Analysis from the Atlanta Falcons game coaches film

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by natrone06:
No, whitner started in the box. That was 100% Reid's responsibility.

Whitner's only 3 yards closer to the line than Reid. Look at the play as a whole, look at the spacing of the LB's in zone coverage, they're not playing a 5 underneath zone coverage, if they are, then why is Whitner turning and running full speed back? Whitner is playing so close to the LOS because, from his view, the closest receiver to threatening his zone is a TE on the LOS.

You may have missed it but do you have any theories how Whitner always ends up on the dynamic TE's and bigger slot WR's (like Boldin) in the RZ/EZ? And why it's not Reid or even someone like Bowman/Willis contesting them at the LOS? Is it something in the design and assignments or things the offense is doing to isolate him? Either way, it's an automatic mismatch every time and WELL documented history over the past 3 or 4 years now. Fangio?

I'm not sure if it's so much Fangio's design, as it is the offense attacking him. Many of us remember Boldin's TD on him in the super bowl, although, I don't really blame that on him, we were running a cover 2 and they stole a good play design from GB to beat us on that play. This time, because we've given that up, we ran a cover 1 lurk with the LB, this mean Whitner would be 1-1 with the TE. Fangio has run a variety of different schemes in the endzone, just the way the play has turned out a couple times.

Cool and thanks for the reply; was wondering if you happen to see anything that stood out to you...a pattern.

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by natrone06:
No, whitner started in the box. That was 100% Reid's responsibility.

Whitner's only 3 yards closer to the line than Reid. Look at the play as a whole, look at the spacing of the LB's in zone coverage, they're not playing a 5 underneath zone coverage, if they are, then why is Whitner turning and running full speed back? Whitner is playing so close to the LOS because, from his view, the closest receiver to threatening his zone is a TE on the LOS.

You may have missed it but do you have any theories how Whitner always ends up on the dynamic TE's and bigger slot WR's (like Boldin) in the RZ/EZ? And why it's not Reid or even someone like Bowman/Willis contesting them at the LOS? Is it something in the design and assignments or things the offense is doing to isolate him? Either way, it's an automatic mismatch every time and WELL documented history over the past 3 or 4 years now. Fangio?

I'm not sure if it's so much Fangio's design, as it is the offense attacking him. Many of us remember Boldin's TD on him in the super bowl, although, I don't really blame that on him, we were running a cover 2 and they stole a good play design from GB to beat us on that play. This time, because we've given that up, we ran a cover 1 lurk with the LB, this mean Whitner would be 1-1 with the TE. Fangio has run a variety of different schemes in the endzone, just the way the play has turned out a couple times.

Cool and thanks for the reply; was wondering if you happen to see anything that stood out to you...a pattern.

Not really, I think it's also a result of being strong in other areas as well. We don't give up a lot of fade routes, so the offense really has to try and beat us over the middle.

Originally posted by SFFanSince72:

You see how close the defenders were to White when he catches the ball(even half a second later it's incomplete).



You see how close Smith was to getting Ryan, and how small the lane for Ryan to throw into was. His receiver just entered the picture after the ball is halfway to it's target.

You see how small the window was to get that ball in. To know that you're receiver is going to be in that exact spot, at that exact time, takes a LOT of practice. There's only maybe a couple qb/receiver tandems in the league that might be that in sync. That kind of play does not happen very often. Again, nothing I'm too concerned about us giving up.

There is no defense against a perfect pass.

Hey Jonnydel,

From the picture that I left here from the original breakdown of this play, it looks as though Bowman could have jumped up with his hands in the air and possibly intercepted or at least batted the pass. Can you see on this play from other angles whether the pass is actually significantly over his head or is it something that Bow can be more aware of in the future?

Thanks again for all of your analysis. And that footballxo site with all of the playbooks is awesome. I am just eating all of this up.

