What went wrong in the Falcons first TD and how was it corrected schematically?

[K. Dog]

On 2d and 1 on the Patriots 6 at Q2 12:15, Julio right after the snap and Freeman 24 runs left, taking a handoff and easily running in for the TD. No Patriot was close to him.

What exactly did the Patriots do wrong there? How was it corrected later - you can see Belichick scheming something surface free after the play: what's he planning to modify?

 

[supafly]

Could have been a lot of things, with a blown responsibility possibly being at the top of the list.

Do you have any screenshots of the front/personnel grouping, by chance. This is the kind of thing that @AndyJohnson is pretty good at breaking down, when he's not busy chasing the GOAT out of town one year early.

 

[K. Dog]

Do you have any screenshots of the front/personnel grouping, by chance.

Well the whole play is here:

 

[supafly]

Well the whole play is here:

Amazing how well Freeman was running that drive. He truly is a gifted back.

I think the fact that Julio Jones was lined up in the backfield in a different look/trick formation may have thrown them off. Aside from that, I see the possibility of Brown maybe run blitzing and shooting the wrong gap, and/or Freeman simply juking. Obviously, they lost run containment and there was no edge set. Ninkovich's lack of speed likely hurt a bit, too, which goes hand in hand with my previous sentence.

I'm sure we will hear a more thorough breakdown from others.

Belichick writes a lot of stuff down pretty consistently though, particularly on bigger plays and scoring plays. I'm not sure how much I'd read into that, alone.

 

[BlacknGold77]

play worked as designed for Atlanta, not much more complex than that.

They set it up to force the Pats to look at Julio by putting him in the backfield. They then got the defense thinking one way and hit them with a misdirection hand off against the grain.

plus give credit to the line. the left side got a big push and Freeman was fast enough to blow around the corner.

 

[Tony2046]

Just my novice opinion.

I agree with @BlacknGold77. It was a well designed play but I also think the Pats had a plan for it but Rowe was caught out of position.

Watching the play:

1. Rowe originally had JJ in coverage but when he goes in motion he and McCourty switch responsibilities.


2. After Rowe and McCourty switch you can clearly see McCourty signally to Rowe by pointing to the outside or towards the sideline.



3. On the plays leading up to this one the Falcons had successful misdirection plays up the middle. Freeman made some nice moves on this drive.

4. When the play starts Freeman fakes up the middle and then cuts to the outside. Rowe bites hard on the inside move. Btw: Had Freeman decided to run up the middle both Brown and Hightower had both gaps sealed. Actually Brown nearly blew up the play in the backfield.




Later in the game the Pats defense settles down and maintains better gap discipline. I'll post a few plays later to demonstrate the differences between the first half and the second half.

But please keep in mind that I'm not a football guru but do enjoy the discussion.


Edit: this is incorrect. After seeing this from a different angle I think @DaBruinz is correct.

 

[DaBruinz]

When you watch the video, the first thing that pops out is that the Patriots are in a 4-2-5.

You have across the from from Left to right:
Ninkovich, Branch, Brown, Flowers

Your Two Linebackers are McClellin and Hightower

Your DBs: Butler, Chung, McCourty, Rowe, Ryan

I've watched the play numerous times and I believe that Freeman was originally supposed to followed Julio Jones going to their right. I believe this because of the way that the Sanu and the LT were blocking. Freeman chose to cut back because of Brown's penetration. Had Freeman kept going, he was going down for a loss Brown. If by some miracle he'd made it past Brown, you still had McClellin, McCourty, Chung and Butler waiting for him on that side with only Julio Jones to block. The Patriots had the defense for that play perfect except for the surprise cutback.

Brown shoots his gap and likely would have had Freeman since they were within 2 ft of each other, but Brown was off-balance and couldn't lunge. Freeman made a helluva cut-back to avoid Brown.

Flowers starts off well on the play and seems to have back-side containment. Flowers loses containment when he loses his leverage on the LT and get's pushed back a yard. This gave Freeman the wide berth he needed to get across.

I don't get people saying that this play shows that Ninkovich was slow. Ninkovich pulled off the line, bringing the TE with him. Ninkovich immediately sees that Freeman has cut back and goes across the line in pursuit. Von Miller or JJ Watt weren't catching Freeman so I don't get the expectation that Ninkovich should have.

Also, by bringing the TE with him, had the play run as I hypothesize, then the TE isn't able to block out McCourty, Chung or Butler, giving them a free run at the "D" gap.

Logan Ryan is the DB lined up at the line across from Sanu. Eric Rowe is off the line, having moved across with Jones and misses the signal by McCourty to move back to the outside of Ryan. Rowe, like McCourty, get's flummoxed by the Freeman cut back and is out of position to make a play because Sanu does a great job blocking Ryan back.

Let's give credit where it's due. Freeman made a helluva play with his cut-back that resulted in the TD.

