Stratégiák

köszi Szabler!

Érdekes írás mindkettő.

Mike Tanier a Raiders "Wildcat" és "Pistol" formációkból indított futójátékát veszi szemügyre.

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/walkthrough/2010/walkthrough-less-wes

Run, Run Raiders

"The Raiders have become one of the best running teams in the NFL, for several reasons. They have two good running backs and an exciting next-generation fullback. Their offensive line has finally stabilized after years of confusion and disappointment. It is filled with huge veterans who can drive-block, making it a little like the Cowboys line of 2006-08.
Another big reason for their success has been a kitchen-sink approach to running the ball. The Raiders use reverses, direct-snap plays, unbalanced line formations, and any other wrinkle they can think of to gain an edge at the line of scrimmage. Those wrinkles are catching opponents off guard and helping the Raiders compensate for their scaled-back passing game.



Let's look at a sequence of plays from the first quarter of the Raiders victory over the Chiefs. Figure 1 shows the Raiders in second-and-3 from their own 30-yard line. Darren McFadden (20) is in shotgun as a "Wildcat." The backs are Michael Bush (21 because of a labeling error) and fullback Marcel Reece (45). Tight end Brandon Myers (89) is aligned as a flanker outside of receiver Johnnie Lee Higgins (15) on the right, with Jason Campbell (8) trying to stay out of the way on the left.

This play is more of a variation on the old power sweep than anything from the Wildcat family of plays. Guard Cooper Carlisle (66) and tackle Langston Walker (70) pull as lead blockers. Reece also lead blocks -- this is no option play, and he doesn't wait for the pitch. Myers seals the inside linebacker, while Higgins takes on the toughest assignment on the field, blocking the outside linebacker long enough for McFadden to get wide. Higgins does a tremendous job, sustaining the block even after McFadden has passed.

For clarity, I marked kick-out blocks in red and seal blocks in blue. Carlisle helps to seal, while Walker and Reece kick out. The Raiders have linemen and fullbacks blocking safeties and cornerbacks, giving McFadden a wide lane to run through. The play gains eight yards, but would have gained more if Reece did a better job on his defender.



On the next play, the Raiders line up in a pistol formation, with McFadden handing off to Bush for a seven yard gain (not diagrammed). The Raiders use a similar pistol look for the following play, as shown in Figure 2. Note the unbalanced line, with Walker playing as a covered tight end and Myers aligned at left tackle. The unbalanced line and slot-left formation forces the Chiefs to commit defending the offensive left side. The diagram gives a good indication of how much empty grass there is on the right, with the force defender (cornerback Brandon Flowers) like a lone scarecrow in the cornfield.

The Raiders execute an option play which was set up by the previous handoff to Bush. McFadden fakes to Bush (now wearing the correct jersey), freezing the Chiefs defense. Myers down-blocks, leaving the outside linebacker unattended. This is a basic option principle: It is up to the "quarterback" to read and elude that unblocked player. Because the linebacker (Mike Vrabel) pursues Bush after the fake handoff, McFadden doesn't have to worry about him. Reece stays in option-pitch position, which forces Flowers to stay near the sideline to defend a possible pitch. McFadden doesn't mess around -- he plows straight ahead as soon as he sees daylight, picking up eight more yards.

The Raiders are not the Jets. Last week, I criticized the Jets for running too much junk, and I don't want to contradict myself here. There are a lot of differences between what the Jets did against the Packers and what the Raiders did against the Chiefs:

- The Raiders executed their direct-snap package as a series of plays, allowing McFadden and the blockers to establish some rhythm. The Jets peppered their Wildcat plays and reverses all over the gameplan, and they sometimes seemed as surprised by their own calls as the Packers were.

- The Raiders' McFadden package uses their best available personnel. By leaving Campbell in the game, they don't telegraph to the opponent that they are getting funky. The Jets bring in Brad Smith to run their direct-snap plays, and their six-lineman wrinkles leave some of their best playmakers on the bench.

The Raiders emphasized this package because they were compensating for injuries to playmakers like Zach Miller. The Jets were healthy and had plenty of available offensive talent. Every Jerricho Cotchery reverse or Brad Smith trick takes the ball away from Shonn Greene, LaDainian Tomlinson, Mark Sanchez, Dustin Keller, and so on. The Raiders aren't really taking the ball out of anyone's hands when McFadden fields the snap or they run an end-around.

Finally, let's be frank. The Raiders are a desperate team that has been bad for years. They are finally having some success, but they are still grinding out wins by playing field position football, making plays on special teams, and gaining any tiny edge they can. Campbell has played well in the last few weeks, but they still haven't settled on him as their quarterback, and while Jacoby Ford looks like a fun player, their receivers are still just a bunch of sprinters. In educational terms, a little remediation and scaffolding can help them succeed. The Jets are a better team and should be less reliant on chicanery. And when they do use it, they should apply it properly so it doesn't disrupt their offense and take touches away from their best players.