That's why I highlighted the circle as where the ball would be going. It's hard to get a 3D idea on a 2D picture. But, the ball is caught just inside the hash mark. Bow is probably about 12 ft away. He'll close but the ball is fit inside a 2ft window between him and Willis, that's a pinpoint throw 20 yards downfield under pressure. Like I said, a perfect throw.

So, I've just finished a scouting report on the Cardinals:

From their offensive side of the ball: They probably closest resemble us in the way their offense runs. Not surprising considering when I looked back at our games this year I thought the Colt's resembled us a lot too, and Arians came from the Colt's. They are much more of a power run game team. This is going to put a lot on our 3 down lineman in the run game. They need to eat up double team blocks to free up the LB's to be able to make the plays. If our DT's try and be hero's and make the tackle themselves, AZ's run game with make the game a lot harder.

Aldon Smith, Brooks, and Skuta will have to really strap it on this week. Last time, as well as against Seattle, they ran a lot off Tackle. Lemonier struggled at times against the run, and then they would go with a twin receiver set on Skuta's side to draw him outside and run off T. They didn't run at Brook's too much, but, with Aldon back they'll probably try and attack both edges. This means that Whitner and Reid are going to have to play disciplined in the secondary.

I see Fangio running a lot of cover 3 with the weakside safety taking the flat coverage. This will bring a safety moving downhill against the run to protect any cutback lanes. Also, don't expect too many stunts on 1st or 2nd down as those will be the primary run downs for AZ, if you stunt the wrong way against a power run team, you're screwed. Instead, I expect us to blitz more than we did against the Falcons. Willis will be the primary guy in coverage with Bowman being the blitzer - look for Bow to blitz the "A" gaps on early downs and then help with some stunts on 3rd and long passing situations. If we get pressure on Palmer, he can make some terrible decisions; but, make no mistake, Palmer has one of the best arms in the league. He can make every throw on the field and can throw a beautiful touch pass. His biggest weakness is when he tries to force a pass or gets pressured into a bad decision.

I see them trying to Isolate Fitz on Brock, Brock gave up the big TD to fitz in our last meeting. Also, Fitz hurt Seattle with some double moves - which Brock is susceptible to.

From the defensive side:
A lot of people compare AZ's defense to Seattle, because they play a lot of man coverage with a single high safety. However, to me, they are much different. Seattle plays a 6-2 front almost all the time. AZ's defense is very similar to the type of defense the Jets ran with Revis. They run a 5-2 with a safety usually in the box. A 5-2 is different from a 3-4 in the DT's. 3-4 has a Nose and 2 DE's(playing inside shade of the T or wider) with 2 OLB's, a 5-2 is playing with a NT and 2 DT's(outside shade of the guard or closer), and 2 DE's. This allows their LB's to roam around a lot and their LB's have good sideline to sideline speed. Dansby wants DPOY but I think a lot of his numbers have to do with a very friendly scheme more than him being an All-pro. Don't get me wrong, he makes some outstanding plays, but the scheme also allows him to freely roam a lot. AZ can really play their scheme because of Patrick Peterson - to me, he's the defensive MVP of that team.

Expect us to run the ball off Guard. AZ's 5 man front makes it very difficult to run at the edges. We had no success doing it last time and Seattle had a couple chunk plays, but other than that, nothing. Most success comes from running it at their DT's. Expect a lot of "Wham" plays and quick hitting traps inside. We're going to have some of these blown up, be patient, when you run inside like that you'll have a lot of "1 yard gain", "10 yard gain", "0 yard gain" "8yard gain". sort of plays. It's not as consistent, but, it's how we're going to get our run game going.

We're going to run a lot of "21" personnel. The mistake a lot of teams make against AZ, is thinking that you have to spread the field to attack them. This is exactly what they want you to do. They have a good secondary who can play good man coverage. They will consistently leave Peterson on an island. Against us, on 90-95% of the plays, they ran a single high safety with the safety shaded away from Peterson. What I mean is, the safety wasn't in the middle of the field. He would usually be on the opposite hash mark than the side Peterson was on. This is just what the Jets did with Revis. Peterson never gets safety help. Because of this, the other CB's have an easier time in their man coverage cause they have safety help with AZ coming with 5-6 man pressures all the time. If you try and spread the field, the pass rush will devastate you.

