Denver D sets the tone early to guide the Broncos to Super Bowl success

After 2 long weeks of build-up, the Super Bowl had now been and gone. The season finale was a tense close affair between 2 teams that can play great football. I will get straight into it this week.

The plays we are going to look at came early on and set the tone for the rest of the game. They will also be the 2 stories of the game. Denver’s ability to get to the QB and Carolina’s in-ability to catch the football.

The 1^st play we are going to peak at comes on the Panther second drive of the game. There’s 7:23 left in the 1^st Quarter. Its 1^st Down on the Carolina 15.

The Panthers go for one of their Play Action Passes. Its develops like an Inverted Veer, but instead of reading the Edge defender, Cam Newton is reading the ILB’s and Safety. He’s hoping the ILB’s bite down on the Run, and the Safety to drift with the Run opening up the Skinny Post by the Slot receiver in either Man coverage or Cover 3. The Hitch by the WR at the bottom of the pic is more of a decoy route. The WR at the top of the pic is going to settle down is a where he hopes is a bubble of space in what we will see is Zone coverage.

And here is that Zone coverage. It’s Cover 3. Nothing complex about it. They are dropping he Field-side OLB to match the Offence’s formation.

The Play Action does what is was designed to do. It Freezes the ILB and the OLB that were due to drop into the Interior zones. The Safety has drifted with the run, and Cam is reading it perfectly. The space is right there for the taking. The Slot just has to set up the Defender aligned over him to create a lane to get past on the inside. Developing just as it was drawn up.

Slot get past inside. And look at all that space, Cam just has to put the ball on him and you’d expect at least a 15 Yard gain, if not more.

 

Cam puts the ball right on him. The Slot bobbles it as he takes the ball to the ground. This was challenged. Now I am not going to go into this as I have issues with the ‘Catch rule’ as it is currently. I thought it was a catch watching the replay, they came back with it being incomplete. Fine, whatever, that’s the call, you’ve got to get on with the game. The Slot should have caught it cleanly and taken it out of the refs hands. This is why scouts talk so much about ‘natural hand catchers’ and hate ‘double catches’. If he catches this pass, the following play may never happen…

2 plays later, it’s 3^rd Down and 10. 6:34 on the game clock.

Panthers come out in an Empty set (no RBs in the backfield). The Broncos are stacking the line trying to confuse the Panthers blocking scheme. Odds are, with this ‘Down and Distance’ and formation,

And that’s what we get from the Panthers. A deep passing concept. We have a Shake style route from the WR at the top of the pic. A Switch concept at the bottom, with a Drap from the far TE (a RB lined up at the TE position) and a Delayed Flat from the bottom TE. They need 10 yards for the 1^st Down so Cam eyes will be working through the deep routes first. This is important, as you will see the Drag open later on, but there is no way Cam has time to get to in time.

The Broncos have come out again in a Cover 3 look. This time rolling their Safeties to the top of the field, instead of the 1 High Safety we saw earlier. After having all those players stack on the line, to drop off would create a bit of confusion but not enough to create a free runner to the QB. As for the Coverage itself. The Broncos are onto a winner. 3 Deep Routes, all working towards the 3 Deep Zones.

Now to where the action happens. Note the 2 highlighted areas. On the Left we have Greg Olsen and on the Right we have RB Mike Tolbert. They both have the same job in the blocking scheme for this play, Protect their OT on the outside. I have drawn up what should happen with the rushes that take place. Olsen should drop and sit for a second or 2, making sure nothing tries to come round the corner from the inside, then release into the Flats. Tolbert should see the outside rush of Miller, attack it, pushing him wide and off line. Then release into his drag route…

However, He doesn’t make any contact with Miller, opening up a nice angle for him to attack the now exposed Right Tackle whom you can see, is slightly on his heels.

This turns into an easy win for Miller, add that to the fact Newton is still looking down field…

This all leads to a pretty simple strip sack for Miller.

The Ball kindly bounces towards the end zone where Jackson and Ware are there to pounce on the loose ball for a TD and 6 points.

