Trickeration at Lambeau Field!

The Detroit Lions entered their season finale at Green Bay with a 5-10 record.  They throttled the usually home-dependable Packers, 31-0.  The Packers knew they wouldn't make the playoff, so there must have been no incentive for them to play well.  A little trickeration early in the second quarter helped the Lions secure victory.  Hey, why not?  When you're 5-10 and your season ends today, why not pull out all the tricks?  The Lions faced 4th & 3 at the Green Bay 8-yard line with 10:42 to go in the second quarter.  Sam Martin (#6) was set to receive the snap at the Packers 16-yard line from long snapper Don Muhlbach (#48).  Matt Prater (#5), the Lions kicker, who happens to hold the NFL record for the longest field goal (64 yards), was ready for a chip shot.  Check out the starting formation (click on image for a larger view).

Count the number of Lions players you see in the above image.  You see only 10, right?  That's because tight end Levine Toilolo (#87) was lined up on the far left side of the Lions formation (right side in the above image).  You can't even see him in the above view!  Now count the number of Packers players you see in the above image.  You see all 11, right?  On the far right is rookie cornerback Josh Jackson (#37).  Toilolo was all alone, and the situation was ripe for a trick play.

Muhlbach snapped the ball directly to Prater.  Toilolo was headed toward the end zone and Prater showed off his quarterback abilities (click on image for a larger view).

You can see Jackson at the bottom right of the above image heading toward Toilolo (not seen in the image).  The throw was right on the money and Toilolo caught the ball at face level (click on image for a larger view).

The ball left Prater's hand at 40.7 mph at a lofty angle of 35.2 degrees above the horizontal.  The ball's flight time was 2.1 s, and it landed in Toilolo's hands while moving at 37.5 mph.  Because of the relatively low throw speed, the ball's initial air resistance force was only about 11% of the ball's weight.  Despite being credited with an 8-yard touchdown pass, Prater's ball traveled a bit more than 32 yards in the air.  Remember than an American football field is 53 1/3 yards wide.  Instead of the 500 pounds of average force he needed for his record field-goal kick (and nearly a ton instantaneous force!), Prater needed only an average force of nearly 17 pounds to accelerate the ball from behind his head to its release point.  The trajectory of Prater's pass is shown below (click on image for a larger view).

One thing I love about Prater's pass is that he threw the ball without using the laces.  Kickers love to kick the ball with "laces out".  Matt Prater must like to throw the ball with "laces out."  Check out the image below (click on image for a larger view).

See the laces on the opposite side of Prater's hand?  The ball rotated between 16 and 17 times on its way to Toilolo.  That meant the ball had an average rotation rate of about 470 rpm, which is less than the roughly 600 rpm quarterbacks make on hard throws.  Prater's throw's rotation rate gives a frequency of about 7.85 Hz, which is nearly 8 times that frequency of a resting person's heartbeat.

It was fun talking about this play on TuneIn's 1st & Goal Check Down segment.  Chuck Nice of Playing with Science was scheduled to appear with me on the show, but I ended up flying solo on the segment.  Click here for the audio of the segment.