Tag Archives: Cover 1

Key Plays from Week 6: New England v. Kansas City

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Week 6’s Sunday Night Football matchup between the Chiefs and Patriots featured one of the highest scoring games of the season. It also gave defensive coordinators some film of Patrick Mahomes not being Superman, with the Patriots taking a 24-9 lead into half after 2 Mahomes’ interceptions. Let’s take a deeper dive into some of the key plays from the game.

  1. Game situation: 1st Quarter, 5:23, 1st & 10 at KC23, 3-3

After tight end Demetrius Harris (#84) motions to the left side of the formation, the Chiefs are running the following route combination with play action:

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Week 3 X’s & O’s Concept Review

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Week 3 Film Study–An X’s & O’s look at a couple big plays from the past week in the NFL:

Eagles Hi-Lo Concept with RB Wheel

The Eagles got there first win of the season on Sunday with some help from the Hi-Lo concept. The Hi-Lo concept is a man coverage beater which involves an underneath “mesh” (crossers), with a curl route over the mesh. Chip Kelly adds a wheel route from the Running Back for two reasons: to clear out Linebackers from the middle of the field, and to potentially hit a big play if the Linebacker can’t cover the RB up the sideline. Below, the Jets are in a Cover 1 scheme with Man-to-Man across the board except for a “Centerfield” Safety in the middle of the field:

Hi-Lo

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Devin McCourty’s Impact at Free Safety: Awareness, Range, Versatility

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With the news that Devin McCourty will be back with the Patriots on a long-term deal, let’s take a deeper look into the X’s and O’s of his game. There are three reasons why he was one of the top Free Safeties on the market: Awareness, Range, and Versatility.

Awareness

Devin McCourty made one of the best plays of the year from the Free Safety position during the 3rd Quarter of the 2014 divisional round due to his awareness and play recognition skills. On the first drive of the game, the Patriots gave up a big gain on this pass play:

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