Cincinnati Bengals: Comparing Huber’s To Other Great Fakeouts

Ryan’s Fun Run Takes A Bad Turn

Seattle’s Jon Ryan has made a habit of being involved with a bunch of different fakes over the years. In terms of sheer number of opportunities, few (if any) current players come close to being involved in these sort of plays.

Many — such as his fake field goal TD toss against Green Bay in the 2014 NFC Championship game — have been game-changing in the best possible way at the best possible time.

Even for someone as involved in these sort of plays however, not all of these plays go exactly to plan.

What Makes It Great

• Ryan takes off quickly, making it about 40 yards down the field before anything goes wrong.
• The blocking kept the opposition completely away from him for the vast majority of his run
• The element of surprise was definitely in play; a 21-point lead with about five minutes remaining is not when you would really expect a fake punt

What Holds It Back

• Despite not getting touched until the very end, Ryan ends up fumbling the ball away; in fact, his fumbling of his handle on the ball — caused by him trying to switch arms with it — is what ends up getting him hit in the first place
• The aforementioned fumble causes Ryan to end up getting hit with zero chance to protect himself, and results in him becoming concussed in a scary instant.
• Seattle does end up keeping the ball, but if fumble luck had gone the other way the Rams would’ve had decent field position near midfield.
• Due to the score and time remaining, no matter how this play went it likely would’ve had little effect on the end result.

Final Verdict: 1/10

This had a chance to be a great play had Ryan just gone down regularly.

Because he fumbled — and subsequently set himself up for his own injury — due exclusively to his own mishandling of the ball though, it damages the result despite the team eventually holding onto the ball for a major gain on the play.