Passing lanes and Blaine Gabbert.

So I'd had a fun week last week (kind of) and I needed to atone for my behaviour with a bit of self inflicted punishment, which explains why I was watching videos on NFL.com.

One video that caught my eye in particular was this one, breaking down some of Matthew Staffords interceptions from the game against the Bears. One play really stood out for me because it gives me an opportunity to take a look at something that a lot of people forget about when we wonder "why didn't the quarterback throw the ball to xyz across the middle etc?"

The answers are many to that kind of question, but one important reason often has to do with throwing lanes. Just so we're all on the same page, we're talking about the path from the quarterback to the receiver, along which the ball will have to travel.

There are basically two things that can obstruct a throwing lane. One is a defensive player, the other is an offensive lineman. How much of an obstruction certain players cause depends on the throw being made. A deep bomb on a 40 yard fade pass has to be lofted so high and with such an arc just to get it down the field that throwing lanes are seldom a concern.

But as the pass becomes progressively more flat in nature, we're talking shorter passes often between 5-15 yards from the line of scrimmage, suddenly the freedom of the throwing lane from obstructions becomes a big issue. I want to show you a screen capture taken from that video to illustrate my point. I haven't edited this or done anything to the picture;

The presenter Brian Baldinger was talking about Stafford looking across the middle and seeing his tight end covered. Well I disagree. For me, the tight end is open there, at least by the standards of the NFL. A quarterback at this level needs to be able to fit the ball into just that kind of window, right into his gut in order to help the receiver to protect himself.

The problem is not the coverage though, it's the center. You should be able to seem him under that vision graphic. The problem is if Stafford throws the ball to the middle now, he'll likely hit the center in the back and have the pass deflected. I think that's why Stafford went wide and got picked off.

It's a good question though; how many of us think about things like passing lanes on a regular bases. I'd be interested to know just how many defensive coordinators have a package in their play book whereby the defensive linemen are taught to attack the offensive line face to face, filling the passing lanes with their hands, while other defenders drop off and fill the remaining passing lanes in coverage.

Below I've put up a hypothetical example;

As you can see the linebackers are in a position to interrupt most of the passing lanes, while the rushing defenders fight through the linemen instead of going around them, pushing them back into their own quarterback while being ready to jump and get their hands up.

It's not something I could see a team doing more than just a few plays per game, but I think it's an interesting thought exercise and I think it's a good reminder for offensive coaches to think about passing lanes and not just passing routes when working with quarterbacks.

The other thing I quickly wanted to harp on, and this relates to quarterbacks, is Blaine Gabbert. I stumbled across this ProFootballTalk.com article the other day that had this interesting line in it; "The rookie has zero pocket presence. He feels pressure when it’s not there and takes too long to make decisions"

My response to this would be; no shit.

How long ago did I say that? This long ago.

"Gabbert will probably collapse in the face of pressure in the NFL. Very rarely did I see him stand in the pocket and let routes develop down field. Everything was coming out of his hands as quick as a flash. On the few occasions that he did try and hold the ball, he almost immediately bailed out of the pocket and ran for his life, even if it was just a three man rush.

He just seems to have zero experience of standing up to a proper rush...

...The people then that I blame are the people putting Gabbert up there on the pedestal as the number one QB in the 2011 draft class, because I don't think he's anything near that....

...But to tout him as a franchise QB at all, let alone a day one franchise kid, is a big mistake in my opinion."

This is what has been frustrating me so much lately. Think of all the TV analysts, the draft experts, the NFL scouts who were tipping off the TV guys. Not once did anyone talk about this stuff, they loved Gabbert. Now all of a sudden everyone is an expert in picking out his faults having watched a significant amount of him in the NFL.

I just don't get it. They were watching the same film I was. In fact that's wrong, they had access to way more film from way more angles than I could ever dream about, and still missed it. It's all there. Just go back and watch any Missouri game. It's not hard to spot, especially now you know what you're looking for.

And I guess all this boils down to frustration, due primarily to envy I guess. I go to bed knowing that somewhere out there a whole bunch of scouts, TV people etc are all earning fairly big money for their opinions on players, and they can't even pick up a simple thing like this Gabbert situation.

It just annoys me and I enjoy venting. So there.

