The Andy Reid Chiefs offense and potent passing attack.

 The Chiefs are a great football team and have an offense that is really tough to defend.

They can beat you in so many ways but do a great job of 2 things:

1. Andy Reid has some great concepts built in and some great adjustments vs various coverages. You play zone, they have various sit down options, high/low concepts and various elements built in. He is always one step ahead of you. Reid anticipates the matchup and knows your not doing the same thing next time and he calls the appropriate play. That is why I loved the meeting of the minds with him and Belichick. Bill anticipated the next moved and it was such a great matchup.

You can see that below:

https://coachkoufootball.blogspot.com/2020/10/andy-reid-vs-bill-belichick-chiefs.html

2. They use motions better than anyone to dictate coverage: How many times you see the Chiefs motion from empty back in to the backfield or move a player and know exactly what the coverage is. Look at all the presnap motions and then the play called off it. Looks like they have zone side and man side built in to numerous concepts. Meaning, if the defense is in man we are throwing to this side. 

Here's an example:

3. They are so hard to play in traditional man free because Tyreek Hill beats you on the crossing route at 10-12 yards. That's just one way.

4. If you take Hill away it with a safety, it opens up Kelce underneath. Especially when they are opposite each other because teams love to play the lurk concept with the other safety taking the crosser and it opens up Kelce underneath. Vs The Bills, you saw this as Hill had 180 yards and Kelce 118. Too much for teams to handle at times. 

SOME EXAMPLES:

Here's one of the ways the Chiefs will beat you when you play traditional man free.

Vs the Browns in the playoffs:

The Chiefs go empty, the Browns send the lb out on the rb so you know it's man free. No disguise single high safety ,easy pickings.

After a 26 yard gain,  and scoring on the first drive, they decide to make an adjustment when Hill is inside 3x1. They go combo with the safety robbing 3 tot the strong side. Man on the backside. This means the safety is robbing and no underneath help by the lb as a rat defender as the mike carries 3 vertical. The safety looking for the crosser. Well, the Chiefs line up Kelce opposite and go to him and he is  1x1 as the safety takes the deeps crosser. 

Now it's Kelce with an option route against a db. He wins.

The 3rd time they go 3x1 the Browns change it up again.

They play a crosser concept with the SS  but it's 3 under 3 deep. It's almost like Reid is a mind reader. The SS jumps #2 on the deep crossing route and Hill sits down and it's an easy 15 yard gain.

They motion Hill to #3 and the run #2 on the deep crossing route and sit down with hill. Great adjustment as Reid stays 1 step ahead.

On the next 3x1, they put Hill to the 1 wr side as the Browns go Special (man on the outside) with the safety weak playing crosser and leave the cb 1x1. Mahomes goes to Hill but good coverage but the design was great with the out and up.

Reid calls the 1x1 matchup with Hill but the Browns defend it well. Browns look they are running a variation of special where you are man to man on #1 on both sides and the FS weak is playing off #3. Leaving single coverage on Hill.

Mahomes sees it and throws to Hill, good coverage.

5. RB out/mesh concepts

The Chiefs also love to hit the rb out of the backfield out of 3x1 with the rb weak. This is usually the first read in mesh and some of their concepts vs man .

Here they try to hit Bell on the wheel route by setting a pick with Kelce. The Browns do a good job in man to the boundary while playing zone up top.(combo coverage) They'll run mesh and other concepts as well. The play is well defended but an excellent route concept.

They ran the same play vs the Falcons. The Falcons olb does a great job peeling and taking the back. He swaps with the inside lb and the ilb rushes. The OLB takes 2 steps up field so Kelce can't crack on him. As usual, Mahomes works the side of the back and the falcons do a nice job.

 

Here they run a variation of mesh with them bringing the back across the formation. Very tough to defend on the goal line.

route concept variation #1  (back opposite)

a variation is when you send the back opposite and set the mesh to the other side. The read is still the rb to the crosser to the side of the back. The Chiefs run this on the goalline for an easy walk in touchdown.

Here's another Chiefs favorite, Kelce sits down in  a gap between the lb's with Hill aligned at #2, running a deeper choice route(he can run the crossing route at various depths  or sit it down. Very nice concept against combo or zone coverage.  They love it vs. Cover 2

 

Here is the mesh concept with 3 screens especially being set on 3rd and 3 vs the Texans.

Again Motion tells them the coverage.  Texans travel and it's man free. Tough for the cb with 3 screens.

6. If all the above isn't enough they can beat you with the rpo game, both inside and off wide zone.

Here is off an inside type run.

How do you defend it. (See my Bradley and Belichick vs Reid posts)

1. Decide different ways to try to double Kelce and Hill. Play Hill man on the outside and you can get away with no help but you need to find ways to get double coverage on hill when he is inside and Kelce as much as possible. 

2. Collision and disrupt guys off the line of scrimmage. Need to sometimes give up pass rush but cause issues underneath. 

See my earlier posts but one way is to really collision the underneath routes and not let them get off the line. The Patriots did a great job with some of their concepts. Get hands on the underneath stuff.

Here is the collision concept but also they matched it and put their best db on Hill. Gilmour was on him.

