Tag: nfl week 2 2020

Baker Mayfield and the conundrum of comfort in chaos

Baker Mayfield continues to vacate clean pockets. It might just be who he is as a quarterback.

Some quarterbacks simply are who they are. Those of us in the football world pontificate about development, about scheme fits and landing spots, and project that quarterbacks that need some refinement will get that in the NFL. They’ll get “coached up.” However, sometimes that does not happen, and they are the same player in the NFL that they were in college. When Week 2 of the 2020 NFL season kicks off in a few hours, we’ll see perhaps the latest example of that from a former first-overall selection.

I’m talking of course about Baker Mayfield.

A few years ago when Mayfield was tearing up record books and throwing darts for the Oklahoma Sooners, his production was driving him towards a Heisman Trophy and the top of the draft board. That was due to some of the boxes he checks as a quarterback: Accuracy, athleticism, and yes the competitive drive that you need to excel at the position. I’ve said before of Mayfield that he does not just want to beat you, he wants to end you. Think of snubbed handshakes against Kansas, or stories of Mayfield saving critical articles to his phone for motivation. Sometimes the great ones have that self-motivational chip. Mayfield seems to have that.

But as this was playing out, there was something else that we saw on the field. Something I termed the “conundrum of comfort in chaos.” I first wrote about it back in 2016, and subsequently in 2018 and even last season. There were many examples of Mayfield vacating clean pockets and trying to create off of structure. It worked for him. Often. When he was at Oklahoma. But since moving to the NFL, it has been an issue.

It even showed up last week:

Now there might be something in the back of Mayfield’s own mind: His struggles from clean pockets. As Doug Farrar pointed out recently, the QB who struggled the most last season when kept clean?

Mayfield.

Which might have led to moments like this from last week:

So when you settle in tonight to watch the Cleveland Browns and Mayfield take on the Cincinnati Bengals and another first-overall QB in Joe Burrow, pay attention to what Mayfield does when the pocket is clean. That might tell the story of what Ohio team wins this game.

 

The Lions play more man coverage than anybody else. Why are they so bad at it?

Why do the Lions keep playing so much man coverage when they’re so bad at it? Matt Patricia should have answers by now.

Last season, the two teams that played the most man coverage were the Detroit Lions and the New England Patriots. Each team put man concepts on the field on 54% of their defensive snaps, per Sports Info Solutions. Not a surprise in that Lions head coach Matt Patricia used to be Bill Belichick’s defensive coordinator, and Patricia has several former Patriots (Trey Flowers, Jamie Collins, Danny Shelton) playing on his defense.

However, the results of man coverage for the two teams could not possibly have been more different last season. In 2019, when playing Cover-0, Cover-1, or 2-Man coverage, not to mention combo man/zone schemes, the Patriots allowed 10 touchdowns, picked off 18 passes, gave up a completion rate of 49.8%, and allowed an opponent QBR of 54.06.

When the Lions were playing those same coverages, they gave up 23 touchdowns, intercepted just four passes, allowed a completion rate of 55.9%, and opposing quarterbacks had a 98.7 QBR when “challenged” with Patricia’s man concepts.

(Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

This continued in Detroit’s Week 1 loss to the Bears, in which Patricia’s bunch put up a 23-6 third-quarter lead before allowing Mitchell Trubisky (?!?!?) to throw three fourth-quarter touchdown passes in a 27-23 Chicago win. As Chris Burke of The Athletic pointed out, Trubisky was able to make things happen as he hadn’t before after cornerback Desmond Trufant was injured. But with Trufant out, the Lions also gave Trubisky an increasing amount of man coverage… and boy, was that a bad idea. In the fourth quarter against man and combo coverage, Trubisky completed seven of seven passes for 84 yards and all three of his touchdown passes. Cornerback Tony McRae was debited with two of those touchdowns, and safety Tracy Walker had the third.

Now if you know you’re facing a team playing man coverage, and they’re really bad at it, you can throw all your man-beaters at that defense with impunity. As Bears head coach and offensive shot-caller Matt Nagy did on this one-yard touchdown pass to receiver Javon Wims. All Trubisky needed was the man indicator of the defender following his motion receiver, and he knew the crossing concept to the left side of the end zone would be easy money.

And on this 27-yard game-winner to Anthony Miller, the Bears ran a stop route to the outside, and a slot fade to the end zone. Stop/fade is an easy man-beater, and the Lions took the cheese as they tend to do.

