Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott flashed timing, placement and velocity on this strike to Amari Cooper.
So, you think you can start an NFL game at quarterback and luck into a touchdown pass? You might need to challenge what people call “NFL windows” to do so. You know, those areas of space, oftentimes just measured in inches, between defenders?
On his second touchdown pass of the afternoon, quarterback Dak Prescott absolutely threaded the needle between two Cleveland Browns defenders to find Amari Cooper for six:
In addition to the impeccable placement and velocity on this throw, the timing from Prescott is perfect. Cooper runs a skinny post, and Prescott is unloading his throw as the receiver makes his break. By throwing this route with anticipation, Prescott prevents the safety from making a play on the football.
Los Angeles Chargers defender Michael Davis steps in front of a Tom Brady throw and takes it the other way for six.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers offense seemed to be in sync early, with a scoring drive to start things off against the Los Angeles Chargers. After Justin Herbert matched the Buccaneers offense with a deep shot to Tyron Johnson, it was the veteran quarterback’s turn.
A Tom Brady passing attempt did lead to points, but for the boys in blue:
Michael Davis takes it the other way for the 78-yard PICK-6! #BoltUp
Brady tries to find Justin Watson on the speed out pattern, but Michael Davis steps in front of it and takes it the other way for a touchdown. This play is eerily reminiscent of Brady’s Pick Six back in Week 1, when Janoris Jenkins stepped in front of another speed out for six points going the other way.
At this point in his career, Brady has faced many questions about his arm strength. The deep route is the proverbial “NFL throw,” where arm strength does come into play. For the second time this season, Brady saw one of those “NFL throws” result in six points for the other squad.
Rookie quarterback Justin Herbert flashed his deep ball prowess on this touchdown strike.
Draft evaluators had many questions about Justin Herbert prior to the 2020 NFL Draft. His ability to throw downfield was not one of them. Herbert flashed that deep ball prowess on this huge scoring strike to Tyron Johnson against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers:
As with many deep touchdown passes, this play begins with the protection up front. The Chargers offensive line does a tremendous job of keeping Herbert clean on this play, allowing him to step into this downfield throw. Johnson gets behind the defense, pulls in the toss in stride, and is able to jaunt into the end zone for the score.
Herbert has made some rookie mistakes so far this season, but on the whole the rookie has been impressive. Plays like this are a huge reason why.
A favorite of Madden players comes to life for a Lions touchdown.
Madden players have some rules that they swear by. One of them is that the halfback angle route is undefeated. There is some truth to that, both in the NFL and in the video game. Offensive coordinators swear by the weakside halfback option route, in a way to get running backs isolated on safeties or linebackers. Matthew Stafford found DeAndre Swift on one such design for the Detroit Lions’ first touchdown of the weekend:
As you can see, the strength of the offensive formation is to the right. That gets Swift isolated on linebacker Demario Davis. Swift reads the linebackers’ leverage, and when he sees Davis shading him to the outside, he cuts to the inside. Stafford hits him in stride, and the Lions are in the end zone.
Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski dials up some trickery on the Browns first play from scrimmage.
It is Halloween season after all. Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski perhaps had that in mind when he dialed up some trickery, leading to the Cleveland Browns’ first touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys:
This play is perfect design for Stefanski and the Browns. The Cowboys’ defense has struggled against outside zone running plays, and Cleveland shows that on their first offensive play from scrimmage. Baker Mayfield pitches to the running back as the offensive line shows zone blocking. However, the back flips the ball to Jarvis Landry, a left-handed passer. Landry is working to his left, takes the pitch, and drops in a perfect throw to Odell Beckham Jr. for the score.
This week Bill Belichick takes on Andy Reid and the dangerous Kansas City Chiefs offense. How might he craft his game plan?
In approaching preview pieces I often try and place myself into the minds of the various coordinators in each game. What will keep me up at night? What are our assets? What are the other team’s weaknesses? What advantages can we press, and what would we need to do to shore up our liabilities? Almost crawling into the mind of Westley from “The Princess Bride.”
