The Interception Conspiracy

[Masters]

I thought that at first. Then I kept re-watching the end zone view they gave of the play. Colt tried to look Polly to the other guy, but as soon as Colt looked left, Poly went to the right to where Colt planned to throw (which had two defenders there even before Poly jumped it). Colt should be able to see Poly coming right at that play and go right back to the left side. Polly was breaking on the play before Colt even got his head fully turned to throw to the right.

Colt did get Polly a couple of times, which was good to see.

[jason j]

Originally Posted by hiwaygal

Hey jj - can you give some insight on the big INT in last night's game?

Late and light will get you picked more often than anything else. He was late on the throw, couldn't step into it.

That was a straight up jump ball, to one of the least aggressive receivers I've seen in recent years. You can't make that throw.

If you're going to throw one up for grabs, throw it to Moore, or Cribbs even. At least you've got a shot.

That said, where the hell was Massaquoi going? The clock in his head should've told him the ball was in the air. Was he going to run a 7 route into the club seats?

You're out of real estate, man... and way out of time. Turn around and look for the ball!

-jj

[jason j]

Originally Posted by Greythan

Yeah, I think the ball was late. I wasn't listening to the NFL feed (I had Browns radio running instead) so I didn't hear Mayock.

On his first pick, however, what I saw was a young QB getting burned by a gambling, talented safety. Pollyhair gave McCoy a deep cover look on his read and when McCoy progressed to Watson's mid range "out", Polly jumped the route. Great play by a great safety. I don't think he "missed a read" as the guy going long on the opposite side of the field had help from Polly over the top.

Worth noting that McCoy burned Polly a couple of times for trying to jump routes by throwing to alternative receivers.

On that first pick... that's all McCoy. There is 1 rule about throwing into the Steelers' defense? Do you know where #43 is? Do you? No? Then eat it. Don't let go of it unless you know exactly where he is.

-jj

[Greythan]

I don't disagree JJ, I just watched Polly take an educated gamble on that play. He baited Colt by giving him a centerfield look and when he saw McCoy's head turn; he took off for Watson. Great play by Polly and an INT that he makes on veteran, All Pro QB's as well.

And, like I said, McCoy burned Polly at least twice earlier where 43 jumped the wrong route and McCoy picked up big plays.

The last INT was the bad one for me.

[golfer704u]

Originally Posted by jason j

Late and light will get you picked more often than anything else. He was late on the throw, couldn't step into it.

That was a straight up jump ball, to one of the least aggressive receivers I've seen in recent years. You can't make that throw.

If you're going to throw one up for grabs, throw it to Moore, or Cribbs even. At least you've got a shot.

That said, where the hell was Massaquoi going? The clock in his head should've told him the ball was in the air. Was he going to run a 7 route into the club seats?

You're out of real estate, man... and way out of time. Turn around and look for the ball!

-jj

YES YES YES 1000 times yes. I said this in the McCoy concussion thread. He made a number of errors on that throw. but the biggest was even LOOKING Momass's way for a jump ball in a clutch suituation. I'd throw it to Little there before I throw that ball to MoMass. and it was 3rd down. Throw it to the stands and try a 4th and Goal. ANYTHING but a jump ball to Momass.

[golfer704u]

Originally Posted by Greythan

I don't disagree JJ, I just watched Polly take an educated gamble on that play. He baited Colt by giving him a centerfield look and when he saw McCoy's head turn; he took off for Watson. Great play by Polly and an INT that he makes on veteran, All Pro QB's as well.

And, like I said, McCoy burned Polly at least twice earlier where 43 jumped the wrong route and McCoy picked up big plays.

The last INT was the bad one for me.

THe first INT was THE MOST IMPORTANT.

This is a question for everyone but JJ especially.

Was it just me? or did the playcalling change after that INT? It seemed to me like Shumur had McCoy challenging the seams and 43 early in the ball game. And in that first drive it was working as Grey says. And then McCoy makes the mistake and throws where he never should have, and from then on it seemed to me either those kind of plays weren't being called, MCCoy was to shy to throw them, or the steelers adjusted to them. It's probably a combination of all those three things. But it just seemed to me like there was a good game plan in that first drive, and then after the INT it disapeared.

[Flugel]

Originally Posted by jason j

Just for fun I want to walk through the anatomy of an interception at the NFL level. This is a bit presumptuous on my part, but some of you might find it fun.

First, Colt McCoy straight up threw one interception on Sunday. Interestingly it wasn't the one that was actually picked off.

On the Browns touchdown drive, Colt throw late and light to the right flat and gift wrapped a pick six. Fortunately, the Ravens defender treated it much the same way that his own receivers did... allowing to bounce harmlessly to the turf.

That said, his earlier interception is a perfect example of how ineptitude and lack of discipline conspire to create turnovers.

Let's start at frame one. Offensively, what you've got here is a shot gun 2x2 set with negative splits (inside the numbers). Defensively you've got a 2-4-5 with the Strong side linebacker on the line outside shoulder to the RT and the weak side linebacker showing high low coverage on the backside twins.



The pre-snap read should be zone quarters with the weak side linebacker in the flat to the boundary.



Note, the arrows for the 2 safeties off screen are pointing forward just so you can see where they are. Their actual responsibility is anything vertical in the middle of the field.

However... pre-snap is pre-snap...

