Anatomy of a hail mary

Considering how close the Patriots' last gasp shot at the endzone was to being the greatest play in NFL history, I think it's time that we break down just what it takes to successfully complete a hail Mary. To start, there are two types of hail Mary plays. First up is the straight catch. In this instance, the offense simply heaves the ball into the endzone and hopes their player can out-jump the defender. Ironically enough, the Giants were able to successfully implement this type of hail Mary against the Green Bay Packers just a few weeks before the Patriots' attempt fell short. Here's what I'm talking about: I want to point out that the Packers did a very poor job of boxing out the receivers. Frankly, officials aren't going to throw a flag on the defender on a hail Mary play unless the penalty was blatantly obvious. In this case, the Packers barely touched Nicks on the play. I also want to point out that this type of hail Mary takes slightly longer to de...