Analysis from the Atlanta Falcons game coaches film

Originally posted by lamontb:
Good job. Hope you got something you can post to point where you think the DB's did such a good job. Roddy White was killing Brock and Brown. Seems like they just gave him way too much of a cushion and he just kept catching 10 yard passes minus his touchdown. ATL's o line played lights out.

I don't have the OP's film study to back it up, but I thought we weren't giving Roddy cushion.

We were playing mid range zone coverage on Roddy, which I think is different then cushion.Cushion I think of man-on-man coverage where the corner is 7 yards deep or something.

Most of the catches by Roddy were underneath where if we made the tackle, Roddy wouldn't have made the 1st down. It was tackling him after the catch that wasn't working IMO, but the coverage was containing him (until Reid couldn't make the play on the TD pass...).

Most of the early game Ryan was doing short passes right before the 1st down line where our DB was, then Roddy would pick up an extra 2-3 yards to get the 1st.

Its also interesting that Roddy's receptions were all on 1st/2nd down in the first 3 quarters.

His one drive where he got his TD has 60+ of his yards, and those were mid-range long range throws. So if you just just on the short range game where were giving him "cushion" I think it was pretty effective.

My 2 cents anways

Here's an example of some of the crazy blitzes that ATL threw at us in the 1st half.



Here, ATL shows a single high safety with a man coverage alignment. We're running a flood route concept off of play action. It's a 2 receiver read with Colin's 3rd option being himself(this play is actually in Jon Gruden's - if I'm remembering the right playbook ). From pre-snap, it looks like we have them beat. VD is 1-1 with the SS with inside leverage on an in/out(you want inside leverage on an in/out to get the defender out of position).



Post snap, they blitz the SS off that side, giving the LB inside leverage on Davis(who is now jammed because he's trying to go in then out) and shift into a 2 deep look. They drop the backside corner into a FS position with the FS rotating over into a SS. They are running a 2 deep 3 underneath zone while overloading the strong side and playing contain on the backside. This allows the corner to read the QB to jump on Davis' route as well. The SS beats Iupati on his blitz as Iupati was pulling around on the play fake. Because of this Gore has to abandon his route and try and pass block. ATL gets a free rusher coming at Kaep as soon as he turns around.



You see how the free rusher forces Kaep to throw the ball before his receivers have even been able to turn around. Also, he's unable to step into any kind of throw and has to throw off his back foot.



From this angle you see how the outside leverage works against VD on his in/out route as well as how the safety is able to read Kaep's eyes toward Crabs. This is what Kaep saw the moment he turned around - a lot different than what he thought he was going to see based off the pre-snap read. Also, you see how the overload blitz has Kaep beat.



You can really see from this angle how it caused his footwork to be completely off, he's not able to make any kind of throw from that platform(I'm saying this is a result of good defense, not blaming Kaep)



You see he's not able to step into his throw at all. He's really just throwing the ball away. Kind of impressive that he was even able to get the ball to the sideline. He's about 30 yards from the sideline where he throws it to.

This is just some of the crazy stuff ATL threw at us.

johnnydel

On that play above ^^^^^

Why Play Action right with only Gore and RT as blockers on the right? RG slants left to pass protect.

Shouldn't the RG in that play "stay home" in his lane instead of slanting left with the DT over him that was being picked up by the center?

Originally posted by SunDevilNiner79:

Originally posted by lamontb:
Good job. Hope you got something you can post to point where you think the DB's did such a good job. Roddy White was killing Brock and Brown. Seems like they just gave him way too much of a cushion and he just kept catching 10 yard passes minus his touchdown. ATL's o line played lights out.

I don't have the OP's film study to back it up, but I thought we weren't giving Roddy cushion.

We were playing mid range zone coverage on Roddy, which I think is different then cushion.Cushion I think of man-on-man coverage where the corner is 7 yards deep or something.

Most of the catches by Roddy were underneath where if we made the tackle, Roddy wouldn't have made the 1st down. It was tackling him after the catch that wasn't working IMO, but the coverage was containing him (until Reid couldn't make the play on the TD pass...).

Most of the early game Ryan was doing short passes right before the 1st down line where our DB was, then Roddy would pick up an extra 2-3 yards to get the 1st.

Its also interesting that Roddy's receptions were all on 1st/2nd down in the first 3 quarters.

