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[/h][h=2][/h][h=2]By KIH004 on Dec 10 2013, 10:49am The Phinsider
Like most fans, I've been very down on the coaching on offense this season. There's nothing a coach can do if he calls a good play, but the players fail to execute. However, there have been times this year when our playcalling has been both illogical and predictable, which is sabotaging the players before they have a chance to execute any given play.
Still, the much maligned Dolphins offense is coming off of its first 30+ point game of the year, and it came on the road, in poor weather, against a good defense that was mostlyhealthy and is led by a highly respected defensive coordinator. It's hard for an offense to accomplish that without good coaching coming into play, so I'm going to highlight two plays that were very logical and caught the opposing defense by surprise. I'll avoid using too much "football jargon," to make this as easy a read as possible.
First, some background: Several weeks ago, before a game against the Oakland Raiders, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was asked in a press conference about stopping the read-option because the Raiders ran a lot of read-option with Terrelle Pryor starting at QB. Tomlin replied, "We look forward to stopping it." Bold talk. Well, on thevery first offensive play of that game, the Raiders decide to run a read-option play, andPryor promptly ran for a 93-yard touchdown, the longest run by a QB in NFL history.
That, my friends, is called "revealing a potential weakness," to phrase things politely. Before the Dolphins' game against the Steelers on Sunday, the Dolphins had run a few read-option plays (both runs and passes) with some success, but overall, it wasn't heavily featured in the offense, despite some offseason hype. Some games, the Dolphins didn't call a single read-option play.
Well, Dolphins offensive coordinator Mike Sherman apparently watched film from that Steelers-Raiders game, and he used the read option against the Steelers several times with great success. An early example in the game comes on Tannehill's 58 yard run. I recommend watching that video and then reading what happened below:
First, here's a good pre-snap look.
The Dolphins are in their favorite set - 3 WRs, 1 TE/FB, and 1 RB. The Steelers are actually in their dime defense, meaning 6 defensive backs. That's a favorable defense to run against because having 2 extra defensive backs on the field means a defense has to play with 2 fewer run-stopping linebackers/defensive linemen. In the screenshot, #1, #2, #3, #4, and #5 are all linebackers/defensive linemen. #6 is actually Troy Polamalu, their strong safety, but he's lined up only 5 yards away from the line of scrimmage like a linebacker. #7 (CB Ike Taylor), #8 (Safety Will Allen - no relation to the former Dolphins cornerback), #9, and #10 are all defensive backs.
Hmm, isn't that weird? There's only 10 defenders on screen. Where's the 11th man?
Why, hello there free safety Ryan Clark! We didn't see you since you were lined up so far downfield...coincidentally on the same side of the field as Mike Wallace. Actually, it's not a coincidence. The two pictures above illustrate how the Steelers' defense chose to defend the Dolphins for much of this game (even when in nickel). They put their #1 CB (Ike Taylor) on Brian Hartline and had him play press-man to disrupt Hartline's route and therefore his timing with Tannehill, which is smart given how Hartline is mainly used on timing routes to the outside. Meanwhile, they put their #2 CB on Wallace AND had their free safety line up 20 yards deep on Wallace's side of the field, making it nearly impossible for Wallace to get open deep when he was up against two defensive backs who were 10 and 20 yards deep pre-snap. Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau quite clearly decided that he didn't want to see any highlights of Wallace getting open deep for 50+ yard TDs, and he schemed to prevent that from happening. Polamalu meanwhile was allowed to freelance in the middle of the field.
However, because the Steelers were in dime on this particular play, they had an "extra" safety (Allen) lined up on Hartline's side of the field as well - though Allen was not nearly as deep downfield (10 yards) as Clark (20 yards). This is where coaching comes into play: If this were a passing play, Tannehill's options would be:
1. Mike Wallace facing off-man coverage with DEEP safety help over the top,
2. Brian Hartline facing press-man coverage also with a safety on his side of the field, or
3. Likely shorter throw to either Rishard Matthews or Charles Clay, with a lot of "traffic" in the middle of the field (LBs and DBs) and Polamalu reading Tannehill's eyes the entire time.
A coach calling a passing play in this situation would be probably setting up the quarterback to fail.
Luckily, Sherman went with a great playcall that set up Tannehill to succeed instead.
In orange, you see how our LG, RG, RT, and C will block. The LG, RG, and RT block defenders at the line of scrimmage to the right, while C Mike Pouncey will make a key block on the linebacker next to Polamalu.
