Mitch
Crawled Through 5 FB Fields
In past years with previous coaches---it seemed the Cardinals were often mired in stagnancy---as evidenced by mantras such as "the system works." Week after week, it was extremely frustrating to watch the same stagnant game plans and preparations over and over. What was even worse---it seemed like there was little attention paid to the current opponent and how to game plan versus their personnel, like watching Vernon Davis or Antonio Gates run free and wide open all game. Or like watching the Cardinals' QBs throw two yard check downs ad nauseum on third and 8s.
With BA and his staff, they seem to embrace each week as a new challenge. They seem especially well-versed in the opponent, so much so that often we have heard the players say that they were working in advance on how to handle key players and how to attack certain teams' schemes.
To give you an idea of how evolved BA is in his thinking and preparation---think back a few weeks ago at SF when Chris Johnson and Andre Ellington were both injured. The following week---with CJ headed to the 6 week IR and Ellington headed to see turf toe specialists---what seemed like the most logical thing to do on offense was to ramp up the passing game. After all, what could one expect from the new RB trio of rookie David Johnson, newly pulled off the PS RB Kerwynn Williams and little used ST RB Stepfan Taylor?
Instead, BA did the opposite---he focused on amping up the Cardinals' running game.
Why?
For one thing, it is getting to the point in the season where having a solid running game takes less of a toll physically on the team's QB.
Secondly, BA was looking ahead to playing 2 games in 5 days and he realized that especially in that second game on a Thursday night, it would be a coup for the Cardinals to keep the clock running and to thereby shorten the game.
In those consecutive games---both of which were highlighted by long, carefully planned time-consuming drives by the Cardinals' offense, rookie David Johnson out-gained Pro Bowlers Todd Gurley and Adrian Peterson to the tune of 191 to 123.
Then, this past week, to keep the Eagles' fast-paced offense drinking gatorade on the sidelines for lengthy stretches and thus to keep the Cardinals' defense as fresh as possible, BA and Carson Palmer orchestrated an opening drive that consumed over half the quarter---despite the fact that Smokey Brown dropped what would have been an 80 yard TD on the very first play---a drive that resulted in a David Johnson smash-mouth style TD. Aha!
BA and Palmer kept taking their tradition deep shots down the field---albeit none of them really worked in this game---but what the deep shots did is it kept the Eagles from stacking the box---and guess what? David Johnson runs for 187 yards---and on the other side of the ball, more heralded veteran RBs such as last year's rushing leader DeMarco Murray, Ryan Matthews and Darren Sproles were stifled by three things: by the Cardinals' stingy run defense, by a sweet strip fumble on Mathews by Josh Mauro and by their coach's decision to abandon the run in favor of making a full commitment to passing the ball.
Their coach saw that BA wanted to shorten the game---so he tried to do everything he could to lengthen it.
And speaking of the other side of the ball, rookie defensive coordinator, James Bettcher is very quietly showing some wrinkles and experiments that not only is he hoping will work right away, but he, like BA is thinking ahead to ways in which he and the defense will ultimately try to defend the likes of Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson and Cam Newton.
What do all three of those QBs have in common?
Not only an ability to maneuver and escape from the pocket, but an uncanny ability to throw with great accuracy on the run....plus the ability to tuck it in and run for huge chunk yards that often are backbreakers for the defense.
Even though Sam Bradford was not the same kind of running or scramble threat, Bradford was breaking contain on bootlegs and waggles early in the game, which prompted Bettcher to try to mix some well disguised zones into his coverages.
Why zones?
Versus scrambling QBs, the immediate help on the QB is built in, whereas in man, if the receivers vacate a side of the field or the middle, a scrambling QB can run for forever and a day, as Cam Newton did versus the Giants last week.
Now---it was clear early on in the Eagles' game that the Cardinals' zones were not as tight as they needed to be, as Bradford was able to convert several third downs. There also was a break down in the zone on the long TD pass to Jordan Matthews, as the deep third safety, Tony Jefferson got sucked in on an underneath pattern and left his deep third wide open.