The direct snap package is a sound strategy for the Raiders because it makes the best use of the odd talents of their available personnel: McFadden is a great ball handler for a running back, Reece is probably the fastest fullback in the league, and the receivers hustle and block. When Miller returns and if players like Ford develop, the Raiders offense won't need as many reverses and Pistol formations to move the ball. Until then, they've given opposing defenses something else to think about -- and given us something fun to watch."

További elemzések!

Ben Muth a Steelers támadófalának "zone blocking"-ra való alkalmasságát és ebben nyújtott teljesítményét vizsgálja.

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/word-muth/2010/word-muth-new-team-town

"The first thing that jumped out at me is the fact that Pittsburgh ran one Power play all game. (A Power play is a specific running play; a power play (lower case) is a general style of running play.) That seems insane to me. In the last decade, Power has been associated with Pittsburgh, like the quick slant was associated with the 49ers in the '80s. It was their bread and butter, pure and simple. First-year offensive line coach Sean Kugler is probably a big reason for this. Kugler came over from Buffalo in the offseason and is trying to change the culture after last year's struggles up front.

The Steelers are running a lot more zone now, and I'm not sure they have the personnel up front to do it. The kind of personnel it takes to run Power is completely different then the kind you want to run a zone scheme. Pittsburgh's offensive line is big -- like, really big. The only starter under 315 pounds is rookie center Maurkice Pouncey, which makes sense because he was drafted after the change in philosophy.

Everyone remembers the small, quick line of the Denver Broncos carving up defenses in the late '90s with the zone scheme and sub-300 pounders manning their positions. The Steelers may be wary of going that small, but having three key linemen weigh more than 340 (Max Starks, Flozell Adams, and Chris Kemoeatu) and expecting to major in the zone stretch scheme seems a little unrealistic. Still, after watching Rashard Mendenhall closely, I can see why the coaching staff wanted to try and make the change. Mendenhall looks like he will fit perfectly into the new scheme. Now the front office just needs to go out and get the guys up front that can complement their running back.

The scheme may be new, but injuries up front have had a far stronger effect on the offense. Colon was put on Injured Reserve before the season even started with a ruptured Achilles tendon. Trai Essex has missed four games due to injury. Max Starks was put on IR with neck problems this week after battling injuries all year. Against Cincinnati, both Pouncey and Kemoeatu went down (Pouncey would return). This unit has been shuffled around so much it shouldn't surprise anyone when they struggle. But at the end of the day, we have a team that has put in a new scheme, has dealt with multiple injuries up front, has already used three starting quarterbacks ... and is still tied for the division lead.

Now let's get into Monday's game against the Bengals. Since I've spent the last two paragraphs making excuses for the Steelers offensive line, it shouldn't be surprising that they weren't dominant on Monday night. Jonathan Scott's struggles at left tackle were the most obvious. He seemed to have a bit of a soft shoulder in pass protection, which allowed defenders to run around the hoop to the quarterback, forcing Roethlisberger to step up in the pocket frequently. He also struggled to get any kind of stretch from a defensive end in the running game. In his defense, it is never easy to get moved from tackle to guard and then back to tackle in a single game, like he was asked to do Monday night. But now that he is officially the starting left tackle, he will be able to focus on one position, which should help him improve.

Both of Pittsburgh's guards, Trai Essex and Chris Kemoeatu, were average. Their biggest problem seemed to be climbing to linebackers in the running game. Both got fine movement on down defensive linemen and were passable in protection, but they were unable to engage second level defenders consistently.

After Kemoeatu was injured, Doug Legursky came in the game and appeared to be a lot quicker than either of the two starters. In fact, I thought Legursky was giving the kind of performance that could win him a starting job. That is until he whiffed on the one Power (a single back shotgun version of the play) the Steelers ran all game. It was on a crucial third down in the fourth quarter, and the whiff forced the Steelers to attempt a field goal, which they missed. Those are the kind of mistakes that you cannot make when you are trying to usurp someone in the starting lineup.

Flozell Adams and Maurkice Pouncey were an interesting contrast. Pouncey is a heavily praised rookie who was drafted to anchor a new scheme. Adams is a much-maligned veteran who was brought in as a stop-gap once the injury bug bit. It is easy to see why the Steelers staff is so high on Pouncey. He is athletic, shows great technique, and carries himself like a guy who belongs rather than a rookie. That said, I don't think he played particularly well. There were multiple occasions where Domata Peko knocked Pouncey straight into the backfield, disrupting any cutback chances Mendenhall might have.

Peko certainly looked too strong at times for the rookie, but that may have been due to the injury Pouncey suffered in the first half. Pouncey was great at climbing to the second level and decent in pass protection, but after hearing so much praise for him, I suppose my expectations were a little too high.

Adams, on the other hand, may have struggled getting outside defenders in the running game (which is essential in the zone scheme), but I expected that going in. I was pleasantly surprised with how well Adams did in pass protection. If you were to grade the two, they probably played about the same, but I was more impressed with Adams because I wasn't expecting it.
The Steelers did manage to put up 27 points, but that number is deceiving when you consider field position and a 39-yard touchdown pass thrown by Antwaan Randle El on a trick play. The Steelers struggled to move the ball consistently for most of the game. This was especially true on the ground, despite the 99 yards Rashard Mendenhall racked up. Mendenhall had three carries between 18 and 22 yards that accounted for more than half of his total production. Hopefully the current Steelers o-linemen can stay healthy the rest of the way so that they can gel as a unit. If not, Pittsburgh's Super Bowl hopes may be unrealistic.

