Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots October 17, 2017 - Tape Tuesday: Atlanta's Edge Run Game

Episode Date: October 17, 2017

To run effectively on the outside, an offense needs buy-in from the receivers to block out there. Mark Schofield breaks down how the Falcons get that in their ground game from players like Justin Hardy and Mohamed Sanu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Minimum purchase required, U.S. only. You're Locked On Patriots, your daily podcast on the New England Patriots, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Locked on Patriots for Tuesday, October 17th. Going to start getting ready for the Atlanta Falcons coming up on Sunday night. Mark Scofield here with you in the big chair as I am five days a week bringing you Patriots news, analysis, and more. Like I said, we're going to start getting ready for Atlanta. We're going to do a little Tape Tuesday.

We're going to talk a little blocking angles. I teased this in yesterday's glorious victory episode. It's not going to be heavy on the geometry. Don't worry. If you're starting to have some nightmares, some sweats about freshman year geometry class, don't worry. I'm not going to dive into math

too much today. I wanted to remind everybody today's show brought to you by LockedOnPatriots.com If you haven't checked that out yet, check it out. LockedOnPatriots.com Got new articles going up there everyday just like I am here 5 days a week bringing you Patriots analysis there as well

a lot of the stuff I talk about on the podcast breaking down tape, breaking down concepts things like that there will be corresponding articles on the website as well so you can check that out too again lockedonpatriots.com we get some new stuff up there snap count analysis from Sunday's victory over on the website as well, so you can check that out too. Again, LockedOnPatriots.com. We get some new stuff up there.

Snap count analysis from Sunday's victory over the Jets. A look at Tom Brady's 33-yard touchdown strike to Rob Gronkowski. A little bit of a levels variant. I mentioned it in yesterday's show. I had to go back and look at it to see. Watching it live, I wasn't quite sure if it was levels or not. It was a little bit of a levels variation, but you still have Rob Gronkowski on that dig route over the middle,

something I expected to see from New England on Sunday, and indeed they hit it for a touchdown. As I said, we're going to do some Atlanta run game stuff right now, and let's start with some numbers. I like to start with numbers. Let's talk about Russian offense generally speaking. Atlanta comes in with the 11th best running attack in the league right now, at least in terms of yards per game. 122.8. 122.8 yards per game. Out of the teams that New England has played so far

Only the Texans and the Chiefs have had better rushing attacks Texans currently 2nd in the league 137.7 yards per game Chiefs currently 4th 134.8 yards per game If you want to break it down by yards per attempt, however, Atlanta comes in with the fourth best running attack in the league. They're averaging 4.8 yards per rushing attempt this year.

Those are some pretty good numbers. Now, their rushing attack is led by two guys you probably remember. Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman. This is a pretty talented duo that Atlanta has in their offensive backfield. And if you're looking at it just in terms of yards gained on the ground this year, they've got two of the top 31 running backs in the league.

Freeman checks in with 353 yards on the ground. That's 13th in the league. Coleman checks in with 213 yards on the ground. That's 31st. If you want to look at it in yards per game, Freeman checks in 9th overall. 70.6 yards per game. Freeman also has 5 Russian touchdowns on the year. And you saw these guys up close in Super Bowl 51. They were a little bit tough to handle.

And part of the way that Atlanta has had success rushing the football this year is on runs to the outside. I'm going to give a quick little plug here. If you don't check out the work that the NFL themselves are doing with NextGenStats, you need to check that out. NextGenStats.NFL.com They do tremendous work over there. They do some great visual stuff where they break down where quarterbacks are throwing the ball, the routes that receivers are running, and the runs that running backs are executed in the run game. And if you look at what they did after Atlanta's Week 4 game,

you can see visually where Freeman and where Coleman have success rushing the football. And it's to the outside. I'm looking at their charts from that game. Coleman has two huge runs in that game, two 20 plus yards run. One to the left edge, one to the right edge. Coleman, again, he sees more carries. He had 18 carries in week four, but his three best runs were all runs to the edge or outside. And for a ground game to have success on the outside, you need buy-in from more than just the offensive line.

You need tight ends to buy in. You need receivers to buy in. And that's how Atlanta's getting it done in the run game. So I want to talk about blocking angles, and I know you might be wondering where I'm going with this, but let's go back a couple of years to a Bill Belichick press conference. And this is one of those examples where, ask Bill Belichick a football question, you'll be amazed at the football answer you're going to get and where he goes with it.

This was a press conference that was given September 17th, 2014. Patriots were getting ready to play the Oakland Raiders I believe and Belichick has asked a question about the Indianapolis Colts Colts used a lot of unbalanced formations in a game, they put the tight end at tackle and shifted guys around

and this was something New England was doing as well and Belichick was asked about it Colts used a lot of unbalanced formations in a game. They put the tight end at tackle and shifted guys around. And this was something New England was doing as well. And Belichick was asked about it. And to start off, here's what he said, and I'm quoting. I'd say the main issue you get into would be just the commitment you make to it. Put an offensive lineman in for a tight end. I would say you're going to get less of a defensive adjustment normally. I would say you'd get less of a defensive adjustment because the spacing is still the same.