His one drive where he got his TD has 60+ of his yards, and those were mid-range long range throws. So if you just just on the short range game where were giving him "cushion" I think it was pretty effective.

My 2 cents anways

Exactly - good points.

In the first half we were playing a lot of underneath zone coverage, where we had 4 guys playing underneath zone. In the first half, ATL ran a lot of horizontal stretching plays with White and Gonzales that forced the defense to choose one or the other. In the 2nd half - where Roddy got most of his yards, we played a lot more man coverage, with less of a cushion, and at times, playing with a press. The play where he got his TD, we were actually bracketing him - man coverage with the corner and safety.

err wait, was it suppose to be a PA left?

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Here's an example of some of the crazy blitzes that ATL threw at us in the 1st half.



Here, ATL shows a single high safety with a man coverage alignment. We're running a flood route concept off of play action. It's a 2 receiver read with Colin's 3rd option being himself(this play is actually in Jon Gruden's - if I'm remembering the right playbook ). From pre-snap, it looks like we have them beat. VD is 1-1 with the SS with inside leverage on an in/out(you want inside leverage on an in/out to get the defender out of position).



Post snap, they blitz the SS off that side, giving the LB inside leverage on Davis(who is now jammed because he's trying to go in then out) and shift into a 2 deep look. They drop the backside corner into a FS position with the FS rotating over into a SS. They are running a 2 deep 3 underneath zone while overloading the strong side and playing contain on the backside. This allows the corner to read the QB to jump on Davis' route as well. The SS beats Iupati on his blitz as Iupati was pulling around on the play fake. Because of this Gore has to abandon his route and try and pass block. ATL gets a free rusher coming at Kaep as soon as he turns around.



You see how the free rusher forces Kaep to throw the ball before his receivers have even been able to turn around. Also, he's unable to step into any kind of throw and has to throw off his back foot.



From this angle you see how the outside leverage works against VD on his in/out route as well as how the safety is able to read Kaep's eyes toward Crabs. This is what Kaep saw the moment he turned around - a lot different than what he thought he was going to see based off the pre-snap read. Also, you see how the overload blitz has Kaep beat.



You can really see from this angle how it caused his footwork to be completely off, he's not able to make any kind of throw from that platform(I'm saying this is a result of good defense, not blaming Kaep)



You see he's not able to step into his throw at all. He's really just throwing the ball away. Kind of impressive that he was even able to get the ball to the sideline. He's about 30 yards from the sideline where he throws it to.

This is just some of the crazy stuff ATL threw at us.

Originally posted by SunDevilNiner79:
johnnydel

On that play above ^^^^^

Why Play Action right with only Gore and RT as blockers on the right? RG slants left to pass protect.

Shouldn't the RG in that play "stay home" in his lane instead of slanting left with the DT over him that was being picked up by the center?

No, they're trying to sell a power run to the right. They want the line action to look just like one of their power run plays(LB's and S's tend to read the lineman to read the play). So, they double the RG and RT down on the DT and bring the LG around on the DE, this looks just like a "74" power play where we double down on the DT and kick out the DE with the pulling guard(think of the Boldin run from the Tampa game that I showed). However, because of the overload blitz from the SS Iupati is stuck in a bad situation since the 1st guy he see's when he pulls is a blitzing safety who's too quick for him to really pick up.

Originally posted by JoseCortez:

what is your thought on the Vance McDonald stumble? was that in kaepernick or on McDonald?

Looked like Kap over threw him , didn't look like even if McD didn't fall he wouldn't have had a chance to catch it

Also to OP

Didn't read entire post but most of it, great insight and thanks for the review

Jonnydel, you are my favorite poster followed by AB.

Awesome job, as usual.

Originally posted by JoseCortez:
what is your thought on the Vance McDonald stumble? was that in kaepernick or on McDonald?

is this for real lol

Kap threw the ball so hard it broke the sound waves around McDonald legs causing him to stumble

you dudes crack my ass up

Originally posted by SunDevilNiner79:

Originally posted by lamontb:
Good job. Hope you got something you can post to point where you think the DB's did such a good job. Roddy White was killing Brock and Brown. Seems like they just gave him way too much of a cushion and he just kept catching 10 yard passes minus his touchdown. ATL's o line played lights out.

I don't have the OP's film study to back it up, but I thought we weren't giving Roddy cushion.