In red, you see LT Bryant McKinnie's assignment is to ignore the OLB (Jones) and go straight to Polamalu (who is lined up as a linebacker). Meanwhile, the fullback Charles Clay's job is to head left (away from where the linemen are blocking) and block the safety lined up on the same side as Hartline. Hartline is tasked with blocking the CB covering him, Ike Taylor. The job of the running back (Lamar Miller) is to take a potential handoff to the right.
Now, you might be thinking, "Well, that's a stupid blocking scheme. It leaves a free defender coming from the left unblocked by the LT, so he is free to chase down any runner. This run is doomed to fail regardless of where the ball goes." Well, that would be true, except it's Ryan Tannehill's job to prevent the OLB from making a tackle. How?
Well, on this particular read-option play, Tannehill is asked to "read" Jones. If Jones bites on the potential hand-off to the running back, Tannehill is supposed to keep the ball and run to the outside. If Jones decides to go after Tannehill, Tannehill should actually hand-off the ball to the running back, who won't have to worry about Jones if Jones is chasing the QB.
Since we all saw the game, we all know what Jones decided to do.
First, you can see the offensive line blocking to the right and creating a decent sized hole, with Pouncey quickly reaching a linebacker. McKinnie ignores Jones completely on his way to Polamalu. Clay (who was lined up on the right) is sprinting to the left but also ignores Jones. Jones sees what appears to be a handoff and commits to the "inside," meaning Tannehill should keep the ball and run to the outside.
There have been several examples this season of Tannehill incorrectly choosing to hand-off the ball in the read-option when keeping the ball was a better option. I believe Tannehill has been coached to simply hand-off the ball whenever it's unclear what the edge defender is doing. In other words, "When in doubt, hand-off the ball so you don't get sacked." This time, Tannehill makes the correct read, and you'll see below what happens:
In the yellow box, you see Hartline blocking Ike Taylor. In the blue box, you see McKinnie blocking Polamalu. The black line shows that Charles Clay is about to block the Steelers' safety (Allen) who was lined up on this side of the field. The red box shows Jarvis Jones delivering a terrific hit on a running back who does not have the ball. Meanwhile, there's no unblocked defender to tackle Tannehill.
Read the full story on how the read option got the Phins another 7 points on top of the 3 from the Tannehill's 58 yard scramble.
http://www.thephinsider.com/2013/12...ider&utm_medium=nextclicks&utm_campaign=blogs
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[/h][h=2][/h][h=2]By KIH004 on Dec 10 2013, 10:49am The Phinsider
Mike Sherman put this guy in a position to succeed this game - Gregory Shamus
Like most fans, I've been very down on the coaching on offense this season. There's nothing a coach can do if he calls a good play, but the players fail to execute. However, there have been times this year when our playcalling has been both illogical and predictable, which is sabotaging the players before they have a chance to execute any given play.
Still, the much maligned Dolphins offense is coming off of its first 30+ point game of the year, and it came on the road, in poor weather, against a good defense that was mostlyhealthy and is led by a highly respected defensive coordinator. It's hard for an offense to accomplish that without good coaching coming into play, so I'm going to highlight two plays that were very logical and caught the opposing defense by surprise. I'll avoid using too much "football jargon," to make this as easy a read as possible.
First, some background: Several weeks ago, before a game against the Oakland Raiders, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was asked in a press conference about stopping the read-option because the Raiders ran a lot of read-option with Terrelle Pryor starting at QB. Tomlin replied, "We look forward to stopping it." Bold talk. Well, on thevery first offensive play of that game, the Raiders decide to run a read-option play, andPryor promptly ran for a 93-yard touchdown, the longest run by a QB in NFL history.
That, my friends, is called "revealing a potential weakness," to phrase things politely. Before the Dolphins' game against the Steelers on Sunday, the Dolphins had run a few read-option plays (both runs and passes) with some success, but overall, it wasn't heavily featured in the offense, despite some offseason hype. Some games, the Dolphins didn't call a single read-option play.
Well, Dolphins offensive coordinator Mike Sherman apparently watched film from that Steelers-Raiders game, and he used the read option against the Steelers several times with great success. An early example in the game comes on Tannehill's 58 yard run. I recommend watching that video and then reading what happened below:
First, here's a good pre-snap look.
The Dolphins are in their favorite set - 3 WRs, 1 TE/FB, and 1 RB. The Steelers are actually in their dime defense, meaning 6 defensive backs. That's a favorable defense to run against because having 2 extra defensive backs on the field means a defense has to play with 2 fewer run-stopping linebackers/defensive linemen. In the screenshot, #1, #2, #3, #4, and #5 are all linebackers/defensive linemen. #6 is actually Troy Polamalu, their strong safety, but he's lined up only 5 yards away from the line of scrimmage like a linebacker. #7 (CB Ike Taylor), #8 (Safety Will Allen - no relation to the former Dolphins cornerback), #9, and #10 are all defensive backs.