Some weeks that is harder than others, as when one must figure out how to stop the Chiefs’ offense:
On Wednesday morning, I tried to crawl into the mind of Bill Belichick. I drew up a rather standard formation and alignment from the Kansas City Chiefs on the whiteboard in my office and began to think.
Hours later I had yet to come up with an answer.
Yet that is the task that the game’s foremost defensive mind faces this week. How do you stop – or at least slow down – one of the game’s most dangerous offenses? An offense that has weapons everywhere, and still managed to throw touchdowns passes last week to a fullback and an offensive tackle?
After pouring through some of Belichick’s past game plans, including games against these Chiefs, I have some potential –Â potential –Â answers.
Dare them to run
(Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports)
Prior to Super Bowl XXV, the defensive coordinator of the New York Giants stood in front of his charges. A group of men who prided themselves on tough defensive football, and stopping the run. A group of defensive players who were proud when they limited opposing rushing attacks to less than 100 yards in a game.
That defensive coordinator told them that the only way to beat the Buffalo Bills was to let Thurman Thomas rush for over 100 yards.
He was met with incredulity.
âI thought it was a collective brain fart, like, âWhat the hell are you talking about?ââ linebacker Carl Banks said a year later, via Michael Eisen of nyfootball.net. âI think because we were a team that prided itself defensively on not giving up hundred-yard rushers, not even giving up 100-yard games for a total offensive rush stat. But he said it, we are all in an uproar, and weâre thinking Bill is just conceding that Thurman is just this good of a football player that we wonât be able to stop him. And then he reeled us back in and kinda gave us a method to the madness.â
But Belichick’s game plan did have a method. As he said later:
Thurman Thomas is a great back. We knew he was going to get some yards. But I didnât feel like we wanted to get into a game where they threw the ball 45 times. I knew if they had some success running the ball, they would stay with it. And I always felt when we needed to stop the run, we could stop it. And the more times they ran it, it was just one less time they could get it to [Andre] Reed or get it to [James] Lofton, or throw it to Thomas, who I thought was more dangerous as a receiver, because thereâs more space than there was when he was a runner.
There indeed was a method to the madness. If the Bills kept the football on the ground, then they were not letting Jim Kelly carve them up in the passing game with quick throws, or hitting them over the top on deep shot plays for quick scoring drives. Better to grind the game out, and to do so dare them to run the football. Dare we call Belichick the grandfather of “running backs don’t matter…?”
That is the first step in Belichick’s thought process this week. Every time #15 turns to hand the football off is a win for the New England Patriots, because that is one less time that Patrick Mahomes has a chance to beat you over the top for a one-play scoring drive.
This is something that Belichick has done before when facing Andy Reid and the Mahomes-led Chiefs. How? By employing a 3-2-6 defensive package. Even in the red zone. Even on the goal line.
Even on 3rd and 1.
This play is from their regular season meeting a few years ago. Kansas City faces a 3rd and 1 and the Patriots come out with a 3-2-6 defensive package, using safety Patrick Chung as a joker-type player, dropping him down into a linebackerâs alignment. Up front they use a 4i-0-3 defensive formation, and they bring Kyle Van Noy down over the tight end. Once more, provided the players up front are disciplined, they can stop the run. Here, Van Noy strings out the toss play to Tyreek Hill and then gets help from the boundary player, and the run is stopped for no gain.
Dare them to run.
From that same game:
This is a 2nd and goal play. The Patriots employ a 3-3-5 package on this snap, even in the red zone, and they use a 4i-0-4i defensive front. You can see how the players up front attack their gaps and force Kareem Hunt to cut in the backfield, where he runs into Van Noy and Elandon Roberts. Van Noy keeps his outside leverage which forces Hunt back into the hole, and Roberts fills the hole for the stop.
Dare them to run.