Now in all the rushing about this week I didn't get the chance to recap my picks from week 12 but I was 13-3 for the week so I'm pretty happy with that, and I'm now 113-67 for the season. For tomorrow nights game I will take... the Seahawks. Because the Eagles don't stop the run all that well and the Seahawks are kind of leaning that way lately. Should be a really good game though.

Update 11/30/2011

So I've had an intensely boring day so far, reading reports about the logistic operations of the UK armed forces in the run up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Don't ask.

The main thrust of this is that I have an article up my sleeve that will either be finished over the course of the next 6-8 hours, or possibly tomorrow. I'm going as quick as I can in between other tasks!

Week 12 picks

Have we really only got 5 more weeks of the regular season? Damn. Time to pick some winners for Sunday I guess, then let you in on what I'm working on for my next article. I'm already 2-1 this week, so let's try and build on that. Briefly then;

- I'm taking Atlanta over Minnesota. Adrian Peterson is missing for the Vikings which will severely hamper them.
- Bengals over the Browns. The Browns are probably one of the two worst teams in the league at this minute, along with the Jaguars.
- Panthers over the Colts. It's the Colts for crying out loud. Even the Panthers defense and Cam Newton can overcome that challenge.
- Texans at Jaguars. Even with Matt Leinart at quarterback, the Texans should get the win over Jacksonville.
- Jets over the Bills. The Bills just lost Fred Jackson to injured reserve, their offense going with him. Say bye, bye to your season Buffalo.
- Cardinals over the Rams. The Rams certainly have the capacity to play well, they just don't do it very often.
- Titans over the Buccaneers. Because as bad as Tennessee have been, the Buc's have probably been worse.
- Bears over the Raiders. The Raiders are missing a whole bunch of players and Caleb Haine is a solid back up quarterback for the Bears.
- Seahawks over the Redskins. I always complain about the Seahawks, but they're probably better than the Redskins on balance.
- Patriots over the Eagles. The Vince Young lead Eagles will struggle to match firepower with the Patriots.
- Broncos over the Chargers. I've been practically driving the Tebow bandwagon, so I can't jump off now.
- Steelers over Chiefs. Blurgh, the Chiefs.
- Saints over Giants. I give up defending the Giants. F**k 'em.

Right, so what am I working on... actually not all that much. There's a couple of things I saw watching the NFL's "Playbook" show that I want to bring up, so that'll probably end up being a combi post sometime next week, inlcuding Blaine Gabbert and a word on passing lanes.

So I've been pretty inactive this past week.

From what I've seen around the web over the last few years it seems to be a curse that affects many a blogger. You have a whole bunch of free time on your hands so you think to yourself "you know what'd be a cool idea? If I shared all of my inane ramblings about a given subject with the world..."

Then you spend the next year or two writing your blog, pouring time into like it was a needy child that just constantly cried all day, everyday. Throughout this time period your readership can generally be counted using the fingers on one hand.

Then when things finally start to pick up and you actually begin to put together a consistent and moderately sized readership, all of a sudden every last drop of your spare time is getting consumed performing largely pointless errands on other peoples behalf. Just when you're starting to get over the hump, suddenly you find a long downward slope on the other side.

So apology's for the lack of posting recently. But for now at least I've managed to scrape together the time to take a look at one of my favourite positions on the football field, offensively at least; the Fullback.

I love Fullback's. Not quick enough to play tight end, not big enough to play linebacker, fullbacks are the forgotten players of the offense - an echo from the past when teams ran the ball 50 times a game, games didn't last three and a half f**king hours, and you actually used to spend more time watching the game than you did watching adverts.

Over the years however Fullbacks have fallen out of favour as teams progressively shift more towards pass orientated offenses that require three or four receivers and don't run the ball anywhere near as much. Under those conditions a 240 lbs lead blocking rhino isn't as useful as another 200 lbs gazelle at the wide out spot.

All is not lost though. Even in today's world of spread offenses and rules balanced to favour the forward pass, fullbacks can still contribute. Their main advantage is the ability to sneak out of the backfield on short yardage, play-action downs - especially in the red zone - and catch simple passes in the flat. There are still teams that run the ball fairly commonly, thus calling on their fullbacks to perform the traditional duty of lead blocker. And now more and more teams are designing misdirection runs out of I-formation sets to get the ball to their fullbacks. We're going to look at just a few of these plays over the course of this article.

