Defensive Play of the Week: Deceptive Defense

mabrowndog

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Last week we saw the Kansas City Chiefs use misdirection to fool the Patriots’ defense and produce a huge 48-yard gain that left New England embarrassed. On Sunday night the defense got back on track and turned the tables, producing some deception and trickery of their own to bring Cincinnati’s first drive of the game to a screeching halt on our Defensive Play of the Week.
After the snap, Dalton sees something he probably didn’t expect...
In this situation, proper positioning by New England and execution of the playbook was only part of the story.
 
More here:  Defensive Play of the Week - Deceptive Defense
 

mabrowndog

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Funny you should mention that, Jon. When we were discussing what to focus on for DPOTW (the Revis strip-fumble was also on the table), Dave Archibald suggested this man/zone switch, adding, "good indicator of Pats' effectiveness on 3rd down, too".
 

Reverend

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This is such an awesome example of what is meant by disguising a defense. I often wonder how a QB tried to figure out what's going on because, I mean, he sees where the players are, right? I generally used to think of deception as standing in one place and then running to another near or at the snap, so the way the players move as though it's a man defense really brings how deception works for me here.
 
Question: Does this mean that the second and third tier players (or at least some of them) need to be prepared to have different zone coverage responsibilities depending on who on the offense shifts?
 

Stitch01

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I think its a really good example given the questions about why the Pats aren't playing press-man all the time.
 

soxfan121

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Super Nomario said:
If you ::ahem:: read my piece, you will see that the "get off the field" stat includes both third downs (where, as noted, Cincy was 0-7) and fourth down (where Cincy was 0-1).
 
Why would I do that?
 

neil

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Great great article. Football is so much more enjoyable when you see breakdowns like this. I really wish they'd focus more on this during the game rather than quickly cutting to commercial and having the commentators throw out some superlatives.
 

Bucket1923

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Really enjoyed that, and I am more a layman than an expert so I'm not trying to edit your excellent article; but. for my own understanding, Sanu's route on that play is essentially a wheel route out of the backfield...you wouldn't call that a slant to the sideline would you?
 

BrazilianSoxFan

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I remember watching this play and thinking how completely unprepared the team seemed to be before the snap, reacting in desperation to the Bengals moves.
 

nazz45

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Bucket1923 said:
Really enjoyed that, and I am more a layman than an expert so I'm not trying to edit your excellent article; but. for my own understanding, Sanu's route on that play is essentially a wheel route out of the backfield...you wouldn't call that a slant to the sideline would you?
It appeared to be more of a swing route, also a common man coverage / blitz beater route out of the backfield. If that were man coverage, Green would still be running - actually a really well designed play by the Bengals with all those clear out routes over the middle but the Patriots were fortunately in the right defense. That's where film study and a week of prep comes in handy.
 

Pandemonium67

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Great analysis and use of video. Bonus points for the square dance humor.

The Bengals missing the long field goals put the Pats in business at the 42, and soon the rout was on.
 

Kenny F'ing Powers

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nazz45 said:
It appeared to be more of a swing route, also a common man coverage / blitz beater route out of the backfield. If that were man coverage, Green would still be running - actually a really well designed play by the Bengals with all those clear out routes over the middle but the Patriots were fortunately in the right defense. That's where film study and a week of prep comes in handy.
 
I think he was correcting the name of the route, and he's correct. When a running back heads to the flat, you don't call it a slant to the sideline. Players in the backfield don't usually follow the same verbiage as players on the line. It's semantics and does nothing to take away from the value of the piece.
 

mabrowndog

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Kenny F'ing Powers said:
I think he was correcting the name of the route, and he's correct. When a running back heads to the flat, you don't call it a slant to the sideline. Players in the backfield don't usually follow the same verbiage as players on the line. It's semantics and does nothing to take away from the value of the piece.
 
To clarify, I used "slant" to physically describe the direction of the route, not as conventional nomenclature for the type of route. It was either "slant" or "diagonal" and, being the obsessed writer/editor, I opted for fewer syllables. But I failed to foresee the confusion that would cause, so I appreciate Bucket1923 raising the question because he's 100% correct that it wasn't a "slant route" by definition.
 
However, it doesn't really resemble a wheel route, which entails an initial path parallel to the LOS followed by either a hard cut or an accelerated curve to turn upfield and run parallel to the sideline. Sanu does none of that. He runs diagonally from the backfield. In fairness to Bucket1923, the play (and his route) ends so quickly that it's impossible for us to discern what the rest of his route was designed to do. I mean, he's barely gone 4 yards before he sees Green catching the pass and being engulfed by Collins, so he just says "eff it". Maybe the plan was to have him turn on the jets, but I doubt it.
 
I can only assume that, like the routes of the other receivers, his was intended to pick up the first down as the priority, with any additional yardage considered gravy. Since Dalton never really looks in his direction (at least from what we can gauge by his head position), it appears Sanu's route was a backup plan or a decoy. Or Dalton became a deer in headlights when the coverage scheme shifted.