So… why are the Lions so bad at man coverage, and why do they insist on doing it more than any other team? Personnel is a big part of it. If your secondary personnel isn’t matched to your schematic concepts, you’re going to get eaten alive — even if the opposing quarterback is Mitchell Trubisky. Before the 2019 season, the Lions signed former Seahawks slot defender Justin Coleman to a four-year, $36 million contract, making Coleman the highest-paid slot defender in NFL history. But Coleman had excelled in Seattle’s zone-based defense, and he wasn’t used to playing man as much as the Lions asked him to. The numbers played out as you might predict: Coleman allowed five touchdowns to just one interception in man and combo coverage last season,

Meanwhile, back to the Patriots. Last May, when I put together a list of the 11 best man coverage cornerbacks, New England’s J.C. Jackson was first. New England’s Jason McCourty was second. New England’s Stephon Gilmore was third. As you would expect, there were no Lions to be seen. Bill Belichick is the modern-day master of aligning personnel to scheme, so it should come as no surprise that when he corralled a group of players whose attributes made them naturals for man coverage, he would install more of it.

Patricia, on the other hand, seems to have made the worst mistake a game-planner can possibly make: He’s subscribed to the idea that no matter what kinds of players he has on his roster, he’s going to run what he runs, and to heck with reality.

Though first-round cornerback Jeff Okudah looks like a man coverage natural, Okudah hasn’t hit the field yet — he was inactive for the Bears game. The Lions had better find a way to get Okudah on the field sooner than later, because their ongoing man coverage disasters are killing this defense, and it’s clear that their head coach isn’t going to do an about-face, no matter how bad it gets.

Joe Brady’s creative use of empty formations

New offensive coordinator Joe Brady used some empty formations to give Teddy Bridgewater information on Sunday. Tampa Bay best be ready.

Many football watchers were excited to see former LSU passing game coordinator Joe Brady make the move back to the NFL to take over as the offensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers. Last year in Death Valley, Brady was partly responsible for one of the nation’s best passing games, and the huge draft board rise of current Cincinnati Bengals passer Joe Burrow. While the Panthers lost his first game as an NFL OC, Brady’s creative use of empty formations is a roadmap to how he and the Panthers are going to attack defense in 2020 and beyond.

This started early in their loss to the Las Vegas Raiders. Take this play, a 1st and 10 early in the contest. Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater aligns in the shotgun with the backfield empty. The Panthers have three receivers to the left – including running back Christian McCaffrey who aligns as the inner-most receiver – and two to the right:

If you look at the defensive alignment before the play, Bridgewater can be fairly confident, even without motion, that the Raiders are in zone coverage. The safeties are about 15 yards off the line, the cornerback to the left is in a zone alignment, and the linebacker nearest McCaffrey is not right over him, but shaded to the inside of him. Knowing this, Bridgewater can assume that that linebacker is going to open to the three-receiver side at the snap. That is what happens in zone alignments, and with McCaffrey to that side, it is even more of a likelihood.

So Bridgewater turns at the snap to throw the slant to the right, away from the linebacker drop:

The empty formation combined with McCaffrey’s alignment gives the quarterback information before the play, so he knows where to go with the football.

This completion from late in the first half. is another example of Brady using formations creatively to give his quarterback presnap clues. This time the Panthers start in an empty formation before bringing McCaffrey back into the backfield. In response, the cornerback who was over the RB simply slides, rather than trailing him. Bridgewater now knows the Raiders are in zone coverage. He makes a check at the line of scrimmage, and then works a concept in the middle of the field to Anderson with the receiver sitting down in a soft spot in the zone coverage:

Again Bridgewater gets information thanks to how the formation forces a defensive response. Only this time the defense is responding to a shift away from an empty alignment, to a more traditional 3×1 formation.

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Dwayne Haskins and decisive quarterbacking

Dwayne Haskins helped engineer a 17-point comeback, and in the win the second-year QB showed the decisive quarterbacking you want to see.

Perhaps the most shocking result of the first week of the 2020 NFL season was seeing the Washington Football Team come back from a 17-point deficit and beat the Philadelphia Eagles. Sure, much of the attention has been aimed at the effort from Washington’s defense, who sacked Carson Wentz eight times in the win. But do not forget about the young quarterback. In the comeback Dwayne Haskins showed decisive quarterbacking for Washington, which is exactly what the team needs to see from him in 2020.

Haskins completed 17 of 31 passes for 178 yards and a touchdown. From an efficiency standpoint, it was not the greatest performance. Those numbers translate to a completion percentage of just 54.8%, a Yards per Attempt of 5.7, and an Adjusted Yards per Attempt of just 5.26. Hardly earth-shattering. However, what you want to see from a young quarterback – especially in that critical second season – is the game slow down for them. You want to see that mental growth.

Take this completion to wide receiver Steven Sims from the third quarter. Washington runs everyone’s favorite play, four verticals. The Eagles show the quarterback a single-high coverage before the snap, but there is a twist. They drop into an inverted Cover 2 here, with the player who looks to be the free safety staying down a bit to cover the intermediate area of the field. The two cornerbacks drop into half-field alignments.