First though we need to take a trip down memory lane and look at some of the old formations that teams used to use that prominently featured the fullback;

Now while my diagram may indeed look like a particularly shit game of "Connect 4" (click the image to enhance... just the size sadly, it'll still be badly drawn) there is a point to it. The highlighted players in yellow and red are the tight end and the fullback respectively. Really I only needed to do that for the final two formations, but hey. Indeed those last two formations may just look like mirror images, but trust me they're not. As you can see from the yellow blob on the end of the line, the tight end is to the right in both cases.

These are the types of formations that formed the back bone of most "pro-style" offenses from the 1960's through to the late 80's at least. Each formation gives certain subtle advantages compared to it's siblings. It's at this point that I'm wishing I'd had the foresight to label them with numbers. Of course I still could and you'd never know, but that's too much like hard work.

So starting in the top left we have the "split backs" formation, a favourite of many teams. Bill Walsh used to refer to this formation as simply 'Red' and it was the default formation around which his offense was built. The key to what makes the split backs so dangerous is the versatility. You have three down field receivers and two backs who can leak out of the backfield to attack the underneath coverage, giving the coordinator the option of sending five receivers out into a pass pattern.

Alternatively he can keep one, two or all of the three interior receivers (the two backs and the tight end) in to pass protect, and can do so in a dazzling number of combinations. Ok, perhaps not that many, but more than enough. You can also run the ball quite effectively, in no small part thanks to having that fullback in their to lead block for the running back.

Shown second is the "I-formation" which facilitates the downhill running game a little better and provides a better two-way threat to run the ball to either side, as well as creating some quick developing play-action passes. The main drawback is that it takes longer for the backs to get out into pass patterns when the quarterback takes a straight drop.

The two bottom formations lean heavily to one side or the other. The formation on the left facilitates running to the weak side, in particular toss runs to the weak side, with the quarterback pitching the ball quickly to the fullback. It allows the backs to quickly get out of the backfield on passing plays and "flood" the weak side of the defense. It also permits the protection to be set much better against blitzes off the weak side, especially if the weak safety is bltizing. The formation on the bottom right does similar things, except this time to the strong side.

In all of this the fullback plays a key role. He's usually a better pass blocker than the half back. He's often not bad as a receiver, despite my early dig at them. Indeed, Roger Craig of the 49ers was the first player to achieve both 1,000-yards rushing and receiving in a single season (1985), all while playing from the fullback spot as illustrated above. Fullbacks also make good ball carriers; just ask Franco Harris.

From the positions above the fullback can easily get out into most short-medium pass patterns and can also be brought into the running game as a ball carrier with a bit of creativity. Mostly this involves quick toss sweeps to the outside with the halfback lead blocking, as well as inside runs where either the halfback lead blocks through the hole or, the halfback runs to the outside in order to misdirect the defense (particularly the widest linebacker and defensive lineman) and allow the offensive line to concentrate on blocking the interior defensive players to create a path up the middle for the fullback.

We still see some of this in action today which is where we're going to head now, looking at a few plays from last Sundays games.

We'll start in Green Bay as the Packers took on the Buccaneers and facing a second down with less than a yard to go the Packers called upon the many talents of defensive lineman B.J. Raji, those talents being largely that he weighs over 300 pounds and is pretty strong! The Packers lined him up at Fullback and dipped into their playbook for a bit of simple misdirection. Let's take a look;

What the Packers do is to leave the outside backers of the defense completely unblocked. The defense - quite naturally I should point out - are expecting the Packers to use Raji as a lead blocker, piling his significant weight into the hole in order to clear a path for the running back. When those outside backers see everyone block down inside and give them a free path to the running back they think all their Christmas's have come at once.

What the Packers actually do is have quarterback Aaron Rodgers stick the ball straight into the gut of Raji (that's quite the significant target area to aim for!) and then step back behind to fake the hand off to the running back. At first glance it just looks like the quarterback has stumbled getting out from under center, or has bumped into Raji on the way back. It's not until the linebacker hits the tailback and you see him throw out his empty hands to break his fall that you realise what's happened.

This simple bit of misdirection allows the Packers to concentrate numbers at the point of attack and overwhelm the defense to the inside. Result of the play - touchdown. Here's the video.

Next up is the Seahawks versus the Rams, and a classic misdirection run for the fullback that leads to a touchdown.

