1st Quarter passing vs Arizona

[AbsolutNET]

I had a few spare minutes and access to the all 22 so I wanted to look at the passing game. I got the 1st quarter done and here's what I came up with. Just info for you to make your own conclusions from. I know it's late, but what the heck.

1st & 10, 1st Quarter
5 wide, twins to right. Lynch @ split end is a good pre-snap read with leverage and off coverage w/ double slants. Looks to slot on other side vs. off coverage, has 3 yard out but doesn’t throw off his drop. Scrambles for 5 yards, had two good looks on each side of the field he didn’t pull the trigger on. Even had Tate on a LB in the middle of the field, but bailed from a clean pocket because the routes broke quickly and he didn’t make the throw. Russ needs to trust the pre-snap read and throw the ball on this one.

2 & 5
Trips left, no releases to the right. Combo is Go-Post-Out. Cardinals have 6 in coverage and Russ throws over the top but throws long for Kearse. Tate runs a lazy Out and lets it drift into the defender, otherwise the throw could go to him if he stayed tighter. Had Kearse 1-on-1 but in tight coverage

3rd & 5
Shotgun, Quads. Cardinals show 6 rushers, drop the LB’s and rush 4. Hawks have 1 route breaking when Russ takes two quick steps and readies to throw, and it’s to the backside of the play. The front side combo is a deep out from the slot and a window from Tate where he pushes the seam and sits down in space. Lynch is running an arrow underneath, but by the time the routes break, Russ is being forced from the pocket on the right side. He could have thrown to Lynch but it was a few yards shy of the marker so he scrambled and made a really bad decision to throw into coverage into the middle of the field and it should have been picked. Looks like Russ picked the right side due to leverage with numbers pre-snap and a soft corner. Single safety showed man coverage on the back side. Good coverage against what the Hawks tried to do on the zone side. Soft corner bailed and gave the QB a read to throw underneath him with a LB screaming to the flats on the short arrow.

3rd & 3
5 wide, twins to right. Cardinals show 7 rushers, leaving 4 in coverage so someone will have to drop. Extra rusher to trips side drops, as to be expected & Miller stays in to block. 4 receivers vs 5 in coverage (man with the dropping LB in the middle). Russ looks to the left which is basically a Smash concept with a slant underneath instead of a hitch. Flanker presses the CB who stays tight, so Russ looks to throw in the void over that CB to the slot running a corner. Not a bad look and good coverage on the slot. Pre-snap gave the Hawks the space to run the corner, it was just overthrown. Ran a couple slants on the back side but the smash was the right look here, it just didn’t connect.

1st & 10
Trey right, Ace back
Boot left off run action right. Russ rolls away from the trey side. Single receiver pushes like a Go route, then stops, goes, and finally pushes to the sideline. Not sure what he was trying to do here but it took forever and Russ was at the numbers by the time the receiver broke to the play. Baldwin started in the slot and ran a drag across the field right at the marker. Backside S played this well, once he saw boot he let his DL chase Russ and dropped into coverage, which took away Baldwin. Russ tried to get it to him at the last second but it wasn’t there. Incomplete.

3rd & 2
Shotgun, trey left. Cardinals show 5 rushers and bring them. Coverage is single high safety with man on the edges (sound familiar?). Hawks release 4, Lynch stays home. Single receiver runs a fade stop with Wilson throwing complete to his backside for a great catch. The trey side combo is Dig-Out-Post. Kind of curious for a 2 yards-to-go 3rd down. The Dig took a long time to develop but the Post could have been a good look as the MLB cleared out to follow the Out, but it’s a throw that Russ needs to not hesitate on if he wants it. Solid protection and I can’t blame Russ for going to the Stop since he had the man coverage on it and a dense zone to the trey side.

