Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots October 3, 2017 - Tampa Tape Tuesday on Tilt

Episode Date: October 3, 2017

In this Tape Tuesday, Mark Schofield moves on from Carolina and focuses on Tampa Bay. We talk a little Gerald McCoy and the history of the Tilt Technique, look at Cameron Brate and O.J. Howard on Y-Throwback, and even dive into some draft talk as Mark recaps his Saturday at Penn State. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Your daily podcast on the New England Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Good morning, everybody. Welcome into a Tape Tuesday edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield here with you in the big chair. And quite simply, we are on to Tampa Bay. It was a bad performance Sunday against the Carolina Panthers, particularly on the defensive side of the football. We've got a compressed week.

So let's just put the Panthers game in the rearview mirror and focus on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Thursday night's game. Also, as you heard at the outset, some new friends of the show, xbet.ag. Check them out. Again, use promo code xbet. When you do, you'll get a 100% matching of your initial deposit. I'll have some more stuff on them in a bit.

But again, this is a Tape Tuesday edition. We're going to do some nerdy football stuff here today. At the outset, we're going to talk a little tilt technique on the defensive side of the football, something to look for when the Patriots have the ball on Thursday night. And then later in the show, we're going to talk a little wide throwback, what you might expect to see from Cameron Braid and O.J. Howard, as well as a little bit on Adam Humphreys. Then at the end, we're going to talk a little draft. I'm going to tell you guys about my Saturday, what I did this past Saturday. And it's always draft season in the National Football League. So we're going to get to that a little bit as well.

But let's start with what to expect when the New England Patriots have the football. Again, I want to talk about something called the tilt technique. For you pinball aficionados out there, this isn't a pinball reference. It's not talking about when the game penalizes you for tilting the game itself and trying to move the ball around without using the paddles. This isn't a poker reference for you poker players out there. This isn't when you start going crazy and making some aggressive plays because you're frustrated. One of the other guys at the table or one of the other women at the table has got you on tilt.

No, this is talking about a defensive line technique. And let's talk a little football history here quickly. We're going to talk about Mean Joe Green. Some of you may remember the Pittsburgh Steelers' steel curtain defense back in the 70s, how great they were up front. Mean Joe Green was among the members of that steel curtain defensive front and helped revolutionize defensive line play. And one of the ways he did that, he was the original player to use this tilt technique.

And what this is, generally speaking, is when you picture a defensive lineman, you picture them in a three-point or sometimes even a four-point stance, and their shoulders are parallel to the line of scrimmage. They're basically lined head up on the line of scrimmage. They're basically lined head up on the line of scrimmage. A tilted nose tackle, a tilted defensive lineman stands more at an angle. His shoulders are more diagonal to the line of scrimmage. And Mean Joe Green was the first guy to do this. And in a book called The Games That Changed the Game,

written by Ron Jaworski and Greg Cassell and David Plott, it's a great book. Though they asked former Steelers linebacker Andy Russell about the tilted nose technique because the Steelers were a team that used it. And it started with Mean Joe Green. And Russell said, look, this offset alignment was something Joe Green developed himself out of frustration. He hated to get blocked, wanted to make plays. So it occurred to him that because he was so quick, he should just line up inside between the center and the guard, tip his shoulder sideways, and when the ball was snapped, he could just dart through that gap. He was supposed to line head up on the guard, but he did this himself. He jumped in that gap between the guard and the center, tilted his body, and

just blew through the gap. He was the first player to use it, but then it became part of Tampa Bay's core defensive alignment. A couple years later, under the Tony Dungy Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they used this tilted nose tackle technique, and it's back, and it's back often in the form of Gerald McCoy. McCoy, if you watched Hard Knocks, critical component of this Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive front. Fast, strong, talented player. And if you got a chance to watch McCoy against the Giants this past Sunday,

you saw pretty quickly how he can use this sort of tilt technique to impact both the run game and the passing game. And I just want to talk quickly about two plays. The first play is a second and six situation in the first quarter. The Giants have a tight end in the backfield lined up as a fullback and Shane Vereen is the deep back. Eli Manning is under center. They're going to run the football to their left side. Tampa Bay has a four-man defensive front.

