Another week down, and another week of some interesting quirks found by our pair of analysts. Sam Monson and Ben Stockwell are back casting their eye over some interesting plays from week nine's games.
Though there were plenty of highlight reel plays from this week's games we've chosen a selection of plays that might not leap to the forefront of your mind when choosing which to analyze. That’s just the kind of guys we are.
This week we're going to depart from the usual tack of analyzing some of the headline grabbing touchdown passes and look at a few plays much more under the radar. That means turning our attention to a pair of plays where the defenses came out on top, and one where a defense's over aggressiveness led to them giving up an easy first down conversion.
Chicago @ Philadelphia | 2nd Q, 11:47 | 1st & 10
Outcome
Michael Vick is caught out by the Bears changing coverage from his pre-snap read and throws an interception to Major Wright, with the ball also passing through the hands of Lance Briggs.
Why it worked
Pre snap reads are crucial for receivers and corners to map out their passing plays; get them right and you can open up a defense against a blitz. Get them wrong and it can end in catastrophe for the offense. This play from Michael Vick is an example of the latter, a misread that cost the Eagles a turnover during a red zone possession in the second quarter of their Monday Night Football loss to the Bears. Chicago open up with their two safeties giving Vick a two high look, leading the offense to believe the play will have some form of cover 2 on the back end. Reading the blitz of the slot corner to his left side, from DJ Moore, this coverage should open up the slant to DeSean Jackson with an on time pass against this coverage giving Jackson a real chance of taking the football in from the Eagles’ starting point on the 19 yard line. However this is just the bait for the trap set by Bears’ defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli.
The Bears blitz not only Moore but also Brian Urlacher who is the linebacker closest to the slot which Jackson is coming from which, in theory, should open up the play even more. Prior to the snap however, the Bears roll down Major Wright from safety to the slot to cover Jackson and give the Bears a single high safety look. Lance Briggs rolls over the middle watching the eyes of Vick to set himself underneath the route at the point of the throw, completely cutting off pass. The trap is there to catch out the age old adage that you beat a blitz by throwing to where it has come from, which is exactly what Philadelphia do, and exactly why they get caught. Vick runs a play action and is marginally late with the throw, allowing Briggs all of the time he needs to get across and cut off the pass. Briggs misses a prime opportunity for a pick but Major Wright is there to clean up the scraps and end the Eagles’ scoring threat, maintaining an early 7-0 lead for Chicago.
New York Giants @ New England | 1st Q, 12.49 | 1st and 10
Outcome
The Patriots come out with a Jumbo personnel package on 1st and 10 and get stuffed for no gain.
Why it worked
The spread formation is gaining popularity in the NFL, and not just in obvious passing situations. The ideas remain the same regardless of situation: find favorable matchups and force the defense to cover as much ground as possible. The philosophy works as well when you are trying to pick up short-yardage as it does when you’re going deep. There is another school of thought however, which is to line up with heavy personnel packages and win at the line of scrimmage. Three yards and a cloud of dust, follow the power. The league may be becoming more of a passing league but those concepts are not entirely dead yet. Perhaps they should be. The inherent problem of lining up with heavy personnel and jumbo packages is that you invite the defense to stack the line of scrimmage with as many bodies as they want to. Even if you have every one of them accounted for in your blocking plan, there just isn’t the room there anymore for your running back to go anywhere – there are too many bodies in front of him. This play is an example of just such a play. It wasn’t a short-yardage situation, but even if it had been it was going nowhere.
New England lined up without anybody split wide of the formation. With a pair of extra O-linemen, one as a tight end and one at full back, as well as both of their conventional tight ends, lining up to block for BenJarvus Green-Ellis, giving the Giants no reason not to crowd the line. At the snap the Giants had ten men in the box, all of them, within three yards of the line of scrimmage. Antrel Rolle makes the first good play, taking on his block and sealing the edge, forcing the run back inside, towards ample support. As he cuts back inside he meets Kiwanuka charging through the hole to stop it well before it has a chance to go anywhere. Kiwanuka was supposed to be blocked by Sebastian Vollmer the right tackle, but Vollmer couldn’t make it across the bodies to get anywhere near the block. I have no idea why the Patriots lined up in this formation on 1st and 10, but this is exactly why teams are looking to go to the other end of the scale – take bodies away from the line of scrimmage and give your players space to work in.
Green Bay @ San Diego | 3rd Q, 7.20 | 2nd and 10
Outcome
Green Bay runs the same blitz that failed spectacularly in Week 3 against the Bears. They get burned again for 18 yards and a first down.
Why it worked
We looked at how this blitz failed for the Packers against the Bears, and they have a similar breakdown in coverage on this play. The Chargers line up with three wide receivers, two split wide and a slot receiver to the left of the formation. Antonio Gates is split just to the right of the formation and Mike Tolbert flanks Philip Rivers in the backfield from the gun. Green Bay counters this with their nickel defense featuring two D-linemen, four linebackers and five defensive backs. Just like the last time, they are going to blitz the left side of the defense. Clay Matthews from right up on the line, Desmond Bishop from his position covering Gates, and Tramon Williams from his left cornerback position are all going to blitz. This means Erik Waldon drops into coverage from the right side of the line and this time they also drop Ryan Pickett from the defensive line. As if that will patch the holes left by this blitz and all will be well.
The blitz has the same problems it had the last time it failed though, where Green Bay simply doesn’t have enough defenders in short zones to cover the receivers the Chargers send out into pass patterns. Charles Woodson drops to cover Vincent Jackson deep, and Sam Shields is run off on his side. With Morgan Burnett manning the deep middle of the field that leaves just Walden and AJ Hawk to cover Gates, Tolbert and Vincent Brown from the slot. Pickett, as you might expect, is not likely to be much of a factor in coverage. Brown runs a crossing pattern which sucks in AJ Hawk, Tolbert flares out to the left dragging Walden in that direction which leaves Gates all alone to just settle down in a hole ten yards downfield. Jeromey Clary does a nice job of getting in the way of multiple blitzers and Philip Rivers has an easy completion. The Packers either need to do a far better job of patching the coverage holes left by this blitz when they run it, or simply abandon it as a bad idea that might have looked great on paper.
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