One thing Pittsburgh's coordinator did to help his zone running game was create additional gaps to stretch the defense. He would line up two tight ends and a receiver to one side to force the defense to deal with more possible running lanes. A big thing with defenses is run fits. A run fit is what gap the defender is assigned to if the offense runs the ball.
There is always an A (between the center and guard), B (between the guard and tackle), and C (you should know where this is going by now) gap. When the offense has a tight end, there is another gap. By adding offensive players to the end of the line of scrimmage you add even more gaps, which means a defense has to adjust its run fits to fill those lanes. Now, not only are there more gaps for defenders to fill, but defenders are forced to play run fits that they aren't used to.



On first-and-10 with 12 minutes left in the second quarter, the Steelers came out in one of these formations. They had a single back with two tight ends to the right. The Bengals looked to have adjusted there down linemen a half man to the strength of the formation. By a half man, I mean that if the nose tackle was shaded to the center's left shoulder, he was now head up. And instead of a three-technique (outside shoulder of the right guard) the Bengals had a four I (inside shoulder of the right tackle). The defense also brought both linebackers to the line of scrimmage. This is to make sure their ends could fill their new gaps without having to worry about being hooked. The Steelers also brought Hines Ward in motion just outside the hipped tight end.

The Steelers called up an Inside Zone Slice to the right, and it worked wonderfully. The backside defensive end saw the left tackle (Max Starks) step inside and came down with him to maintain his new gap (the left B). The nose tackle did the same thing against the center (but taking the strongside A). Because the nose tackle was so quick to vacate the backside A gap, the left guard (Legursky) had a free run up to the Mike linebacker.

The front side guys kept their men on the line of scrimmage enough to allow Heath Miller to come across the formation and kick out the outside linebacker. Rashard Mendenhall saw everything develop, cut the play back, broke the safety's tackle (All plays have at least one unblocked guy near the point of attack, so Rashard Mendenhall gets paid a lot of money to make that one guy miss) and took it for a 20-yard gain. It was a well-schemed and perfectly executed running play. And a great way to end this week's column."

Újabb playelemzések.

A legfrissebb Cover 3-cikkben a Packers-es Tramon Williams néhány megmozdulása és Peyton Hillis touchdownfutása került terítékre.

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/cover-3/2010/cover-3-redemption-song

"Williams' interception of a Mark Sanchez pass in the Pack's Week 8 win over the Jets was another example of his short-area skill. With 4:54 left on the first half, the Jets went three-wide, and Green Bay responded with a 3-3 nickel defense with a deep safety and some interesting blitz concepts (Fig. 1). Linebackers Brandon Chillar and A.J. Hawk moved up to the line pre-snap, leaving Clay Matthews as the only man at his position in space.



Matthews crashed through right guard at the snap on a loop blitz that LaDainian Tomlinson picked up. Mark Sanchez then had enough time to hit Jerricho Cotchery on a quick route in which Cotchery took five steps and made a sharp dig move inside. Such routes are better in exploiting off-coverage than the man looks given by the Green Bay secondary, but Williams' technique still made the difference. He slanted inside with the route, moved into inside position when Cotchery's attempt to flick him away gave him an opening, got his hands on the ball, and wrestled it away from the receiver. This was a good example of how Williams now avoids the early shot (and subsequent penalty) by using timing, read skills, and better technique. The Jets challenged that Williams got the ball from Cotchery before both players hit the ground, but simultaneous possession is not reviewable (of course), and it looked to me as if the ball started to come loose just before that happened. The play was upheld in a rare good call from Jeff Triplette's crew.

Against the slightly more dynamic Vikings passing attack in Week 7, Williams appeared to be fooled a couple of times on route concepts involving Moss. But one play in particular was the result of a schematic opening, and it showed me just how much defensive coordinator Dom Capers trusts Williams at this point -- we're back to the trust Coach Whitt discussed in that article. With 12:38 left in the first half, Moss started outside right and moved near Percy Harvin's slot position pre-snap.
Your Ad Here

At the snap, Harvin ran a deep seam route, and Moss executed a little in-and-out route (what looked like an option route), catching the ball under Williams' coverage for a 13-yard gain. The interesting part of this play was Charles Woodson's corner blitz. He moved off slot coverage up to the line, which led to revolving coverage from deep safety to intermediate coverage on Williams' side from safety Charlie Peprah, and a deeper zone look on Harvin from safety Nick Collins. You can see Woodson and Williams pointing out different coverage assignments pre-snap, and I'm thinking that Williams was directed to drop off from tighter zone coverage when Woodson stepped up to blitz.