They're in a 4-2-5 nickel. Four down linemen, two linebackers, five defensive backs. And they have McCoy lined up as a nose tackle, but he is using the tilt technique. He puts himself in the A-gap between the center and the right guard, and he tilts his shoulders. So he's lined up in that gap, but he's angled towards the center's right shoulder, and his shoulders are, again, they are diagonal to the line of scrimmage. They're not parallel to the line of scrimmage, which is what you usually see from defensive linemen. And what this requires from the offensive line is this. They're going to run, the Giants are, a power block in play. Two types of run block in the NFL right now. You have power or gap block in where the offensive linemen are each responsible for a player or a gap.

And then you have zone where they all move in unison. So on zone block in, you'll see everybody sort of slide to the left or slide to the right and then sort of hit the next guy that crosses their face. That's kind of general rule. I'm not an offensive line guru, but that's kind of an easy way to break it down. Gap stuff, you know, they might move in different directions to different sides of the field depending on their responsibilities. And here, we're going to get a gap play. And because McCoy lines up with this tilt technique in the A gap between the center and the right tackle, the right guard, this poses a problem for those two players. They need to get him blocked. And so what's going to

happen right at the snap is this. The center is going to try to basically chip him. So as the ball is snapped, the center will step out with his right foot first and throw a shoulder into McCoy to sort of stun his initial explosion off the ball. But the center has to get up to the second level because his main responsibility here is blocking that play side linebacker. So the center can't spend too much time on this. So he gets that initial sort of shoulder type chip into McCoy and the hope is he can stun McCoy enough so that the right guard can come over and finish off the block well the problem is McCoy is so quick that as the center comes out and lunges

at him with his right shoulder McCoy is able to put a swing move on him, which means, again, McCoy's lined up, aiming towards the center's right shoulder. As the center fires out, McCoy basically takes his left arm, kind of wraps it around the back of the center, and then waves his right arm up and over like a windmill, swimming over the top of him. That's what a swim move is

now the center has to vacate because again he needs to get to that linebacker but as McCoy swims over the guard can't get there in time McCoy is so quick and since he's using this alignment since he's lined up in that gap, he gets into the backfield immediately after the center vacates to try to get to the second level and before the guard can come over and finish off his block. So Eli Manning has just taken the snap. He's just turned with his back to the line of scrimmage to hand the ball to Shane Vereen

and he has no idea that Gerald McCoy is about two yards behind him and is fighting through this attempted double team. McCoy fights off the attempt from the guard and as Vereen is taking the handoff, he has to stop and try to cut because he's got McCoy immediately at his feet. McCoy lunges at his ankles and trips him up in the backfield for a loss on the play. The other aspect to this, the other reason why this is so important, because even if McCoy does not make the tackle in the backfield, because the center had to use his first couple of seconds post-snap to get that chip on McCoy because of his alignment, because of that tilt technique. He's late to get to the second level. And the linebacker that the center is responsible for

blocking has already plugged that potential hole. He's read the play. He's diagnosed the run action. He knows where it's going to be. So even if McCoy misses the tackle, or even if the right guard somehow blocks McCoy as he knifes through that A gap, that linebacker is in position to make the tackle anyway for no gain. The center loses the angle because he loses precious seconds post-snap trying to take care of McCoy. Now we're going to talk about how this alignment can impact the pass game as well. This is just a couple of plays later. You know, it's a third down situation. It's actually a fourth and four situation just a couple of plays later. And McCoy again uses the tilt technique. And this time,

he actually widens himself. He lines up now in the B gap between the right guard and the right tackle. Manning is in the shotgun. He's just going to try a quick pass here. And what happens here is because of the alignment again, McCoy attacks to the outside of the right guard in his pass rush. The right guard has to open his hips towards the sideline towards the outside of the formation to try to block mccoy's speed rush because again mccoy very fast defensive lineman and he's quick too because what happens next is he gets that right guard to sort of over commit so if you picture this for a second that right guard comes out of his stance he opens his hips to the outside to the sideline he's trying to sort sort of mirror McCoy and keep him outside,

but he sort of overcommits to his right, basically. McCoy sees that, uses the momentum of the guard against him, kind of pushes him back away from the line of scrimmage, so back to the right guard's right, and then cuts around him, sort of upfield, behind the right guard's right and then cuts around him, sort of upfield, behind the right guard's left shoulder. And he gets a hit on man and just as he releases the football. Again, that tilt technique, because of where McCoy is lined up,