The first thing to note about the play that we're going to see is that the fullback is Marshawn Lynch, who would normally line up as the tailback. That should be the first clue that tips off the defense. But to keep them on their toes the Seahawks are going to use a dive/toss play, where the fullback runs straight downhill as if it were a dive up the gut and the tailback immediately runs to the outside as if the play is a toss sweep.

Depending on who the play is designed for the quarterback will either fake the hand off to the diving fullback and then pitch it out to the tailback or he'll fake the pitch and instead give the ball to the fullback. This decision is pre-determined when the play is called in, unlike an option play where the quarterback has to read a defender.

Let's have a look at the diagram;

As you can see the tail back (the dotted line) goes immediately to the left when the ball is snapped. The key to this play is that a hard run by the tailback and a good fake by the quarterback will hold that backer on the left and usually the support man behind him. Both of them will key the tail back breaking off and will be forced to step in that direction just to be safe. This allows the left tackle - along with the rest of the Offensive Line - to block down on the inside defenders, leaving one or two men unblocked on the backside of the play.

As you can see from the red track leading from the fullback Lynch receives the ball and slides to the right, aiming for the gap that develops between the tight end and the right tackle. However he sees the two linebackers converging on this hole and decides instead to bounce it right around the edge. The tight end does a great job of getting his hands into the defensive ends chest and jacking him up, stopping him from reaching out to get at Lynch.

Then it's just a foot race between the linebacker and Lynch to get to the pylon, and there's a good reason that Lynch plays running back and the linebacker plays linebacker; speed. Touchdown Seahawks. The video is here.

Unfortunately that's all I have time for today. Hopefully you've learnt a bit about how fullbacks can still be useful even in these modern, pass happy times. There's so much more that they can contribute than what I've shown here, but at least this gives you a taste. By using misdirection teams can hold defenders or make them chase ghosts, allowing even the lowly fullback to sneak in a few yards and the odd score.

I'll leave you with this budget video that I found on YouTube of one of the most versatile fullbacks ever to play the game and one of my favourite players of all time; Tom Rathman! Enjoy.

Update; November 23rd

I'm working on something!! Trust me, I am. Or at least I'm trying to. It will likely be up somewhere in the next 10 hour span.

EDIT; Ok kiss that plan goodbye. Instead the next article will have to wait till tomorrow, where I'm going to look at those forgotten soldiers of the offense; Full backs.

Also I forgot to tally up my picks for week 11 and I can now tell you that I was 10-4 for this week, which puts me at 100-64 for the season, which I believe is a lot better than last year.

And finally I've remembered that we have Thursday night football. What with it being Thanksgiving and all that there's 3 games, so I'm going to take;

- The Packers over the Lions, because I still think the Lions are badly over rated,
- The Ravens over the 49ers, because the 49ers aren't that good either (except on defense),
- The Dolphins over the Cowboys, because the Cowboys struggled to beat Washington last week,

So Happy Thinksgiving and hopefully I'll see you tomorrow.

Week 11 picks

After a success on Thursday night with the Broncos, time to pick the rest of the week 11 games. This is going to be a greatly abbreviated version compared to normal. I just find my own commentary during these previews often gets redundant and boring once I get past the main thrust of why I'm picking one team. And I'm writing it, so I can't imagine what it's like reading it.

- Bengals @ Ravens; And I'm going with the Ravens. The Bengals are missing A.J. Green and the Ravens will likely focus in on Ray Rice as a form of over compensation after last week, which I think will work well.

- Jaguars @ Browns; Oh God. I'm so glad I don't live in Cleveland. Every week just seems to be another horrible match up. I'm not a big fan of the Jaguars, but I'm even less of a fan of the Browns so I'll take the Jags to win it.

- Panthers @ Lions; If it wasn't for the Panthers defense I'd take them. But I can't. Their secondary will have great difficulty containing the Lions, so I'm backing a Lions win.

- Buccaneers @ Packers; Do I even have to explain this? Packers win.

- Bills @ Dolphins; Miami is hitting back and the Bills have been unsteady lately, but the Dolphins defense still can't tackle and I see Fred Jackson having a lot of fun. Bills win.

- Raiders @ Vikings; The Raiders are still missing a number of key offensive players and it's going to be tough sleding against the Vikings defense. I'll support my assessment of Christian Ponder and take a Vikings win.

- Cowboys @ Redskins; Cowboys. By a mile.

- Cardinals @ 49ers; 49ers. Just a little too strong defensively right now.

