But why do teams decide to run this play instead of one of the many others they use to score touchdowns throughout the game? Below are a few reasons why Hail Marys are the play of choice when desperate. We know a hail mary is a desperation play. This makes it very difficult to pull one off successfully. NFL defences have specific plays and personnel ready to defend against hail marys whenever they arise. When a hail mary occurs there is no question of what play is coming. This is an incredibly low number but is fairly expected due to the desperation of the play. Since hail marys have become commonplace in the NFL only roughly nine percent of Hail Mary’s have worked successfully in the NFL. This goes to show that the majority of Hail Mary’s come out of desperation. The fact that the average hail mary travels of 44 goes to show that most teams are not in field goal range. Keep in mind the passing yardage in the examples above considers the total yardage the ball travelled not the distance from the line of scrimmage. The average hail mary distance since 2009 has been 44.7 yards past the line of scrimmage. A last-second pass was thrown to receiver Drew Pearson.Īfter the game when Staubach was interviewed about the pass he said “I closed my eyes and said a Hail Mary.” This sentence coined the term and established the first use of this term in football history. The pass was thrown by hall of fame quarterback Roger Staubach. The first Hail Mary pass ever thrown was on December 28, 1975.
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