Nick Allegretti walks Chris Russell through his role in the 'Hail Jayden'
An unsung part of the Hail Jayden? Nick Allegretti ‘knocked somebody into Thursday,’ helping buy Jayden Daniels some more time to make the game-winning completion.
“It’s one of those plays where everyone’s scrambling around trying to make a block, trying to give Jayden some space, and just kind of a perfect situation,” Allegretti told Chris Russell Thursday. “My backer dropped, so I was free, and just got one of those blocks…kind of like when you hit a home run, just a clean hit that feels like a perfect shot.”
The Bears rushed three with a spy, so adding in Austin Ekeler it was six on three-and-a-half, but that doesn’t mean you can just lose contain.
“It depends on what they're rushing. Some teams do different things, but generally a lot of teams will go three-man rush, so if that’s the case, it’s three double teams, but with the spy it was a little different,” Allegretti said. “The spy was interesting for sure, maybe they thought Jayden didn’t have the arm to get it there so they were planning for some schoolyard play.
But generally, you have a basic understanding of who you're working with and working to, but after a few seconds, it just becomes chaos and a lot of running, a lot of heavy breathing, and hoping Jayden's got time to set his feet and throw.”
It was Allegretti’s second successful Hail Mary to end a game in his football career (pro and amateur), with a famous one in Kansas City last year, but this one was a little different because he’s from the Chicago area and grew up a Bears fan.
“I was a diehard Bears fan the first 23 years of my life, and being in the AFC the last five years, I followed them pretty well, but being in the NFC now, I had to drop that,” Allegretti said. “I hope they win next week, but I still have a ton of family and friends that were conflicted watching that game!”
Take a listen to Allegretti’s entire visit above, as he talks about his penalty that wiped out a Dyami Brown completion and illegal man penalties in general, comps Jayden Daniels to Patrick Mahomes in terms of personality, and more!