Hmm, isn't that weird? There's only 10 defenders on screen. Where's the 11th man?
Why, hello there free safety Ryan Clark! We didn't see you since you were lined up so far downfield...coincidentally on the same side of the field as Mike Wallace. Actually, it's not a coincidence. The two pictures above illustrate how the Steelers' defense chose to defend the Dolphins for much of this game (even when in nickel). They put their #1 CB (Ike Taylor) on Brian Hartline and had him play press-man to disrupt Hartline's route and therefore his timing with Tannehill, which is smart given how Hartline is mainly used on timing routes to the outside. Meanwhile, they put their #2 CB on Wallace AND had their free safety line up 20 yards deep on Wallace's side of the field, making it nearly impossible for Wallace to get open deep when he was up against two defensive backs who were 10 and 20 yards deep pre-snap. Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau quite clearly decided that he didn't want to see any highlights of Wallace getting open deep for 50+ yard TDs, and he schemed to prevent that from happening. Polamalu meanwhile was allowed to freelance in the middle of the field.
However, because the Steelers were in dime on this particular play, they had an "extra" safety (Allen) lined up on Hartline's side of the field as well - though Allen was not nearly as deep downfield (10 yards) as Clark (20 yards). This is where coaching comes into play: If this were a passing play, Tannehill's options would be:
1. Mike Wallace facing off-man coverage with DEEP safety help over the top,
2. Brian Hartline facing press-man coverage also with a safety on his side of the field, or
3. Likely shorter throw to either Rishard Matthews or Charles Clay, with a lot of "traffic" in the middle of the field (LBs and DBs) and Polamalu reading Tannehill's eyes the entire time.
A coach calling a passing play in this situation would be probably setting up the quarterback to fail.
Luckily, Sherman went with a great playcall that set up Tannehill to succeed instead.
In orange, you see how our LG, RG, RT, and C will block. The LG, RG, and RT block defenders at the line of scrimmage to the right, while C Mike Pouncey will make a key block on the linebacker next to Polamalu.
In red, you see LT Bryant McKinnie's assignment is to ignore the OLB (Jones) and go straight to Polamalu (who is lined up as a linebacker). Meanwhile, the fullback Charles Clay's job is to head left (away from where the linemen are blocking) and block the safety lined up on the same side as Hartline. Hartline is tasked with blocking the CB covering him, Ike Taylor. The job of the running back (Lamar Miller) is to take a potential handoff to the right.
Now, you might be thinking, "Well, that's a stupid blocking scheme. It leaves a free defender coming from the left unblocked by the LT, so he is free to chase down any runner. This run is doomed to fail regardless of where the ball goes." Well, that would be true, except it's Ryan Tannehill's job to prevent the OLB from making a tackle. How?
Well, on this particular read-option play, Tannehill is asked to "read" Jones. If Jones bites on the potential hand-off to the running back, Tannehill is supposed to keep the ball and run to the outside. If Jones decides to go after Tannehill, Tannehill should actually hand-off the ball to the running back, who won't have to worry about Jones if Jones is chasing the QB.
Since we all saw the game, we all know what Jones decided to do.
First, you can see the offensive line blocking to the right and creating a decent sized hole, with Pouncey quickly reaching a linebacker. McKinnie ignores Jones completely on his way to Polamalu. Clay (who was lined up on the right) is sprinting to the left but also ignores Jones. Jones sees what appears to be a handoff and commits to the "inside," meaning Tannehill should keep the ball and run to the outside.
There have been several examples this season of Tannehill incorrectly choosing to hand-off the ball in the read-option when keeping the ball was a better option. I believe Tannehill has been coached to simply hand-off the ball whenever it's unclear what the edge defender is doing. In other words, "When in doubt, hand-off the ball so you don't get sacked." This time, Tannehill makes the correct read, and you'll see below what happens:
In the yellow box, you see Hartline blocking Ike Taylor. In the blue box, you see McKinnie blocking Polamalu. The black line shows that Charles Clay is about to block the Steelers' safety (Allen) who was lined up on this side of the field. The red box shows Jarvis Jones delivering a terrific hit on a running back who does not have the ball. Meanwhile, there's no unblocked defender to tackle Tannehill.
Read the full story on how the read option got the Phins another 7 points on top of the 3 from the Tannehill's 58 yard scramble.
http://www.thephinsider.com/2013/12...ider&utm_medium=nextclicks&utm_campaign=blogs
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