Saturday 24 October 2015

Lions big playmakers find a way to grab their first win in Week 6


This week, we will look at a game that you could argue was altered more by penalties than big plays. Yet there is one that helped settle the game. This wasn’t a great one on paper. The lions were the only winless team in the NFL coming into the week and had just self-destructed the week before against the Cardinals. The Bears were coming in with some momentum. They had won their last 2 games, scraping past the Raiders and Chiefs. Though injuries and a lack of talent on Defence limits the optimism around the Bears.

We find this week’s Key play in the Overtime Period. It had been a pretty close game all the way through with both teams having multiple chances to put the game away in their favour. The Lions find themselves with the ball just over 6 mins remaining in OT after failing on 2 previous drives. This drive wasn’t going great either. Just about getting two 1st Downs and having a Run stuffed on 1st and 10.

 

2nd and 10, DET 37 with 3:55 on the clock.

Detroit are in a 2x2 formation with 2 WRs to the Right (Bottom of the screen) and a TE and WR to the Left (Top of the screen). Bears have moved into one of their Sub packages. With just 2 Down Linemen bringing in the Nickle Corner.


Lions run a bit of motion at the start of the play to help Stafford work out the coverage. No-one moves with the Motioning TE, giving the offence a hint that the coverage might be Zone.
 
The actual play is a Play Action Pass. Stafford is going to fake the handoff left to dangerous RB Abdullah, then boot to the right. The TE that was previously in motion is now in Pass Pro on the right side of the formation on a Sprint style block, dealing with any rush from that right hand side. The lone WR on the left is running a Dig route coming across the field. The Slot Receiver on the right of the offence is running a very loose Deep Out and the WR outside him is going deep on a Fade route.
At the start of the play, most of the Pass Rushers fall of the Play Action. However the coverage on the backend doesn’t. All of them get to their assignment. The exact coverage is hard to work out at this point but at the moment it looks like a ‘3 Over 5’ Zone coverage with the Safeties Rotating to their left.
As the play develops further, one of the ILBs joins in on the Pass Rush, leaving more of a Cover 3 Cloud look. Wille Young, the LOLB whose job it is to stop the QB escaping the pocket, gets blocked but the TE. This gives Stafford the opportunity to extend the play. This is the Key moment in the play. IF Young gets pressure on Stafford, the play is over. Everyone is covered. There is nowhere to go with the Ball!
Now the play has extended past the point the Defence really wants. The CB (Tracy Porter) at the bottom of the screen now has to break off from the WR (Calvin Johnson), who keeps going deep on the Fade, to pick up the Deep Out coming into his zone.
This is why that pressure was Key. Johnson was schematically Double Covered by Porter and the Safety (Harold Jones-Quartey) at the point Stafford should have been forced to throw. But now Porter has to drop off. This leaves one of the best WRs over the last 3-5 years, 1 on 1 against a Rookie who wouldn’t be on the field if it wasn’t for injuries. There is just one outcome…
Stafford puts it up for Johnson to do what Johnson does best. Locate and Attack the Football.
This play ends with the Lions safely inside FG range. 2 plays later they would knock over the FG to walk off with a win. If this play fails, Detroit would have been in a hole on 3rd and 10 inside their own half. Giving Chicago another chance to take the game.
 
 

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