TDs were always going hard to come by in this game, and the Panthers gave one away early. Those 7 points had a huge effect on the game on a game that was close throughout. Take the TD away from Denver and Carolina would have been leading in the 4^th quarter, not chasing. They would have been in control of the game. It could have been a completely different affair. But Like I said towards the start of this article, in the end it was all about Denver’s ability to put pressure on the QB and the inability of the Panthers WR to catch balls thrown their way that lead to the final result.

How the Broncos D stiffled Brady and knocked out the Patriots

What a great game of football. For the neutral that likes to watch good defence, this was one of the best games of the season. Even on paper coming in. Denver having the #1 ranked Defence in the NFL led by one of the best Coordinators in the business Wade Phillips, playing against a weakened and underpowered Pats offence being carried once again by the broad shoulders of Tom Brady. On the flipside, you have the savvy and multi-fronted Patriots defence controlled by Matt Patricia, playing against the Denver offence led by the ageing Payton Manning and his slowly failing arm. This has close game written all over it from the start.

This week, I am going to rave about the Broncos Defence. But no just the play of the very talented guys on the roster, but the play calling. Wade Phillips called an outstanding game from the sideline. I mean, Jesus, there were times where Tom Brady lost trust in what he was seeing out there.

When you play against the likes of the Pats, you need to do 2 things. Firstly, you need to accelerate Brady’s ‘internal clock’. By that I mean, make him speed up his process, make him think he doesn’t have a lot of time on every snap. You do this by getting consistent pressure that gets to him in a hurry, it doesn’t have to be a sack but it does have to make him throw the ball early. Second thing is to mix up your coverages and personnel. Most teams struggle with this part because of the weapons the Pats have. It’s hard to find 1 guy capable of covering Gronk or Edelman let alone 2 or 3, but that’s what you need. If you have just one guy lined up on either of them all game, you are just telling Brady what coverage you are in or how you want to lose the game. You put a Safety over Gronk, Pats are just going to use his size and reach, put a Linebacker on him and they will put him in space and use his athletic abilities. You run loads of zones, Edelman will just keep sitting in the seams and gaps for quick passes. You a load of man and you’ll start seeing the little double moves and Crossing patterns. It needs to be a whole team effort in coverage. As a play caller, you can’t play 1 way against the Patriots you have to mix it up. Wade Phillips and the Bronco’s Defence both did these key things very well.

The following plays will show you just how hard it was for Brady and the Pats Sunday.

We start at the opening of the second quarter. 1^st and 10 after a Broncos Punt. Brady’s been hit a few times already and there has been no help from the running game.

There is nothing overtly special about the Broncos Pass rush on this play. Sending the stand 4 rushers out of a Sub-Package. The Coverage in behind is a Basic Cover 3 ‘Sky’ look with #20 down in the Box filling in for a Motion that I have not shown you.

This is the Blocking scheme and releases for the Pats. They are running a Play-Action Pass. To make it look like a run, in an attempt to draw in the Inside Linebackers, They are going to pull the LG all the way across the front to block #58 Von Miller. He won’t be alone, as he should get help from the RB. Note the TE’s Release, Gronk is going to try and run up the seam and into the middle of the field.

As the play rolls on you can see #48 has been sucked into the Run Action. You can also see who the Double team between the pulling LG and the RB should develop from this point. There should only be 2 options for Miller. Either try and split the Double team, or Bubble over it. Either way, the Guard should be in a position ‘under’ the pass rush so he can push the rusher over and past Brady. Giving his QB space for him to step up into his throw. Namely Gronk moving up the seam.

It’s hard to see here, but the Guard has made a costly error before he even makes contact with Miller. He’s come a tad too deep and too far over, leaving Miller an inside lane to get to the QB (shown by the Orange line), basically making the double team useless.

A Guard ‘1on1’ with one of the better rushers in the league is not what the Pats would have wanted on the play and you can see why here. The Guard can’t react quickly enough to his mistake or the move by Miller. Miller now has a free lane to Brady, and there is no way he is out running Miller.

