Tag: the xs and os with greg cosell

How Puka Nacua and the Rams’ receivers are cooking in a surprising passing game

Puka Nacua has taken the NFL by storm. Here’s why Nacua, Sean McVay, and Matthew Stafford are cooking in the Rams’ surprising passing game.

When the NFL released the 2023 schedule, the Week 5 matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and the Philadelphia Eagles was not seen as must-see TV outside of the fans of those two teams. The Eagles are the defending NFC champions, and the Rams were portrayed as a team in full rebuild with little to go on. But even without Cooper Kupp (hamstring) in the first four weeks of the season, Sean McVay’s passing game has been one of the league’s most interesting, and one of the toughest to stop. And the pointman has been BYU rookie receiver Puka Nacua, the fifth-round pick who has exceeded all expectations.

Nacua’s 22-yard touchdown in overtime to send his team to a 29-23 win over the Indianapolis Colts last Sunday was just the latest play in what has become a historical season to date.

Nacua’s 39 receptions is the most for any first-year receiver in his first four pro football games — and in fact, he’s already passed Reggie Bush for the most receptions for any rookie in his first FIVE games. Nacua also has the most receiving yards (501) for any rookie receiver, and he’s the first rookie with three 100-yard games in his first four opportunities, joining Harlon Hill of the Chicago Bears in 1954.

So, it’s clear that Nacua is a natural fit for what McVay and offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur are cooking up this season. In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys get into how the Rams are controlling the middle of the field with simple concepts that work exceedingly well.

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You can watch this week’s full “Xs and Os” video, featuring all of Week 5’s biggest NFL matchups, right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

Now, let’s get into this surprising Rams passing game — and why it could be a major issue for the Eagles’ defense.

The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell: Previewing Week 3’s biggest NFL matchups

With tape study and advanced metrics, Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar detail Week 3’s biggest matchups in this week’s “Xs and Os” video and podcast.

It’s time for Week 3 of the NFL season, and Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup, and Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire, are here to preview the biggest games and the most exciting matchups in the new week.

This week’s games:

Buffalo Bills at Washington Commanders: How Sam Howell has impressed just about everybody.

Los Angeles Chargers at Minnesota Vikings: What might Justin Herbert see from Brian Flores’ offense? Based on this year’s trend, it could be just about anything.

Chicago Bears at Kansas City Chiefs: Justin Fields is clearly on the outs with his coaches. How can the Bears put together a functional passing game?

Philadelphia Eagles at Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Where are we with Jalen Hurts’ pocket vision after two weeks, and why Baker Mayfield is looking so good in Dave Canales’ offense.

You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os” right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to “The Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

The Xs and Os: Justin Herbert vs. Brian Flores is a chess match to savor

When the Chargers and Vikings play on Sunday, pay attention to the chess match between Vikings DC Brian Flores and Chargers QB Justin Herbert.

Both the Los Angeles Chargers and the Minnesota Vikings come into Sunday’s matchup with 0-2 records, but we shouldn’t overlook this game from a schematic perspective. That’s because Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores is one of the most unpredictable coaches in his position in the NFL, and Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert has the physical and mental tools to nuke just about any weird defense you want to throw at him.

Moreover, the Chargers are getting it done in the run game as well, and this could be a problem Flores doesn’t want to revisit. In Week 2 against the Philadelphia Eagles, Flores started the game with some pressure looks, but called far more five-man “umbrella” coverages out of big nickel.

Per Sports Info Solutions, in Week 1 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Vikings had a light box on 37% of their defensive snaps, which ranked 28th in the league. Against the Eagles, the Vikings had a light box on 63% of their defensive snaps, which led the league. The Eagles responded as you should against all those light boxes — by running the ball 48 times for 259 yards and three touchdowns. 

The Chargers have run the ball this season 61 times for 294 yards and three touchdowns. Both Austin Ekeler and Joshua Kelley have played well, so you wonder what the strategy will be here.

