| 23 August 2009
Last week, we looked at a good play, this week, not quite the same situation. As I've mentioned, what really stood out to me in the game was the mediocre first-unit defense. I thought it might be worth taking a look at the play that really led to the Broncos' first score.
Situation: Broncos 3rd and 7 on their 41 yard line.
Personnel: The Hawks are in a 4-2 Nickel package with Hill showing blitz on the strong side. Jennings (at Nickel) and Wilson line up five yards beyond the line of scrimmage across from Gaffney and Stokley (respectively). Lucas is about 8 yards back lined up with Eddie Royal at Flanker.
Pre-snap Motion: Royal lines up just outside the "0" behind the 40 yard line, Orton (in Shotgun) points at him and he strolls up to right behind Stokley's left side. [Read More]
Defensive Line: The line left to right is Tapp - Redding - Mebane - Kerney. No surprise, they actually get decent penetration here, but alas, the play was designed that way. As the offensive left side lets the defense in, Kerney recognizes the screen and cuts back, the first to start moving to the ball, but Tapp, Tatupu and Mebane are all quickly on his heels running towards Royal. The Broncos guard knocks Kerney out of the play, and Mebane is left helpless in the ensuing traffic jam. Darryl Tapp finally brings Royal down from behind after taking an excellent angle and motoring past Tatupu to get to the ball.
Linebackers: Tatupu is standing about two yards behind the line, with Hill on the edge showing blitz. As the center flinches Tatupu is immediately off and running, showing the acceleration we missed from him much of last year. Hill does indeed blitz but is a non-factor as TE Daniel Graham contains him and keeps him locked up on the side opposite the play. Tatupu gets penetration up the middle and had this not been a screen was the most likely to get at Orton. However, it was a screen. He is quick to turn and pursue Royal, but doesn't quite have the speed to catch up to Royal.
Secondary (We're going to get a little more in depth here):
Ken Lucas is slow to recognize the play as it develops, backpedaling slightly at the snap, then basically sliding into an awkward block from Stokley. Lucas was going for the tackle, but he had an inferior angle and was not going be able to get there from the outside going in. Had he taken Stokley on more directly, there's a chance he blocks the lane that Royal ended up taking and pushes Lil' Eddie into Josh Wilson. There would also be a chance that Royal makes it to the outside and is gone.
Josh Wilson backpedals with Stokley, but as the WR breaks over to block Lucas, Wilson hesitates for a split second before charging forward. Ryan Clady does one of the more amusing belly flops I've seen in slo-mo and frankly it's hard to tell if it was intentional or not. Either way, he blocks Wilson's path and Royal does a good job of using that to his advantage. Wilson is then screened by Brian Russell and his blocker, and Wilson is out of the play.
Brian Russell lines up deep and watches the play develop. He recognizes the play pretty quickly and sprints toward the action. Unfortunately, he overshoots the moving target of Eddie Royal with his lateral movement, forcing him to make an awkward turn and dive at his feet when Royal blows past him. By this time he's being smothered by their left guard, Hamilton. He breaks off the block to make that awkward dive, but to no avail.
Deon Grant is on the strong side around the 50, recognizes the screen but just jogs over towards that side of the field at first, assuming his teammates are going to make a play. They don't. He breaks into a sprint and, had Tapp not made the tackle, Grant was in position to teach Royal a lesson about making him run just about 2 yards further down field. Still, would like to see a little more effort from Grant, though 9 plays out of 10 he's playing harder than anyone else so we'll give this a pass.
Play Summary: Basically, the Broncos were able to do exactly what they wanted to do with a mix of slow play recognition on our part - hesitation by the line can be forgiven, but Lucas was slow to recognize and Wilson appeared slow to adjust when Stokley broke off for the block - and solid offensive line play by the Broncos. Having Eddie Royal free in open space didn't hurt the play along, either.
The Seahawks didn't make any huge mistakes here, which is why it's disconcerting. If a team gets 26 yards on you, you want someone to be culpable, but in this case, no one really was so, I suppose, everyone sort of was. I won't go so far as to say Orton read our defense and changed the play, because without his neckbeard he has no super powers left, but it was a disappointing play, and we had better not see a lot of that in the regular season.
written by MMF, August 23, 2009
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written by Pablo, August 23, 2009
this is Mora today looking at the defensive game film, especially the secondary.
this is Mora studying Deon Butler's 30+ yard mouth dropping catch in slow-mo, LOL!
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written by S.TTBM, August 24, 2009
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written by Ryan Romano, August 24, 2009
You guys see that Sando is reporting that Mora said Reed is going to be in a Seahawks uniform this year? Meaning he has a good chance of making the final 53.
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