PeytonMannings Forehead

Yeah, one thing I've been noticing the past few weeks vs. Buffalo and Miami, is those guards are starting to climb to the linebackers a little quicker than I'd like. Rubin immediately helps that if he's got any legs left. All he did in Seattle was eat up blocks.

I love it! Rubin is a dog, and don't mind the dirty work. I want him in uniform Sunday.

Yeah they've been doing this the past few games in that dollar package when Vic went out. He was rushing from there, spying, etc. It's gonna be interesting to see how the keep evolving that look with Vic back in the lineup.

In the NFL, the way windows open and close so quickly, Hooper was considered open. Here's a play from earlier in that same drive, only this time it did go to Julio. These are the types of throws you gotta be able to make. You gotta be able to rip the ball into tight quarters with safetys bearing down. And this is relatively routine. That window Matt threw in to Hoop, it wasn't anything he hadn't thrown in before If stick throws have to be made with the game on the line, you'd like it to be to this guy, but after this catch, Miami lost their mind and bracketed Julio wherever he went.

I was just about to make this point... and someone else mentioned it a little earlier in this thread about how Tony G. used to catch with his hands. Tony had that feel for zones and how to work in between safetys. Tony would have used that 240 lbs. and came back towards the ball and boxed that 190 lb. corner right out of the play.

Here's the actual play. You can see the wheel route by Freeman and the post by Hoop to the single receiver side. To the 3 receiver side you've got a spacing type of concept. I looks (and this is just my guess) but it looks like Julio might have had the option to turn that into a vertical based on coverage, but it wouldn't have mattered, and you'll see in a second because the safety was over the top the whole way. Here is it right after the snap and you can see the routes disperse. Miami is playing Cover-3. Now this is the key thing to look at and why Hooper was the only place to go with the ball. Both of Miami's safetys are looking at Julio. You can't see the second one here, but Jones, who made the interception is reading Matt's eyes and looking right where he was looking, which is right at Julio. This look off by Matt took Jones away from Hooper giving that post route enough space to be completed. Jones isn't even thinking about Hooper at this point. Julio gets bumped off his route by the linebacker. By this time, Matt has moved his eyes to Hoope who is coming open right in that void. And as you can see here, there is that second safety in the picture I told you was playing Julio over the top, squeezing that route. At no time was Julio open on this play or even a viable option. Matt made the right decision and he gave the play a chance by looking off the safety. You can criticize the design of the play, but the read was the right one.

Hooper was the most open receiver there. There was a linebacker underneath Julio and a safety lurking over the top. If you were throwing the Julio not matter what, you for sure would have thrown an INT.

It was the correct read vs. that coverage. You can take issue with the route concept but the decision was the correct one.

I talked about it some in that thread the other day, but I didn't do any pictures and gifs or anything like that. Now that last play, I was not in love with that concept. Looked like a spacing concept to the three receiver side, which more or less meant that Hooper on that skinny post was the only place to go with the ball.

The routes aren't different. Sark is just a different playcaller and I think he's still trying to get all the way into the offense. Like I could see how he was attacking Buffalo and it was beautiful stuff. It wasn't verbatim what Kyle did. It was his own thing and it was working. Then Julio went down. Then Sanu went down. That meant he had to cut huge chunks off the call sheet. Even then with spare parts the offense moved, but it was a stupid penalty were, a bad play there that kept killing drives. Similar deal with Miami. I broke down the second half in that other thread... sack on the first play of the first drive of the second half. That killed that drive. Second drive that rolled over into the 4th quarter they get into field goal range. They start to get their rhythm back then that drive gets killed by a holding penalty by Jake and then a sack. Next drive of the 4th, they completely whiff on a block on that toss sweep and it's a 5 yard loss. That drive is dead. Can't really put it on the playcalling like a lot of folks in some of these other threads wanted to when you start off with negative plays and can't sustain drives. Defenses are doing some different things this year which is limiting the big plays. Buffalo for example, they were keeping them safetys way back. I mean on some of those plays it looked like they were lining up in Buckhead. They just were intend that they were not getting beat over the top. So it's a combination of a lot of things. The execution has been lacking at the worst possible times. Defenses are doing some different things this year, and Sark -- IMO, needs to tweak some things and get back to the play-action, get that outside zone going, etc.

A big part of it is health. The Falcons offense was a lot healthier last year. Sanu didn't miss a game until late last season. Already he's missed a game and a half. Even though Julio is by far the best player on the field, Sanu commands respect. There are certain choices you have to make when both of those guys are on the field. It gets a lot easier to roll coverage and throw up those brackets to Julio when you don't have another big, physical receiver on the field. Also, Atlanta worked a lot more play-action last year, which needs to come back into the gameplan. I mean Kyle would play-action from any look, shotgun, under center, it didn't matter. That action, when the running game was going, helped freeze that underneath coverage which gave Julio space underneath to work.

