NFL 3rd Down Situational Defense part 1- 3rd and 3

 3rd Down Defense and Offense is an integral part of the NFL.

The great teams have the ability to make plays on 3rd down. You look around the league and the teams that win in the regular season and playoffs  are excellent on 3rd down and also let up the least amount of sacks. 

8 of the top 9 in 3rd down efficiency were in the playoffs.

These include:

1. Green Bay, 2, KC  3. Baltimore,   4. Buffalo 5. New Orleans 6. Las Vegas, 7. Tennessee 8. Tampa 9. Cleveland 

The worst teams on 3rd down  all had losing records and were:

1. Phila, Giants, Cincy, Jets and Chicago

Below is a team by team breakdown

https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/third-down-conversion-pct

You see where this is going.
The Stat that i think ties into this scenario is pass protection and needs to be evaluated further. If you look at sacks allowed, 9 of the top 10 NFL teams in the playoffs were sacked the least. 

On the other hand the 9 of the 10 teams sacked the most were non playoff teams. The one team not on this list Seattle, was beat up by the Rams and lost because they couldn't keep Russ Wilson upright. Sorry Seahawks fans, it wasn't a Schotty issue, it was a protection issue.

Here are the stats that you will find interesting:

https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/qb-sacked-per-game

With all that being said, I'm focusing this article on the situational aspect of defense and how they approach 3rd down.

The best in the league were Miami, Balt, San Fran, Rams, New Orleans, and Pittsburgh.

But lets look at some situations and what teams like to play.

Part 1 3rd and 3

3rd & 3

I looked at some teams and how they play 3rd and 3. Depending on field position, it is a passing down for most teams. That being said, I think you have to play some man to man or cover 2 concepts to it. Don't expect long 2 or 3 man games on the defensive line because they take too long to get home.

The Dolphins led the league in 3rd down. Here they go odd 3 x3 look and send the mike but drop the defensive ends to play as rat defenders.

Vs the Patriots they send 5 with the olb responsible for the rb if he releases. Turns into a 6 man rush with protection.

Nice design and wr doesn't win the 1x1 matchups. 

Steelers offense vs Browns Defense

Browns showing mug double a gap pressure but bail and play man free with 2 rat defenders 

3rd and 3 wildcard game

The Titans go cover 0 and blitz Lamar out of a 3x3 front. Bring 6 I know its Lamar so against traditional qbs may not be this aggressive.

They do a nice job as the weak lb comes free.

Its a 3x3 bring all 3 inside lb and play cover 0. Its a counter read so the end takes the rb but the will lb comes free.

Bills vs Colts

In the wildcard game, the 1st 3rd and 3 they run a 4 man rush and play cover 3

Defense :Show pressure double mug b gap but play cover 3. 

The Bills run a good play with the 10 yard crossing routes, but Allen feels pressure scrambles, and throws it away. Poor read against the Colts simple cover 3

These are just some of the coverages you will see on 3rd and 3. More will be added as we move on in my offseason analysis.

Bucs Todd Bowles 5 man and exotic fire zone and man pressures

Todd Bowles is great at bringing pressure and confusing qbs, both young and old!

He's done it to Aaron Rodgers, who usually is the best against the blitz and to other qb throughout the league. He is well known around the league as Dr Blitz for his creativity in bringing pressure.

Lets look at some pressure concepts:

3 Under 3 Deep

In the playoffs vs the Eagles

3rd and 8

Front Load

Double edge pressure, NG and DT drop and play hook. 2 300 LB DT playing the hook. Gotta love Todd Bowles.

They drop dt into coverage 

 Vea is playing the hook 

Bring 2 off the edge 

Causes hurts to scramble 

Film 

In the Super Bowl Vs the Chiefs  3rd and 8, Bowles runs a 3 under 3 deep from a 3 safety high look.

They go cover 3 with a 5 man rush.

Davis recovers to make a nice play.

On 1st and 10, the Packers come out in 12. Bowles dials up a nice 5 man 3 under 3 deep pressure. The crossing route gets open late but the pressure gets home.

A nice 5 man pressure from the Bucs

Great pressure from the Bucs.

They get 2 on 1 on the tackle on the nice pressure.

Nice design by Bowles as the 5 man ,  3 under 3 deep and the pressure gets home

VS The Broncos 

The Bucs brought pressure at an enormous rate this past season . They brought pressure on 60% of their pass plays vs the Broncos and Qb Lock. That doesn't mean Todd Bowles is an all out blitz every other down coordinator. He does what it takes to win. The week before against Carolina he brought pressure only 25% of the time. But in the Broncos game they had great success and kept the heat on all game only holding the Broncos to 10 points..

Bowles wasn't content to just bring one extra rusher on each blitz, either. Of their 27 blitzes, the Buccaneers brought five on 17 of them, but also mixed in nine plays in which six defenders tried to invade the backfield. He mixed in some man free coverage and some what looked like 3 deep on 1-2 of the snaps. Bowles even mixed in a seven-man blitz on one play.  

The one pressure package i wanted to take a look at was their cover 2 pressures.