- Seahawks @ Rams; As much as I dislike the Seahawks, their run defense is a good match for stopping Steven Jackson, who basically constitutes about 90% of the Rams useful offense. Seahawks win.

- Titans @ Falcons; Falcons. The Titans are getting better, but the Falcons are set defensively to give them problems and the Titans D will struggle I think to cope with the Falcons.

- Chargers @ Bears; I'll take the Bears on account of the Chargers spectacular ability to kill themselves off in games. Also have to like the Bears pass rush against an injury riddled Chargers O-line.

- Eagles @ Giants; Giants, Giants and more Giants.

- Chiefs @ Patriots; The Patriots are still winning even when they don't play well, which is often seen as the mark of a true championship team, regardless of the sport. And they're playing the Chiefs. The Chiefs. Patriots win.

Cardinal Creativity

At last, a chance to sit down and look at the Cardinals offense from last week against the Eagles. There's two plays in particular that interest me, mainly because of the way the Cardinals involved players coming from the running back position into the passing game. Just keep in mind that I come at this from the perspective of being a huge fan of Bill Walsh and having long been obsessed with watching old 49ers games to learn more about how Walsh got the tight end and the running backs involved in the passing game, so if I sound overly enthusiastic and pleased about throwing the ball to running backs, now you know why.

The first play is a pass that came on 4th and 2 with just 3:10 left in the game. The Cardinals are driving down the field for what would eventually be the winning touchdown. Naturally they have four wide receivers on the field, but the Eagles defense play this look in a weird way. As you'll see in the diagram below they have their usual "wide nine" (nine technique) aligned defensive ends, but they also have five down defensive linemen and go man to man in coverage.

Normally at this point in the game when defending a lead, teams will try and use a much softer coverage, with plenty of deep defenders and usually a reduced pass rush in favour of strong underneath coverage, the idea being to force the offense to execute perfectly all the way down the field. The Eagles went the pressure route though and it cost them badly on this play. Let's take a look at the set up;

The Cardinals had just sent Larry Fitzgerald in motion to the right which is why you have that stack of two receivers on the right hand side. LaRod Stephens Howling is in the backfield. Judging the best I can from the camera angles he appears to "cheat" outside just a little, lining up a little wider than a back normally would in the shotgun. Obviously the defense is expecting pass so such an alignment isn't telling them a whole lot they don't know, that it does kind of hint at a pass route over staying in to pass protect.

What the Cardinals are going to do that is quite interesting (to me at least) is to have the wide receiver to the left run across the middle of the field, thereby drawing the corner (in man coverage) across with him and also focusing the attention of the safety to the middle, which is then going to allow Stephens-Howling to get out of the backfield and run clean up the left side. Something else happens here as well which I would normally moan to the high hills about, but I'll let it go because the Cardinals suck and they need all the help they can get; the receiver clearly sticks out an arm to obstruct and delay the linebacker who is locked in man to man on the running back. It's a fairly blatant 'pick play', but as I've said (re; moaned) many times before, the league seems totally disinterested in such blatant pass interference against defenders.

(For those interested in the specific rule; "Actions that constitute offensive pass interference include but are not limited to; a) Blocking downfield by an offensive player prior to the ball being touched," and contrary to the insistence of the hosts on the NFL Network's "Playbook" show there is no such thing as a "legal pick" or a "natural rub". There is however, obstructing/blocking/impeding/"significantly hindering" the progress of an eligible player to deny him the legal opportunity to catch the ball.

I'm an offensive guy really...)

Now don't forget the time situation here - it's the fourth quarter and there's only a little over three minutes left to play, with the ball on the Cardinals 32. They've still got 66 yards to go to reach the end zone and if they can stop the clock by getting the ball carrier out of bounds then that's a huge bonus. Here's a look at the pass routes used;

As you can see the receiver on the left comes off the ball quite shallow, aiming just above the linebacker M who he picks before crossing the field and running another "Mesh" type pick play with Larry Fitzgerald coming back underneath. The safety got pulled away to the middle by the post route and the drag, and only reacts to the running back once the ball is in the air. The pick on the linebacker gives Stephens-Howling just enough of an advantage in the run for the sideline, allowing John Skelton to drop it in over the linebackers head. Stephens-Howling gets to the Eagles 38 for a pick up of 30 yards before he was pushed out of bounds by the safety, keeping the drive alive and stopping the clock in the process.