As a quarterback running this design against Cover 2, you need to either attack along the boundary in the soft spot, or get it out quickly up the seam. Haskins chooses the latter:

Haskins puts this throw high and slightly behind the receiver, who has to throttle down a bit to make the catch. At first blush the pass seems off target, but when you see the replay angle, you’ll appreciate where the QB puts this throw:

Haskins sees that the nearest defender to Sims – the retreating cornerback to that side – is playing just outside the hash. This puts that defender inside of Sims, and leads to the Cover 2 read from the quarterback. But given where that defender is in relation to Sims, if Haskins leads the receiver vertically or to the inside even just a bit, he will be throwing his receiver into danger. Instead, he almost makes this a back-shoulder throw, forcing Sims to adjust, and settle. The placement not only protects his receiver, but shows an advanced understanding of leverage and coverage in a compressed period of time. Exactly what you want to see from a young passer.

Then there is this huge 3rd and 9 conversion early in the fourth quarter:

Washington runs a duo of West Coast staples on this conversion. On the right side of the formation they run Tosser, or double slants. To the left side they run D-Slant, with a flat route from the tight end and a slant route from the wide receiver. The tight end comes in motion here and the safety trails him, so Haskins can be confident he is getting man coverage in the secondary. So when the Eagles bring a linebacker blitz there is no panic from the quarterback. Sure, Philadelphia is going with a Cover 0 blitz, but Haskins knows the coverage thanks to the pre-snap motion, he sees the cornerback playing off over the slant route, so the ball comes out immediately. He releases this throw while the safety responsible for the tight end has yet to clear the throwing lane, but since Haskins knows that defender is buzzing to the flat to cover the tight end, he can be confident in the decision.

This again is decisive quarterbacking. The kind of processing speed and decision-making you want from a second-year QB.

Washington Football Team…excuse me, the NFC East-leading Washington Football Team now gets to travel west to take on the Arizona Cardinals in a rather surprising matchup of 1-0 teams. Heading into 2020 many thought it would be Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray who would make the big “second year QB leap” but if Haskins continues to play with this kind of decision-making and processing speed, he’ll be coming for that title as well.

Aaron Donald turns his world-destroying sights on Carson Wentz

The Philadelphia Eagles struggled to protect Carson Wentz on Sunday. Now they face Aaron Donald.

One of the more stunning results of Week 1 was how the Washington Football Team was able to dismantle the protection around Carson Wentz. Washington sacked the Philadelphia Eagles passer eight times en route to their victory, leaving Wentz and head coach Doug Pederson wondering exactly how they can right the ship.

They’ll need an answer fast, because this guy is coming to town:

Aaron Donald continued his one-man wrecking crew ways on Sunday night against the Dallas Cowboys, pressuring Dak Prescott early and often and providing the timeline with many clips like this. Donald was credited with four tackles (one solo), a sack and a tackle for the loss. But as the film indicates, his disruptive presence up front was a huge factor in the Los Angeles Rams’ victory over the visiting Cowboys.

Donald got his sack on the first possession of the game from Dallas. Facing a 2nd and 9 in Rams territory, the Cowboys want to double-team Donald in this protection scheme, but the Rams employ a blitz from the second level that forces one of the offensive lineman to scrape off Donald and help out. That leaves Zack Martin, an elite offensive lineman, alone on Donald, and the defender forces his way to Prescott for the sack:

On this third down play, Donald aligns on the left tackle. But he cuts to the inside and uses a powerful bull rush move to drive the pocket back into the lap of Prescott, putting the quarterback under duress again and forcing an underthrown pass:

On a second down play in the fourth quarter, Donald uses a powerful push/pull move on the left guard before getting to Prescott just as he releases a throw:

Then of course there is this moment from the second quarter:

In case you missed the end of this play, watch how Donald destroys everyone in his path, including running back Ezekiel Elliott:

Finally, remember that debate last week about Donald’s run defense? Take a look at this play. On the final play of the first quarter the Cowboys face a 1st and 10 on their own 20-yard line. Prescott aligns in the shotgun with Elliott standing to his right. They will run to the left side here, pulling the left tackle and the left guard in front of the running back:

Of course, that means the tight end has to block down on Donald.

It does not go well:

Donald gets upfield in a flash, knifing into the backfield past the block attempt. Even though Elliott has a convoy of body mass in front of him – and the Rams are outflanked to the edge – Donald’s penetration forces the running back to stop and change direction in the backfield. Elliott cuts away from the convoy on the edge and into the interior, where the Rams have the advantage. He is stopped for no gain.

This week Donald gets to operate against a team that struggled to protect its passer in its opening game, leading to moments like this:

Getting Lane Johnson back will be a start. But if the Eagles cannot protect Wentz better on Sunday, your Twitter timeline will be filled with even more video clips of Donald destroying worlds.