Favre's second of three second-half picks was a direct result of Williams' ability to trail a receiver down the sideline. As linebacker Desmond Bishop ran with Moss to the left out of the left slot, Williams kept one eye on Moss' destination and another on fullback Toby Gerhart, who lined up wide and ran deep. Favre started a pass to the deep route, but he pulled it in and waited for what he thought was a wide-open Moss in the flat. Bishop came up with the pick. This was an epic fail on the Vikings' part -- the decision to put Gerhart wide and Moss in the slot is probably a terminable offense. The lack of effort Moss showed in coming back to the ball is something that Vince Young should note.

Over and over, the thing that impressed me most about Williams this season was the "right place, right time" concept. He seems to understand and thrive in Capers' more aggressive and varied defense than he did in 2009.

Peyton's Place

It's sometimes difficult to explain the value of a player, even with traditional and advanced statistics. It's often takes a player's absence to tells us how valuable he really is. Consider the case of Peyton Hillis. The 2008 seventh-round pick of the Denver Broncos, traded to the Browns by Josh McDaniels in March of 2010 with draft picks for (snicker) Brady Quinn, currently has more rushing yards, more 100-yard rushing games, and more rushing touchdowns, than the entire Denver Broncos team.

We can talk about the fact that he put up the third-best Total DYAR among all Week 9 running backs, but it's just as easy to say that the team Hillis left greatly misses him. And the team that currently has him wouldn't be the NFL's most dangerous sub-500 team -- and that's not a pejorative term when you beat the Saints and Patriots in consecutive games -- without him.

In the Browns' 34-14 thrashing of the Pats last Sunday, Hillis didn't just score two touchdowns and 184 yards on 29 carries, he also had just one negative play. Of the 29 times he took the ball, he failed to get back to the line of scrimmage or create yardage just once. That's expected of a 6-foot-1, 240-pound cement mixer, but you didn't see the fossilized version of Jamal Lewis doing this kind of stuff. Hillis' secret weapon is an agility that completely belies his appearance and renders the inevitable Larry Csonka and Mike Alstott comparisons utterly meaningless. Hillis can bull through any front line, but he's a different breed of cat, and his 35-yard touchdown run with 2:47 left in the game (Fig. 2) showed his burst after handoff as well as anything he's done this year.



Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll has been able to put Hillis in a lot of positive situations. This was a two-tight end formation with both tight ends stacked right, and an offset-I right with fullback Lawrence Vickers, who is on a short list of the NFL's best blocking fullbacks. The blocking was superlative -- from the two tight ends crunching inside, to the slide protection to the left, to the two key blocks on the play, Vickers on Pats safety Josh Barrett (36) and Eric Steinbach's pull block on safety Brandon Meriweather (31). It was a functional and schematic win before the handoff, and you can see the influence of Mike Holmgren, and Daboll's time in New England, in excellent technique behind the pull blocks.

But this play doesn't work without Hillis' speed to the edge. He got around Barrett and hit the open space hard, outrunning Sanders and linebackers Jerod Mayo and Brandon Spikes to the end zone. Mayo tried to reach for Hillis near the score, but Hillis just gave the standout defender a quick stiff-arm, and it was all over. You will go entire games without seeing backs and offenses working together with such efficiency, but you may not see a Browns series for the rest of the season in which the synergy between the Browns and Hillis isn't absolutely evident. Hillis still has a chip on his shoulder over that Denver divorce, but you can't imagine that he'd change the current plot for anything.

"You know, when I left Denver last year, it kind of left a bitter taste in my mouth," Hillis recently told Scott Van Pelt of ESPN Radio. "I felt like I was a better player than what I was playing at out there last year. And I prayed every night that I would get a new opportunity and shot somewhere else. The Lord gave me that here in Cleveland, and I felt like I had a responsibility to take full advantage of it. I'm glad I'm doing everything in my power to help this team and help this city win. From here on out, I ain't looking back."

One would have to be a fool, or Josh McDaniels, to disagree."

Mayock az eheti Anatomy of a Play-ben Jacoby Ford hosszabbításbeli elkapását elemzi.

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-films-anatomy-of-a-play/09000d5d81c02673/WK-9-Anatomy-Jacoby-Ford-s-OT-Catch

Szeretnék több életet látni ebben a topikban, ezért a továbbiakban mindig ide szúrom be, ha érdekesebb cikket találok play- vagy sémaelemzésekkel.

Az FO-n a héten két cikk is volt, ami ilyesmivel foglalkozott, az egyik Suh játékát, a másik pedig a Jets múlt heti támadójátékát, különösen Sanchez teljesítményét boncolgatta.
Szabler

Szabler, jó a cikk, látom a célját, de ez sem stratégiával foglalkozik. Kicsit boncolgatja, hogy mit csinált Suh, de gyakorlatilag egy leíró cikk 2 playről. Ráadásul két elég egyszerű inside rush playről. A stratégiai cikk a dolgok miértjével foglalkozik és az összefüggéseket taglalja.
Egyébként mi az az FO?deacon75

A Stratégiák topikcímet én egy tágabb "ernyőfogalom"-nak tekintem, és egyébként is fölösleges lett volna külön egy olyan topikot létrehozni, amibe pl. ilyen playelemzéseket be lehet illeszteni.