Brady manages to find a receiver and throw the ball away before Miller gets him to the floor. It’s not a Sack, but Miller has still got to the QB in a hurry. All these hits are adding up and playing tricks in Brady’s mind.

Then the very next play, 2^nd and 10. This is where Wade Phillips shows how clever he really is.

Starting with the Pats Play call. A Basic West coast style concept. At the bottom of the screen we have a motion. The WR is going to move into the back pocket of the slot and run a Drag/Spot/short crosser off his backside. The Slot himself is going to run a short Post. At the Top of the screen you’ll see a nice little zone beater. The WR is going deep on the fade to clear out any Deep Zone, the TE is running an Out and the RB is going into the flats. The idea is to make the Flats defender make a decision. Does he stay deep and take away the Out, leaving the Flat open. Or does he drive down on the Flat, but leave the Out open.

The Broncos ARE in a Zone coverage. But not the standard Cover 3 that they are showing. They are going to drop the extra defender, and this is the clever bit. They are going to drop Miller and run a ‘3 Over 5’ coverage. Normally once a pass rusher gets a sack or a hit, you send him again with some encouragement. Wade is clever in knowing the damage has already been done. He doesn’t need the pressure now, what he needs is to confuse the mind on Brady now his mind is racing. Coming back to the extra man in the Zone. That now takes away the easy read for Brady. The extra zone means that there is no Conflict between the Out and the Flat, as there is an extra defend in the area. The Flats defender is going to take the Flat, with Miller expanding with the Out from his Curl/Hook zone.

We are going to see that process from Brady’s eyes. This is him making his 1^st read. He has already looked off the FS in the 1^st second of the play. He is making a read now on the Fade. We saw in the shot above that there was Press on the top WR, so Brady is making a quick decision on whether he can take a quick shot down the Sideline. We know it’s a 3 deep zone, now he does by seeing that the fade isn’t on. He will also notice the Flats defender step down towards the RB going to the Flats. Bingo…

 

Brady knows exactly what his next read should be… Gronk on the Out. But he sees Miller in a zone? Alarm bells are going off. He doesn’t know if they have sent a Blitzer from the backside. If it’s just 3 rushing. He has no idea how long he has in the pocket…

So Brady makes the decision. He would rather make the throw to Gronk against Miller, than stand in the pocket any longer and risk the sack.

Bad Decision. Miller shows some of the coverage skills he picked up when Denver ran the 4-3 defence. Runs under Gronks route and makes the easy pick. The Pats were lucky that Miller slipped during the return, as it could have been a pick 6. I say lucky… It only took Manning 3 plays to score a TD from the excellent field position.

These plays only happened in the 2^nd Quarter, but it would be a sign of things to come. Constant harassment in the backfield and a mixture of coverages limited Brady’s ability to effect the game, these 2 plays were the best and instant representation of this.

A classic game with a classic ending - Fitzgerald magic ends the Packers hopes

Divisional Week rolled into town with 4 great games, all expecting to be close, and all finishing with a points margin of less than 8 points. This week, I will be taking a look at Packers trip across the US to Arizona.

Arizona was coming off a Bye week after earning the #2 Seed in the NFC. Lead by veteran QB Carson Palmer, the offence finished 2^nd in Scoring Offence, 2^nd in Passing Yards and Top of the pile in Total Offence. Their Defence wasn’t shabby either, ranking 8^th in Scoring Defence and 5^th in Yards Against. Add to that a finishing record of 13-3, going 7-1 down the stretch, and you can see why teams would have wanted to avoid coming up against the Cardinals. Then there are the Green Bay Packers. Up and Down season by their standards but still managed to put together a respectable 10-6 record. QB Aaron Rodgers is always on the list of MVP candidates at the start of the season and a defence that on its day can smother an offence. But that’s been their problem, it’s been the whole teams’ problem. They haven’t been on there day, enough to scare teams like the hosting Cardinals.