Just as important as the pass routes though was the protection, which for once in a Cardinals game wasn't that bad. The line adjusted to the over hanging defenders well and kept the pocket perfectly clean for Skelton. Proof that miracles do happen occasionally...

The second play is the touchdown that ended the drive, putting the Cardinals up 21-17, a lead which they would hold onto to win the game;

This time the Eagles stick to just the four down linemen and appear to be planting their flag on the goal line, putting four guys across in a zone look, with three underneath defenders. At the snap those three underneath guys (B, B and S) all drop back and form a three man wall along the middle of the goal line, covering at least the width of the offensive tackles, with the other four deep defenders spreading out a little to make what is effectively a seven man picket fence defending the end zone. The only problem for the Eagles is that their's is the flimsiest picket fence in the history of picket fences.

Now originally the Cardinals had started with a bunch to the left, but they motioned Early Doucet out of that bunch and into the backfield where he lines up to the left of the quarterback. At the snap Larry Fitzgerald, who was at the top of the bunch, just runs up and out a little, running a simple hooking pattern. The receiver next to him delays his route for a second and then runs behind Fitzgerald and up into the end zone.

The main effect all this has is to clear out space in the defense for Doucet running a little short swing pattern out of the backfield. The only person who comes close to making a play is the free safety who got his attention diverted by the crossing receivers before trying to come down and make the tackle. Unfortunately tackling seems to be something that the Eagles don't do particularly well, as was the case here.

Doucet celebrated his score with a bit of 'Tebowing'.

But what was great about the play was how once again the Cardinals used their receivers almost as a diversion to create space underneath for the easy completion which got them the score. With a young and inexperienced quarterback like John Skelton, plays like this make it so much easier for the offense to consistently keep the chains moving and to help the quarterback avoid making critical mistakes at critical times.

When you go back and watch the 49ers offense of the early to mid eighties with Joe Montana at quarterback you see much the same thing; lots of effort made to clear out deep defenders in order to create space underneath for the tight end and running backs. When you compare and contrast this to the approach that Denver is taking to their passing game, it makes for quite an eye opening experience.

I'm just a big fan of passes like this, that cleverly combine the routes to manipulate and distract the defense, while forcing what I would call a true "spread" of the defense, by combining short, intermediate and deep passes all into one play to stretch the defense vertically, while also using formations to make the defense spread out horizontally. It's a great design and a credit to the Cardinals coaches. Whether they can keep that up against San Francisco is up for debate!

Tomorrow = picks for week 11.

Tebow tops the Jets, plus an update

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Outside of Tim Tebow's family and die hard Broncos fans it seemed like I was the only person on the planet who took the Broncos to win it. And it paid off!

God I love listening to the reactions as people try to find an out as to how he did it, in particular because the option is not supposed to work in the NFL, something we've clearly known to be false for a long while now (the quarterbacks long term health not withstanding).

9/20 was Tebow's final passing numbers, but it just doesn't matter. What matters is the end result and that's another W for the Broncos and for Tim Tebow. Sanchez may have finished the game with a better passer rating but then Sanchez threw a pick six and Tebow didn't, which I imagine will go down like a sack of Lead ingots in the New York press (if you're not old enough to know what an "ingot" is then just... bah, go back to your iPod).

It was actually Tebows running on the last drive that had the biggest impact, mainly out of empty or single back sets when his pass protection broke down. That's really a big part of why Tebow is succeeding where Kyle Orton didn't, because the Broncos pass protection sucks and while Orton often made bad passes under pressure, Tebow just tucks and runs, keeping the ball with the Broncos and keeping the chains moving.

However the unsung heroes of the Broncos recent revival  are the defence. Aside from the interception returned for a touchdown by Andre Goodman, the Broncos defense also managed to pile pressure on up front. Rookie Von Miller had 1.5 sacks and four total QB hits, as well as three tackles for loss. Elvis Dumervil put up another 1.5 sacks and the defense as a unit contributed a few more tackles for loss, holding Jets running back Joe McKnight to just 59 yards from his 16 carries.

That puts both teams at 5-5 now and it makes me 1-0 for picks.