Megértem, hogy egy gyakorló edző egy műkedvelőhöz mérten más elvárásokat támaszt, amikor meghallja ezt a szót, hogy stratégia, de szerintem itt bőven megfér egymás mellett a szó szoros értelmében vett stratégiáról való, mélyen szántó értekezés, illetve a mélyebb összefüggéseket érteni talán nem is akaró, laikus közönségnek szóló tartalmak.

Az FO egyébként a Football Outsiders című oldal rövidítése. Persze ők is csak műkedvelők, és fő profiljuk a statisztikai elemzés, messze nem a futballstratégia.

Szeretnék több életet látni ebben a topikban, ezért a továbbiakban mindig ide szúrom be, ha érdekesebb cikket találok play- vagy sémaelemzésekkel.

Az FO-n a héten két cikk is volt, ami ilyesmivel foglalkozott, az egyik Suh játékát, a másik pedig a Jets múlt heti támadójátékát, különösen Sanchez teljesítményét boncolgatta.
Szabler

Szabler, jó a cikk, látom a célját, de ez sem stratégiával foglalkozik. Kicsit boncolgatja, hogy mit csinált Suh, de gyakorlatilag egy leíró cikk 2 playről. Ráadásul két elég egyszerű inside rush playről. A stratégiai cikk a dolgok miértjével foglalkozik és az összefüggéseket taglalja.
Egyébként mi az az FO?

hát én azért felmentenélek, mert ezt ő sem egyértelműsíti, tényszerű megállapításokat tesz, egy meccs példái alapján.

Az MNF előtt érdemes végigböngészni a Jaws Bites-ban az egykori irányító a Steelers és a Bengals játékosaival kapcsolatos meglátásait.
http://www.ronjaworski.com/blog.htmlSzabler

átolvasva (nekem bengals szempontból) az volt az érzésem, hogy megnézte a miami elleni meccset és leírta amit látott. kevésbé átfogó kép egy adott játékosról.

persze nemtudom mennyire elvárás tőle, hogy a periférián lévő játékosokat mélyebben értse. kiváncsi leszek ezügyben a sporttv-re is éjjel.gabtsi

jogos. azt egyértelművé tehettem volna, hogy az érintett csapatok előző meccsei képzik az elemzések alapját.

Az MNF előtt érdemes végigböngészni a Jaws Bites-ban az egykori irányító a Steelers és a Bengals játékosaival kapcsolatos meglátásait.
http://www.ronjaworski.com/blog.htmlSzabler

átolvasva (nekem bengals szempontból) az volt az érzésem, hogy megnézte a miami elleni meccset és leírta amit látott. kevésbé átfogó kép egy adott játékosról.

persze nemtudom mennyire elvárás tőle, hogy a periférián lévő játékosokat mélyebben értse. kiváncsi leszek ezügyben a sporttv-re is éjjel.

Az NFL Matchup legutóbbi adása Merril Hoge-dzsal és a "Nagy" Ron Jaworskival.

ESPN NFL Matchup Week 9

Első rész: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvs_8zI5ukU
Második rész: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssiSLXObXLg

És ha már Jaws...

Az MNF előtt érdemes végigböngészni a Jaws Bites-ban az egykori irányító a Steelers és a Bengals játékosaival kapcsolatos meglátásait.
http://www.ronjaworski.com/blog.html

Ez kérdés? Naná, hogy van igény.

Az NFL Network Playbook c. műsora gondolom alap a stratégia iránt érdeklődőknek. Ezen műsor nagy része megtekinthető az nfl.comon.

Én emellett még az ESPN NFL Matchupját szoktam követni Ron Jaworskival és Merril Hoge-dzsal.

Most felraktam a tubera ennek múlt heti adását. (A legfrissebbet per pillanat nincs időm feltenni.) Van igény a folytatásra?

ESPN NFL Matchup 2010 Week 8

Első rész: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OGc6ZXi8HA
Második rész: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS5Ddr0y0RUSzabler

van, én is nagyon bírom ezt a műsort, a legújabb rész épp most megy az espn americán

Az NFL Network Playbook c. műsora gondolom alap a stratégia iránt érdeklődőknek. Ezen műsor nagy része megtekinthető az nfl.comon.

Én emellett még az ESPN NFL Matchupját szoktam követni Ron Jaworskival és Merril Hoge-dzsal.

Most felraktam a tubera ennek múlt heti adását. (A legfrissebbet per pillanat nincs időm feltenni.) Van igény a folytatásra?

ESPN NFL Matchup 2010 Week 8

Első rész: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OGc6ZXi8HA
Második rész: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS5Ddr0y0RU

Szeretnék több életet látni ebben a topikban, ezért a továbbiakban mindig ide szúrom be, ha érdekesebb cikket találok play- vagy sémaelemzésekkel.

Az FO-n a héten két cikk is volt, ami ilyesmivel foglalkozott, az egyik Suh játékát, a másik pedig a Jets múlt heti támadójátékát, különösen Sanchez teljesítményét boncolgatta.