These teams had met before during the run to the post-season, with Arizona taking the upper hand. They comfortably saw off Green Bay, 38-8. But when it comes to the second game, you knew HC Mike McCarthy would have made the necessary adjustments.

This was a close one throughout, low scoring in the 1^st Half, but coming alive in the Second. 27 points scored by both teams in the 2^nd Half, 17 in the 4^th Quarter including another converted Hail Mary by Rodgers.

We are going to jump straight to Over Time for this week’s piece. Cardinals have won the toss and chose to receive. When you choose to receive in OT, it is key that you put points on the board in that 1^st drive. By choosing either way you are saying ‘this is our best unit and we are going to win this way’.

This is the 1^st play of OT.

So here we go. Arizona come out swinging from the start. HC and decision maker Bruce Arians has decided that their best chance on moving the ball is going to come from Veteran Superstar WR Larry Fitzgerald (Circled at the bottom of the shot). Starting out aggressive they are going to move him tight in motion pre-snap then have him running an intermediate crosser underneath a Slice and a Fade by the stacked receivers at the top of the formation. The HB is staying home to help block while the TE is going to have a delayed release into the flats for a check-down.

The Packers Defence is running a Biltz. This should be the perfect playcall for what the Offence is running. Palmer needs time for Fitzgerald to get open, so by sending 6 the Packers are going to stress the Pass Protection. This is where it gets murky. I have drawn in what I think the coverage due to experience of the Packers Defence and their style of protecting their blitzes. I believe it to be a ‘3 under 3’ zone as I doubt that Green bay would want Peppers matched up on a HB. Now keep an eye on the 2 circled defender, they affect how this play develops…

 

As you can see, #23 has turned Fitzgerald loose as he breaks across the field (adding this to a big man in coverage enforces my suspicions of zone coverage). However, the player I circled at the top of the screen has stayed on the WR he was aligned over. This creates a huge hole at the top of the screen for Fitzgerald to run into and settle down. The Pressure almost bails the Packers out, but Palmer does just enough to escape and find his target for what seems to be a 1^st down that will get about as far as Midfield at best.

Now kids looking for a WR to sculpt their game around won’t go too far wrong looking at Fitzgerald. Now there is a time and a place for running this down the line and going out of bounds. But that’s not what Larry has on his mind. He’s going to keep going ‘north, south’ while running to space. If #37 or any of the noted Defenders bring him down in the next 5 yards, he’ll neither have lost nor gained any yards. But if he makes #37 miss, he brings blockers into play.

 

 

Another coaching tip for all Receiver… If you don’t have the football, make yourself useful. You never know when the chance for a big play is going to happen, don’t miss it by being lazy. Arizona’s Receivers work hard to get down field and spring some key blocks as the ageing Fitzgerald strolls closer and closer to the End zone…

He makes it inside the 5 yard line before the Packers eventually bring him down. That’s around 40 extra yards because Fitzgerald didn’t want to give up.

This huge play sets up the eventually game winner that is a clever play in itself, but without this play, the Cardinals may never have got down there.

 

Wild Card Special - Chiefs at Texans

So here we go. The Play-offs are finally here and the 1^st game is down to be a close one. Chiefs traveling to Houston. Chiefs had been playing some solid ball down the stretch and were coming into this one of the back of a 10 game winning streak. Houston made it in after scraping through the terrible AFC South, however they had won 4 of their last 5 home games only losing to the Pats in week. These 2 teams had met before, all the way back in week 1, when Kansas racked up a big early lead with Houston making a fight back to make the result a bit more respectable. Hoyer was benched in that game for Mallet, who is no longer on the roster.

This game was over early, so it no surprise that the plays I will be showing you are in the 1^st Half of the football game.

Our opening play, is the opening play of the game. The Kick-off. This play can easily set the tone for the 1^st few drives, big plays on either side can give your team a huge boost. So let’s look at the play and see what happens.

So this is the Alignment for the opening Kick-Off. Chiefs have a 6-man front line, 1 player watching for the chip, and 3 lead blockers. Knile Davis is the player circled up in the centre of the End zone.

