What started as a weird game with eight players on each side was given more doses of bizarre when an offensive lineman and quarterback both caught receiving touchdowns.
On any given passing play, Dubai Barracudas guard Jordan Rodriguez is normally blocking for signal caller Zavier Cobb, but on separate occasions in the 30-0 win over the Al Ain Desert Foxes, each player did something out of the norm.
Rodriguez’s turn came first when Cobb found him open after rolling out of the play-action on a fourth-and-1 in the third quarter.
Try and stop this guy! @EAFL_UAE pic.twitter.com/wjMsTNA1ST
— James Piecowye (@jamesEd_me) January 29, 2016“I’m actually a wide receiver and a wildcard, but they just never put me in,” Rodriguez joked. “This time I talked to my quarterback and said ‘Z, help a brother out’ and he did.”
In reality, more went into that play as Barracudas coach Kyle Jordan revealed.
“That came out of a play from the first half. Because we’re playing eight-man ball, all of a sudden you have linemen eligible who aren’t normally eligible,” Jordan said.
“Zavier set that up in the first half because he saw something back there and he wanted Jordan to release, but Jordan didn’t hear it. They talked at halftime, the situation happened again and Jordan released and he dumped it to him.”
Cobb’s touchdown in the fourth quarter was, if nothing else, more elegant than the lumbering lineman as he flashed his athleticism on a slant by reeling in a five-yard pass from Milos Dimitrijevic.
Though his desire to use Cobb in different positions has been stifled by having fewer bodies than he originally anticipated, Jordan finally gave in yesterday to his lobbying quarterback.
“It’s something we wanted to do at the start of the season when we had more numbers,” Jordan said.
“We also had some defensive lineman lobbying to play quarterback, but that didn’t happen,” he added with a smile.