Now I was going to do a post about the Cardinals offense from last Sunday but that will have to be put back till tomorrow now as I've had a pretty busy day. The good news though is that I had my meeting at work and I've got at least another two weeks of staying on the same sort of schedule that I am now, so no real disruption till at least the beginning of December. From that point it's likely that I'll break the blog up into scheduled posts on maybe two or three days of the week, depending on how it all falls together.

So Cardinals offense tomorrow, then picks on Saturday. See you then.

P.S. Here's a Lead Ingot for those that are interested

Jets @ Broncos

So yes, this week I've remembered about Thursday Night Football and I'll get my pick in. Tomorrow I want to take a look at some of the Cardinals offense from last Sunday, but tomorrow is also an important day because I find out how heavily my work schedule will change over the coming few weeks, which will naturally impact the blog.

So, picking Thursday night.

Such a big part of me wants to take the Broncos! I love the fact that they're still winning games despite not really throwing the ball at all and being somewhat limited in their run game. And you know what? I actually am going to take the Broncos!

Here's the thing; the Chiefs knew what was coming and still couldn't stop it. They played man coverage, they loaded the box, they knew about the option and all those things that people have said will make the Jets more effective. Considering the Jets defense probably isn't much better than the Chiefs against the run, I actually fancy Denvers chances.

At the same time, Mark Sanchez still isn't playing as well as he needs to, to help the Jets win games. Playing against a Denver defense that is actually pretty good and has a good pass rush isn't going to help his cause much.

I can just see this being one of those stupid, bizarre games where the Jets really should win it on paper but then blow it come game time. Maybe Tebow will throw ten passes. He might throw none. He might surprise the Jets and throw thirty. Whatever happens, I think this game is actually going to be a hell of a lot of fun to watch.

Broncos win.

Setting Slide or Turnback Pass Protection

Okey dokey. So the other day I was talking about the Colts O-line and how they seem to have become dependent on Peyton Manning to set protections for them. But what the hell does that actually mean? "Setting Protections" or "Adjusting Protections"? It's a good question (why thank you) and one I intend to answer now.

So the long and short of it is that when a pass play gets sent in to the quarterback, part of the play call will tell the linemen and backs how the offense is supposed to account for pass rushers. Sometimes the backs stay in, some times the tight end stays in, sometimes it's just the five guys up front on their own. Now that's all fine and dandy, what with the protection being organised in such way as to compliment the pass being called, but what happens when the defense comes out and gives you a front you don't like the look of?

Say for example you have no running backs staying in to protect, but your looking at the left side and you can see three guys waiting to rush, plus a safety walking down who could potentially be a fourth rusher. That's not good. So what are you going to do? Just roll with it and hope everything turns out ok? I wouldn't recommend that.

It's at this point that a guy like Peyton Manning steps in and changes the protection, directing the offensive line towards the danger, or telling the running back to check a certain player before releasing, or telling the tight end to stay in and help out. Something which Manning has plenty of experience with and Curtis Painter doesn't!

At this point going to the drawing board could prove useful I think. The first diagram we'll look at it is a very basic pass protection set, known as "BOB" or "Big On Big", just to get a feel for the kind of protection a team might start with;

As you can see we have our offensive guards and offensive tackles matched up against the four defensive linemen, hence the "big on big" name. In this case the center takes the Mike linebacker, the running back takes the Will backer, and if needs be the tight end could block the Sam linebacker. Now while this seems on the surface like a very sound protection, very rarely are teams actually gifted with such a perfectly even and tidy defensive front.

This is something the Dolphins found out in their game against the Giants the other week as demonstrated here. One blitz in particular that I diagrammed could come in useful for this discussion, as it has all the features that we need in order to take a good look at changing protections. So here's the blitz as it happened in the game;

What we have here is a blitz that is designed to occupy the middle of the offensive line, setting up the blitzing linebacker to go one on one with the running back. The Mike linebacker actually steps up to show blitz initially before dropping out, and the two defensive tackles attack the inside shoulders of the guards, making sure that all three of the interior offensive linemen get bunched up in the middle, with the B backer hitting the gap that's created between the left guard and left tackle. The right tackle is the only guy without someone to block, but has no realistic chance of getting across to pick up the B backer, meaning the running back has to take him.

Now obviously this is a mismatch in favour of the defense, but what other choice did the offense really have? We've already seen that the interior linemen couldn't ignore the danger posed by the defensive tackles and the Mike linebacker. We know that as athletic as the right tackle might be, he isn't going to cut across the back of the line in time to stop the blitz. So the only possible solution is for the backer to take him... right?

