You nailed that one, Ken.
The play is a 1st and 10 on the DEN 18 with 7:18 in the 1st quarter.
Denver is lined up with two TE's to the left of the formation, and one back. The ball is on the far hash, with the strength to the field.
NE is in a balanced 34 with Nink aligned as the Sam, playing head-up on the line on the outermost TE. Deaderick is the playside end in a 5-technique. Arrington is the playside corner, aligned outside the numbers head up on the x. *The safeties are showing 2-deep 20 yards off the line*. The play is a handoff directed between the 5-technique and the sam.
The inside TE and the T doubleteam Deaderick, the outside TE posts Ninkovich. The playside guard rubs Love at the nose and seals Mayo.
The aiming point for the back is the seam between Nink and the doubleteamed Deaderick. There is a hole initially in the B gap, but Fletcher stays home and shuts that lane down, forcing the initial bounce. Ninkovich jars the TE post, and actually lifts his blocker off of his feet. He is square and controls the outside shoulder of the TE. As the play develops, Deaderick penetrates the doubleteam and turns the play outside. Simultaneously, Nink reads the play going inside of him and moves to shed to the inside to make a play. The back sees Deaderick split the doubleteam and this causes the bounce. Nink at this point is committed to the inside. Arrington is coming hard laterally, with the recever trailing him trying to make a block. As this is happening, Fletcher is scraping in pursuit of the play. As the back cuts it outside, it was a perfect storm of positioning. Nink and Deaderick are negated by the bounce out, and Arrington is now is poor position with the receiver now having an easy seal. Nink is still in position to make a play and does a nice job trying to recover. However, his blocker makes a nice hold on the v of his breastplate. Arrington is blocked into Fletcher, taking them both out of the play.
Slater is coming too hard to the C gap, and is now out of position for run support. McGahee is able to get the angle on him, defeats an arm tackle with a stiff arm, and now is in a race to the pylon along the numbers. Of all people, McCourty coming in pursuit is able to finally push McGahee out of bounds after a 28 yard gain.
So, yes DB play is absolutely to blame in this play. However, it was played well initially by the playside defenders. In my mind, it was just a nice play by McGahee and bad luck the way the play went down.
Hell of an observation in real time!
Jay, I missed this the first time around so I'm glad this was bumped so I got the answer to my question. Next year I won't watch football without the ability to record and review. I've gotten lazy in my declining years.
The key to playing 2 gap 3-4 has always been keeping the outside shoulder free, controlling the outside gap, and the NT controlling the 2 Center gaps. What most people don't realize how more difficult this became back when they changed the blocking rules so offensive linemen could extend their arms.
Prior to that the primary defensive weapon for the DL and LBs were using his head and forearm shiver to create that bit of "separation" or air between the blocker and the defender. Up to that point offensive linemen fired out low and hard. Now the object is NOT to move the defender back but to engage them in a hand fight with the object to create position on the defender.
For the defender the forearm shiver went the way of the buggy whip to be replaced a karate-like 2 handed punch. The problem with that is that it makes it harder to keep that outside shoulder free when you are using your outside hand in your initial contact.
The key to the success of the Denver offense is Tebow's running threat. In traditional offenses where QBs rarely run the ball, there is ALWAYS one more defender than potential blockers. When you play Tebow you no longer have that advantage and that is the reason DC's are always trying to get that extra guy into the box. And when you do that you leave your pass defense more vulnerable
There is no "solution", but there is a treatment. You have to keep switching your strategy from an aggressive 8 man in the box plan to a more passive 4 man deep one. And how well you succeed will be directly related to how well you have designed the disguises and how well the defense executes them. As flawed as the Steelers were in the one play of OT, it still should have only been a 20 yd gain, which would have ended up 1st and 10 on the Denver 40 against a team that had only scored 3 points the entire 2nd half.
I look for Denver to use a lot of Delaware Wing T line blocking this week. For those unfamiliar, that would mean a lot of double teams at the point of attack, with Gs pulling or TEs whamming of RBs leading through the hole.
For example The I formation T power play - you man block NT and ILB with the onside C and G - Double team the DE with the OT and TE - lead with a FB on the OLB and pull the offside G. That puts tremendous pressure on the OLB - if he comes across the LOS he creates a hole and the FB will seal him with a KO block his head on his inside hip with the G leading through. If the OLB closes down the double team and anchors the FB will read this and slide his head to the outside. The RB and pulling G also read this and bounce the play out one more hole
The Broncos can do the same thing from the shot gun formation with the RB doing the FB role and the Tebow being the RB. Very tough to defend, especially when you have a very prevalent passing threat from the shot gun
The Broncos can use a lot of the same blocking tendencies when running their version of the old Houston Veer option attack.
So while many might think that compared to facing the Packers or NO offense playing the Broncos will be a walk in the park, it may be different, but they present a lot of problems for the DC. Do not underestimate the Denver offense. They put up 23 points on the #1 defense in the league, and if it wasn't for some pretty iffy calls by the Refs, it could have been well over 30
Just some thoughts to continue this excellent thread
