Next Day Thread: Merry Christmas Ya Philthy Animals

[Utah]

Almost forgot how much fun it is to read posts.

On the Lattimore slant TD. Actually, we're in a man coverage down here on the goal line. Chinn stays with Barkley, IG stays with the slot, Quan drops middle S to be the funnel point and Mikey and Frankie 'banjo' or swap the cross release. Alot of teams will play Match on the trips side especially in bunches. That generally helps a not great coverage LB mainly down this close to the endzone. Crap happens fast so minimize your movement as much as possible. Lattimore's mistake was he rolled his weight wrong at the snap. He is head up on Brown because of alignment, he isn't going to be getting any help over top, just to the inside. But his first 'step' is with his inside foot, so when the quick release goes inside, he loses a precious split second as he has to roll his weight and takes almost 2 steps to get going in the right direction. Wags has a first step responsibility with no threat for him to cover. He has to make sure that he doesn't vacate and leave the middle of the field open this close to the endzone. Its why it looks like he is a step behind for the slant. He does recognize the throw but by then its too late. The more he plays Brown, the better he'll be with his tech.

On the deep route to Brown. We are in a man free coverage (Quan) so outside player will/can play a trail tech taking away deep comebacks or outs. They have help on Post / Go routes. Quan in this case takes way to damn long to rotate and gain the high road on the only deep route. At this level, if Brown doesn't see a S, he would of broke inside on a post. He knew had he Lattimore to his back side and Quan was too far away, so Pickett did a nice job throwing a catchable ball that his guy usually gets or likes to have the ball thrown that way to him on this route. Either way, Quan should of squeezed Brown alot more as the only deep threat and between him and Lattimore, they would of knocked the ball down. In the end, AJ Brown is a damn beast. They get paid too.....and in this case, he gets paid alot to make that play more than not.

 

[KDawg]

Almost forgot how much fun it is to read posts.

On the Lattimore slant TD. Actually, we're in a man coverage down here on the goal line. Chinn stays with Barkley, IG stays with the slot, Quan drops middle S to be the funnel point and Mikey and Frankie 'banjo' or swap the cross release. Alot of teams will play Match on the trips side especially in bunches. That generally helps a not great coverage LB mainly down this close to the endzone. Crap happens fast so minimize your movement as much as possible. Lattimore's mistake was he rolled his weight wrong at the snap. He is head up on Brown because of alignment, he isn't going to be getting any help over top, just to the inside. But his first 'step' is with his inside foot, so when the quick release goes inside, he loses a precious split second as he has to roll his weight and takes almost 2 steps to get going in the right direction. Wags has a first step responsibility with no threat for him to cover. He has to make sure that he doesn't vacate and leave the middle of the field open this close to the endzone. Its why it looks like he is a step behind for the slant. He does recognize the throw but by then its too late. The more he plays Brown, the better he'll be with his tech.

On the deep route to Brown. We are in a man free coverage (Quan) so outside player will/can play a trail tech taking away deep comebacks or outs. They have help on Post / Go routes. Quan in this case takes way to damn long to rotate and gain the high road on the only deep route. At this level, if Brown doesn't see a S, he would of broke inside on a post. He knew had he Lattimore to his back side and Quan was too far away, so Pickett did a nice job throwing a catchable ball that his guy usually gets or likes to have the ball thrown that way to him on this route. Either way, Quan should of squeezed Brown alot more as the only deep threat and between him and Lattimore, they would of knocked the ball down. In the end, AJ Brown is a damn beast. They get paid too.....and in this case, he gets paid alot to make that play more than not.

Just watched this back again:

This is man, you're correct. Wagner is free due to no threat his way, so he is in a hook/curl zone drop. I think Lattimore is slight outside shade on Brown here, likely giving leverage to a fade attempt (but he could be head up, too, I'd love to see the tight). Brown looks like he may be reading Lattimore's presnap leverage to determine route. Brown actually plays that perfectly, too. His initial stem is outside, which makes Lattimore think his initial shade is correct, so he steps to leverage the fade he thinks is coming. The second he does that, Brown has the slant window because of Smith's inside release vs. outside leverage in the slot. That slot has to get to the near hip of the slot receiver, so his eyes go away from Brown (not that they'd be there anyways in man, but he can't even ball react). That slant window is open. The only hope, based on initial alignment, is Wagner.