As we get closer to the snap, the Ravens tip their blitz package.



At that point the coverage has to rotate. The weak side corner becomes the flat defender. The safety to that side takes first vertical route to that side. This leaves the safety to the field either "free," or in quarter-quarter-half coverage (with the safety to the boundary with the "half"). Either way it means you have two on two to the weak side and 4 on two to the strong side.

So here's the problem, you've got. There are two high probability ways to attack this:

1.) QB must hold the middle quarter defender on the strong side of the field... in this case, Colt, look to your right. Then you run some variation on a "smash concept" to the weak side. That is a 0-7 combination or a 1-7 combination (or hitch-corner or out-corner).

2.) QB must hold the free safety (the inside quarter defender to the strong side) deep. Then run the smash (or a variation) concept to the strong side.

They had 3 - 0/1 option call to the strong side. That's a high/low out route with a hitch option in the slot.

The back side was a 9-1 combination route with Cribbs running the seam vertical from the outside and the slot running the out. Not ideal. You you've either got to throw that seam route over the linebacker, or risk driving that out route to the sideline short of the sticks from the near hash.

Ideally Cribbs is just there to lift the safeties. And he does that. So Colt know that he's working strong side. A courtesy glance to the weak side would've been nice. But basically, we're now working a strong side high/low read against 4 zone defenders. Not ideal, but not impossible.

All Colt has to do is keep the free safety honest and he should be able to get a window on the 3 route to the marker, or if the corner sags, he's got Little on the hitch - get the ball into an athletes hands and let him make a play.

So let's look at the strong side route combination:


If #21 sags underneath Massaquoi , Little needs to hitch up at 4-5 yards. If sits, he's got to dig back. If he mans up, he's got to drive on the out route... also at 4-5 yards. The whole point is to create space between himself and Massaquoi... to make the flat defender make a decision.

Massaquoi has the 3 route to the marker. He's working off coverage. Which means he has to play positive leverage. He needs to drive to the outside shoulder of the vertical defender and snap that route off at the maker. He should be driving right down the 46 yard line to the sideline.

So... here we see the DB's declare coverage.




Webb sits on the route. Jarret drops into the curl zone. At this point Little knows his only choice is to dig back to the quarterback. If he hitches up, he's covered. If he drives on the out, he's covered.

Massaquoi gets his off coverage... he just needs to drive to the outside shoulder, and snap that route off at 10 yards.

But... there's always a but, here's what really happened.


Massaquoi floats his route. Little stutter steps, staggers forward, and runs like a half hitch / half out route then turns around and stops between two defenders. We've now got two defenders 4 yards deeper than they should be, collapsing the window into which Colt has to throw the ball. So, McCoy's got to loft the ball over the curl & flat defenders and drop it into a spot at the sticks... a spot that his primary receiver doesn't seem to have any interest in occupying. And that's taking a lot off the ball.


Ball's in the air... So... does Mr. Massaquoi drive back to his spot and attack the ball?



Nope... he drifts all the way back to the 50 yard line. Good effort from Little, jumping for a ball that was 9 feet over his head.

It would appear that someone in this shot is attacking the ball... hmmm



But you have to ask... how was Mohammad supposed to know that Smith would break on the ball? I mean, doesn't he have to protect the deep quarter?

Well other than the fact that Smith was actually looking for the ball... the secret is in the scheme. And the answer is on the film.

You see, there's no vertical route to Massaquoi's side. No one's threatening the inside quarter defender. So he becomes the 1/2 field defender. Meaning the outside safety can jump the ball.

But how is Mo to know that?



Because he's right in front of him for the duration of the stem of his route. He knows Smith has deep help. He has to close off his defender by using good leverage, and running his route tight to the marker and giving his quarterback a safe place to put the ball.

Ironically, McCoy put it there anyway. At worst, that should've been a contested ball. But he didn't deserve that pick.

I thought you guys (and gal (gals?)) might have some fun with that one.

-jj

My 2nd favorite post of 2011. Most of the ex-players and coaches that commentated our games had the same impression of our WRs. That would have been a nice idea to also put the speed of Armond Smith into a swing pass toward the opposite direction considering the overload of Xs to our Os on the right side.

As much as I like RGIII, trading the house for him doesn't change our WRs in head-up-thy-ass mode. Good Lord, we're sending these knuckleheads at defenses like Baltimore and Pittsburgh and hoping our QB doesn't show any signs of growing pains in this new wonderful new playbook made for Jerry Rice and John Taylor.

[YtownBacker]

I don't think you pass on RGIII just because your WRs suck. If your WRs suck you fix that. Either QB deserves better then what we had.

You have FA and the draft and should be part of the plan no matter which way you go at QB.

[Flugel]

Originally Posted by YtownBacker

I don't think you pass on RGIII just because your WRs suck. If your WRs suck you fix that. Either QB deserves better then what we had.

You have FA and the draft and should be part of the plan no matter which way you go at QB.

Easier said than done. The next time a talented free agent WR wants to come to Cleveland will mark the first time we've witnessed such a thing. We talk about this seemingly every year we look at a brand new list of free agents.

As far as RGIII goes, if you give away too many draft picks - I just get a bad feeling we're spending the next 3 years complaining we never brought in anyone to HELP the young QB. That seems like a TON of effort only to remain the same team wishing it understood how to build through the draft.