At the moment of the kick the Blockers start moving back and towards the Left Hash if we were the return team. What leads me to think this is a called return to the Left is the aggressive block attempt at the bottom left of the picture. To spring a return, you need good blocking at the point of attack, to take it all the way you need to block the ‘safeties’. This I think, without scouting the Texans Kick-Off unit, is an attempt to hamper one of the safeties.

So once the returner has caught the ball and the Blockers have turned to face the coverage team, you can see that the front line players have created an angled wall of blockers. 2 of the Lead blocker have created a Wedge, with the 3^rd sitting just behind them. The Wall of blockers are going to do their best at stopping anyone to their right get across or behind them. The Wedge is going to work on the 2 remaining coverage players on the return side, and the last remaining lead blocker is going to clean up the most dangerous coverage player that slips through the Wall. The Texan circled at the bottom right of the pic is the ‘free player’, he should make the tackle if everyone else is blocked correctly.

You can see here, as the play has rolled on, the tight lane created for Davis to get the initial yards. The Texan circled is the same player from the pic before, and you can see, he has come too far inside almost expecting Davis to cut the return back towards the middle of the field.

Davis doesn’t cut it back. #21, a different Texan, is still looking inside. He has no idea that Davis has all the space in the world, thanks to the great block to the right of the pic, and no one between him and the End zone. So it becomes a footrace between Davis and the ‘half-blocked’ Linebacker. It is only going to end one way, with the Chiefs 3^rd string Running back in the End zone untouched.

This play gives the Chiefs an early 7-point lead. This is not what you want if your Brain Hoyer and the Houston Texans. You know from 1^st hand experience how hard it is to come about against this Defence, now you’ve just made your life harder by giving up points on ST.

We skip ahead to the 2^nd Quarter with only 3:53 remaining in the Half. Hoyer has turned the ball over twice already and Kansas have added 2 FGs to make the score 13-0. The Texans finally have themselves going on Offence on a big run from Running back Alfred Blue. They now find themselves running their Goal Line offence.

Though some people have, a problem about the play call on 1^st down, I am going to look at the 2^nd down play. Let look at the full situation for the Texans, they are 13-0 down and are really not playing well. You have to run your full Goal Line set. So I understand your 1^st play call. Sure, you are trying to do something a bit different that might get you an easy score if the D misaligns or misplays the formation. It was obviously part of the game plan as it is the 1^st play they ran. It fails, fine. Now run the normal stuff. And this is what we get…

We get a 2X2 formation with a Stack on both sides. We have a motion at the bottom of the pic with the back man on the Stack moves inside and runs a Quick Out under the Fade by the Receiver outside him. At the top of the pic we see Houston’s best Receiver, Hopkins in the lead position, running a nice little double move route. Starting out straight, making it look like he’s going to head to the back pylon, then cutting inside to sit in the space he’s just created. The Receiver in behind him is going to run off anyone that sitting inside the Stack, making sure Hopkins has space to come back into, and then head to the back pylon. The HB has a responsibility to make sure no-one gets the QB off the left edge, then to sit in front of the QB as a dump off.

From the line up of the Defence and the route combos he has, Hoyer will have worked out how he wants to make his reads. He should Peak at the Quick Out quickly, and if that is not on he should make a read on the combo on the other side of the field either hitting Hopkins or going to the back pylon on the throw away…

He makes his peak to the Quick Out and rightly turns it down as you will see in a later pic. So we would now expect him to flip to the other side of the field. On a side note, Chiefs only end up sending 3. This will become important in the next pic.

Hoyer thinks he is under pressure, expecting Kanas to send the 5 that were lined up in a rush position. They don’t, this confused the OL, meaning that the NT #92 gets left 1 on 1 with the Center. This is not the match-up the Texans wanted. Hoyer sees this panics and goes straight to his Dump-off, which it he is Running back…

Fine you think, it is what the route is there for, but what Hoyer hasn’t seen is the Linebacker reading his eyes and making a move towards the passing lane.