Zones are very tricky to execute properly, as team typically try to exploit the deep thirds by running deep posts from the back side slot WR in behind the unsuspecting safety, while the WR to the play side runs an intermediate route to shake the underneath zone defender and to command the attention of the safety. BA and the Cardinals do this to the other teams all the time with Fitzgerald and Smokey Brown, with consistent success.
However---as tricky as zones are to run---the Cardinals' defense improved its zone coverage in the second half. Not only did safety D.J. Swearinger make a good break on the pass over the middle to TE Zach Ertz, he made a statement hit on Ertz. Then later in the game, on a key third down and long, Bradford misread the play thinking the Cardinals were in man to man and threw underneath on a crossing pattern that was stopped three yards short of the first down. Bradford subsequently misfired on his 4th down throw and the Eagles were stopped on downs.
Then, there was the fabulous interception the Honey Badger made at the end of the game was a textbook zone play by him---
What an underneath zone player is taught is to play man to man on the first receiver who comes into his zone, but to let the receiver go when he vacates the perimeter of the zone (pass him on to the next zone defender)---but---underneath zone players are also taught that if another receiver does not come into their zone, to stick as deep as they can to the first receiver. You see---this is why Honey Badger was slightly trailing the play---but he stayed true to the rule and executed the interception to perfection.
While mixing in zones may not always work---just as throwing deep shots on offense doesn't always work---what it does is, it keeps QBs guessing and it keeps them honest. It is a defense's way of planting a seed in the QB's mind that the other team is going to do all it can to prevent him from taking off. And sometimes, just that moment's doubt and indecision can cause a QB to double clutch, just as we saw with Dwight Freeney's strip sack on Bridgewater and Markus Golden's strip sack on Bradford.
A key player moving forward whom Bettcher is missing other than the Honey Badger is Rashad Johnson, who is extremely adept in deep zone coverage. But, to Bettcher's credit, without Johnson, he ran the zones last week anyway and ran them more often than usual. Bettcher knows that the more they run the zones the more accustomed the players will become to executing them---and---thus the more aces the Cardinals' defense will have up their sleeves in trying to create those moments of hesitation in the QBs minds.
The planning here is very shrewd and bold. As a fan, it is a joy and a fascination to watch the team grow and evolve under the auspices of such sage, aggressive and forward-thinking coaching.
With BA and his staff, they seem to embrace each week as a new challenge. They seem especially well-versed in the opponent, so much so that often we have heard the players say that they were working in advance on how to handle key players and how to attack certain teams' schemes.
To give you an idea of how evolved BA is in his thinking and preparation---think back a few weeks ago at SF when Chris Johnson and Andre Ellington were both injured. The following week---with CJ headed to the 6 week IR and Ellington headed to see turf toe specialists---what seemed like the most logical thing to do on offense was to ramp up the passing game. After all, what could one expect from the new RB trio of rookie David Johnson, newly pulled off the PS RB Kerwynn Williams and little used ST RB Stepfan Taylor?
Instead, BA did the opposite---he focused on amping up the Cardinals' running game.
Why?
For one thing, it is getting to the point in the season where having a solid running game takes less of a toll physically on the team's QB.
Secondly, BA was looking ahead to playing 2 games in 5 days and he realized that especially in that second game on a Thursday night, it would be a coup for the Cardinals to keep the clock running and to thereby shorten the game.
In those consecutive games---both of which were highlighted by long, carefully planned time-consuming drives by the Cardinals' offense, rookie David Johnson out-gained Pro Bowlers Todd Gurley and Adrian Peterson to the tune of 191 to 123.
Then, this past week, to keep the Eagles' fast-paced offense drinking gatorade on the sidelines for lengthy stretches and thus to keep the Cardinals' defense as fresh as possible, BA and Carson Palmer orchestrated an opening drive that consumed over half the quarter---despite the fact that Smokey Brown dropped what would have been an 80 yard TD on the very first play---a drive that resulted in a David Johnson smash-mouth style TD. Aha!
