Tuesday 2 February 2016

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. 1st 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, 2nd 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 1st read. He has already looked off the FS in the 1st 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 2nd 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.

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