I see us trying to figure out who Peterson will be shadowing early in the game, then isolating that receiver as the "X" receiver(away from the TE) and running a lot of combinations with the "Y" and "Z". This will get the Z(either Boldin or Crabs) in 1-1's with the #2 corner; or, get VD free over the top or 1-1 with a LB or S.

I see us actually including some screen passes in this game on some 3rd and longer situations. AZ LOVES to pressure the "A" gaps. Very much a Dom Capers type of pressure. They love to blitz Washington and Dansby in the "A" gaps. This is where Dansby has gotten a lot of his sacks, he's gotten free releases on QB's because they overload the interior. We could use some screens to counter this.

If you have any questions about what AZ will do feel free to ask.

Originally posted by jonnydel:
So, I've just finished a scouting report on the Cardinals:

From their offensive side of the ball: They probably closest resemble us in the way their offense runs. Not surprising considering when I looked back at our games this year I thought the Colt's resembled us a lot too, and Arians came from the Colt's. They are much more of a power run game team. This is going to put a lot on our 3 down lineman in the run game. They need to eat up double team blocks to free up the LB's to be able to make the plays. If our DT's try and be hero's and make the tackle themselves, AZ's run game with make the game a lot harder.

Aldon Smith, Brooks, and Skuta will have to really strap it on this week. Last time, as well as against Seattle, they ran a lot off Tackle. Lemonier struggled at times against the run, and then they would go with a twin receiver set on Skuta's side to draw him outside and run off T. They didn't run at Brook's too much, but, with Aldon back they'll probably try and attack both edges. This means that Whitner and Reid are going to have to play disciplined in the secondary.

I see Fangio running a lot of cover 3 with the weakside safety taking the flat coverage. This will bring a safety moving downhill against the run to protect any cutback lanes. Also, don't expect too many stunts on 1st or 2nd down as those will be the primary run downs for AZ, if you stunt the wrong way against a power run team, you're screwed. Instead, I expect us to blitz more than we did against the Falcons. Willis will be the primary guy in coverage with Bowman being the blitzer - look for Bow to blitz the "A" gaps on early downs and then help with some stunts on 3rd and long passing situations. If we get pressure on Palmer, he can make some terrible decisions; but, make no mistake, Palmer has one of the best arms in the league. He can make every throw on the field and can throw a beautiful touch pass. His biggest weakness is when he tries to force a pass or gets pressured into a bad decision.

I see them trying to Isolate Fitz on Brock, Brock gave up the big TD to fitz in our last meeting. Also, Fitz hurt Seattle with some double moves - which Brock is susceptible to.

From the defensive side:
A lot of people compare AZ's defense to Seattle, because they play a lot of man coverage with a single high safety. However, to me, they are much different. Seattle plays a 6-2 front almost all the time. AZ's defense is very similar to the type of defense the Jets ran with Revis. They run a 5-2 with a safety usually in the box. A 5-2 is different from a 3-4 in the DT's. 3-4 has a Nose and 2 DE's(playing inside shade of the T or wider) with 2 OLB's, a 5-2 is playing with a NT and 2 DT's(outside shade of the guard or closer), and 2 DE's. This allows their LB's to roam around a lot and their LB's have good sideline to sideline speed. Dansby wants DPOY but I think a lot of his numbers have to do with a very friendly scheme more than him being an All-pro. Don't get me wrong, he makes some outstanding plays, but the scheme also allows him to freely roam a lot. AZ can really play their scheme because of Patrick Peterson - to me, he's the defensive MVP of that team.

