1. Game situation: 1st Quarter, 5:23, 1st & 10 at KC23, 3-3

After tight end Demetrius Harris (#84) motions to the left side of the formation, the Chiefs are running the following route combination with play action:

The Patriots are in Cover 1. Because Harris is staying in to block, Patrick Chung (#23) can act as an extra pass defender. As for the front 7, one consistent strategy from the Patriots was to have box defenders stand and/or move around pre-snap, making it more difficult for Mahomes to decide protection schemes and discern who was rushing. Here, defensive end Trey Flowers (#98) is also aligned extra wide to jam Travis Kelce (#87) at the line:

Post snap, the Patriots rush four and linebacker Dont’a Hightower (#54) is sucked in by the play action to Kareem Hunt (#27). This normally clears throwing windows, but Hightower is able to make an incredible recovery to undercut Travis Kelce’s route and intercept the pass. While watching live, I thought Hightower had faked a blitz, dropped, and fooled Mahomes. After film review, I think it’s likely that Mahomes discounted Hightower based on his reaction to the play action. Mahomes held onto the ball for a split second longer because of Chung’s presence, and Hightower flipped his hips in time to make a great play:

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Mahomes also misses Sammy Watkins (#14) on the deep over route. Duron Harmon is the deep Cover 1 safety and is playing outside the right hash, presumably because Tyreek Hill is the outside receiver on the play. Nobody else is on the left side of the field, giving Mahomes tons of grass to air the ball out and let Watkins run under it:

2. Game situation: 3rd Quarter, 13:39, 3rd & 2 at KC33, 24-9 New England

On the first drive of the 3rd quarter, the Patriots force a third and short with a 24-9 lead. Pre-snap, the Patriots are showing a look that could be a blitz with man coverage, Cover 1 or Cover 5, behind it. However, when Tyreek Hill motions across the formation, Jason McCourty widens with him and no defender follows him. This is generally a zone indicator. The Patriots have 6 defenders up at the line of scrimmage to cause confusion in pass protection. Tyreek Hill takes an inside release and runs a deep curl. The Chiefs route combination also includes a pivot and dig combination, sometimes referred to as “X Follow,” with Kelce running a spot route and Hunt swinging out of the backfield:

Post-snap, the Patriots are in Cover 2. They rush 3, and Dont’a Hightower tries to rob underneath Travis Kelce’s spot or short hook route. The initial coverage is excellent, and Mahomes is forced to escape the pocket to his right. Here is where Hill’s speed comes into play—with no outside vertical threat, deep half safety Devin McCourty clamps down on Hill. But when Mahomes escapes, Hunt converts his route from a swing to a wheel route, and nobody is back deep:

This play and throw from Mahomes is simply incredible. Cornerback Jason McCourty actually plays this pretty well, sinking with the route and forcing a precise deep throw while on the run. If the ball isn’t deep enough or too far inside, it’s either intercepted or broken up:

3. Game situation: 4th Quarter, 4:33, 3rd & 8 at KC27, 37-33 New England

On a crucial third down with the game on the line, the Patriots once again tried to confuse Mahomes pre-snap with box defenders standing and moving. The Patriots show Cover 0, with no middle of field help. However, Hightower and Kyle Van Noy(#53) show blitz, occupy lineman, and then drop off for any crossers or shallow routes:

Tyreek Hill ends up open, but the Patriots accomplish their goal by forcing an underthrow off Mahomes’ back foot. With better footwork, it’s likely a huge play:

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4. Game situation: 4th Quarter, 7:12, 1st & 10 at KC24, 33-30 Kansas City

At this point, a fake bubble/swing screen with a seam or wheel behind it is a huge play in the NFL every week. Here, the Chiefs are in Cover 3. Julian Edelman motions to the backfield and runs a bubble/swing screen, with Chris Hogan running up the seam:

Both the underneath hook defender and the safety fly up toward Edelman, leaving Hogan wide open behind them. Note from the end zone angle how well Brady uses his shoulders and eyes to sell the fake before throwing the ball to a wide open Hogan:

5. Game situation: 4th Quarter, 3:50, 1st & 10 at NE21, 37-33 New England

With an opportunity to put the game away with a touchdown or run out the clock, the Patriots come out in 21 personnel. The Chiefs aim to stop the run with a 3-4 front and are playing Cover 1. Brady sees the defensive look and checks the call to a play action:

Post snap, because the defensive back Jordan Lucas (#24) is so close to the line, the Patriots left tackle blocks him. Gronk runs underneath the block, and is wide open for a huge play. It’s hard to believe this is how the Patriots drew it up. But it is plausible they are coached to do this if a man to man defender is this close to the line of scrimmage. I’ve never quite seen this in an NFL game before:

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6. Situational football

Finally, a note about situational football at the end of the first half. The last four minutes of the first half decide a game more often than the average fan thinks. Good teams consistently score just before half and get the ball right back to start the third quarter, and also make sure their opponents don’t “double up.” Teams who mismanage the clock or turn the ball over before half miss out on “double up” opportunities. This is precisely what happened to KC, who was down 24-9 with :17 left on New England’s 15 yard line. They had 1 timeout and were getting the ball back after half. On 1st & 10, Mahomes turns the ball over on this play:

Getting the ball back after half and down 15 points against a potent offense means Mahomes has to throw this ball away and make sure the Chiefs score to get the opportunity to double up.