It's just, who is that guy? It's a lineman instead of a tight end. But if it was a blocking tight end or a lineman, how much difference is there? I'd say there's a smaller degree of grade of adjustment for the defense. Once you flip a lineman over, now you've totally changed the defensive spacing. What was a three-man surface is now a four-man surface. What was a three-man surface is now a two-man surface. That creates some fundamental blocking angles potentially for the offense. Fundamental blocking angles.

That's what I want to stress here. That's what I want to stress here. That's what I want to stress about the Atlanta running game, particularly on runs to the edge. It's the advantageous blocking angles that they create via formation, via alignment, via run concepts to get their wide receivers to buy in. They do some really impressive things running the football to the edge, and it's because they set their wide receivers up in position to succeed as blockers.

Belichick goes on and he talks about the single win offense talks about back when he was playing at Wesleyan coaching early in his career he talks about and I'm quoting now

that was the whole single win offense was the balanced single winwin offense, was the balanced single-win, then the overloaded single-win, then the box shift back to the weak side. It was all overload blocking angles trying to create. He continues, that's really what football was in the 40s, in the 30s, in the 40s. That was a huge part of the game. Advantageous blocking angles. Let's talk now about how Atlanta does it.

How they get those runs to the edge. Week 3 against the Detroit Lions. Atlanta has a 2nd and 10 on their own 27-yard line. They come out 12 offensive personnel. One running back, two tight ends, two wide receivers. They come out in deuce, which is a tight end and a wide receiver to each side of the formation. Detroit stacks the box. Again, this is a second and 10. You come out with a two tight end package. Defense expects a run. They stack the box. They put

eight defenders down in the box, including free safety Glover Quinn. Atlanta runs their stretch zone. Just an outside zone run and play to the left side with Freeman. And they get a big gain here because they create that advantageous blocking angle for wide receiver Justin Hardy. Hardy is aligned to the left side where the ball is going to go, and he uses a reduced split from the tight end. He's lined up maybe six yards outside of the tight end, so he's cheating down a bit,

and his job is going to be to block Quinn, six yards outside of the tight end. So he's cheating down a bit. And his job is going to be to block Quinn. The safety has come down in the box. And if you want to look at this again, go to LockedOnPatriots.com. You will see the play broken down. You will see the stills in the video. And you can see that at first blush, it doesn't look like

Hardy has a great angle to this. But that's just based on the pre-snap look. Because once the play begins, Glover Quinn's a defensive player. He's a safety. He's down in the box. He's anticipated run. You know what he's going to do when he sees run action to his

side of the field. He's going to crash downhill on it. And that's exactly what happens. The play begins. Quinn crashes downfield, sees the run action, and by coming down towards the line of scrimmage, he puts himself right into the path of Hardy.

That creates the advantageous blocking angle that we're looking for here. Hardy cracks down to the inside, takes out Quinn, seals that edge, and now you have Freeman one-on-one with a cornerback in the open field. And that's kind of what you want to do when you design a run and play. Because getting a running back in a one-on-one situation against a cornerback,

that is a one-on-one matchup that most running backs should win. And that's what happens here. Freeman gets to the edge, puts a move onto the defensive back, and cuts inside of him. Defensive back misses the tackle. The other thing that they can do, Atlanta, on these runs to the edge is because they get that buy-in from their receivers. They can use their receivers to set the edge, sometimes even blocking a defensive end, which frees up their linemen, let's say an offensive tackle, to then pull to the outside.

So not only do you have a receiver setting the edge, sealing that for you, you then free up an offensive lineman to add as a convoy in front of the running back. Another example against Buffalo. Again, this is included in the piece on LockedOnPatriots.com. Another 12 offensive personnel play. Matt Ryan again under center.

This time Coleman's in the game as the single running back. Atlanta lines up with a stack slot formation to the left. You have Justin Hardy on the field and Taylor Gabriel as well Gabriel will go in motion, he's not really involved in the play But again we get Justin Hardy And Hardy is going to be tasked with blocking Buffalo's defensive end

Because Buffalo, like we talked about with Some other teams Like Jim Schwartz and the Philadelphia Eagles. They use that wide non-defensive end alignment. So the defensive end on this play to where the Falcons want to run the football is lined up well outside of the tackle. He's just inside Justin Hardy, the wide receiver. And now if you're running the football

to that guy's side of the field, you've got to make sure he's blocked. But you can't ask left tackle Jake Matthews to do that. This defensive end is four yards outside of the left tackle. Matthews, he's a good offensive tackle. He's not making that block. There's no offensive tackle in the league's not making that block. There's no offensive tackle in the league who's making that block. And so what do you do? You ask your wide receiver to do

that. Now he's got an advantageous angle. He's got that block and angle set up because he's outside of that defensive end. But you've got to get him to execute it. And Hardy does that and he does it extremely well. They send Gabriel in motion, which helps to confuse the linebackers a bit. They use a little misdirection. They fake a jet sweep to him before Ryan tosses it to Coleman again headed to the left edge. Now the misdirection helps to slow the linebackers but the first crucial block again is Hardy on the defensive end. Makes good contact

with him. Stays right on him and gets that edge set. Gets that edge sealed. And with all of that what does that do? That frees up left tackle Jake Matthews. He can't go out and get the defensive end because that would have been a tough block, but he can pull outside.

