San Francisco 49ers @ New Orleans Saints
SF 10, NO 7
Season 1977 · Week 9 · Nov 13, 1977
Louisiana Superdome — New Orleans, LA
I've watched this footage over and over again, and I am no closer to understanding what the intention of this play design was - it truly is a sight to behold. In a 7-7 4th quarter tie with less than 2 minutes to play, the Saints break the huddle and align in an exotic split alignment with the center (note - the Saints were using a longsnapper/specialist for punting, but not for field goals at this time) and 2 other linemen to the right and 5 linemen to the left and a back behind the left flank. Meanwhile, punter/holder Tom Blanchard and tragic protagonist of this weird play, Rich Szaro, are lined up behind the ball and to the left in a shockingly normal alignment for a right-footed kicker - which Szaro was not. Szaro was impressively ambidextrous for a naturally left-footed kicker, so given the chaos at the line, we'll call this normal. Then the Saints shifted into a truly vanilla field goal alignment. The architect of this play thought it'd be clever to show a right-footed attempt (for the shock value) then flip to Szaro's natural left-footed alignment. Being a kicker in the NFL is hard. Being an ambidextrous kicker at a professional level is an incredible feat that deserves to be commended. Being asked to invert your pre-play calculus in the span of about 6 seconds is an impossible ask that leads to a very predictable outcome.