Wrong.

There is one thing that the offense can do in this situation, albeit an option that requires some good coordination between the offensive linemen. When presented with a front like the one above the quarterback - having got a good look at the defense (one of the reasons the shotgun is so popular with pass heavy teams) - can check the protection to a slide or "turnback" protection.

Basically what's going to happen is that the quarterback is going to take advantage of that right tackle who has nothing to do by asking the offensive line not to take the man immediately over them, but instead to take the next defender to the left. This is where the terms "slide" and "turnback" protection come from, because the offensive line is "sliding" across one man, usually executed by taking a step straight backwards off the line and then "turning back" to the left (in this case) with their next step. Let's take a look at the new assignments with another diagram;

As you can now see the right tackle now turns inside and takes the defensive tackle. Knowing that the defensive tackle is now accounted for, the right guard is free to turn inside and take the Mike linebacker if he blitzes. Knowing that the Mike linebacker is now accounted for, the Center is free to turn his attention left to the next defensive tackle. Finally, knowing that the defensive tackle over him is now accounted for, the left guard can turn to the left and take on the blitzing B backer.

With the left side of the defense covered all that remains now is for the running back to go right and fill the gap between the right tackle and tight end. In this case we'd like to keep the tight end in to block the defensive end, but if needs be you could release the tight end and simply have the running back cut down the defensive end, though that's not ideal.

Mainly the running back serves to fill that gap that will open up on the right side, keeping his eyes out for potential delayed blitzes from the safety, or the possibility of the Mike linebacker hooking around over the top. If the defensive end to the right is a major threat and you're not sure how the tight end will cope, you can have the back chip him with his shoulder on the way out into his pass pattern. You can even have the tight end shoot out immediately and strike the defensive end to delay him, before the tight end releases and the back picks up the pieces.

The uses of slide protections are numerous, as you can see. You don't even have to go to the extreme shown above with four players all turning back to the left. If needs be an offense can just slide two players across, for example when the team comes up against a 3-4 defense that puts a defensive end over the offensive tackle and then has an outside backer (especially one known for his pass rushing abilities) outside of him. In this case the offense can slide the tackle and guard on that side, so the guard now takes the defensive end and the tackle takes the outside backer, as demonstrated below;

On the left you can see the back is responsible for the outside backer. If that Will backer is DeMarcus Ware and the running back is Chris Johnson then suffice to say we have a mismatch. A better option is to slide the protection so that your left tackle (who should be your best pass blocker) ends up on Ware, the left guard handles that end and then the back is responsible for picking up the Mike linebacker if he blitzes (an even better option is just not to waste/trust Chris Johnson in pass protection).

Before we wrap this up I just quickly want to give you a flavour for the footwork, just so I don't leave people thinking that the offensive linemen are pulling flat across the line of scrimmage to get to their man;

The key is trying to balance the need to get across and block the man, while also understanding that you need to get some depth, otherwise you end up delivering a glancing blow to the mans side as he flies right past you on his way into the backfield.

Lastly the quarterback needs needs to be aware of two things when his offensive line is sliding; 1) that if only part of the line is sliding then it often results in a gaping hole developing between the sliding men and the rest of the line - don't unquestioningly rely on the running back to protect this hole! 2) The offensive linemen don't always get great initial blocks and so he must be prepared for the risk of rapid of penetration coming from the sliding side and needs to be ready to step laterally and/or up in the pocket away from that pressure;

As you can see the pass rush gets pushed to the left so the quarterback must slide to the right and step up, helping to keep his blockers between him and the pass rush.

Using slide protection is just one of the many great ways for quarterbacks to adjust to what the defense is doing. It allows the quarterback to account for potential overload blitz's to one side or for a defense that's trying to manipulate the numbers game in order to get a favourable match up on the running back. One of the things that separates the best from the rest at the quarterback position is the ability to read the defense, identify the main thrust of the pass rush and then adjust the line to neutralise that threat. It's one of the reasons that Peyton Manning is so valuable to the Colts, and helps us to partially explain why the Colts O-line has struggled so much this season without Manning's experienced eyes and his in-depth, almost automatic knowledge of the playbook.

So keep an eye out next time you see a quarterback calling an audible in the face of an unbalanced looking defense. He might just be switching to a slide protection.

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