The names may be different, but the premise is the same. Every time that #15 hands the ball off is a win for the defense. As Belichick said after Super Bowl XXV: “And I always felt when we needed to stop the run, we could stop it.”
Of course, Reid might not comply. So you better have an answer in the secondary.
Brett Rypien gets the start tonight for the Broncos. What he does well, what to look for, and some advice from his famous uncle.
This is probably not what the schedule makers had in mind when they crafted the 2020 NFL regular season. A primetime game in front of a national audience on a Thursday night with Sam Darnold and the 0-3 New York Jets set to square off against the Denver Broncos and Brett Rypien.
But that is what we get tonight, so as they say: When life hands you lemons, make lemon martinis.
Okay I tweaked that a little bit.
At first blush, however, you might think a martini or two is necessary to get you through tonight, but much like last week I am here to make a case for watching tonight. Last week I extolled the virtues of Gardner Minshew and Laviska Shenault Jr., and they lost. So as I embark on selling you on Brett Rypien I might be dooming the Broncos to an 0-4 start, but here I go.
In the buildup to the 2019 draft there were many questions about the quarterbacks. Was Kyler Murray worth the first-overall selection? What about Dwayne Haskins, or Daniel Jones? In the next tier of prospects who was worthy of selection?
As always, #DraftTwitter thought they had the answers. That led many – this author included – to Boise, Idaho. Home of the Boise State Broncos, and their four-year starting quarterback. He has an NFL name, an athletic lineage, and his combination of accuracy, experience and mental acumen for the position convinced some that Rypien was perhaps a true diamond in the rough.
However, the NFL did not seem to agree. He earned an invitation to the East-West Shrine Game, but the Senior Bowl passed on the chance to give him an invite. While some other passers heard their names called, Rypien went undrafted, signing with Denver as a free agent.
What was it that #DraftTwitter saw, that the NFL did not?
From where I sit, Rypien checked many of the boxes, but perhaps those boxes are leftovers from a bygone NFL. He is a smart, accurate, heady quarterback. The kind of player who can make adjustments at the line of scrimmage call out protections, and then hang in the pocket against the blitz, throw an out route on time and in rhythm, and move the chains.
As he did on a play against San Diego State. In this video breakdown, you’ll see Rypien convert a 3rd and 9 against SDSU while checking all of those boxes:
There were other elements to his game that I appreciated, including his ability to move defenders with his eyes, manipulate them out of position, and then exploit their response. He showed that on this touchdown pass against Troy University in last year’s season opener:
He also did that on this throw against Colorado State:
Here, the Rams show a two-high safety look before rotating to a single-high safety at the snap. Rypien still moves the free safety or gets him to open his hips to the middle of the field before throwing the go route along the right sideline, but in this instance, the safety never really strays from the hashmark. So with less ground to cover, the safety actually could make a play on this throw. Rypienâs manipulation, and then the perfect throw, prevent that chance.
However, the league did view him differently than I did. Perhaps the ultimate piece of evidence was in the run up to the draft, Greg Gabriel did not even list Rypien as a draftable quarterback in the Pro Football Weekly draft magazine.
With that writing on the wall, I wrote this of Rypien just before the draft:
Yet, that might work in Rypienâs favor in a sense. Yes, players drafted earlier get more chances to stick in the league. But for Rypien, a player with his skill set and mental approach is still valuable. There are aspects to his game that he needs to develop and refine, sure, but he is well ahead of many other quarterbacks in this group when it comes to doing the little â but important â things at the quarterback position. The value a player like Rypien provides say, in the sixth round, might even outweigh the value other quarterbacks who will be taken earlier provide. Rypienâs floor, in my mind, is a high-end backup/spot-starter, and that is higher than the floors of most other quarterbacks in this class. That value he offers would be beneficial for many organizations.
Ultimately, the NFLâs view of Rypien might be more in line with the view shared by those around the league, such as the Senior Bowl, Gabriel, and others. I might be wrong with my evaluation of Rypien. But I still think from a valuation perspective, even if I am too high on him as a prospect, the value he will provide being selected later in the draft is still impressive, and might make his future employers very, very happy they took a chance on him.