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” Greg (of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup) and Doug (of Touchdown Wire) got into the adjustments Philly offensive coordinator Brian Johnson made against all those coverages, and what we might see in Week 3.

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The Vikings did give up two explosive plays to the Eagles in Week 2, and this is something to monitor, bccause both came against blitzes. There was this 54-yard pass to DeVonta Smith against a six-man pressure and Cover-2 in which both Smith and A.J. Brown were open on mirrored vertical routes…

…and this 63-yard pass to Smith — another six-man pressure and some highly questionable coverage on the back end.

The problem with Herbert, as the Tennessee Titans found out last Sunday, is that even when you throw drops into coverage at him post-snap, he can still make bang-on throws like this 42-yard laser to Keenan Allen.

And when pressured this season, per Pro Football Focus, Herbert has completed seven of 15 passes for 104 yards, two of his three touchdowns, and no interceptions.

(Photo by David Berding/Getty Images)

Most likely, Flores will pick his poisons carefully and switch it up against Herbert. No matter what, it’ll be a fascinating back-and-forth.

You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os” right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to “The Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

The Xs and Os: Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers rule the run game with motion

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys pick one play to detail how the 49ers dominate with the motion run game.

With 8:02 left in the wild-card playoff game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks, the 49ers already had a 3-0 lead, and they were looking to gain more momentum at the start of their second drive. They started from their own 15-yard line, but they didn’t stay there very long. The first play of the drive was a 68-yard Christian McCaffrey run that took the ball to the Seattle 17-yard line, set up San Francisco’s first touchdown, and helped to facilitate a 41-23 win.

If you’re familiar with the 49ers’ run game and head coach Kyle Shanahan’s offensive tendencies, the most unsurprising part of this particular play was that it had dimensional aspects of pre-snap movement.

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In this week’s episode of “The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” Greg (of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup) and Doug (of Touchdown Wire) talked about how pre-snap motion has become one of the NFL’s dominant concepts. We talk mostly about how it works in the passing game, but certain teams and coaches have devised ways to put defenses out of sorts in the run game as well, and nobody does it better than Shanahan — especially after the trade last October that brought McCaffrey to the Bay Area.

Per Sports Info Solutions, from Week 7 (his first with the 49ers) through San Francisco’s NFC Championship loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, McCaffrey had 146 rushing attempts with pre-snap motion, gaining 732 yards, 399 yards after contact, five touchdowns, 5.4 yards per carry, and an EPA of 11.40 — the highest such number for any back with at least 120 carries featuring pre-snap motion.

This play in the Seahawks game had both a pre-snap shift and a pre-snap motion. First, fullback Kyle Juszczyk shifted from right to left, and then, tight end George Kittle motioned from right to left before the ball was snapped. Both movements were designed to set up a perfectly-designed run play.

“What they did was, they started off in a 3×1 set,” Greg recalled. “Juszczyk shifted across and made it a 2×2 set. And then, all they did was to run one of their basic zone runs. But they brought Kittle in motion before the snap of the ball, and he became a lead blocker. It was simply a zone lead run, which is in everybody’s playbook, but they got to it a bit differently, and Kittle became the lead blocker. Often, you’ll see a zone lead run in the I-formation; that’s how a lot of teams run it. You’re in the straight I, and you have a fullback in front of the tailback, and the quarterback is under center, and it’s a zone lead. The 49ers got to it differently.

“Now, it turned out that Kittle didn’t need to make a great block, because he was going to get the cornerback [Tariq Woolen,] and the cornerback was going to stay outside. But it set up beautiful blocking angles, because on that particular play, the Seahawks were in a two-deep shell, and the safety [Ryan Neal] stayed deep, and [receiver[ Brandon Aiyuk didn’t have to make a difficult block.

“This was a great example of the 49ers using motion in the run game, which they do exceptionally well.”