 

[DaBruinz]

Just my novice opinion.

I agree with @BlacknGold77. It was a well designed play but I also think the Pats had a plan for it but Rowe was caught out of position.

Watching the play:

1. Rowe originally had JJ in coverage but when he goes in motion he and McCourty switch responsibilities.


2. After Rowe and McCourty switch you can clearly see McCourty signally to Rowe by pointing to the outside or towards the sideline.



3. On the plays leading up to this one the Falcons had successful misdirection plays up the middle. Freeman made some nice moves on this drive.

4. When the play starts Freeman fakes up the middle and then cuts to the outside. Rowe bites hard on the inside move. Btw: Had Freeman decided to run up the middle both Brown and Hightower had both gaps sealed. Actually Brown nearly blew up the play in the backfield.




Later in the game the Pats defense settles down and maintains better gap discipline. I'll post a few plays later to demonstrate the differences between the first half and the second half.

But please keep in mind that I'm not a football guru but do enjoy the discussion.

Tony - I don't feel it was a "Fake" up the middle so much as Freeman making an excellent cutback after realizing that the play was broken..

 

[ForThoseAboutToRock]

I've watched the play numerous times and I believe that Freeman was originally supposed to followed Julio Jones going to their right. I believe this because of the way that the Sanu and the LT were blocking. Freeman chose to cut back because of Brown's penetration.

Hard for me to see Freeman going to the offensive right to follow Jones when you look at 2:12 or so, and see the angle he took getting the handoff from Ryan. His torso and hips are both essentially facing the front left pylon in the end zone in the moments before he advances towards Ryan to accept the handoff.

He then got the handoff at the 10, turned immediately upfield and encountered Brown at about the 8, planted his right foot and made a very hard cut to his left (impressive). Definitely looks like the cut to the offensive left was not by design, based on how the LT was blocking to seal off Ninko from accessing anything to the LT's right.

Not saying you're wrong, but by the looks of it to me, hard to see that Freeman was considering the right side.

Logan Ryan is the DB lined up at the line across from Sanu. Eric Rowe is off the line, having moved across with Jones and misses the signal by McCourty to move back to the outside of Ryan. Rowe, like McCourty, get's flummoxed by the Freeman cut back and is out of position to make a play because Sanu does a great job blocking Ryan back.

Let's give credit where it's due. Freeman made a helluva play with his cut-back that resulted in the TD.

This is what stood out to me. Ninko didn't seal the edge and Rowe got blocked entirely out of being able to extend the run along the LOS, leaving everything else backed up in the middle of the field. Nobody was catching Freeman with that much space.

 

[Tony2046]

Tony - I don't feel it was a "Fake" up the middle so much as Freeman making an excellent cutback after realizing that the play was broken..

I think you're right.

I got a better view from gamepass. Brown does beat his blocker and Rowe had no choice but to cover that gap.

 

[Tony2046]

Hard for me to see Freeman going to the offensive right to follow Jones when you look at 2:12 or so, and see the angle he took getting the handoff from Ryan. His torso and hips are both essentially facing the front left pylon in the end zone in the moments before he advances towards Ryan to accept the handoff.

He then got the handoff at the 10, turned immediately upfield and encountered Brown at about the 8, planted his right foot and made a very hard cut to his left (impressive). Definitely looks like the cut to the offensive left was not by design, based on how the LT was blocking to seal off Ninko from accessing anything to the LT's right.

Not saying you're wrong, but by the looks of it to me, hard to see that Freeman was considering the right side.



This is what stood out to me. Ninko didn't seal the edge and Rowe got blocked entirely out of being able to extend the run along the LOS, leaving everything else backed up in the middle of the field. Nobody was catching Freeman with that much space.

I'm not sure what you mean by Ninko not sealing the edge. Flowers DE on the left side during that play. Ninko came from the right side.

I do agree that Freeman wasn't going to the right.

 

[ForThoseAboutToRock]

I'm not sure what you mean by Ninko not sealing the edge. Flowers DE on the left side during that play. Ninko came from the right side.

I do agree that Freeman wasn't going to the right.

You're completely right - I was looking at Flowers, not Ninko.

 

[K. Dog]

Thanks for the analysis, it's persuasive and interesting. I completely missed the safety signalling to Rowe the first several times I watched this play.

 

[Shockt327]

I'm looking at it on the All-22...

It's actually a pretty clever play. By motioning both the WRs into the backfield; having them pull to the right (almost as if they were, say, pulling a Fullback and a Guard); the play initially looks a hell of a lot like a power/counter run (but in this case, still having to respect those WR/blockers as pass catchers first and foremost).

After the first step, I was almost expecting the running back to cut back to the right-side to follow those WRs. But, since all five of his linemen haven't moved, the play can still go to the left.

 

[Joker]

yup...it sure worked in the first quarter.