Tonight, we will get a chance to see if I was right about that.
As mentioned earlier, he does have a bit of an NFL lineage to him. His uncle, Mark, was a quarterback for Washington and a former Super Bowl MVP. He passed on some advice for his nephew prior to his first NFL start:
One of the things he needs to do, or to be asked to do, is manage the game and make decisions — quick decisions. I’ve always been a huge advocate of when you’re in the scoring territory, you have to be able to secure the ball and get points. I think he understands. He’s not a guy who will take a lot of sacks, so he’ll get the ball out and make quick decisions and do what he’s coached to do. He’s very cerebral. I talked to him about this in the past, when he first started as a young kid in college [at Boise State] as a freshman. The good ones are the ones who make plays and slow the game down.
One thing you really think watching from the sidelines, ‘The game is way too fast. I can’t do it.’ So when you get in you feel you have to make quick, fast decisions that get you in more trouble. But I was amazed when I first played that it didn’t look as fast on the field when I’m playing as it did when I was watching from the sidelines. He understands that and he knows he has to play well.
Tonight, we get to see if the nephew can put that advice into action.
Perhaps Andy Reid is a student of military history.
If Monday night is any indication, he certainly is. The Kansas City Chiefs have a number of weapons on the offensive side of the football, chief among them quarterback Patrick Mahomes. But Reid seemed a master at outflanking the Baltimore Ravens on Monday night, and it was evident on the ways he attacked their defense in the screen game.
(Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports)
By my charting, the Chiefs ran four technical screen plays against the Ravens, two of which targeted rookie running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire in the passing game. The second of those two was a smoke screen in the fourth quarter, when Kansas City motioned him outside and into an empty formation, and Mahomes took advantage of a soft Cover 3 scheme to simply get him the football:
Mahomes first sees the defensive response to the motion, which is to say there is none. The cornerback simply bumps outside a bit to cover the running back. The quarterback also sees the soft coverage, so he simply throws Edwards-Helaire the ball on a smoke route for an easy gain.
Not the best example of outflanking, but we’re just warming up.
I want to focus on some of the other designs Reid dialed up in this game. This first example goes for a 20 yard gain to Edwards-Helaire, and it is a vicious design that stresses the Ravens defense at every level of the field:
This is a three-element design that has more flanking maneuvers than Epaminondas used against the Spartans at the Battle of Leuctra. On the right side of the formation the Chiefs implement a go/out combination, with the outside receiver running the vertical and the slot receiver executing a deep out. Then with Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce – aligned in a two-man stack – Kansas City sets up a shallow cross concept with the tight end sitting in the middle of the field.
All of that? Potentially just eye candy, as this distracts from the running back screen with a three-lineman convoy in front of the rookie:
The eye candy works to give the Chiefs a numbers advantage downfield, and the rookie running back rips off a 20-yard gain.
But that play is nothing compared to what Reid dialed up a little later. While not technically a screen, this play works because of the dual screen elements, which are now the eye candy. On this play the Chiefs align with 11 offensive personnel, but put Hill in the backfield along with Mahomes and Edwards-Helaire. They show the Ravens a swing screen to each side of the field, Hill on the right and Edwards-Helaire on the left. To really sell the screen element in front of Hill, Reid has both the right guard and the right tackle release in front of him:
Reid is setting up another flanking maneuver that would make what Hannibal did at the Battle of Cannae look like child’s play. Because this time the screens – even the one with the lightning-quick Hill and two offensive linemen in front of him – is just a ruse. A ruse designed to influence a rookie linebacker playing in his first NFL primetime game. The true target on this play? Kelce:
The tight end blocks for a moment, but then releases downfield on a simple pop pass. He is wide open:
That rookie linebacker is Patrick Queen. If you put yourself in his shoes for a moment, you more than understand his reaction to this play. After all, you see Hill in the backfield swing to the outside, and you see both the guard and the tackle race out to pave the road for him. I mean, what would you do?
