Going back and re-watching the 2017 pass plays gave me an added appreciation of Kyle's passing offense. How well thought out the formations, presnap motion, and personnel usage were as well as how creative some of his pass play designs are. Offenses throughout the league share many of the same route concepts. I wanted to highlight some of the uncommon play designs and tendencies so we get a sense of Kyle's creativity on how he busts coverages.
Included will be plays where I found the formation, personnel, motion, and/or route combinations intriguing. I limited the cutups to plays that were not during a two minute offense, not during garbage time, and successful (completed passes) - just so it looks cooler.
First up is Tampa 2
This coverage is strong in the Flats with CBs patrolling and tries to get the best of both worlds from Cover2 and Cover3. At the snap, the middle LB (Mike) will turn and face the passing strength of the formation - side has 3+ route runners - and ride the "pipe", shadowing any threat up the middle of the field in order to protect the seam in between the two deep safeties.
Kyle has shown that he will attack the MIKE in coverage since there are only a handful of MIKEs in the league that can handle WRs and TEs in coverage.
Red (Goodwin) is running a clearout to occupy the deep safety as well as the Flat defender.
Orange is designed to occupy the orange Hook/Curl (H/C) defender.
Yellow is the primary to bust this coverage.
Goodwin stems outside to widen the red safety towards the numbers and to occupy the Flat defender who is riding Goodwin vertical. Flat defenders will ride any vertical threat if they see no threat to their Flat.
TTaylor curls and draws the attention of the H/C.
ARobinson attacks the leverage of the MIKE (blue) by stemming inside to get the MIKE's weight transferred to his heels.
As soon as the MIKE is leaning back, ARob breaks his route outside. Not many MIKE backers will be able to stay with a WR in this situation. QB is mid windup.
+21. Goodwin's clearout vacates the area. Taylor's snag pulls the H/C forward for a more defined passing lane.
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Similar idea to the play above, attacking the MIKE's leverage. This looks a lot like Sail concept but Bourne's route has some detail to it that allows this route combo to bust Tampa 2.
Bourne stems inside to get the MIKE (blue) leaning back.
Goodwin occupies the Flat (red) and deep safety and Hyde draws the H/C defender (orange) to give a clear passing lane.QB is mid windup as Bourne breaks to the outside, very hard for a MIKE to defend.
+21
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Because the MIKE always faces the passing strength of the formation as he's going up the pipe, this can be used to the attack from the weak side of the formation. With 3 WRs to one side of the formation, it's obvious to the defense which side has more speed and catching ability. Kyle will do this often (TE/RB to one side, WRs to the other side).
There will be a few cut ups with formations like this. One thing a defense will do when in a 2 deep safety shell against this type of formation is have the safety on the RB/TE side line up with less depth since RB/TE aren't as likely to threaten deep.
Red route clears the MIKE.
TTaylor holds the H/C. Celek attacks the vacated area. There's a blown coverage on this play (no weakside H/C defender) but the idea is clear, attack the area vacated by the MIKE.
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And of course Kyle will use Triangle stretches against zone, a WCO staple concept. Red + Yellow for the vertical stretch, Yellow + Orange for horizontal. vs Tampa2
Celek occupies the MIKE. Blue H/C defender is isolated 2v1, takes one step towards the orange route (Breida), and that's all that's needed in a 3 step ball control triangle stretch play.
Kittles curls inside and away from the H/C.
+8
Next part: Quarters/Cover6