Expect us to run the ball off Guard. AZ's 5 man front makes it very difficult to run at the edges. We had no success doing it last time and Seattle had a couple chunk plays, but other than that, nothing. Most success comes from running it at their DT's. Expect a lot of "Wham" plays and quick hitting traps inside. We're going to have some of these blown up, be patient, when you run inside like that you'll have a lot of "1 yard gain", "10 yard gain", "0 yard gain" "8yard gain". sort of plays. It's not as consistent, but, it's how we're going to get our run game going.

We're going to run a lot of "21" personnel. The mistake a lot of teams make against AZ, is thinking that you have to spread the field to attack them. This is exactly what they want you to do. They have a good secondary who can play good man coverage. They will consistently leave Peterson on an island. Against us, on 90-95% of the plays, they ran a single high safety with the safety shaded away from Peterson. What I mean is, the safety wasn't in the middle of the field. He would usually be on the opposite hash mark than the side Peterson was on. This is just what the Jets did with Revis. Peterson never gets safety help. Because of this, the other CB's have an easier time in their man coverage cause they have safety help with AZ coming with 5-6 man pressures all the time. If you try and spread the field, the pass rush will devastate you.

I see us trying to figure out who Peterson will be shadowing early in the game, then isolating that receiver as the "X" receiver(away from the TE) and running a lot of combinations with the "Y" and "Z". This will get the Z(either Boldin or Crabs) in 1-1's with the #2 corner; or, get VD free over the top or 1-1 with a LB or S.

I see us actually including some screen passes in this game on some 3rd and longer situations. AZ LOVES to pressure the "A" gaps. Very much a Dom Capers type of pressure. They love to blitz Washington and Dansby in the "A" gaps. This is where Dansby has gotten a lot of his sacks, he's gotten free releases on QB's because they overload the interior. We could use some screens to counter this.

If you have any questions about what AZ will do feel free to ask.

Nice scouting report. I saw all the man coverage ARI was using against the 49ers in game 1, but was not sure if that's their desired coverage or if it as due to the book on how to beat the 49ers was, at that point in the season. Especially how teams (IND, HOU, ARI) only put 1 safety high to dare Kap to throw it. Thanks for confirming that it is their desired scheme. One matchup the 49ers were trying to exploit was VD versus JBell (SS). I feel ARI will come in focusing on taking VD out of the picture after his huge day in the first game. I hope Crabs coming back is going to be what tips the balance in favor of the 49ers regarding the passing game.

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by jonnydel:
So, I've just finished a scouting report on the Cardinals:

From their offensive side of the ball: They probably closest resemble us in the way their offense runs. Not surprising considering when I looked back at our games this year I thought the Colt's resembled us a lot too, and Arians came from the Colt's. They are much more of a power run game team. This is going to put a lot on our 3 down lineman in the run game. They need to eat up double team blocks to free up the LB's to be able to make the plays. If our DT's try and be hero's and make the tackle themselves, AZ's run game with make the game a lot harder.

Aldon Smith, Brooks, and Skuta will have to really strap it on this week. Last time, as well as against Seattle, they ran a lot off Tackle. Lemonier struggled at times against the run, and then they would go with a twin receiver set on Skuta's side to draw him outside and run off T. They didn't run at Brook's too much, but, with Aldon back they'll probably try and attack both edges. This means that Whitner and Reid are going to have to play disciplined in the secondary.

I see Fangio running a lot of cover 3 with the weakside safety taking the flat coverage. This will bring a safety moving downhill against the run to protect any cutback lanes. Also, don't expect too many stunts on 1st or 2nd down as those will be the primary run downs for AZ, if you stunt the wrong way against a power run team, you're screwed. Instead, I expect us to blitz more than we did against the Falcons. Willis will be the primary guy in coverage with Bowman being the blitzer - look for Bow to blitz the "A" gaps on early downs and then help with some stunts on 3rd and long passing situations. If we get pressure on Palmer, he can make some terrible decisions; but, make no mistake, Palmer has one of the best arms in the league. He can make every throw on the field and can throw a beautiful touch pass. His biggest weakness is when he tries to force a pass or gets pressured into a bad decision.

