Say Your Prayers For The Hail Mary Pass

Originally called Alley Oop, a desperate forward pass done near the end of a football game is called a Hail Mary Pass. During a wildcard play-off game in 1975, the Dallas Cowboys, led by quarterback Roger Staubach needed a last-minute touchdown in order to win the game. Since there were only 24 seconds on the clock left enough only for a single play, Staubach decided to send all his receivers downfield to catch his long and arcing throw. Drew Pearson, who was one of the receivers, caught the ball and made a touchdown. After the game, the quarterback said in a press conference that out of his desperation, he threw the ball as hard as he could and whispered a Hail Mary. The mainstream media embraced the new term and since then, any pass made out of desperation demonstrated during the final moments of a football game is called a Hail Mary Pass.Usually, this pass is opted when there are still too many yards left to cover but there is too little time left or there are no other means to make the game clock stop. During these conditions, this pass is the best and oftentimes the only option. During this play, the offensive team will require as much as 5 eligible receivers who would try to run down the field as fast as they can. Other teammates such as running backs will try to rush towards the quarterback to protect him. Since the Quarterback doesn't have much time to choose which receiver to target, he will make a long shot such that the receiver will have enough time to cover as much distance as he can when he catches the ball. As the name would suggest, this pass only has a very slight chance of making a touchdown because there are several factors that could affect the outcome of each pass. More often than not, players only have very little time to actually prepare and execute the play of this pass. Also, the team who's playing the defense usually expects that the other team would attempt to earn more points at the end of the game so any window of opportunity is instantly avoided. The defense of this pass is oftentimes easy to execute. The main objective here is to keep a strong defensive block behind the receivers. Once the ball is received, the defense players will try to tackle the ball carrier or knock the ball from him.While the pass has a low chance of success, this can be improved by the offense team by breaking through the defense of the opponent or making their defense weak.
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