That's the NFL and this is what high level quarterback play looks like. In the NFL that is considered open. When you see the back of a defender's helmet in man coverage, you let it rip. That's what you're trained to do. And Matt has been doing this long enough with Julio that he knew when Julio got that corner on his hip he was beaten and all he had to do was throw it to that spot. And that's what he did, he didn't throw the ball to Julio, he threw it to that spot and with that placement is was Julio going to get it or no one. That's a relatively routine completion in NFL terms.

And finally... This final one I'm doing for all you people that keep saying you gotta get the ball to Julio, I don't care, you gotta draw something up for Julio... It sounds good in theory but that's just not how it works and I'm about to put it in living color for you. After that last catch, Miami made the decision that "we don't give a ****. Julio ain't beating us. We don't care who else does what." Here's the concept. Kind of an Ohio Flood type of concept where the outside receiver to the top of the screen runs a vertical. Juilo runs the out and Hooper the flat. To the bottom of the screen Hardy runs the deep dig. Now this is two high coverage from Miami and Atlanta is essentially flooding the top of the screen. That's where Matt is looking. Generally, the Flood is a progression read concept. You read the vertical first, then the out, down to the flat. You really don't even bother with what's going on to the bottom of the screen. Here we go, and you play quarterback and read with Matt. Progession #1... Gabriel is eaten up with the jam right off the back. Progression #2, the out to Julio... Miami has a vice bracket on him right off the rip. Corner underneath and the linebacker following him the whole way. The linebacker completely disregards Hooper, who got a chip on Wake btw. Here we go a split second later, Matt still wants to get it to Julio, but take a look at the picture... any of ya'll still think the ball should go to Julio no matter what? Matt passes up Hooper who is progression #3. Usually that's a no-no, but this is gots to have it time. The rotation of the safetys and that linebacker way over there with Julio tells Matt that Miami is a man short to the bottom of the screen. Take a look at Hardy about to come open on the dig. I really wish Atlanta had won this game, so I could et even more effusive with the praise. But this is great quarterback play right here. You can't do it any better. Look at how fast Matt gets through 4 progessions. Look at how quiet his feet are as he resets to Hardy in the middle of the field and how he sticks that front foot in the ground when he makes his decision and drives the ball in there. But all that is neither here nor there. Point being, you go where the coverage takes you. I don't give a sh** that Julio doesn't have a touchdown. If defenses are going to keep doing stuff like this to Julio and leaving players wide open, I'll take it every time.

Here's a play from the last drive of the Miami game. Julio is running a 7 route. His split is cut down to give him extra space to work to the sideline. Now take a look at what Miami is doing. The top of the screen to the 3 receiver side, it looks like they're playing a Cover-3 concept. To the bottom with Julio it's straight man with a bracket over the top from the safety. Right off they've got him in traffic, with the linebacker trying to get over the top to get to Freeman coming out of the backfield. Matt makes a perfect throw. I mean, you cannot throw it better than this. Dropped it over the corner and in front of the safety and it was thrown with velocity.

Another play from the Buffalo game. Buffalo's defense was starting to key in on Julio, so Sark started motioning him around, which always causes panic for a defense. Defenses generally don't panic with motion, but when the guy they are spotlighting moves, it causes some issues. Julio motions across the formation and just look at everyone on the second level of Buffalo's defense. It's like "awww sh**" "you got him?" Yeah... no... wait... what?" They motion into a stacked split, which I love because you can't get a jam on the receivers in a stacked split. And now you've got your two top receivers on the same side of the formation. Now let's talk about the concept and get into the quarterback's head once again. This is called a SMASH concept. You got a receiver running usually a 7 or flag route to the corner, underneath, right next to him you have the other receiver running an out. Now this concept is going to be read just like the first post... Matt is going to key a defender. Here the defensive key is #27, the outside corner. If that corner sinks and goes with Sanu, then Matt will throw the out to Julio. If that corner sits shallow on that out, then Matt will throw the 7 route to Sanu. Let's look at what happens. The inside corner gets a pitiful lttle chuck on Sanu. Now take a look at the key defender. He's sinking. Matt knows instantly where he's going with the ball. Easy money. You can eat off stuff like this all day because it allows everyone to play fast and if it's read properly, the defense can never be right. Again, look at how fast the ball is coming out. 3rd down conversion.