"Whisenhunt up to old tricks"

[HoosierCat]

Whisenhunt up to old tricks: In the opening round of the 2005 playoffs, the Cincinnati Bengals cut Pittsburgh's lead to 21-17 late in the third quarter. That's when then-Steelers offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt dug into his bag of tricks.

Antwan Randle El took a handoff for an apparent sweep to the right end, but he stopped and threw the ball back to quarterback Ben Roethlisberger across the field. Roethlisberger then fired a second pass down the field to Cedrick Wilson for a 43-yard touchdown.

That broke Cincinnati's back, and the Steelers won, 31-17. They went on to capture their fifth Lombardi Trophy.

Now the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, Whisenhunt resurrected that play Sunday.

J.J. Arrington took a second-quarter handoff, swept right, then threw the ball back across the field to Warner. Warner then fired a second pass down the field to Larry Fitzgerald for a 62-yard touchdown.

"The key was to make sure we threw it up there and give Larry a chance to come down with it," Whisenhunt said.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...fs.31ca4bd.html

Figures...

[BengalszoneBilly]

If a plan works, I say stick with it!

[ArmyBengal]

What would really make that story tops, would be to see him use it against the Steelers to secure the Cardinals Super Bowl win !!!

[rwalling]

What would really make that story tops, would be to see him use it against the Steelers to secure the Cardinals Super Bowl win !!!

You know, I'm old enough to remember that the Flea Flicker (what old farts like me call this play) was a standard in the Bengals play book before Paul Brown died. Both Anderson and Esiason ran it quite effectively. Guess we're good enough we don't need to confuse the opposition, or we're not smart enough to run the d@mn play without screwing it up.

[BengalByTheBay]

If a plan works, I say stick with it!

I suppose there's some satisfaction to the notion that it doesn't JUST work against the Bengals. I doubt this is a play that you can go to again. Pitt's unlikely to fall for the old banana in the tailpipe again. It should cause some concern about the Card's ability to run the trick play though which I think is an underrated side-effect to such plays. I have often wished (especially the second half of this season when it was over already) that the Bengals would run a fake punt, fake FG, onside kick or trick play. This is one aspect of the game that ML's teams have NEVER used. The Bengals have been waaaayyy too conservative (and no, I don't count going for it on 4th down as a trick play) for my tastes under ML.