because that tilt allows him to get that quick step into the gap off the snap, that sort of plays into what McCoy ends up doing here because that guard has to open himself up. He over commits to his right. McCoy then is able to duck under and around him to the left, around the left shoulder of the guard. He gets a hit on Manning, forces a low throw, and the pass falls incomplete. So this tilt technique and Gerald McCoy, it's something to definitely watch on Thursday night because they're going to use that against New England and against Tom Brady. And we've talked a lot on this show about protecting those A-gaps

and how critical they are to what New England wants to do offensively, how critical protecting the A-gaps are to both the run game and the pass game. So again, David Andrews has a big task ahead of him on Thursday night in conjunction with Joe Thune, in conjunction with Shaq Mason. Depending on where McCoy lines up, depending on when and where he uses this tilt technique, they need to make sure that that A-gap is protected because if they're going to run schemes like these,

they need to make sure McCoy is blocked up. So tilt technique, something to watch for on Thursday night when the Patriots have the football. Gerald McCoy, have to make sure that he is blocked up. You'll see it. It stands out. McCoy will be in a three-point stance. Those shoulders will be diagonal to the line of scrimmage, and that's the tilt technique.

So you've learned something cool here today. Tell your friends when you're watching the game, wherever you're watching the game on Thursday night, hey, that's the tilt technique. So you've learned something cool here today. Tell your friends when you're watching the game, wherever you're watching the game on Thursday night, hey, that's the tilt technique. I learned that from Locked On Patriots with Mark Schofield. We're going to have some more nerdy football stuff in a second, but I want to let you guys know about the new relationship we

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We're going to talk about when the Buccaneers have the football and a little wide throwback. And if you've been watching football this season last year you've seen this play it's one of those plays now that's starting to sort of spread like wildfire i did a piece last year at inside the pylon about how the atlanta falcons were using it with their tight ends and it's usually that design where quarterback shows run fake to one side then rolls to the other side of the field, and then stops and throws back across the formation to a tight end who's crossed the flow of play.

So you have everybody sort of rotating to the right. The receivers all coming to that side of the field. The quarterbacks rolling that way. And then the quarterback will stop and throw back to his left to the tight end who's one tight end who's come across the formation. And the Bccaneers use that they hit it to oj howard for a long touchdown against the giants they hit it to cameron brate on another long play against the giants and when you're going up against a defense

that has communication problems to begin with this is a recipe for success for the offense and a recipe for disaster for the defense. First, let's look at that touchdown to Howard. This is a situation where the ball is near midfield. It's sort of the ideal situation here to take a deep shot. Buccaneers come out with 13 offensive personnel. So they have three tight ends in the game. You put Winston under center.

You put one tight end aligned in a three-point stance at the end of the line to the left, and two more to the right, including Howard. And they're in a win. They have one receiver, and he'll come in motion before the play, coming across the formation. Buccaneers show run to the left. So at the start, everybody sort of slides that way.

But Winston will fake it and then roll back to the right. And now you've got basically your standard play-action boot that teams run where you show the run fake, you roll to the other side. And now you're going to see receivers, Mike Evans, tight end Cameron Braid, they're going to be crossing from left to right here because they're trying to get into the field division for the quarterback. And that's how you sort of expect these boot action plays to go. But O.J. Howard blocks for a second on the right edge of the offensive line.

Makes it look like he's blocking linebackers. And then he comes across the formation, sort of the only guy now running to the left. And then when he hits the numbers, that's his landmark. He breaks vertically up the field. And what happens on this play is it looks like the linebacker to that side, number 53, he first bites

on the run action and then gets tripped up by Cameron Brait as Brait comes across the formation. And when he sort of comes back upright, he's lost his barons,

and he starts trailing everybody, again, towards the offensive right side of the formation, to this right side of the field from the offensive's perspective. And it does look like he's the guy that's responsible for Howard. Again, we're not sure. I'm not in the huddle. I don't know the play call. But Howard is wide open. And you Patriots fans out there,

this is sort of what we saw this past Sunday. A receiver running wide open with nobody within about 15 yards of him. And that's what we see here. Winston stops his roll to the right and then throws back to the left. And when Howard catches it, he's at the 35- yard line for the Giants

and the closest defender is 15 yards away it's as easy as it gets to score a touchdown you know so that's the first example of the Giants I mean excuse me the Buccaneers using that design they used it later in the game this time with Cameron Bray another good tight end for them and it's a similar type formation Buccaneers using that design. They used it later in the game, this time with Cameron Brait, another good tight end for them. And it's a similar type formation. This time they're out in 12 offensive personnel. So you have two wide receivers.