We were playing mid range zone coverage on Roddy, which I think is different then cushion.Cushion I think of man-on-man coverage where the corner is 7 yards deep or something.

Most of the catches by Roddy were underneath where if we made the tackle, Roddy wouldn't have made the 1st down. It was tackling him after the catch that wasn't working IMO, but the coverage was containing him (until Reid couldn't make the play on the TD pass...).

Most of the early game Ryan was doing short passes right before the 1st down line where our DB was, then Roddy would pick up an extra 2-3 yards to get the 1st.

Its also interesting that Roddy's receptions were all on 1st/2nd down in the first 3 quarters.

His one drive where he got his TD has 60+ of his yards, and those were mid-range long range throws. So if you just just on the short range game where were giving him "cushion" I think it was pretty effective.

My 2 cents anways

Quality 2 cents. Seemed like early in the game they played up on him more and challenged him. As the game wore on it seemed like they played off him more. Which led to many short passes but those short passes were moving the chains, White might have just been in the zone though. He's a good wr and even on a play that he was double teamed he still beat the coverage. Which looking back I have to agree that it was effective. Just seems like at certain points on the games on 3rd downs the DB's play too far off and give up the easy completetions. I'd just like to see the db's playing tighter coverage so they can jump routes and make more plays. Not all the time just more often.

Thanks, man! Your analysis is the real deal.



Please keep it up.

Here's the play where Kaep got to his 5th read. This was really impressive to me.



Ok, this is a classic WCO play. They run mirror patterns on both sides of the field. This type of play is in all the WCO playbooks I've looked through - I'd show the play art from the playbook, but that'll probably come later as each playbook is like 300+ pages long and it'd take a long time to find the exact play. But, it's a "pick a side" read progression. The QB, depending on the side they pick has the progression as outlined.



At the snap, Kaep chooses the right side of the field(bottom of the screen) he see's the corner's first move is not back, but steps forward to close the gap on Boldin. The LB has good position on the TE(reads 1&2), so Kaep moves on.



On the other side of the field Kaep see's the corner in position to jump Crab's as well as the safety jumping the TE route(reads 1&2) on that side(he's gone through reads 1-4



From there he moves to his outlet RB(Frank) to dump off in the middle of the field(5th read).



You see here how he first looks to his right for his first 2 reads.



Here he's moved to his left(reads 3&4)



Finally, he gets to his outlet to Frank. It's only a 6 yard gain, but, that is a huge step for him, it's really encouraging. These are the kind of plays he struggled with earlier, as well as, this is classic WCO ball control passing.

JohnnyD, thanks for putting up this thread. I look forward to your breakdowns and I appreciate the time and insight you provide.

My take on the game was pretty frustrating again, and it appeared to me that it took literally a miracle to get the win last week.

We performed positively on offense in the 2nd half -- I really liked the all run drive. that was the first time I couldn't consistently guess what we were going to do this season.

But, just as we began producing, our defense could not stand up to the competition.

I am very interested in hearing your thoughts on our pass rush, because it seems like it disappeared during the game. Regardless of the analysis, the results were not there. Do you have suggestions for how we could have been more effective against the schemes showed by the Falcons?

Why do you say the miracle play was off coverage -- it looked like designed press coverage due to the all out blitz. Brock was on Douglas right away which made possible the jimmy jammy defending action that made the ball available to Bowman for our xmas miracle.

This is the second game in a row where the other teams qb has had their way with us for a significant stretch of the game. I'm a little concerned about this because 4 games ago I foresaw our defense as being able to close out other teams in the playoffs and that has not happened the last two weeks.

Do you feel that there are any actions we can take -- such altered personnel rotation, or moving away from our reliance on 4 man rush -- that would reduce the incidence of this occurring in the playoffs? Also, do you think we can be adjusting to the other teams in-game strategies faster, more rapidly? Sometimes I think we go dormant because we are not incorporating what we see as quickly as our competitors.

I really like your analysis. But I have to ask about the pressure you said was on Matt Ryan. It felt like he had all day to throw. Also, one thing I saw was the pressure coming strong and going past him, then Ryan would just step up and escape or step up and throw. Any thoughts?

Johnny, I'm just curious. How long does it take to break down a full game? How many times do you have to watch one play to dissect the many different position battles you're watching.