The Throw itself that wans’t great due to the pressure, making the Linebackers job too easy. The ball is caught and returned in an instant.

This just kills you as a team. Why pass the ball on 2^nd down? In addition, if you are going to pass, why is it not a quick jump ball to Hopkins? Your best receiver. Houston must have been in 4 down mode. You need to get yourself back in the game, be that scoring a TD or putting the Chiefs Offense back on the field with their QB standing in the End zone. What you can’t do it throw that pick! My god, take the sack if you have to and settle for a FG. Just a boggling play call and even worse execution by a QB that might not have a Job this time next year.

The play that possibly turned Dallas' season

This week, there were plenty of game that were close on the scoreboard. But this week, I am looking at a Primetime match-up between Divisional rivals. At a glance, the NFC East looks like the division nobody want to win. All 4 Teams show flashes of why they might just claim the top spot, but nobody really shows any extended success. Looking both Washington and Dallas, they are both having the seam problem. Scoring points. Dallas currently sit 29^th in Scoring Offence, with Washington at 21th (assisted by the big outing against the Saints). This was evident in Monday Night’s game as the 1^st score didn’t come till around midway thought the 2^nd Quarter, and the Half Time Score sat at 3-3.

The Key Play we are going to take a gander at is a punt return. Its 4^th and 10 on the Dallas 43 with 1:47 on the Game Clock. Dallas have decided to punt the ball away.

As you can see from the picture above, the Redskins have 2 blockers aligned over the Cowboys gunners. This normally suggests they are full focused on setting up a good return. There won’t be too much of a rush from the main part of the Return formation, just enough to hold the Cowboys line in place during the process of the kick. Out of shot, Washington have Desean Jackson as there returner instead of their normal returner. Jackson was a full time returner during his tenure at the Eagles and had a reputation of being a good returner.

 

Special Team doesn’t always get a lot of love in the football world so I will give you some background info.

As a ST Coach on Punt Return, you want a few things. Clean Catch, Pick up your blocks, and Play safe with the Fair Catch etc. etc... But the Bold, Underlined RULES are, don’t lose Yards, and Don’t Lose the Ball. They don’t care if you don’t get any yards. You could Fair Catch all day and still do a good job on Punt Return. Just get the ball safely to the Offence while gaining as many yards as you can.

Having those rules in the back of your mind. You would think this would be the safest return lane. You have the chance to get a nice little return down the sideline. Pick-up around 10-20 yards, step out of bounds if you sense a bit hit coming and give Cousin’s and the Redskins Offence the ball around the 30 yard line.

Jackson stutters a bit on the return to try and open a bigger lane but it really just costs him a handful of yards. He has started the Return down the sideline. But 10 yards isn’t enough for Jackson. He’s looking for another lane to try and take this one all the way for 6 points.

So when I see Jackson starting to go backwards across the field I am thinking someone is going to get a right talking to when they get off the field. You best only have 1 man to beat if you’re going to give up ground. There is too much speed at the NFL Level and you are normally running away from your blocks. The moment you give a Coverage Team chance to recover, the half decent ones will make you pay.

 

Here we can see how far back Jackson goes before he starts going forward again. He is on his own 2 yard line. That’s a 20+yard loss compared to where he was when he started to reverse field. To prove my point about running away from blockers. Count the Redskins I have marked out. These are all the blockers that are out of the play. That’s 7 Redskins that can’t help Jackson right now! Now count the Cowboys I have marked out. These are the players that are in a position to make a play on Jackson. That’s 8, and all 8 have the pace to get the job done.

Just to prove that I am not lying about the speed on Punt Coverage. This shot is just before Jackson gets tackled. He has 6 Cowboys surrounding him

 

 

And the Tackle is just brutal. Soo brutal that...

Jackson loses the football. So going back to what a ST Coach wants, Jackson has not only lost his team yards, but he has also failed in keep hold of the ball! Double whammy. Dallas now have the ball deep in Redskins territory. They go on to score the 1^st TD of the Match, giving them a foothold they desperately needed to eventually go on and win the game.