Here is the outside zone rpo where #3 runs the out cut and #2 runs the quick slant. Good route concept and again the Chiefs motions pre snap and knew it was man so they attacked leverage. 

Great route vs outside man

I have more coverage on my other posts but I hope you enjoyed some insight to how the Chiefs offense works and some of the concepts they will use.

The Bills passing game and the evolution of Josh Allen.

 Last year, their was questions about Josh Allen and his ability to lead the Bills to a championship season.Those questions have been answered as Josh Allen has excelled this year. 

His quarterback stats are as follows:

rating is a 3rd in the NFL at 82 and he is 3rd in the NFL in passing yards. Pretty impressive numbers if you ask me. 

Why?

1. The addition of Stefon Diggs has been pivotal. They have a great relationship and Diggs is a great route runner and man beater. He torched the Pats on a few man concepts and really has become the guy in Buffalo. 344 yards passing against the Patriots is pretty good.

2. Allen has really learned to take what is given to him. He no longer tries to force those long downfield throws and takes the check downs given to him. Thank you Cole Beasley. Cole Beasley commands a ton of attention underneath which opens the middle of the field up.

Here's an example of this. Ravens in man with a rat defender underneath. A nice 14 yard gain on 1st and 10.

3. His mechanics have really improved and he is throwing the ball with more accuracy on the intermediate routes outside the hashmarks. That was a major weakness for Allen in years past. 

4. Brian Daboll is an excellent offensive coordinator and really knows how to call a game.  The Bills run great rub, mesh routes at various depths which makes it really difficult to play them in man. He's one step ahead with deep crossers (great against teams that pass off the crossers) and give Allen flexibility with really good multi purpose routes. 

5. The pass protection has been excellent this year. Really some clean pockets and time to throw has really been exceptional by the bills. They've only given up 27 sacks. The improvement in this unit has been impressive.

vs the Patriots-week 16

Patriots go man free and Jackson expects help on the deep crosser. Great route design running the mesh route deep at 10-12 yards against the Patriots who like to pass things off in man.

After the 17 yard gain, the Bills go play action on the next play. See the video below as Diggs does a great job getting separation right off the onset of the route. 

Here's 2 clips of the above concepts(great man beaters)

Another great design by Daboll, but Allen reads man coverage and knows where he is going with the football. Great rub route on the outside at depth.  #1 runs the slant off #2 pick route. 

Easy catch and throw. 10 yard gain on 2nd and 5.

Here's  a good cover 2 route where they high low the lb. Allen high lows the lb and throws a strike for 17 yards. Great play design. Had an underneath route vs man but reads cover 2 and runs his progression curl to crosser. 

Motion presnap tells him its zone coverage. Tells him he's working zone side 

Allen throws a strike for a great 17 yard gain. 

These are just some of the reasons he is successful. More analysis to follow as Allen is a top qb in the league.

Vs the 49ers-week 13

The impressive thing about this game is the Bills took what they did to the 49ers.  Allen was 32/40 for 375 yards and 4 ads against a very good defense. They really were in attack mode and did a great job with the vertical passing game. 

Cole Beasley was    9/130 

Stefon Diggs was    10/92 

Gabriel Davis was 3/68. 

Allen was patient and took what the defense gave him. He didn't force the issue and did some good things in this game.

#1 he made a few plays with his legs. But rather than run like games past he rolls stays behind the los and he completes 2 passes for 47 yards in a row early in the game. 

On a 1st and 10, you'll se a great seem route vs c3 and Allen gets a clean pocket. This allows him to throw a bullet to Beasley as the 49ers are in 3 and don't carry 2 vertical. Nice 30 yard gain. 

On 1st and 10 here they run the in clear concept with #1 and 2. They run #2 off and #1 behind it with a nice dig concept. Good cover 4 beater. The accuracy of this ball was a really great throw.

On a 2nd and 9 the 49ers go man free and the Bills run a great pick rub route for the man in motion who runs a wheel. Diggs sets a great pick and the  motion man is wide open. Nice design and execution.

Late in Half,  Daboll has full confidence in Allen. The next 3 clips shows a big drive before the half to put the Bills up 27-17. They started at their own 25 with 26 seconds to go. They go 3 plays ,56 yards to set up a field goal to go up 17-7 before the half. Big trust factor and execution by an excellent qb. Big series below.

Heres some more clips  vs the Broncos.

1st example, look how Allen just reads his progressions in man coverage. He looks for the dover but that is covered and he works the comeback route with Diggs. Watch how he sees the deep over covered by the safety robbing and lurking from the weakside. He doesn't panic and works the other side of the field to the comebback.

In the  clip below Allen does a great job reading cover 2, freezing the safety to the right with his eyes and holding the safety on the #1 wr before  throwing a laser for a td pass to #3 on the vertical.

 

Heres another example of Josh Allen standing in the pocket, not getting raddled and throwing a strike to Diggs. 

Broncos run a cross dog man free with the 2 ilb blitzing and the olb picking up the rb to the flat. Man free coverage with a 5 man pressure.

Here are the 3 clips mentioned above:

Here are just a few more examples of how much Allen has improved this year. Really great to see much he has evolved into an elite qb.