Unfortunately, I learned tragic news this week. Kyle Janeczek, one of the players I had the privilege of coaching, passed away suddenly. He was attending Dartmouth medical school, and was one of the kindest smartest people I knew. Kyle was also an incredibly gifted athlete who made me a better person and coach. I hadn’t posted an X’s & O’s breakdown in a while, and reminisced this week on Kyle’s successes as a football player and person. Kyle, this one’s for you buddy, RIP.

The post Key Plays from Week 6: New England v. Kansas City appeared first on Syed Schemes.

Eagles Hi-Lo Concept with RB Wheel

The Eagles got there first win of the season on Sunday with some help from the Hi-Lo concept. The Hi-Lo concept is a man coverage beater which involves an underneath “mesh” (crossers), with a curl route over the mesh. Chip Kelly adds a wheel route from the Running Back for two reasons: to clear out Linebackers from the middle of the field, and to potentially hit a big play if the Linebacker can’t cover the RB up the sideline. Below, the Jets are in a Cover 1 scheme with Man-to-Man across the board except for a “Centerfield” Safety in the middle of the field:

The Jets do a fairly good job of covering the crossing routes by jamming Tight End Zack Ertz as well as passing off the Wide Receiver crosser from the top of the formation. However, the Linebacker takes a poor angle covering Ryan Matthews, who is wide open for a Touchdown:

As seen below, the Eagles had run the exact same play just 5 minutes earlier in the game; the play was also wide open, but the Eagles couldn’t capitalize due to a poorly thrown ball. Look for the Eagles to continue to run Hi-Lo with an RB wheel against heavy man coverage teams. The Jets will almost certainly see this type of play against their defense in the coming weeks.

Bengals Ace Personnel Four Verticals

In a back and forth game between the Bengals and Ravens, Cincinnati hit on an 80-yard Touchdown to A.J. Green on Four Verticals. A deeper look shows what happens when a great play call meets perfect execution. The Bengals are in Ace personnel, which means there are 2 Tight Ends, 2 Wide Receivers and 1 Running Back. The Bengals shift to a Closed Tight End Trips formation, and the Ravens are in Cover 1 (Man-to-Man coverage with Safety Will Hill in the middle of the field):

Note the spacing of the vertical routes on the top of the formation by the Bengals Receivers; the outside WR (Marvin Jones) is almost at the sideline while the slot WR (A.J. Green) is outside of the numbers. This would be poor spacing against zone coverage. Outside Wide Receivers are generally taught to “stack” defenders instead of fading toward the sideline to give QB’s a bigger throwing window. However, against the Ravens Cover 1 it is the perfect call.  Marvin Jones is almost at the sideline; this is ideal because the defender man turns toward him and is prevented from breaking on A.J. Green’s vertical route. Meanwhile, you can see below how hard A.J. Green works to get outside of his defender and outside of the numbers to stay away from the Safety Will Hill and give QB Andy Dalton a throwing window. Hill is shading towards Green pre-snap, but cannot get over fast enough because of the spacing Jones and Green created. The ball is delivered accurately, and A.J. Green does the rest.

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Awareness

Devin McCourty made one of the best plays of the year from the Free Safety position during the 3rd Quarter of the 2014 divisional round due to his awareness and play recognition skills. On the first drive of the game, the Patriots gave up a big gain on this pass play:

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However, in the third quarter, Devin McCourty was able to recognize that the Ravens were in the same formation (flipped the other way) with the same motion pre-snap:

From his centerfield position in Cover 1, Devin McCourty recognizes that he has seen this formation before, and is able to diagnose the play due to his excellent awareness. Once he realizes the route combination, he breaks on the ball and covers nearly 30 yards to make the interception:

Range

The play above certainly also showed excellent range, but may not have been McCourty’s best effort with respect to range in the 2014 season. In week 2, he was in his usual Cover 1 Centerfield role when he broke on a Matt Cassel throw, covering about 30 yards of ground before making a great interception:

The play also shows just how fundamentally sound McCourty is with respect to backpedal technique and his eyes. As you can see, when Cassel is about to release the ball, McCourty is still deeper than the post route.

Versatility

Devin McCourty started his career as a Cornerback before switching to Free Safety. This factor combined with his excellent athleticism has also helped him become one of the most versatile Free Safeties in the game. While McCourty spends most of his time as the “Centerfielder” in Cover 1, he can also play man-to-man when needed:

Devin McCourty was also asked to play Man coverage against the Raven’s Owen Daniels in key situations during the playoffs. This ability gives New England scheme flexibility and enables them to disguise defenses better. The Patriots will certainly appreciate having Devin McCourty around for the next 5 years, even if it is at over 47 million dollars.

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