And he pulls outside and he pulls outside and acts as a convoy, a lead blocker for Coleman here. And the first guy he sees is the cornerback. So now you've got an offensive tackle who gets to basically swallow whole a defensive back. This play goes for about a 29-yard gain, and at the end of it, if you can believe it, Coleman fumbles, and who's there to recover it?

Matthews, the offensive tackle. They use this again against the Detroit Lions. A similar concept this time with Devonta Freeman. You get two down blocks on this play against Detroit. You get

Austin Hooper on the defensive end and you get Muhammad Sanu on the linebacker. Once more you get the two down blocks. Matthews again, the guy that pulls. That defensive back to that side sees the play. He sees a left

tackle coming his way and just basically gives himself up. Throws himself at the legs of Matthews, the pulling left tackle. Freeman doesn't get touched until the first down marker. One last example I'll talk about here.

They've done this as well with their fullback, Derek Coleman, as a lead blocker. Rather than pulling an offensive lineman, they use Coleman as a lead blocker on these runs to the edge. But again, it needs that wide receiver to seal that edge, which gives you the same sort of concept where you get a fullback now on the defensive back outside.

This is another play against the Buffalo Bills. Run out of 21 personnel. It's an I formation where Derek Coleman is a fullback. Sanu is tasked now with cracking down on the safety. This time it's Jordan Poyer, safety down in the box. Sanu cracks down on the safety perfectly. Coleman leads Tevin Coleman to the edge. Defensive back to that side of the field.

Tries to come forward, but now you've got, again, a fullback on a defensive back. Easy block for the fullback to make. Coleman cuts right behind it for a 26-yard gain. That's sort of the recipe for Atlanta's success running ball to the edges. It needs the buy-in. It needs the execution from those guys on the outside guys like Mohamed Sanu, Justin Hardy guys that you know because of their ability to catch the football

not because of the way they block for guys in the running game but if you're going to get those runs to the edges if you're going to have the kind of success Atlanta has had running the football to the outside you need those guys. So if you're New England now and you're putting together a game plan

for this, you've got to get your defensive backs to be ready to provide run support. Because they're going to be in those one-on-one situations we described. Whereas in offense, you expect your running back to win that matchup in a one-on-one situation against a cornerback in the open field. Well, now as a defensive coordinator, as Matt Patricia,

you've got to tell your guys, you're going to be in some one-on-one situations. You've got to tell your guys you're going to be in some one-on-one situations you've got to make those tackles and if it's one of these plays where you see a Jake Matthews or somebody else pulling out front maybe it's Derek Coleman the fullback you've got to force that back to help

you can't let that run get outside of you you've got to force it back to help we talked about a play just a few minutes ago where the defensive back basically gave himself up. You might have to do that to force it back to the inside where you can get some help. Atlanta's going to look to run the football Sunday night. They're going to look to establish the ground game. They're going to look to hit these runs on the edges. They're going to ask Hardy. They're going to ask Sanu. They're going to look to hit these runs on the edges. They're going to ask Hardy. They're going to ask Sanu. They're going to ask their receivers to block down, to spring these runs

to the edges. The Patriots have to be ready for that. They have to have a game plan for that. Their defensive backs have to be ready to make tackles, to come down on run support, to force runs back to the inside if they have to. But that's going to be something to watch for when Atlanta has the football. Those runs to the edges, how they have to. But that's going to be something to watch for when Atlanta has the football. Those runs to the edges, how they execute them with their wide receivers, and how the Patriots respond to them. That was your Tape Tuesday edition of Locked on Patriots looking at that Atlanta run game.

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I use that stuff all the time. Also, listen. Shout out to all the faithful listeners so far. I'm just, again, I say it a lot, but I'm still just overjoyed with the reception I've gotten so far from everybody. Check out the website, LockedOnPatriots.com as well. Always happy to hear from you.

You can hit me up on Twitter, at Mark Schofield. Looking forward to the rest of this week. You know, we're going to talk about the Atlanta defense next on Wednesday's show. Thursday, going to be a little crossover action. Aaron Freeman, the great and talented host of Locked On Falcons. He and I are going to chat

a little. Falcons-Patriots, the rematch. Friday's going to be your game day edition. I'm going to look to take some questions during that show as well. Hit me up on Twitter, at Mark Schofield with questions. You can leave comments on any of the articles over at LockedOnPatriots.com as well.

You can leave questions there. I hope to hear from you. Hope you enjoyed this Tape Tuesday edition of Locked On Patriots. Until we chat again, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots. What you doing? Ran out of space on my phone, so I'm deleting some stuff. Bye singing dog. Bye goal.

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