Lets look at a couple of the different fronts and ways Coach Bowles and  the Bucs got after the Broncos and play cover 2

Here is a write up of the first 2 blitzes on the clips below:

In the first blitz above and on the first video clip they play cover 4. 

In the 2nd video clip they play cover 2 to the weak side (hback side) and play cover 4 to the field(passing strength. 

Below are 4 clips which you will see the various cover 2/cover 4 pressures Todd Bowles brings.

As stated the diagrams are shown in the first 2 blitzes.

 vs Packers

3rd and 10 Packers up 10-0 Green Bay 22 yard line

The Packers go 2x2 and the Bucs are in a c4 dime with  pressure bringing the sam/nickel

It looks like cover 4 at the bottom of the screen and playing 2 at the top.

The Bucs read and undercut the route and get the interception for a PICK 6!

 

The 2nd interception is on a 3rd and 3 on the  33 yard line.

Green Bay is up 10-7 at this point. The Bucs go cover 1 and  bring 6 out of the bear look.

They are spying the back with the mike and right olb. They get good pressure and the pick.

The very next series down 21-10 the Packers have a 3rd and 3. Watch what Todd Bowles does on this one. The packers are in bunch. he brings the same pressure but vs bunch decides to run the safety down to jump the crosser, thus leaving the deep 1/3 open. Really very similar if not the same as the snap before.

He takes away the crossing route and shuts down the route and they get the sack with the lb beating the back. The packers offensive line looked very confused on the protection.

The last clip is an exotic blitz where they actually line Suh up as a linebacker, send 6 and play man free.

It didn't appear the Bucs had any fear of the running back in these passing downs. Im sure someone was spying him but once he stepped inside to block the lb went.

VS The Raiders

2 and 10 249 to go in the 2nd quarter

Raiders in bunch set and the Bucs bring 5

The Raiders full slide and the rb is on the olb. The bucs get home as the raiders rb gets stepped on by the tackle.

Man free

Bowles sends the weak linebacker and puts the Mike on the #1 WR who is a tight end. They put the CB on the rb to the boundary.

They play traditional man free to the trips side. The will comes clean on the pressure. 

CB on the RB

See the Mike bail and pickup the tight end

Will comes clean on the pressure. Wondering if the RB saw the cb and thought that he was coming on the pressure?

LB is clean and gets the pressure.

Super Bowl Recap: 49ers Defense vs the Chiefs Offense

Many people think you have to come up with crazy schemes to defeat the Chiefs. The 49ers did a very good job in Super Bowl 54 for the first 3 1/2 quarters

 In the Super Bowl, the 49ers played the Chiefs very tough and did an excellent job in their game plan. They dominated the first 3 1/2 quarters of the  game and were up 20-10 with 8 minutes to go in the 4th quarter. The Chiefs made a late run and in the end, Mahomes pulled some magic and gave them the narrow victory. Mahomes finished 26/42 for 286 yards with 2 interceptions and was sacked 4 times.

The game plan was very simple but effective and really was comprised of 3 components. They played certain coverages to 2x2, 3x1 and they had a very solid 3rd down package. 

1. The 49ers played primarily zone on early downs vs 2x2 sets. They really didn't deviate from that too much. They were consistent in playing solid zone with some match up principles and some cover 3 variations but didn't go away from that too often. This helped with some Chiefs motion concepts condensed sets and was mostly effective 

The only other thing they did was go  man free with 5 man pressures on 3 occasions. This was a nice change up but they didn't do it too much.

2. The 49ers played mostly combo coverage vs 3x1. They locked on the weakside with the cb. Depending on where the rb was aligned they either went zone with the weak lb or had him cover the rb. They played zone to the 3x1 side. 

3. On 3rd down and 3-9 they were all in some type of man free concept. You saw 2 man lurk and some traditional man free with 5 man pressures. On 3rd and 10 plus they played zone.

Here are some examples:

You can see the 1st 3x1 variation with 3x1 and the back strong:

Here's an example of 3x1 with the back to the weak side. mike will carry #3 vertical and the drop safety will play off #2. The 49ers play match principles so its tough to figure out exactly what they are doing.

Here's another variation with 1/4, 1/4 half when the Chiefs go empty but still locking the single side.

Safety does a nice job reading #3

On 3rd down they either brought 5 man pressure and played man free or played 2 man robber(lurk) concepts with one of the safeties.

Here is a 3rd and 3 where they bring 5 man pressure and play man free. Mahomes reads man to man and works to the TE/RB side which is the primary read vs man coverage. 49ers play it well and get off the field

The last concept they played was 2 man lurk which is a variation of man free. They got a big pick off it with 12 minutes to go in the 4th quarter. Safety does a great job breaking hard and forcing the bad throw. Nice Job                    

The turning point of the game was a 3rd and 15 and the 49ers play their cover 3 with the free safety playing the crosser weak. The Chiefs protect it well and Hill runs a double move vs cover 3. The cb has to hang on #1 who is running a skinny post curl concept. No chance for the free safety on this. I never saw a qb make more plays on 3rd and long than Mahomes! 

Hill gets open for the 44 yard gain. CB jumps the deep post by #1 and the free safety has no shot. He had time to throw this. This route swung the momentum but you get an idea of how the 49ers played the Chiefs.