3rd & 6
5 wide, twins to the left. Single high man-under with a blitz look. Press coverage on the twins, off the trey. Same smash concept on the twins side with the split end pushing the CB and the slot running over top of him. This time though, the CB turned his shoulders and dropped, so the read is underneath to the slant for a 9 yard gain and a 1st down. Trey combo is Hitch (probably a choice depending on coverage)-Go-Pivot (TE pushing to the MLB and then turning out). Good combo against this defense on both side of the play, imo. Built in man and zone beaters for the QB to choose from based on the pre-snap look.

1st & 10
Flex Left (TE with a second TE lined up a yard behind the C gap), ace back, twins right
Cardinals show 5 rushers with a 2 deep zone over top. Primary combo is to the flex side, TE running a go to clear out for the flexed TE running a short arrow to the flat. Interesting that Russ basically hopped to make the throw on such a quick drop. Good to see from him though making the play without taking much time in the pocket. Twins combo was In-Out which would have actually been a better read against off coverage here. But he hits the flexed TE for a 3 yard gain.

 

[ivotuk]

Thanks Absolut, is there a site where I can look up definitions because some of the terms are greek to me.

 

[Tical21]

Freaking awesome. Oh, I wish I had the time to do that! Not an easy task. I really appreciate it. Do you have any general opinions about what you saw?

 

[AbsolutNET]

I was just PMing Scottie, and the main thing we saw was the middle of the field being used as little more than space for the #3 receiver's choice routes. All the reads and combos are happening around the hashes. It's something I saw a long time ago just watching the games, but (granted this is one quarter of a game) it was shocking how little we even attempted to read anyone in the middle of the field. A couple times all that was being defending between the hashes was a single LB sitting there and picking up the receiver entering the zone, but it wasn't ever a primary read.

Protection wasn't bad at all, I think Russ made it look a bit worse by bailing when he didn't need to. He needs to develop that "stepping up in the pocket" portion of his drop back passing game. Trusting his pre-snap read is also a big one. When he does, he makes good throws and they are successful. We run into trouble when we develop our routes down field and play a defense like AZ (wihch is a lot like Seattles) where they can afford to drop 6 guys into coverage every play. One thing that jumped out is that we weren't simply taking what they were giving us - we tried to make things work against coverages that wouldn't allow it. A couple times he read the wrong portion of the defense, as far as I can tell.

 

[Uncle Si]

I was just PMing Scottie, and the main thing we saw was the middle of the field being used as little more than space for the #3 receiver's choice routes. All the reads and combos are happening around the hashes. It's something I saw a long time ago just watching the games, but (granted this is one quarter of a game) it was shocking how little we even attempted to read anyone in the middle of the field. A couple times all that was being defending between the hashes was a single LB sitting there and picking up the receiver entering the zone, but it wasn't ever a primary read.

Protection wasn't bad at all, I think Russ made it look a bit worse by bailing when he didn't need to. He needs to develop that "stepping up in the pocket" portion of his drop back passing game. Trusting his pre-snap read is also a big one. When he does, he makes good throws and they are successful. We run into trouble when we develop our routes down field and play a defense like AZ (wihch is a lot like Seattles) where they can afford to drop 6 guys into coverage every play. One thing that jumped out is that we weren't simply taking what they were giving us - we tried to make things work against coverages that wouldn't allow it. A couple times he read the wrong portion of the defense, as far as I can tell.

i dont have the tactical acumen to jump into this conversation, but I felt like (starting with San Francisco) our opponents have used edge rushers to get around the corner, then utilized a "spy" (wether it be dropping someone off the line or leaving a LB around). i felt like this was hampering Wilson's ability to pick up yards with his feet, but also covers the quick middle routes.

Am I off on this? (and let me know if I am, ive really no idea outside a basic concept of what I see on TV)

 

[Largent80]

How do you do this with that hangover?

