Coach Moorhead has kept opponents on their toes with trick plays this season. Sam Joseph/ The Ram

By Max Prinz

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In his postgame press conferences immediately following each game, head coach Joe Moorhead has stressed the importance of a good week’s practice. Coach Moorhead has said, time and again, that if the team takes care of business during the week, good things will happen on Saturday.

There is, however, one area where Moorhead’s Rams try to get a little creative: two-point conversion trick plays.

“We’re trying to utilize the element of surprise,” Moorhead said. “We have some fun with it, we try to be creative and when the kids see that [the plays] work they kind of look forward to what we have each week.”

Moorhead also says he enjoys the two point plays because they offer the team a chance to try different things that they otherwise wouldn’t get to in the normal offense.

In their most recent game against the University of Pennsylvania, the Rams dusted off one of those trick plays. With a 41-16 lead and 57 seconds left on the clock in the second quarter, the Rams decided to try a two-point conversion.

Senior quarterback Mike Nebrich led the team out in an unusual formation, with three teammates on the line, four split left and the final three split wide to his right. Senior Brett Biestek, traditionally a defensive end, lined up near the left guard position, but still off the line of scrimmage, thus making him an eligible receiver.

After receiving the snap, Nebrich scrambled backwards to avoid an oncoming pass rush and desperately lobbed the ball high toward the goal post. Biestek, who had slipped past the defense, leapt high into the air, grabbed the ball and stuck a toe down to stay in bounds and give the Rams a successful two-point conversion.

These kinds of trick plays have become increasingly common in Fordham football games this season. The Rams also ran two-point conversion plays in their matchups with Columbia and Lafayette.  Both freshman Chase Edmonds, a running back, and senior Brian Wetzel, a wide receiver, have completed passes for conversions.

A surprise onside “kick pass” in the contest against Lafayette also helped change the momentum in Fordham’s favor.

Moorhead and offensive coordinator Andrew Breiner both called the creation of the plays each week a fun process.

“Sometimes I think the coaches get more excited than the players do,” Breiner said. “They kind of roll their eyes at us a little when we come out with something pretty crazy. But they get into it and they obviously love it on Saturdays when they work.”

Moorhead says catching the team by surprise is the most important part of the play.

“It’s quite a process,” Moorhead said. “We kick it around and it’s the most creative play that has an opportunity to be successful is the one that we’ll end up putting in.”

Michael Watts, FCRH ’15, does play-by-play and color commentary of Fordham football for WFUV. Watts, who says he discusses these plays with coach Moorhead every week, says the versatility of Fordham’s athletes is what makes the trick plays so successful.

“What helps Fordham is that there are so many options for trick plays,” Watts said via email. “Brett Biestek was the best statistical passer in the history of his high school team, now he plays defensive end, but most opponents wouldn’t know that he’s very much capable of catching a ball with full vertical extension on the back boundary of the endzone.”

Breiner agreed that the versatility was a factor on the trick plays.

“We have tight ends lined up as offensive lineman for that element of surprise,” Breiner said. “Guys also have to have a savviness to them as well.”

Watts also points out how much fun the team seems to have running these particular plays.

“The staff really enjoys going for these, and being on the sideline for the Biestek catch last week, it’s apparent that the players love these too,” Watts said.

With an offense that averages 528 yards per game, the Rams are a difficult team to stop. But when they’re having fun and getting tricky? It becomes a near-impossible task.