HoofHearted

This is true for most teams right now in the NFL, and you really see it at the college level. The perimeter run game has been largely replace by fast screens, bubbles, and tunnel screens. From a defensive perspective these plays are no different than playing the run - run fits have to be on point. Add RPOs to the equation and now you get the best of both worlds - depending on how the defense reacts you can end up with something hitting inside or outside.

I’ve coached everything from high school to DI. I’m currently a DC. Yes, this is my full time job.

I coach football for a living.

That's fine if you don't "want or need an education", but there are others on this board who do like to know what is actually going on. I wasn't coming at you, I was simply describing what was actually happening within the play design. To be completely honest with you, Milano probably picks that pass off to the #2 receiver if it's thrown right off the snap because of how much it would pull the coverage. Progression can change based on pre-snap looks. In this instance the Bills had 3 over 2 on that top side - there's no logical reason to change the progression. Furthermore, the whole design of the play was to throw Duvernay open on the slant thinking they'd get the rub vs man coverage. The Bills played zone and the slant wasn't there. Lamar got pressured and it turned into scramble drill where all receivers work to open grass in the direction the QB is working to (that's how Duvernay ended up going from slanting to the middle of the field to the sideline). Again, I'm explaining all of this for the people that want to know.

1) He didn't lock on to a target - you must have missed me explaining that on this reply: 2) See above where I talk about him looking (with screenshot proof) to the two receiver side. 3) I guess you'll be impressed to know that I do work in the field. I thought this was a football message board - you know - where you talk football. Didn't realize only novice football fans were allowed to post here. That's on me. My bad.

Then this is a conversation no longer worth having. Everyone is more worried about being right on here than learning something I guess.

To be fair we ran a bunch of zone scheme stuff early on last year too and sucked at it. Once we switched over to more gap scheme stuff we started being able to run the ball more effectively.

It's okay to learn a little bit about how football actually works through these conversations. 😉

Andrews wasn't even the first read... Duvernay was. They were trying to pick to get him open. Also, he does look to the two receiver side first to try and pull the RAT that way before looking back to Duvernay. You can see it pull the coverage because of it. Sorry this isn't fitting your narrative big fella.

It all depends on the read progression of the concept. They came out in Trips Bunch Squeeze to the bottom side of the field for a reason. They were expecting man and trying to run some rub routes to scheme a guy open. The reads are the reads. Again, it looks worse than what it is. If Lamar looks left the window closes immediately because Milano is pushing to #2's hip at the snap.

Drops are based on QB eyes. If Jackson were to have looked Milano's side first the coverage would be a lot tighter backside. It's all about closing down passing lanes.

If you're talking about the Naked Bootleg in the redzone it was actually a designed pass.

Unfortunately, I think he'll be too pricey for us to keep. This board hates him because he doesn't make a ton of splash plays vs the run without an understanding of his role in the run game or how run fits work within our scheme. He's more than just a pass defender and he'll be paid as such.

I see that I've pushed a button with you. I was genuinely interested in having a scheme conversation with you on why you think our run schemes are not very creative. If you don't know it's okay to admit that and we can discuss some of the stuff you saw if you have clips/highlights.

No, Inside Zone, Counter, Power, Duo, ISO, etc. That would paint a better picture for me.

What were some of the concepts we ran and why were they not creative? It's hard to take the word of someone saying we're not creative when the concepts are described as "shotgun runs up the middle".

I still really enjoy the "he lacks football IQ/doesn't read his keys" comments from people who have zero football IQ or understanding of scheme.

Yes, he looked confused as to whether he was suppose to crack the blitzing defender or block the receiver. Schematically I would guess he was suppose to crack that inside defender (otherwise why short motion him into the box). It also puts us in a really advantageous match-ups for Josh since he'd be reading the corner. The corner would have to honor the crack and slide inside (which he did) which in-turn makes it a keep for Allen and puts him 1 on 1 vs. a corner on a short edge. I'll take that match-up 100% of the time and feel great about it. I see what Dorsey was trying to do there - really good scheme there.

No, Josh made the right call. The defender was aiming directly at Josh with no path to even play the give to Singletary. He was solely a QB player there. You can see in that clip that Singletary gets tripped up by the Morris' guy, not the blitzing defender.

This isn't true. Zone schemes focus so heavily on RB vision because the aiming point changes based on what the defense does. The inside zone play I highlighted above for instance has the back look play side A first, but if it's filled he starts looking backside. That's what makes the scheme dangerous because if your back is really good as seeing thing develop quickly and your OL can sustain blocks you can't be wrong.

Having an understanding of the run concept and the blocking scheme helps tremendously when looking at all of this. The Bills are running zone read to Miami's Cover 1 look. In any zone read concept your are purposefully leaving a guy unblocked (this is what you are seeing the majority of the time you're seeing a guy unblocked in the backfield). Josh is reading that defender - if the defender squats at the LoS or is coming directly at him it's a give. If the defender is bending down the heel line of the offensive line to play the dive then it's a keep. Here's the alignments with the DL movement: The offensive line blocking rules are covered to uncovered to backside backer. Above you can see how it was suppose to be blocked. Morris got blown up by the slanting defender. Slow reaction and feet in order to get the reach block on him which ultimately blew up the play and forced Motor to try to cut it all the way backside. It's pretty obvious we were not running into an overloaded side - we just didn't block it. If we had it would have been a huge gain as you can see below:

That's incorrect - all the offensive line hears on a called RPO is the run concept - they are blocking whatever run concept it is tagged with 100% of the time.

Why do you think this is an issue?

I wasn't able to watch the Miami game yet, but I'd venture to guess we aren't seeing as many light boxes as we did last season. Teams had to honor our two home run threats on the outside. I don't think anyone views Gabe Davis as a home run threat worth committing help over the top to. He's not a burner, we've just done a really good job of schemeing him open on deep stuff and he's an excellent route runner for a big guy.

If Allen wasn't a run threat himself I'd bet you'd see this as we'd see more light boxes. Because he is a run threat your can't afford to give us a light box because we have an extra blocker in the box on any given play.