The Rise: Ndamukong Suh

"However, in the last month, Suh has taken that adjustment to light speed and his game to an entirely different level. In his last four games, Suh has picked up 4.5 of his 6.5 sacks on the season, and has everybody talking. He's on pace to have one of those Keith Millard/Warren Sapp seasons; any 10-plus seasonal sack total from a defensive tackle is always worth a closer look as it's happening. With that in mind, I wanted to see what he was up to against the Washington Redskins last Sunday.

Two things I noticed right off the bat: The double teams on Suh were immediate, from the first play of the game, and Suh would occasionally line up at a slight angle that looked a lot like the "Stunt 4-3" Joe Greene invented. In the stunt, Greene would slant his body to as much as a 45-degree angle at the line. This was and is a great way to get a jump on blocks, especially for a man of his burst and quickness (Minnesota's Pat Williams used it in the season opener against the Saints). Greg Cosell and I talked about it in last week's podcast, and I mentioned before the season started that Suh and the Stunt 4-3 could be a lethal combination.

On that first play, the Redskins showed that their plan of attack was to use Suh's furious momentum against him and slide him out of pressure. This worked early on, when right guard Artis Hicks and right tackle Stephon Heyer managed to negate Suh's angle by going in the same direction.

On the second play from scrimmage, the Lions did something with Suh that I really liked, and something I wanted to see him do more at Nebraska -- they went with a three-man rush, with Suh at right end and Corey Williams at the nose. Suh played it in a flex position, a little bit off the line, and was actually triple-teamed on this play. Rabach slipped off Williams to help left guard Kory Lichtensteiger and left tackle Trent Williams with Suh after initially taking Corey Williams' charge. It was absolutely obvious that Suh, a rookie playing in his seventh regular-season game, was the Redskins' focus.

On the third play, Suh made a key stop with his freakish open-field pursuit speed. This was something I noticed in the Eagles game and in the Big 12 Championship game against Texas. In this case, he tracked down running back Keiland Williams on a screen with two blockers downfield. Williams may have had some space downfield on third-and-19, but that didn't matter. Suh is excellent when he has to catch up with runners trying to make plays. He's surprisingly smooth in his turns, and he gets up to top speed very quickly for a man his size.

And then, the topper -- the three-play sequence in the second quarter in which Suh got to McNabb twice. Tied 7-7 with eight minutes left in the first half, the Redskins had first-and-10 at their own 24. As Rabach and left guard Kory Lichtensteiger double-teamed Williams from a one-technique position, Suh was left with Hicks one-on-one. You can probably guess how that went. Hicks got his arms out to pass-protect, and Suh put Hicks' arms out of the way with a quick rip move and darted into the backfield to take McNabb down. The best move on this play, though, was the little head-fake to the left that Suh gave Hicks before moving inside. It was a great example of how his technique is meeting his strength, speed, and raw ability, bit by bit.



Then, on third-and 13 with 6:44 left in the half, the Lions lined up in a more interesting formation (Fig. 1): Suh at right defensive end, Williams right over center, Cliff Avril (92) at left end, and Kyle Vanden Bosch (93) flexed a yard back in what almost looked like a blitzing linebacker setup. In addition, Suh had his hand off the ground. At the snap, Suh ripped through the blocking efforts of left tackle Trent Williams and running back Keiland Williams and took McNabb down again from a shotgun set. There was another nifty move here -- pre-snap, Suh moved from outside Williams' left shoulder to the gap between Williams and Lichtensteiger. When Lichtensteiger down-blocked to help Rabach with Corey Williams, Suh had his opening. The X-factor on this play -- the amazing aspect of the success -- was Suh's speed. When he's blasting through a gap outside, you forget that he's 310 pounds; he doesn't look all that different than a bigger defensive end, or a Justin Tuck-style hybrid player designed for speed rushes who weighs 30 pounds fewer.

The Lions have learned that setting Suh to disrupt quarterbacks by any means necessary makes a great deal of sense. Through Week 8, Suh leads all defensive linemen in the league in Pass Plays (15) and Pass Defeats (11). He's tied with Titans end David Ball with 13 Pass Successes, also tops in the league. This is a guy who's been a full-time difference maker from Day 1 -- no rotational stuff here. Suh has been involved in 28 Plays, which ranks sixth at his position. Suh has more sacks in his last four games than any other defensive tackle has on the entire season -- Idonije has 4.5, but from right end. The last defensive tackle to grab this many sacks in October was Warren Sapp in 2005, and the last rookie to do it was John Henderson in 2002.

It's easy enough to see Suh's play as a series of highlights. His superlative play lends itself easily to that. But the real value is emerging. In different formations and situations, Suh has become that rare do-it-all player with no discernible weakness. Hyperbole from me? Not a bit. Here's what Vanden Bosch had to say after the game: "I hate to use superlatives, but he's one of the best in the game. It's hard to argue that. Suh continues to make big play after big play after big play every week. Sometimes a defensive tackle will have a really good week and then disappear, but Suh continues to be a big-time playmaker for this defense. He's only going to get better, so the sky's the limit with him."

Since you'll often find his testimonials on the back of our Almanacs, we'll let head coach Jim Schwartz tell you too.

