Playbook - DB Mix Up
When this play happened, the audience held their breath on both sides. The deep ball is such an exciting play because of the hangtime on the pass. As Brian Hartline streaks past Aqib Talib he gets open by a mile, and Tannehill lofts it deep. Fortunately for The Patriots, Tannehill's pass was a few inches too far for the ourstretched arms of Hartline.
The DB at fault is either #31 Aqib Talib or #28 Steve Gregory, and at the end of the play Talib looked like he was expecting Safety help from Gregory. Gregory might be affected by the play-action, but it looked like he was sitting on the in-cut from Hartline. Talib gives a free-release and trails his man like he has underneath coverage on his side of the field. Either way, it was a mix-up that could have cost 7 points.
The back end is playing a Tampa-2 style with #54 Dont'a Hightower in a deep middle. Mayo and Spikes draw coverage on the backs, whether it is a run, pass, or play fake. Rob Ninkovich rushes the pass, and gets blocked by a TE. Amazingly, The Dolphins don't attack the huge gap creates by the pre-snap shift of Love and Wilfork. I think Belichick is testing the Rookie's ability to audible.
Normally, running a play-action with 2 vertical routes is not successful against a 2-deep coverage like this. With CBs underneath the WRs, this should never happen. Everybody is covered, and Gregory is on nobody. It is possible he thought the TE would go out for a pattern, but I think that coverage would fall to Hightower.
Gregory seems to be the guilty party on this one. He really just ends up in La-La Land, and he wasn't aware enough to realize it for 3 good steps. He has to see that Talib is giving Hartline an inside release, and he has to see that the TE starts to block. This was just bad Safety play, and it wasn't on a double move a trick play. It's just a blown coverage.
Awful! Championship teams don't make mistakes like this. We may have won the AFC East, but the big games are just beginning. The question is, will Patrick Chung or Tavon Wilson work his way back into the Safety rotation because of mistakes like this?
The back end is playing a Tampa-2 style with #54 Dont'a Hightower in a deep middle. Mayo and Spikes draw coverage on the backs, whether it is a run, pass, or play fake. Rob Ninkovich rushes the pass, and gets blocked by a TE. Amazingly, The Dolphins don't attack the huge gap creates by the pre-snap shift of Love and Wilfork. I think Belichick is testing the Rookie's ability to audible.
Normally, running a play-action with 2 vertical routes is not successful against a 2-deep coverage like this. With CBs underneath the WRs, this should never happen. Everybody is covered, and Gregory is on nobody. It is possible he thought the TE would go out for a pattern, but I think that coverage would fall to Hightower.
Gregory seems to be the guilty party on this one. He really just ends up in La-La Land, and he wasn't aware enough to realize it for 3 good steps. He has to see that Talib is giving Hartline an inside release, and he has to see that the TE starts to block. This was just bad Safety play, and it wasn't on a double move a trick play. It's just a blown coverage.
Awful! Championship teams don't make mistakes like this. We may have won the AFC East, but the big games are just beginning. The question is, will Patrick Chung or Tavon Wilson work his way back into the Safety rotation because of mistakes like this?
Comments
Post a Comment