Griffin may be a passing QB - But it's his legs that will confuse defenses

[tshile]

I'm sure most of you remember this play. Where Griffin hits Moss for a pretty big gain in the 2nd quarter.

This was the play that made me go 'Yeah... this kid is gonna be good'. It made me realize how easy it is going to be for defensive players to get confused.

So I thought I'd take advantage of the game rewind subscription I just got (if you love looking at this sort of stuff then I recommend you get it... it's pretty awesome. I split it with a friend, well worth the $35).

I'll start with the coaching film.


On this first picture you'll Griffin, with the ball on the left hash mark at the 42 yard line. He's clearly looking left, where he has:
- Aldrick Robinson cutting back towards the Saint's 40 on the side line. he's covered over the top by a conernback, with another defender sitting inside him to cover underneath if he cuts in

- Roy Helu running a wheel route down the field. He's currently on the left side at the 50. He's got two defenders in front of him, I think th eone on the hash mark is a linebacker getting ready to close in.



On this next shot, Griffin has rolled out and is closer to the 45, well left of the hash marks now. He's surveying the field and looking at what he has, which isn't much at this point.

You'll notice a big red circle around the Saints 35 - Yeah, thats moss... coming from the other side of the field...



Now you'll see two circles. The red circle is Robinson being covered by two guys. one of the guys was covering Helu, until griffin quickly pulled down the ball and appeared to want to run with it. Then the guy covering Helu left his area (this is a zone defense if you. you can tell by the way people are releasing their assignments through the screen shots). Why?

Because Griffin is ****ing fast and he needs to get a jump on him if he's going to run with the ball. The problem for the Saints? Well, the two defenders around Helu (the blue circle) seem to be confused, both of them are taking off after him.

which - btw. helu was wide open for a sure TD if Griffin sees him and throws the ball, but I'm not really here to nit pick that sort of thing at this point...

This leaves Moss, on the 35, between the two circles, running free and clear with no one around him. Which leads to:


Which is Griffin picking the ball back up and chucking it to moss who now sits on the 34ish yard line, with absolutely no one around him.



Here's another angle. Right as Griffin pulls the ball down look at the defender with the blue arrow (the one with the red arrow comes into play in a second):



Now here's a quick second later, griffin pulls the ball back up:

Not only does the confusion create a situation where Helu is sprinting down the sideline with no one in front of him, and Moss is coming clear across the middle with no one around him, but the one defender winds up falling down because of the collision.


So, basically, what I'm saying is that even though Griffin will be the throwing QB we all want him to be, his legs and the mere threat of running is going to cause all sorts of problems for the people we play this year.

 

[Fear The Spear]

That truly was an amazing play, but wouldn't you say that the throw to Davis was equally amazing or even more-so, because it was almost identical, with the exception of throwing cross-field, against his normal throwing motion ?

 

[tshile]

That truly was an amazing play, but wouldn't you say that the throw to Davis was equally amazing or even more-so, because it was almost identical, with the exception of throwing cross-field, against his normal throwing motion ?

Oh i agree. I think that was more of an arm-strength and mental-awareness play.

This play stood out in real time (to me) as a play caused by his legs. Moss and Helu were open because a guy left his zone to try to stop Griffin from running. I'll look at that one when i get a few minutes, maybe it was a very similar situation

edit: coaching file is down i'll look later.

 

[tshile]

Ok, here's the important picture from the play to fred davis:

Thats Griffin at our 45, just stiff arming the defender to reverse course.
Davis is 1/2 trotting along like a stoner down the side line because the entire saints D has rolled to Griffin's left to cover the boot leg.
So yeah, his legs had to do with this one too. His ability to reverse course, and his arm strength, allowed him to find Davis who was just left wide open.

Funny note, like my original post, the RB is free out of the back field. Morris is underneath Davis in that picture, with every Saints player within 20 yards running away from him.

If Griffin decides to hit Morris, he has 1 guy between him and the endzone 40 yards away, and Davis is in front to throw a block (who knows if he would though... marijuana makes you lazy)

Possibly even more important, if Davis decides to actually run he's probably standing in the endzone picking flowers waiting for Griffin to finish breaking the Saints ankles and chuck him the ball.

 

[Fear The Spear]

Davis is 1/2 trotting along like a stoner down the side line because the entire saints D has rolled to Griffin's left to cover the boot leg.

This made me laugh. ...........

Possibly even more important, if Davis decides to actually run he's probably standing in the endzone picking flowers waiting for Griffin to finish breaking the Saints ankles and chuck him the ball.

While this made me cry.

 

[micks113]

He said he only runs when he has to. For RGIII its really simple, its pitch and catch or run and play keep away. The most talented and fastest man on the field and blessed with incredible speed + quickness. There's no mold for this guy, one of a kind.

Watching that game, by halftime, the total extent of my language boiled down to one word that I kept muttering over and over.....unbelievable!

 

[Yusuf06]

I've said this before but what the heck. I've wondered who knows how many times watching Michael Vick play just how devastating he could be if only he really understood the passing game. From everything we've seen to date RGIII is "that" guy. I can only imagine the awesomeness we're about to experience.