the middle, whatever it is.”
The Broncos (7-3) pulled off the perfect block Sunday when the Saints lined up for the potential go-ahead extra point. New Orleans (4-5) had just tied the game at 23 on Drew Brees’ 32-yard TD toss to Brandon Cooks with 1:22 remaining.
Justin Simmons timed his leap perfectly, cleared seventh-year long snapper Justin Dresher and blocked Wil Lutz’s kick. Fellow rookie safety Will “White Shoes” Parks scooped up the football and raced 84 yards for the first winning defensive 2-point conversion in NFL history.
“I’m just glad he had the right cleats on,” safety Darrian Stewart said. “I think that’s what saved us.”
The play was upheld because officials couldn’t determine whether Parks stepped out of bounds as his white cleats blended in with the white sideline and no CBS angles were available to prove otherwise.
Twitter blew up with fans wondering if Parks had gone out of bounds or whether it was even legal for Simmons to leap the snapper or for defensive lineman Jared Crick to push the snapper toward the ground just as Simmons jumped over him.
Dean Blandino, the NFL’s senior vice president of officiating, said it was all legal.
Blandino explained that Simmons cleared the line without using his hands or arms and didn’t land on a player, “so his action is legal.”
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