They're in a slot to the left, one running back, two tight ends, Howard and Brait, and they're in that win alignment to the right where Howard is at the end of the line, and then Brait is staggered behind him, just off the line of scrimmage, but they're in that wing look. And again, we get run fake. This time, Winston doesn't roll one way or the other. He fakes a run to the left and then simply sort of drops back deep, maybe a slight roll. And we get a little crossing concept here. So the two slot receivers, they run deep post routes. They're coming from left to right at different lengths down the field.

The inside slot receiver breaks off at about 15 yards downfield, and then the outside slot receiver, he breaks his post route off at about 20 yards downfield. Again, these guys are crossing from left to right. But underneath them comes Cameron Bray on his throwback route. So he comes from right to left against the flow of the play. Again, wide open. Nobody within about seven yards of him when he catches the ball. And the Giants here are in a little bit of,

look to be playing cover three here. And you have a linebacker in the middle of the field who opens his hips towards Braid initially, sees him crossing behind him, but then kind of stops because he gets sucked into what Winston is doing and what Winston is looking at, and he's thinking the pass is going to go to one of the post routes

on the wide receivers. And he just lets Brait get behind him. Brait pulls it in. He's wide open when he does. And another huge gain for the Buccaneers on this throwback design. So again, communication. It's something that we saw with the Patriots and their defense on Sunday. It killed them.

And now we're going to see some plays like this. These throwback designs to the tight ends that require precise communication because if you don't call these out, if guys aren't aware of their responsibilities

and switching responsibilities when they need to, Tampa Bay is going to hit plays like this. The other thing I'm just going to mention quickly,

Adam Humphreys. He's their slot receiver. They use him a ton in the passing game as well. So we know about Mike Evans. We've talked now about this wide throwback stuff. Cameron Brate, O.G. Howard. Don't forget about Adam Humphreys. Against Minnesota two weeks ago, six receptions on 10 targets for 68 yards. Last week, six receptions on seven targets for 70 yards. They're going to get him the ball as well. And when you look at what Tampa Bay has done

from a passing game perspective, Evans does lead the team in targets with 32, but Humphreys is second with 20. Evans leads the team in receptions with 19. Humphreys is second with 14. And so between the wide throwback, the Mike Evans and his ability, the stuff you have to worry about there,

and now Adam Humphreys, as I told you guys Sunday, there are a lot of weapons on the Tampa Bay offense. So don't forget about Adam Humphreys either. A lot to worry about if you're Matt Patricia and Bill Belichick this week. All right, just a few more minutes left here in this show,

and I want to start talking draft, if you can believe it. And it's not because I'm sort of giving up on the Patriots season or anything like that. No, not at all. But if you've followed my work before I came over here to host this show, if you've followed my work over at Inside the Pylon or a Bleacher Report or, say, the Rookie Scouter Portouter portfolio film room and the videos I've done

with Matt Walton, who was the first guest on this show, what I took over. I follow the draft year round, mostly from the quarterback position. 95% of my work that's draft related is scouting quarterbacks. But I always sort of take a look at other talent. And every year I have a couple of non-quarterback draft crushes. And the draft has become this institution, this thing. It's a year-round live-and-breathe organism almost. And so I try to get myself to a couple of games each year,

a couple of college games to see some guys in person, try to get down to the Senior Bowl every January, see some of the seniors that are coming out and looking to enter the draft. Got a chance to see Carson Wentz two years ago. Got a chance to see Dak Prescott two years ago. Jacoby Brissett two years ago down in Mobile. Last year, it was Nathan Peterman and Joshua Dobbs, some of those guys. But, you know, other linebackers like Alex Anzalone, guys like Evan Ingram and O.J. Howard.

Got to see them. So this past Saturday, I went out to State College in Pennsylvania. Got a chance to see Penn State, Indiana. If you haven't been to a Penn State game at Beaver Stadium, definitely check it out. It's an incredible experience. Massive thank you to everybody at Penn State and their sports information department for taking care of me. It was a great environment.