 

[chris98251]

The defense we are seeing are covering the edge, as Absolute said if you read the cutter inside and throw it in rhythm it's a completion, if our receivers can't beat a linebacker most the time were in trouble. A lot easier to defend the sidelines with the sidelines as an extra defender. You throw it where our guys get it ot it's out of bounds. Trouble is once your cheating under and over and the sideline is the extra defender the pass gets harder to gain success with.

Wilson needs to drop and hit the cut route and it will be one on one with a linebacker for RAC a lot of times as the other defenders cheating on the sideline routes will have to recover. It will also open the run game and the deep and sideline routes by keeping the defense honest.

Now does Wilson do this from the gun or under center? I would like to see him under center with a 5 step drop, 3 step would be better but I think for a better pass trajectory he would need the 5.

 

[justafan]

"Thanks Absolut, is there a site where I can look up definitions because some of the terms are greek to me"

Those are a lot of WCO terms.Search WCO alot of info out there.Smart football has a ton of technical info that should keep just about any fan busy.You should be able to find all you want about the route combos and concepts he talked about.In fact more than you want to know.lol
smartfootball.com

 

[getnasty]

I need to play more Madden so i can get the playbook down to know exactly what your talking about. Thanks for doing this and hopefully you'll do a few more, you certainly have a knack for it.

 

[plyka]

I was just PMing Scottie, and the main thing we saw was the middle of the field being used as little more than space for the #3 receiver's choice routes. All the reads and combos are happening around the hashes. It's something I saw a long time ago just watching the games, but (granted this is one quarter of a game) it was shocking how little we even attempted to read anyone in the middle of the field. A couple times all that was being defending between the hashes was a single LB sitting there and picking up the receiver entering the zone, but it wasn't ever a primary read.

Protection wasn't bad at all, I think Russ made it look a bit worse by bailing when he didn't need to. He needs to develop that "stepping up in the pocket" portion of his drop back passing game. Trusting his pre-snap read is also a big one. When he does, he makes good throws and they are successful. We run into trouble when we develop our routes down field and play a defense like AZ (wihch is a lot like Seattles) where they can afford to drop 6 guys into coverage every play. One thing that jumped out is that we weren't simply taking what they were giving us - we tried to make things work against coverages that wouldn't allow it. A couple times he read the wrong portion of the defense, as far as I can tell.

Before the Arizona game football outsiders had a chart of every Wilson pass the entire year. Past ten yards and inside the hashes he attempted a total of three passes! They don't utile the middle if the field especially past ten yards. I mean at all.

 

[HawkRiderFan]

For those of you who have watched the game again, did our TEs get covered pretty well or did we just not go there (other than the TD to Miller). I had heard before the game that Tight Ends had been successful against the Cards this year, and Luke Wilsson was making 1 or 2 nice catches a game recently, but I dont recall us even trying to get a pass to him.

 

[SalishHawkFan]

I was just PMing Scottie, and the main thing we saw was the middle of the field being used as little more than space for the #3 receiver's choice routes. All the reads and combos are happening around the hashes. It's something I saw a long time ago just watching the games, but (granted this is one quarter of a game) it was shocking how little we even attempted to read anyone in the middle of the field. A couple times all that was being defending between the hashes was a single LB sitting there and picking up the receiver entering the zone, but it wasn't ever a primary read.

Protection wasn't bad at all, I think Russ made it look a bit worse by bailing when he didn't need to. He needs to develop that "stepping up in the pocket" portion of his drop back passing game. Trusting his pre-snap read is also a big one. When he does, he makes good throws and they are successful. We run into trouble when we develop our routes down field and play a defense like AZ (wihch is a lot like Seattles) where they can afford to drop 6 guys into coverage every play. One thing that jumped out is that we weren't simply taking what they were giving us - we tried to make things work against coverages that wouldn't allow it. A couple times he read the wrong portion of the defense, as far as I can tell.

First off, let me say that posts like this are what keep me coming to .net! :th2thumbs:

AZ does have a similar defense to Seattle's. Which makes it all the more head scratching that RW had problems reading it, since he practices against a similar D all week.