The Chiefs and Chargers had a great battle in week 2. One of the things I loved was the chess match with Coach Gus Bradley and Andy Reid/Eric Bienemy. It was classic as Gus did some interesting things and Andy adjusted late in the game to hit Tyreek Hill for some big plays. They followed some of Saleh's super bowl plan from the year before playing man on #1 to the 3x1 side and playing zone on the strong side.
The Chargers played great and the Chiefs were lucky to get out of there with the win. But lets start with how the Chargers defense prepared.
1. They double teamed Tyreek Hill when he was in the slot. They played what I call hole coverage where the safety away from him was always jumping him on deep crossing routes. The safety to his side was playing deep half. They did a couple different variations of this which I will explain. But the combo coverage did give him some fits early.
Here they run some special with the free safety playing curl. Good change up
Lets look at the clips:
Please see the 2 video clips in the film below:
The 1st clip is cover 2 man with a hole safety. That means the safety away from the trips is looking to rob Hill vertical. The cb to the single side has zero help over the top. The safety to the trips has deep 1/2. All players underneath are in man.
The 2nd clip is cover 2 zone coverage with a hole safety. The Chargers are playing traditional cover 2 with the hole player away from trips looking to rob Hill if he runs a deep horizontal vertical route. The cb has Kelce #1 man for man. The back is away from the single side so they can play lock on the #1 wr(Kelce)
Please see the film below as their are 2 clips in the video.
clip #3 and #4 are in the film below:
Clip #3 and #4 is a zone coverage. Same concept with trying to take Hill out of the equation.
It looks like the lb down below has all of 2 unless 3 goes outside. The mike is in zone because their is no way he's running with hill. Up top looks like man. The safety away from #3 is looking to rob the hole again. Definitely man on the top of the screen as the cb has Kelce and the rb is taken by the lb.
CHIEFS OFFENSE RESPONDS
After a very successful 1st 3 quarters, the Chiefs make some great adjustments in the 4th quarter.
See the 2 clips in the video below:
NOW the big adjustments by Andy Reid which makes him so difficult to deal with defensively .
#5 the Chiefs ran a great route with Hill where he veers back. He knows the other safety is waiting for him and they adjust the route and he runs a deep post corner or banana route. This was a great adjustment to how the Chargers were taking Hill away on the dover or deep over route.
#6 the Chiefs sit Hill down in the middle of the zone. He breaks the deep over (dover) off . They know the safety is waiting and Hill runs a sit down route for a 16 yard gain. These were 2 great adjustments the Chiefs made to an excellent coverage concept by the Chargers.
Part 2 of the game plan
2. When Hill was not in the slot and aligned to the single wr side, they didn't double him and played him man on man. They did a good job containing him in these situations.
I think Hill is not as effective when he is a single wr and struggle with getting off the line.
See the 3 clips and you can see how the Chargers played Hill straight up when he was the #1 wr. They played him man(solo) and went zone on the other side.
I hope you enjoyed my in depth of analysis of some of the concepts Gus Bradley, Great dc against Andy Reid. It was a great match of minds and really a well played football game.