I see them trying to Isolate Fitz on Brock, Brock gave up the big TD to fitz in our last meeting. Also, Fitz hurt Seattle with some double moves - which Brock is susceptible to.

From the defensive side:
A lot of people compare AZ's defense to Seattle, because they play a lot of man coverage with a single high safety. However, to me, they are much different. Seattle plays a 6-2 front almost all the time. AZ's defense is very similar to the type of defense the Jets ran with Revis. They run a 5-2 with a safety usually in the box. A 5-2 is different from a 3-4 in the DT's. 3-4 has a Nose and 2 DE's(playing inside shade of the T or wider) with 2 OLB's, a 5-2 is playing with a NT and 2 DT's(outside shade of the guard or closer), and 2 DE's. This allows their LB's to roam around a lot and their LB's have good sideline to sideline speed. Dansby wants DPOY but I think a lot of his numbers have to do with a very friendly scheme more than him being an All-pro. Don't get me wrong, he makes some outstanding plays, but the scheme also allows him to freely roam a lot. AZ can really play their scheme because of Patrick Peterson - to me, he's the defensive MVP of that team.

Expect us to run the ball off Guard. AZ's 5 man front makes it very difficult to run at the edges. We had no success doing it last time and Seattle had a couple chunk plays, but other than that, nothing. Most success comes from running it at their DT's. Expect a lot of "Wham" plays and quick hitting traps inside. We're going to have some of these blown up, be patient, when you run inside like that you'll have a lot of "1 yard gain", "10 yard gain", "0 yard gain" "8yard gain". sort of plays. It's not as consistent, but, it's how we're going to get our run game going.

We're going to run a lot of "21" personnel. The mistake a lot of teams make against AZ, is thinking that you have to spread the field to attack them. This is exactly what they want you to do. They have a good secondary who can play good man coverage. They will consistently leave Peterson on an island. Against us, on 90-95% of the plays, they ran a single high safety with the safety shaded away from Peterson. What I mean is, the safety wasn't in the middle of the field. He would usually be on the opposite hash mark than the side Peterson was on. This is just what the Jets did with Revis. Peterson never gets safety help. Because of this, the other CB's have an easier time in their man coverage cause they have safety help with AZ coming with 5-6 man pressures all the time. If you try and spread the field, the pass rush will devastate you.

I see us trying to figure out who Peterson will be shadowing early in the game, then isolating that receiver as the "X" receiver(away from the TE) and running a lot of combinations with the "Y" and "Z". This will get the Z(either Boldin or Crabs) in 1-1's with the #2 corner; or, get VD free over the top or 1-1 with a LB or S.

I see us actually including some screen passes in this game on some 3rd and longer situations. AZ LOVES to pressure the "A" gaps. Very much a Dom Capers type of pressure. They love to blitz Washington and Dansby in the "A" gaps. This is where Dansby has gotten a lot of his sacks, he's gotten free releases on QB's because they overload the interior. We could use some screens to counter this.

If you have any questions about what AZ will do feel free to ask.

Nice scouting report. I saw all the man coverage ARI was using against the 49ers in game 1, but was not sure if that's their desired coverage or if it as due to the book on how to beat the 49ers was, at that point in the season. Especially how teams (IND, HOU, ARI) only put 1 safety high to dare Kap to throw it. Thanks for confirming that it is their desired scheme. One matchup the 49ers were trying to exploit was VD versus JBell (SS). I feel ARI will come in focusing on taking VD out of the picture after his huge day in the first game. I hope Crabs coming back is going to be what tips the balance in favor of the 49ers regarding the passing game.

Me too, the way Ari plays their single high differently though is in how they use the safety as help against the non-Peterson receiver side. It's almost like a cover 2 without the other safety. It's why it's hard to throw against them because Peterson really is a top notch corner. This is why I'll never give Sherman credit for being the best in the league. Seattle doesn't shade Earl Thomas like that, he plays center field all game. Revis, Peterson, and more recently Cromartie have allowed their teams to do this. You have to put all those guys above Sherman.