It looks like you are getting outflanked, right? Two linemen in front of a dangerous speedster, so you have to race to the edge and shore up the defense. Well, in the process of doing that, you get outflanked, just not in the way you expected.
Believe it or not, the best example of Reid designing a screen to outflank the defense on Monday night resulted in an incompletion. Near the end of the first quarter Kansas City faced a 1st and 10 on the Baltimore 24-yard line. This is the design that Reid dials up:
Yes, there is a lot going on here. Let’s break it down. Mecole Hardman comes in motion before the snap from right to left, and then releases on a vertical route. Sammy Watkins is the single receiver on the left, and he runs a deep post. After the snap, Hill shows the Ravens an end-around.
All of it? Eye candy. Reid is setting up a screen to running back Darwin Thompson along the right side. Furthermore, Kelce and basically the entire offensive line set up in front of the running back.
Only the fingertip of Calais Campbell prevent this from being a touchdown:
Just look at how this sets up when Mahomes attempts the throw. You have Ravens defenders chasing the movement to one side of the field, and a convoy in front of Thompson to the other side with the numbers advantage. If the defensive lineman does not get his hands on this, it is likely six points:
Outflanked.
Defensive coordinators have enough to keep them up at night when facing the Chiefs. Their weapons alone are cause for many a sleepless night. But worrying about getting outflanked in the screen game is yet one more reason to reach for the Pepto.
In the week ahead, we’ll see if another student of history, Bill Belichick, is ready for these maneuvers.
Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay continues to use motion before the snap to help his offense, and his quarterback.
We told you a few weeks ago that Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay was determined to get defenses to pay attention to motion before the play.
That was again evident on Sunday.
Even though the Rams’ comeback attempt fell short in a loss to the Buffalo Bills, McVay continued to put his offensive players in motion before the snap. The Rams ran 69 offensive plays against the Bills on Sunday, and used motion on 40 of those plays. In this video breakdown, you’ll see how the Rams used motion, how even when the Bills defense stayed in zone coverages, the motion still impacted what happened after the snap, and how McVay uses these motions to help quarterback Jared Goff:
Sean McVay and presnap motion, revisited
*Forcing you to pay attention to it *Defined reads and throws for Goff *Giving the quarterback information presnap pic.twitter.com/gbpOEiv33j
Sean McVay is determined to get defenses to pay attention to presnap motion. Even when the defense is playing zone coverage, as we see in the above breakdown, the use of motion still forces defensive backs to react to what happens after the play, creating throwing lanes and opportunities for Goff. Smart coaching is all about putting your players in a position to be successful, and McVay is determined to do that with Goff, by using motion.
Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay continues to use motion before the snap to help his offense, and his quarterback.
We told you a few weeks ago that Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay was determined to get defenses to pay attention to motion before the play.
That was again evident on Sunday.
Even though the Rams’ comeback attempt fell short in a loss to the Buffalo Bills, McVay continued to put his offensive players in motion before the snap. The Rams ran 69 offensive plays against the Bills on Sunday, and used motion on 40 of those plays. In this video breakdown, you’ll see how the Rams used motion, how even when the Bills defense stayed in zone coverages, the motion still impacted what happened after the snap, and how McVay uses these motions to help quarterback Jared Goff:
Sean McVay and presnap motion, revisited
*Forcing you to pay attention to it *Defined reads and throws for Goff *Giving the quarterback information presnap pic.twitter.com/gbpOEiv33j
Sean McVay is determined to get defenses to pay attention to presnap motion. Even when the defense is playing zone coverage, as we see in the above breakdown, the use of motion still forces defensive backs to react to what happens after the play, creating throwing lanes and opportunities for Goff. Smart coaching is all about putting your players in a position to be successful, and McVay is determined to do that with Goff, by using motion.
