Week 3 Arizona Cardinals coaches film analysis

Originally posted by itlynstalyn:
Would love to see a break down of the run out of the pistol on the one yard line for the lulz.

Dam Bowman all outta of position

Originally posted by thl408:
This is the first play from scrimmage and is a sign of things to come as far as defensive zone coverage. The red route is designed to flash across the face of the MLB (Bow), for the yellow route to work. Somewhat of a Trail concept.
versus Fire Zone blitz. (both OLBs blitz, blue are the deep zones)
(refer to the Concepts thread for additional details on Fire Zone blitz, Trail concept, etc.)


As red flashes across Bow. In Fire zone blitz, there is a lot of pressure on the 3 underneath defenders as they have a lot of room to cover. Any misstep on their part opens up throwing lanes. With the TE crossing Bow's face, he needs to re-direct but stay disciplined to his zone. Bow needs to know that he has Wilhoite to his right, and if that's where the TE is going, then the TE is no longer his responsibility. Don't leave his zone.


Bow follows the TE towards the middle of the field and this will open up a huge passing lane for Fitz's yellow route.


The area Bow vacates is the throwing lane Palmer uses.


ARI keeps in 2 additional blockers and picks up the blitz. +21 yards

Yikes. You know it's bad when Bowman fails his assignment.

Originally posted by captveg:
Yikes. You know it's bad when Bowman fails his assignment.

Guys arent trusting each other, or simply are unsure of their assignment. This is a perfect example of the sorts of confusion that I saw. On that second catch by Larry that thl posted, Palmer had two guys wide open across the middle, so he basically can pick and choose his spots while the guys in front of him pick up the pressure.

More Fitz killing zone coverage in the 1st quarter.
ARI will run a flood concept to their right to get a vertical stretch. A lot was said about why the OLBs are covering Fitz in the slot. They are not, they are in zone coverage. Anytime a QB sees this (LB lined up on WR), he knows it's most likely zone coverage because no DC in his right mind would ask for his OLB to man cover a slot WR.
versus Tampa2 - Lynch (59) is the Hook/Curl defender; Brock (26) is the Flat defender.


Lynch will shove Fitz as Fitz goes by (not shown). Lynch then sees the TE running to the flat. Lynch makes the mistake of following the TE to the flat (orange box). He should know that the flat belongs to Brock. Brock rides the WR up the sideline and is looking back to his flat zone responsibility. Because Lynch vacates his zone, when Fitz breaks to the outside, there is a nice passing lane for Palmer to work.


+16 yards. Notice Lynch get called out for his gaffe.


Zone coverage may seem simplistic, but there is a lot for the defender to think about. Since they are facing the play, they must recognize route combinations, what an offense may do given a down/distance/formation/tendency. Understand that if a route is coming their way, is there another route coming their way? If not, feel free to play the single route in their zone. If there is a second route coming towards them, don't get manipulated by the clearing action of the first route.

this defensive game planning by MANGENIUS should easily be called.. NOW U SEE ME NOW U DONT... as in, you see the defense on the field and they suddenly disappear once the ball is snap!!

Keep hearing on the radio people saying we need to make the coverage more simple. It's already simple. Fangio's scheme was far more complex, and didn't have players out of position all over the place.

Simple spot dropping is for high school teams, not the NFL. That crap doesn't work against good QBs, especially when you have no pass rush.

I'm gonna say this.....I'm so glad we have these film threads in NT, because the kap, baalke and tomsula thread is almost unreadable. It's nice to just look at cold hard film and see what actually took place.

Originally posted by SofaKing:
Keep hearing on the radio people saying we need to make the coverage more simple. It's already simple. Fangio's scheme was far more complex, and didn't have players out of position all over the place.

Simple spot dropping is for high school teams, not the NFL. That crap doesn't work against good QBs, especially when you have no pass rush.

This. The coverage is about as simple as it gets outside of basic cover 1. You can't make it any simpler, this is like 1980's style stuff that they are running in the secondary.

The more you see this defense the more unbelievable it becomes that mangini shelved pattern matching. I just can't believe there's a logical explanation to it.

ive always been a big reid fan but he stinks this season. Every play i see him, he is either letting a WR blow past him, slow getting to the ball, missing a tackle, or just looking completely lost. if he continues, i say put in tart

One more time - Fitz killing zone coverage. Keep in mind this is all in the 1st quarter.

Another three level flood concept to get a vertical stretch.
versus a cover3 shell with 5 underneath zone defenders (3 man pass rush)


You see the coverage start to take shape. cover 3 shell, 5 underneath. Acker is the player to focus on here. He sees red go vertical and should know that Reid is back there to help - don't follow red too far upfield.


Acker gets too much depth. Notice how deep he is compared to the other 4 underneath zone defenders. At this point Palmer is in his throwing motion and Acker should see this, unless he's looking at Fitz. But if Acker does see this, break on the ball. Let's see how many steps it takes Acker to change direction - a measure of a good DB that doesn't take false steps (better seen in the GIF). Also notice Brooks on the 14 yard line (zone defender adjacent to Acker's zone). Brooks is very close to his team mate. There is no reason for two zone defenders to be this close to one another. Spacing is a very important when playing zone.


Palmer doesn't lead Fitz to catch this in full stride. Palmer just throws it to the open grass. It's up to Fitz to get to that open grass. This is how two veterans kill zone coverage. The pass in in between three defenders in the open grass.


Notice Brooks give a shove to Fitz then go too far to the middle of the field. If he stays wider, it's a tougher throw for Palmer. +16 yards

^^ wtf is Brooks doing playing slot corner to begin with? Did we not draft Ward in the 1st rd, and Tartt in the 2nd for these type of sub-package roles?

Mangini has to provide some answers, because this is seriously dumbfounding.

Originally posted by SofaKing:
^^ wtf is Brooks doing playing slot corner to begin with? Did we not draft Ward in the 1st rd, and Tartt in the 2nd for these type of sub-package roles?

Mangini has to provide some answers, because this is seriously dumbfounding.

that looks like a 2 WR formation for the Cards which might explain why we were on base, obviously playing zone coverage otherwise Brock (hopefully) wouldn't be on the side opposite the 2 WR's.

Originally posted by Niners816:
The more you see this defense the more unbelievable it becomes that mangini shelved pattern matching. I just can't believe there's a logical explanation to it.

Mangini needs to have ultra athletic players to pull this off as well as a 4 man pass rush. SEA (2013/2014) will pattern match to avoid any flood concepts from hurting them, but for the most part they play cover3, understand offensive tendencies, and are fast/long, or both at every position on the field - especially those LBs. Plus they have a good 4 man pass rush. This allows them to 'get away' with a simpler coverage scheme.

The only player new to the defense is Acker. And if he's the one holding Mangini back from pattern matching, then start DJohnson who was exposed to it last season. Maybe Mangini is all about the confusion in the front 7 and can't teach anything else on the backend. Maybe Tim Lewis (DB coach) can't teach it so he doesn't. I have no idea the history of Tim Lewis and what coverage schemes he was a part of.