The Morning After Film Fix: PreWeek #3 Carolina

There were many things to like in this Preseason game.  But, as always, the good comes with the bad.  I’ve picked three plays that were particularly enlightening to me for three very different reasons.

(Discuss this piece, among others, at our Message Board)

Flacco Interception #1

After a very productive first drive, the Ravens offense began to stall due to turnovers.  The first one was the most glaring:

Based on cornerback depth and the threat of blitz, the defense that Flacco is most likely to see is the one drawn above, a three-deep three-under Fire Zone with SS Mike Mitchell playing the deep middle third.  Given that defensive look, the goal is to target Tandon Doss in the seam between the underneath defenders and the ones over the top.

The defense post-snap was not as advertised pre-snap.  Maintained zones (from Image #1) are not transparent while new zone assignments are clear with orange arrows.  The defender across from Doss pre-snap blitzed and Safety Mike Mitchell now has primary coverage on Doss.

Doss does not flexibly change his route given the new defense and runs his route into the teeth of the post-snap defense.  Fortunately for the Ravens, Flacco sees the post-snap coverage exchange and throws the shallow corner route to Doss.  With outside receiver Marlon Brown creating space underneath via his 9-route, Doss should have a simple completion via the standard Cover-3 beater “Sail.”

Doss never runs the Sail route and as you can (barely) see in this Image, the ball is now going directly to the Cover-3 cornerback for the easiest Pick-6 of his career.

Miscommunication during on-the-fly hot-reads between receiver and QB only afford you one thing:

 

Marlon Brown’s Touchdown

Marlon Brown has played a ton of football for the Ravens this season.  Based on his prior performances (and the ongoing WR competition), he has a good chance to make this squad.  Plays like the following one are a great way to make a roster:

The Panthers are playing a simple Cover-2 shell with man coverage underneath.  CB DJ Moore is pressing WR Marlon Brown at the LOS.  Moore will try to reroute Brown at the line and play to his Safety help by trailing his assignment (sticking to the upfield hip) down the field.

Moore maintains solid trail technique but Flacco sees two very clear reasons why he should throw this ball to Brown.  1) DJ Moore has his back to Flacco and thus can’t see the ball come out or easily bat it away and 2) Safety DJ Campbell is being held in place because he has the dual responsibility of providing help for two underneath defenders.

Flacco rockets this ball into the small window directly over DJ Moore’s head.  As an extra bonus, Safety Campbell takes an angle too far to the middle of the field (solid arrow) and takes himself completely out of position to make this play.  Had he followed a better angle (dotted arrow), Campbell would have had an opportunity to defend the pass or at least attempt to dislodge the ball from Brown’s hands.

This is an elite level throw from Flacco who receives a strong catch in return with a touchdown as the ultimate reward.

Cover-4/2-Man Combo

Toward the end of the first half, Carolina is running their version of the 2-minute drill.  One particular play stood out to me as the Ravens rolled out an exotic defensive look even though hurried:

Carolina is lined up with three receivers to the left and a single receiver to the right.  Jimmy Smith is one-on-one with Brandon LaFell at the bottom of the Image, cornerback vs. wide receiver.

The Ravens combined two standard defensive schemes into one amalgam of a look.  They’ve combined Cover-4 on the left and 2-Man on the right side.  This is a very interesting way to use the strengths of the Ravens personnel (man coverage by Webb and Arthur Brown on the right, zone by Graham, Jimmy Smith, and Elam on the left) while complicating rather than simplifying reads for the QB in the hurry-up.

On this particular play, LaFell has driven ~16 yards down the field and eaten up Jimmy Smith’s cushion.  Therefore, Jimmy begins to bail (turns his hips to run toward the endzone).  Once LaFell breaks inside, Jimmy needs to flip his hips and recover into LaFell’s back pocket.  Jimmy is slow to turn his hips back to his receiver leaving him vulnerable.

This slowness to turn leaves him a step behind LaFell.  A simple run-and-catch, with a blocker in front, would likely have led to a touchdown.  LaFell dropped the pass and saved the Ravens 7 points.

I defended Jimmy Smith in when he gave up a touchdown to Julio Jones on a similar route.  Given the coverage on this play, the blame lies solely with Jimmy in this instance.