"We're doing a lot more with him in pass rush, moving him around. It's something that you grow into," Schwartz said at his Tuesday press conference. "You don't really have all those things at your disposal in the first game of the year, but every game you put in a little bit more and you're seeing us move him around a little bit more. Second play of the game, we had him moved out playing defensive end. I think that he's good against the run, he's good against the pass. I think the one thing that might be -- I don't want to say unrealistic -- because he can play very well, but his sack numbers are incredible for a defensive tackle.

"I think that the one thing we need to be careful of, he may play just as well over the next seven games and not have the same sack production. It doesn't mean he's not playing well. I think sometimes we make a little too much ... sacks are really important, but sometimes when a quarterback's either getting rid of the ball or something else has happened, it doesn't always translate to sacks. For him it has and it did in college also."

It is entirely possible that Suh's sack numbers will drop next Sunday, but that's because he'll be facing the New York Jets' outstanding line. From there, it's Buffalo (ouch), Dallas (oy vay), New England (an actual challenge!), and Chicago (you've got to be kidding me). By then, we'll probably be dealing with a double-digit sack season, which will be a great excuse to check in on him once again. In the meantime, do yourself a favor and keep an eye on Suh. What he's doing so early in his career is something you don't often see."

The Jet Offensive

"Time now for another dissection of the Jets offense. The following segment includes diagrams of Mark Sanchez making bad decisions. It is not meant to suggest that Sanchez is a terrible quarterback or human being, only to demonstrate some things that went wrong for the Jets last Sunday -- some problems they need to correct. If you are sick of Sanchez articles, scroll down and you'll find some Randy Moss jokes.

When a team gets shut out, it means that they did multiple things wrong and their opponent did multiple things right. Often, there's also a little random element involved. The Packers played very well on defense last week, particularly on run defense, where they held the Jets running backs to a maximum carry of eight yards. There were some shaky calls that went the Packers way, and Nick Folk missed a short field goal, which had major ramifications in a game that was 3-0 through three quarters.



The Jets' biggest problem on offense wasn't Sanchez. It was the amount of junk they ran. The Jets used some Brad Smith direct snap plays, a Jerricho Cotchery reverse, a LaDainian Tomlinson option pass, some six-linemen sets and unbalanced lines, and of course a fake punt eerily foreshadowed in last week's column. They even executed a weird out-of-context quarterback sneak in the fourth quarter: Sanchez took the ball and plunged forward for two yards on first-and-10, probably in an effort to catch the Packers napping. It didn't work.

The Packers are the last team I would want to run junk against -- they send too many defenders from too many odd angles to risk an end-around or halfback pass. I would want to run right at them and protect my quarterback with six or seven blockers. Some of the gimmickry had its place -- I liked the six-linemen concept against the Packers -- but their game plan was too much of a potpourri. They now have a more experienced Sanchez and several solid receivers to throw to, so they should scale back the creativity.

Sanchez had a rough game, but not a terrible one when you realize his interceptions were both borderline plays. That being said, let's look at a couple of mistakes Sanchez made that had a huge impact on the game.

Figure 1 shows the Jets on first-and-10 from their own 10-yard line early in the second quarter. Brian Schottenheimer calls a play-action bootleg. The left guard pulls, fullback Tony Richardson (49) motions into an offset-I before lead blocking, and Sanchez (6) fakes a handoff to Shonn Greene (23). The play-fake works extremely well. The defenders in red are all sucked in by the run action, including both Packers cornerbacks and the strong safety.

Sanchez rolls left, where there's a cornerback in no-man's land and Cotchery (89) is running an out-route. Sanchez has time to scan the field, and he looks to Dustin Keller (81) first before throwing to Cotchery. What Sanchez should have seen was that the deep safety, Nick Collins, raced over to cover Cotchery as soon as he saw that Cotchery's defender was fooled by the run action. That left Braylon Edwards (17) uncovered on a post route, as his defender also bit on the run-fake.

The announcer notes Sanchez's mistake on the replay, and he also comes to Sanchez's defense: The quarterback is rolling left, Edwards is well to his right, and the completion to Cotchery does net 14 yards. This isn't a bad play by Sanchez, but it's a missed opportunity, and the league's best quarterbacks find Edwards on broken coverage plays like these. If Sanchez had hit Edwards, the entire complexion of the game would have changed.



Let's fast forward to later in the quarter. Figure 2 shows the Jets on third-and-1 at their 44-yard line. It's after the two-minute warning, and the Jets are out of timeouts, which is why the defensive formation suggests that the Packers are ceding the first down. The cornerbacks are seven yards off the ball, and there are only four defenders on the line of scrimmage. A sneak or draw would easily pick up the first down, but the Packers are willing to trade a three-yard run for 20 seconds of game clock.

Two Jets receivers go deep on this play, so there are really three options for Sanchez. Edwards runs a short smash route in front of his cornerback. Keller runs a five-yard stick in the middle of the field. LaDainian Tomlinson (21) appears to have an option route; he runs up the hash mark, jukes, then heads to the flat.

