Great Article on Defensive Strategy in Hawks - Falcons Game

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/01/09/...dium=newsletter&utm_campaign=seattle-seahawks

I thought this article was really interesting and enlightening. The winner of this game may truly have the coaching staff with the best defensive minds. It is a fairly technical read, but very entertaining.

"In terms of strategic battles, Falcons offense vs. Seahawks defense was the best of the 2016 NFL season. Blown coverages are viewed as defensive mistakes, but in the NFL they’re often instigated by specific offensive tactics. That’s what happened here.

Nobody outside of the Seahawks knows Sherman and the rest of that defense better than Falcons head coach Dan Quinn, who coordinated it from 2013-14. That afternoon, Quinn and Kyle Shanahan, currently the NFL’s best offensive coordinator, did exactly what Quinn would not have wanted to see when he was calling Seattle’s defense. (Or exactly what he would not want to see now, considering he’s installed his Seahawks-style scheme in Atlanta.)"

....

"The Seahawks-Falcons battle is great because both sides know every detail of those nuances. Seattle’s Cover 3 has had to evolve a lot this season. So has Atlanta’s. Never will a game demand more creative evolution than the do-or-die battle between these clubs on Saturday."

I am reminded of the Pittsburgh game last year. Everyone assumed both defenses had taken a day off because the game was high-scoring (39-30). The reality was that it was two very similar defenses playing each other, and both quarterbacks felt quite at home because they were facing defenses strikingly close to what they practiced against all week. The Falcons game could have a similar outcome.

Good read, but the route combination he's describing shouldn't be a problem for cover 3.

Went back and watched it and then read a description of Sherman's explanation of the breakdown, and I'd put my money on Sherman trying to pattern match with McCray never calling the switch out.

It's the only thing that makes sense.

That also explains Sherman's freakout -- the Hawks have had years of success playing a dumbed down, day 1 high school cover 3 scheme, and Richards is introducing pattern matching this year, which is awesome when it works but if someone messes up it's light out (which happened twice in that falcons game).

Whatever it is, Sherman was never playing cover 3 on that play, or anything like it. What Benoit said went "wrong" with the cover 3 is oddly the tip off that something more than cover 3 is going on (it seriously looks like everyone on D is playing cover 3 except Sherman -- pattern matching on the trips side makes a ton of sense, and I'm guessing that got jangled up somewhere).

http://www.upi.com/Sports_News/NFL/2016 ... 476796402/

Thanks for the further explanation Popeye!

Popeyejones":13svuu5o said:

Good read, but the route combination he's describing shouldn't be a problem for cover 3.

Went back and watched it and then read a description of Sherman's explanation of the breakdown, and I'd put my money on Sherman trying to pattern match with McCray never calling the switch out.

It's the only thing that makes sense.

That also explains Sherman's freakout -- the Hawks have had years of success playing a dumbed down, day 1 high school cover 3 scheme, and Richards is introducing pattern matching this year, which is awesome when it works but if someone messes up it's light out (which happened twice in that falcons game).

Whatever it is, Sherman was never playing cover 3 on that play, or anything like it. What Benoit said went "wrong" with the cover 3 is oddly the tip off that something more than cover 3 is going on (it seriously looks like everyone on D is playing cover 3 except Sherman -- pattern matching on the trips side makes a ton of sense, and I'm guessing that got jangled up somewhere).

http://www.upi.com/Sports_News/NFL/2016 ... 476796402/

Click to expand...

Good stuff, thanks.

Also, they exploited the hell out of our zone coverage in the second half motioning the back-up TE over and over. Start in-line, send him out wide, Sherman would have to take him, he would run 10 yards and stand there. Julio was in the slot once the TE would go wide and Sherman was taken out of coverage. Quinn knew exactly what would happen and they kept using it. The irony is, later in the game, Sherman left the TE on an identical play call to cover a quick pass and the TE ended up scoring a wide open TD.

sam1313":67ynqdo5 said:

Thanks for the further explanation Popeye!

Click to expand...

For sure, man.

This stuff is kinda technical (as you say), but if you're willing to invest just a little bit of time it does open up to watching the game in a whole new way.

If you come across someone in an article or on a messageboard (or on a broadcast) use a term you're not familiar with, the glossary on Inside the Pylon is really great with a lot of videos and explanations: http://insidethepylon.com/football-term-glossary/

Seriously though (and I can't believe I'm saying this :lol: ) BY FAR the most fun and easiest way to open yourself up to the more technical side of what's happening in an NFL game is to go through all of the offensive and defensive tutorials in Madden 17.

At this point everyone in the NFL is basically running a collection of the same passing concepts (e.g. everyone uses the smash concept but Chip Kelly uses it a lot) to try to beat a collection of the same defensive coverage concepts (everyone runs cover 3 but the Seahawks use it a lot -- the smash concept is most effective as a cover 2 beater, so people don't run it against the Seahawks as much).

It adds a whole layer -- and is a ton of fun -- once you can watch a replay and know what the concepts are and identify them.

Madden makes it a little too easy of course (defenses in the real NFL disguise coverages*, and not so much in Madden) but to get the basic gist of things this year's Madden is really just an incredible resource.


*Why I can say with a lot of certainty that Benoit's argument doesn't make much sense, but can't actually tell you if on that Julio Jones touchdown the Hawks were 1) supposed to be pattern matching and McCray blew the call, 2) were in man but supposed to audible into cover 3 in that formation and McCray didn't relay that, 3) they were supposed to play man on the trips side and zone on the weak side when seeing that formation and McCray blew it by trying to play cover 3, or 4) Sherman just had a brain fart.

(Off-topic, but this is also a good example of a very valid critique of PFF grading. On that play Julio Jones definitely got a "plus" grade but he didn't really do anything, and the PFF grader had to assign a "minus" grade to either McCray or Sherman or both, but unless you know who was supposed to be doing what on that mixup it's totally impossible to assign the grade correctly, and only the Seahawks actually know).