WFNY: Breaking Down the TE Touchdowns by the Titans

There was some buzz this preseason about Jared Cook’s play making abilities… kinda like Evan Moore.

Fujita did look out of place and pretty slow on that play, but gotta give some credit to Hasselbeck for making a nice throw and Cook for busting out a huge play. These guys aren’t scrubs.

I hope our secondary sures up. But like Chris said, the stat looks worse because the Tenn. game accounts for almost half of that.

So just from watching their screen shots, it looks like cover 3 in the first play, and man-free in the second. The writer is incorrect to blame Jackson on the first play, if what I think I see is what happened. I’ll know more after I rewatch, but here’s what I think for now:

In that first TD play, the route combo is WR on a curl/square in, with the TE on a corner. Basically, Brown is getting hi-lowed, while Jackson has to prevent either from coming into the middle of the field.

Ward is a deep middle 1/3rd defender. He has to be there for that backside post from the WR, so he can’t go outside to get the TE immediately.

Jackson is walling off the TE and defending any inside-breaking route. He makes sure the TE isn’t breaking inward, then passes him off as he needs to do. After that point, he should make sure there aren’t crossers coming from the other side, then he should go out to get underneath the WR.

Those guys are doing what they are supposed to do, but this is where the coverage breaks down:

Fujita jumps to the flat too early, IMO. He needs to drop and get in the throwing lane of the WR’s curl so that Brown doesn’t have to worry about it as much. instead, he goes straight for the back. Typically, the “Bronco” or “SCIF” player (what Fujita is playing) needs to re-route #2 (the TE, in this case) either bumping him inside or outside so that he can’t space the deep 3 defenders and get into the seams. For whatever reason, it doesn’t look like Fujita does this. His job is seam→ curl→ flat, and he goes through the first two steps too quickly.

I don’t know enough about Jauron, but most teams like to pattern match this, so Sheldon Brown is probably supposed to be reading #1 (outside receiver) and #2. If #1 is vertical, he’s over the top of #1. If #1 breaks, he goes to #2, and if he’s vertical, he has to stay over the top and outside of #2. If both break, he can jump the route of #1.

On the second play, it’s man-free with a 5 man rush.

Fujita’s job is hard not only because he has to cover a fast guy, but also because of the route against this coverage.

Without any short zone help inside, Fuji must try to cover this deep cross to his right and he can’t pass the route off. BUT his run responsibility on the play is outside the formation to the left. So essentially, he has to start behind the guy he is covering and try to catch up.

Young is in position to begin the play, he is a deep 1/3rd defender. Obviously, the angle he took could have been better and he HAS to make that tackle. But vertical routes on either side of the formation hold him in the middle, and the post doubles as a nice pick en route to the tackle.

If we stay in this man coverage on this play, the blitz has to get there in time to disrupt Hasselbeck before he can hit the deep cross. It doesn’t, and we pay for it.