And Pickett stares Brown down right away, but that's a lot of ground for Wagner to cover, especially because of Brown's quick slant and not a deeper slant route. Wagner, though, is reading Pickett the entire time and sees exactly where the ball is going. Wagner's lean and weight distribution is on his inside foot, so it takes him a second to get back as well.

I think Lattimore's mistake (and I agree now that I'm watching it vs. trying to come back to it from memory) is that he opens his hips to the sideline. Once your hips turn, recovery is a long (in football terms) process.

For others reading, hips being square is such a major coaching point. The second you open your hips in a direction you are pretty committed to that direction. Recovery is real tough against quality.

TLDR; It looks like Lattimore is playing fade all the way from pre-snap to initial stutter stem and Smith's route clears the curl zone. The motion from Barkley gets Wagner collapsing and inside so any reaction he may have is going to be too late for a quick slant.

Well schemed potential tendency beater from Philly.

I'm still not mad at Lattimore for it. If Brown stutter stems inside and releases to fade that is probably six in this situation as well. Though, devil's advocate, I'm not sure Pickett can hit that fade ball as easily as he hits that slant window. But it's clear they are afraid of the Brown fade here. It's actually really good scheming by Philly.

 

[Darrell Green Fan]

JD just needs to dump the ball off to Luke and let him do the rest. DQ needs to get the ball in his hands. As we see, he makes things happen w/KO returns!

Great, more bubble screens.

 

[Cloudy Jurgensen]

Having Bobby Wagner and Frankie Luva at LB is just a sweet luxury for fans. Of all the head-scratching spects of the Rivera regime, one of the most head scratchingest is the utter neglect of the linebacking corps - especially given that Ron played LB during his NFL career. Aside from the [ill-advised] drafting of Jamin Davis, the team seemed content to plug in cast-offs at the position for the whole span of Rivera’s time here. It’s a mystery why they undervalued the position so drastically.

 

[DWinzit]

Having Bobby Wagner and Frankie Luva at LB is just a sweet luxury for fans. Of all the head-scratching spects of the Rivera regime, one of the most head scratchingest is the utter neglect of the linebacking corps - especially given that Ron played LB during his NFL career. Aside from the [ill-advised] drafting of Jamin Davis, the team seemed content to plug in cast-offs at the position for the whole span of Rivera’s time here. It’s a mystery why they undervalued the position so drastically.

Add JDR into thee mix as another good ex NFL LB. It's absolutely the most puzzling part of all the poor concept/decisions Ron implemented. What's really amazing is he is not the kind of guy to reevaluate his tenure and admit mistake. While he did deal with a ridiculous front office and ownership, his actions often ended out adding to the baffoonery that was the Dan Snyder football team.

And yes, today it is like we are in LB bliss with the likes of Wagner and Luvu. Keeping fingers crossed with McGee proving a worthy addition

 

[Kel Varnsen]

I think Del Rio and Rivera just didn’t adapt to the way football is played now. They were successful as players in a different era. And successful as coaches in what you could argue was a different era. The LB thing seemed like their way of “adjusting” to have more speed on the field. But their scheme never adjusted to the style being played or the personnel. I just think their success as coaches came at a time when they understood how football was played. Things change quickly in the NFL and they just couldn’t keep up.

I’m glad this new front office and coaching staff spent the money on Wagner and Luvu. I was skeptical of the Wagner siting, but the guy can still play. He may be a touch slower than he was a few years ago, but he’s still a monster in that field. And Luvu, there isn’t much else to say. The guy is amazing.

 

[burgold]

I agree. Del Rio just wanted to play small ball. He thought a strong defensive line and a secondary should be enough. By the end, he was playing one linebacker on most downs and that was as much because of design as personnel given the way they built their rosters. I think in his mind the best defense would be four or five defensive linemen backed up by three corners and four safties.