It's hard to tell what the Packers coverage scheme is because the play is finished so fast. It may be quarters -- four defenders in deep zones, three underneath. At any rate, A.J. Hawk (50) is the closest defender to Tomlinson, and he makes no real effort to lock onto the running back. Edwards' cornerback also appears more interested in dropping and defending a big play (or keeping Edwards in bounds) then covering his receiver. Only Keller is covered. Linebacker Desmond Bishop (55) is sitting right on top of Keller's stick route, and he reads Sanchez the whole way. Sanchez throws to Keller without reading his other options, and Bishop nearly intercepts the pass.

This is another missed opportunity. Tomlinson could easily have gained five yards and gotten out of bounds, but Sanchez made his decision too quickly.



Let's not pick on Sanchez too harshly; he made some big throws. Figure 3 shows the Jets in third-and-8 in the third quarter. The Packers are showing blitz, as usual, with Charles Woodson (21) threatening on the offensive right side. Tomlinson does an excellent job of pass protection, and Sanchez has plenty of time to throw. Keller runs a crossing route, but Sanchez has his eyes on a bigger play: Hawk is trying to run up the seam with Cotchery, which is the kind of mismatch quarterbacks dream about.

Sanchez makes the right read, but he also waits for the play to develop, pump-faking and waiting for defenders to commit. There are plenty of safeties in Cotchery's vicinity, but one has deep responsibility against Holmes, and the other (shown in red) wants to jump a pass to Keller. It's hard to tell where Sanchez is looking and pumping on this play, but he clearly keeps the defense from converging, and he waits until Cotchery gets deep separation from Hawk. Cotchery picks up 49 yards, but the scoring opportunity is squandered by a missed field goal.

Sanchez completed several long passes during Sunday's game, but he also missed several chances to get the Jets in the end zone. One of the most mysterious mistakes occurred late in the fourth quarter, with the Jets down by six and facing third-and-8 from the 35-yard line. I don't like Schottenheimer's call on this play -- four receivers releasing into deep routes, with Tomlinson staying in to block (Figure 4). This is either two-down territory or "set up the field goal" territory. Either way, having one or two receivers crossing in front of the sticks isn't a bad idea. But the Jets send everyone deep, and the Packers respond by rushing three defenders and playing a very deep variation of quarters coverage. Not surprisingly, Sanchez can't find anyone open, so he throws a prayer to Cotchery in the corner of the end zone. The pass is nearly picked off.



As the diagram shows, Edwards is wide open in the back of the end zone. The replay shows him coming over from the middle of the field, just in case the pass is tipped in the air. There is no defender near him, and no defender in the zone he's running from.

I watched this replay about 20 times and counted the Packers defenders twice. On a play like this, the "wide open" receiver usually isn't wide open; his defender left him at the throw. That's not the case here. Tramon Williams breaks up the play for the Packers, and he is clearly the defender assigned to Cothchery's zone, the only one in position to make the play. Nick Collins, the deep safety, is 15 yards in front of Edwards, so there's no way he was covering Edwards through the back of the end zone before turning to defend the throw. Collins appears to have reacted to Keller, who crossed the middle and turned upfield. Woodson, covering an underneath zone, must have turned Edwards loose to Collins and Williams. At some point, Edwards had to have gotten a step on the defenders, and Sanchez wasn't rushed. But he never found the open receiver.

Sunday's shutout was an example of five or six things going simultaneously wrong for the Jets. That was bound to happen, because everything went just right for them for most of the season. Their top priority, after burning a few of the wackier pages from Schottenheimer's playbook, must be to make sure that Sanchez is willing to find and throw to deep receivers. One 50-yard bomb per game could mean the difference between a 10-6 Jets team and the Super Bowl participant they believe they are. Sanchez can't leave those opportunities on the field."

ha esetleg még valaki nem hallott volna róla, a stratégia iránt érdeklődőknek érdekes olvasmány lehet



mondjuk Jaworsky új könyvét is beszereznémJJ Tiller

Ezt átolvastam idén (a defense fejezeteket), elég felületes kis cucc, valóban nem stratégiai alapkönyvként kezelendő. Mondjuk a a fotelfocistáknak tök jó alapnak.

A Layden könyv inkább sématörténeti írás, mintsem play elemzés jellegű könyv. De szó van benne sok érdemleges dologról: Single Wing, Wing T, Wildcat, Wishbone, Optionök, az Air Coryell és utódai, West Coast O, Lombardi féle power sweep, Zone Blocking, Spread, Spread Option, Cover 2, 46, Zone Blitz, védelmek a spread ellen (3-3-5, 4-2-5), No-Huddle, A-11...

még valami: egyszer volt is egy olyan kérdés itt a fórumon, hogy tulajdonképpen "mit is nézzünk" egy play során
na erre azt hiszem Pat Kirwan válaszolt a legrészletesebben 😊



bár van egy ilyen könyv is még 1964-ből

ha esetleg még valaki nem hallott volna róla, a stratégia iránt érdeklődőknek érdekes olvasmány lehet



mondjuk Jaworsky új könyvét is beszerezném

támadó és védekező sémák és minden ami az NFL sportszakmai részével kapcsolatos.