A couple of guys that really stood out to me. I'm just going to touch on a couple of them briefly. First, Saquon Barkley. He is a human cheat code at this point. You see him hurtling guys and then bouncing off defenders before he lands while he's in midair. And keeping his legs moving. You see him return the opening kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown and just sending Beaver Stadium into an absolute state of bedlam. One of those situations where you're in the press box

and it starts shaking because it's so loud. 107,000 people screaming their lungs out. You see him catch a screen pass with one hand like O.J. Howard in the backfield, shake a defender in the backfield, break two tackles, and rip off a 28-yard gain. He's a human cheat code. Now, if you're a Patriots fan listening to the show, don't get your hopes up. I don't want to say I'd bet the mortgage that the Patriots don't get a chance to draft him or don't draft him. But all history tells us that it's kind of unlikely that they're going to be in a position to draft a Saquon Barkley who's going to go in the top five. Or that they would even do that.

But Barkley is an incredible talent. And if you've been to a sport or event where there is a transcendent player on the ice, on the court, on the field, on the pitch, there's almost a sound that is made in the crowd when they get their hands on the ball or the puck or whatever, where everybody sort of holds their breath collectively in one instant because they're all sort of expecting something magical to happen. An example I've used is go to a Washington Capitals game. You see Alexander Ovechkin get the puck

and everybody in the Verizon Center sort of just sucks in their air for a second because they're just expecting something incredible to happen. Or when LeBron James gets the ball in the wing or Steph Curry spots up for three. Everybody's in unison just sort of collecting their breath

because they're expecting something transcendent to happen. It's the same way when Saquon Barkley gets his hands on the football. It was that way when he settled under the opening kickoff. It was that way when he caught that screen pass. It's every time he gets his hands on the ball, people expect amazing things to happen. He's that kind of player.

And they say no cheering in the press box, but there were a lot of oohs and aahs when he got his hands on the ball. I'll just say that. But two guys I think that you want to keep an eye on if you're a Patriots fan, linebackers on both teams. First is Tigre Scales, linebacker for Indiana. And you probably haven't heard about him, but you will as we get closer to the draft. Incredible linebacker, was flown all over the field from sideline to sideline. One of those guys that was in the backfield was harassing Trace McSorley, the Penn State quarterback, all day long. Definitely a player that stood out to me. Patriots look like they need some help on

defense. They need some help with that linebacker position. Tigre Scales from Indiana is a guy to keep in mind. Another guy, Jason Cabinda, linebacker for Penn State. He's their middle linebacker. And, man, I think he finished with 15 tackles. He had 12 at one point. I think he even had 12 like at halftime. You know, recovered a fumble. Another player that was, it seemed like he was in on every tackle for Penn State. Just an incredible type of player.

You know, one of those guys that it looks like can play on every down in the National Football League. For a team that looks like they need help at the linebacker spot, Tigre Scales from Indiana, Jason Cabinda from Penn State. Do some reading about those guys. Learn a little bit about those guys because those are two guys I think that when we get into January and February and March and we start to really dive into the draft,

those are two guys, the Patriots fans, you're going to want to have them on your radar. So there we go, folks. That's your tape Tuesday. Again, we did some stuff on Tampa Bay, Gerald McCoy and that tilt technique. Talked a little wide throwback, Cameron Brait, O.G. Howard,

little Adam Humphreys there in the mix as well. Finished it off with a little taste, just a little, little, little taste of draft stuff. Again, I love the draft. I cover it year-round. I'm not going to start diving into it too much now, but as we get into November and December, we're going to hear a little bit more draft talk.

And again, it's a year-round thing now, and so get ready for it. That's all I'm saying. Again, check out our good friends over at xbet.ag. Use that promo code xbet when you sign up. Also, don't forget, PFF Edge subscription. Get yourself one of those. Get yourself in the mix to earn one of those. Go to the Locked On Patriots page on iTunes.

Leave me a review. I've been touched by all the great reviews I've gotten. Go ahead and get yourself in the mix. Just make sure your Twitter handle is in there. Make sure you do that. Because trust me, it's a great resource. It's a fantastic resource to have. So that's your tape Tuesday edition of Locked On Patriots.

I'll be back tomorrow with some more stuff on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Try to get a little crossover action here. Things from behind enemy lines, so to have. So that's your tape Tuesday edition of Locked on Patriots. I'll be back tomorrow with some more stuff on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Try to get a little crossover action here. Things from behind enemy lines, so to speak. And then Thursday, it's your game day show. Quick week. Let's make it count. Until next time, everybody, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield

and Locked on Patriots. Thank you.