BA and Palmer kept taking their tradition deep shots down the field---albeit none of them really worked in this game---but what the deep shots did is it kept the Eagles from stacking the box---and guess what? David Johnson runs for 187 yards---and on the other side of the ball, more heralded veteran RBs such as last year's rushing leader DeMarco Murray, Ryan Matthews and Darren Sproles were stifled by three things: by the Cardinals' stingy run defense, by a sweet strip fumble on Mathews by Josh Mauro and by their coach's decision to abandon the run in favor of making a full commitment to passing the ball.
Their coach saw that BA wanted to shorten the game---so he tried to do everything he could to lengthen it.
And speaking of the other side of the ball, rookie defensive coordinator, James Bettcher is very quietly showing some wrinkles and experiments that not only is he hoping will work right away, but he, like BA is thinking ahead to ways in which he and the defense will ultimately try to defend the likes of Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson and Cam Newton.
What do all three of those QBs have in common?
Not only an ability to maneuver and escape from the pocket, but an uncanny ability to throw with great accuracy on the run....plus the ability to tuck it in and run for huge chunk yards that often are backbreakers for the defense.
Even though Sam Bradford was not the same kind of running or scramble threat, Bradford was breaking contain on bootlegs and waggles early in the game, which prompted Bettcher to try to mix some well disguised zones into his coverages.
Why zones?
Versus scrambling QBs, the immediate help on the QB is built in, whereas in man, if the receivers vacate a side of the field or the middle, a scrambling QB can run for forever and a day, as Cam Newton did versus the Giants last week.
Now---it was clear early on in the Eagles' game that the Cardinals' zones were not as tight as they needed to be, as Bradford was able to convert several third downs. There also was a break down in the zone on the long TD pass to Jordan Matthews, as the deep third safety, Tony Jefferson got sucked in on an underneath pattern and left his deep third wide open.
Zones are very tricky to execute properly, as team typically try to exploit the deep thirds by running deep posts from the back side slot WR in behind the unsuspecting safety, while the WR to the play side runs an intermediate route to shake the underneath zone defender and to command the attention of the safety. BA and the Cardinals do this to the other teams all the time with Fitzgerald and Smokey Brown, with consistent success.
However---as tricky as zones are to run---the Cardinals' defense improved its zone coverage in the second half. Not only did safety D.J. Swearinger make a good break on the pass over the middle to TE Zach Ertz, he made a statement hit on Ertz. Then later in the game, on a key third down and long, Bradford misread the play thinking the Cardinals were in man to man and threw underneath on a crossing pattern that was stopped three yards short of the first down. Bradford subsequently misfired on his 4th down throw and the Eagles were stopped on downs.
Then, there was the fabulous interception the Honey Badger made at the end of the game was a textbook zone play by him---
What an underneath zone player is taught is to play man to man on the first receiver who comes into his zone, but to let the receiver go when he vacates the perimeter of the zone (pass him on to the next zone defender)---but---underneath zone players are also taught that if another receiver does not come into their zone, to stick as deep as they can to the first receiver. You see---this is why Honey Badger was slightly trailing the play---but he stayed true to the rule and executed the interception to perfection.
While mixing in zones may not always work---just as throwing deep shots on offense doesn't always work---what it does is, it keeps QBs guessing and it keeps them honest. It is a defense's way of planting a seed in the QB's mind that the other team is going to do all it can to prevent him from taking off. And sometimes, just that moment's doubt and indecision can cause a QB to double clutch, just as we saw with Dwight Freeney's strip sack on Bridgewater and Markus Golden's strip sack on Bradford.
A key player moving forward whom Bettcher is missing other than the Honey Badger is Rashad Johnson, who is extremely adept in deep zone coverage. But, to Bettcher's credit, without Johnson, he ran the zones last week anyway and ran them more often than usual. Bettcher knows that the more they run the zones the more accustomed the players will become to executing them---and---thus the more aces the Cardinals' defense will have up their sleeves in trying to create those moments of hesitation in the QBs minds.
The planning here is very shrewd and bold. As a fan, it is a joy and a fascination to watch the team grow and evolve under the auspices of such sage, aggressive and forward-thinking coaching.
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amen Mitch!