Awesome job once again. THis is good stuff.

Originally posted by jonnydel:
I feel the need to post something about the off coverage. It seems there is a majority that hate that we play off coverage so much and want to blame the off coverage for all the passing yards given up. To clarify, most of ATL's yards came in the 2nd half, mostly, in the 4th quarter. We played exclusively with off coverage the entire first half. The 2nd half is when we started integrating more press coverage.

The biggest difference was that Roddy White became a beast in the 2nd half and it didn't matter what we did to him, he still caught balls.

bear with all the pictures, but, I have to show a lot of different plays:



Here we're playing a cover 3 zone, with Whitner responsible for the 2 receiver side flat route. It looks like Whitner took the inside receiver. Rogers has to play off coverage because he has to take the deepest man in his 3rd, that could be White, it could be the inside receiver, he has to play off to cover both.



I don't think we're supposed to have 3 defenders on 2 guys in that part of the field, I think Whitner should've taken the flat responsibility, either him or Brooks blew their coverage which gave White the catch.



We play off Roddy again, this time they run a play action fake and throw it on a deep post.



The off coverage allows Brock to stay tight on the deep route



Ryan makes a good throw and White makes a good catch, didn't matter what defense we ran, they executed perfectly



We play off coverage again. This time White runs a curl route.



We're running cover 3 again, this time I think it's Willis who is held out of the flat because of the 2 inside receivers. Brock does jump the route aggressively(what I was talking about earlier, he wasn't the only one).



You see how close Brock was to jumping on the route, but, White does an excellent job of shielding the defender from the ball.



Here we play press coverage, White again runs a curl route.



Brock tries to get a jam but White dismisses his jam



in the end, Brock is pretty much in the same position as off coverage, and White does a good job of shielding from the defender again.



This was the critical 4th and 2 that ATL converted, we're playing press coverage on White again.



White makes a move on the defender and is able to create seperation



White again shield the defender from the ball.



And then the pick at the stick the off coverage allows Brock to jump on the route.

It was a lot more than simply, "pressing" the receivers to keep them from catching those short passes. I think a lot of us think we should just do what Seattle does and press every play, but that's not the style of defense we run. We're still in the top 3 in the league in points allowed - it's obviously working.

What do the Ravens do as far as coverage because it is clearly obvious we have so much more talent on defense?

Originally posted by GORO:
What do the Ravens do as far as coverage because it is clearly obvious we have so much more talent on defense?

They run a mix of both. I think we do it better though. Our points allowed per game reflects that.

Originally posted by wailers15:
Kaep needs to get better at looking through his progressions instead of locking onto one wr. this s**t is going to hurt us in the playoffs

Clearly you have no idea what you're talking about. just be quiet and let the big boys talk.

Hey johnnydel, I was wondering if you can see on film if Patton was able to get separation from the defender last Monday on the snaps he had on offense. Even though Kap didn't look his way, just wondering if he's quick and good enough to get some separation and should be looked at by Kap as another weapon.

Originally posted by defenderDX:

Originally posted by wailers15:
Kaep needs to get better at looking through his progressions instead of locking onto one wr. this s**t is going to hurt us in the playoffs

Clearly you have no idea what you're talking about. just be quiet and let the big boys talk.

Thanks for your analysis and observations JD. I'm afraid this is the only thread I read now. See what you have done!

Originally posted by defenderDX:

Originally posted by wailers15:
Kaep needs to get better at looking through his progressions instead of locking onto one wr. this s**t is going to hurt us in the playoffs

Clearly you have no idea what you're talking about. just be quiet and let the big boys talk.

Someone just lost his seat at the grown up table.

We are lucky as hell to have someone as knowledgeable as you Jonnydel to shine the light of truth on what actually goes down on the field. The broadcast views are terrible for breaking down plays, thanks man.