Grading Brissett Week 3 (and other game notes)

[VeveJones007]

I reviewed the All 22 today and came away quite impressed with the offense. I'll add links to images from the All 22 tomorrow, but my notes are below.

Overall, Brissett played very well (I only counted 3 throws off target and 1 potential misread), but I came away even more impressed with Reich and the pass protection. Reich called a brilliant game, taking what Atlanta gave them and using their aggressiveness against the run to the Colts advantage in the passing game. After an average to below average effort last week, the pass protection was very good this week. There were less than a handful of plays where Brissett was really pressured, and in most cases, he had a clean pocket to climb.

Grade: A-

Notes by Drive:


1st Drive:
1Q: 1st & 10 IND 36
12 Personnel
PA Fake Off tackle L
Cover 3

Grady Jarrett beats Glowinski badly, otherwise Brissett could’ve had Doyle for about 25 yards on the deep corner (picture below). Instead, Brissett evades Jarrett and has to hit Mack in the flat. Still a solid gain of 9, but Glowinski cost them a chunk play. Colts end up settling for a FG after a screen on 3rd and long falls short, but I think the Falcons tipped their hand that they’d be going heavy to stop the run. That set up Reich on the next few drives.




2nd Drive (1st Quarter):
1Q: 1st & 10 IND 27
12 Personnel
Brissett does a good job identifying the Cover-1 man coverage, which leaves Hilton 1-on-1 outside. Big gain on the back shoulder throw. A lot of protection here, as Mack and Allie-Cox help chip on the outside, but the interior gives Brissett a great pocket to step up into. Ryan Kelly comes in to help Glowinski and absolutely demolishes the DT. Drive ends with the great play design of the fake screen/scat option to Hines and the wide open Pascal for a TD.


3rd Drive (2nd Quarter):
Reich really picked on Deion Jones on the 3rd drive. 1st play, he gets a 1-on-1 with Doyle and gets burned badly. 2nd play is an RPO where Jones bites on the run and Brissett hits Campbell for 5. Then comes the big play (picture below), as Jones bites hard on the playaction fake to Mack, leaving a huge alley for Ebron on the crossing route. 3 plays, 50 yards from the shadow of the Colts endzone. And Jones missed the tackle on the big 3rd and 12 pickup from Hines later in the drive. It’s a shame this drive only resulted in 3 points. A missed assignment from Braden Smith on the 1 hurt. Pascal tipped an easy catch for Ebron. And the Falcons held Allie-Cox on an easy TD.



4th Drive (Final 2 minutes of 1st Half):
First poor play from Brissett. 2nd & 9, he correctly reads the coverage (Cover 1) and identifies the right target (Cain back shoulder), but the throw isn’t good. Cain turned his head and had time to pick up the ball, but it was pretty badly underthrown.

3rd & 9 – Kelly gets beat badly on a stunt. Colts get bailed out by Neal losing his footing and taking down Ebron for PI. This was actually a really good job by Brissett to avoid the initial pressure and get the throw off. Lesser QBs would’ve gone down and the PI never would’ve come into play.

2nd & 10 from midfield – This is just a 10 yard catch for Cain (picture below), but I want to call it out because of two things. First, the pass protection is phenomenal. Brissett threw after 4 seconds and likely could’ve had another 2 seconds clean. Second, this is a great read from Brissett against the Falcons coverage. They drop into a Cover 2 sink, where the corner takes away the deep corner/out (to Hilton in this case). Brissett keeps his eyes on the deep routes, holding the corner, then dumps it to Cain on the shallow cross for 5 in the air and 5 YAC.



3rd & 1 ATL 31 – Heads up play to quick snap and get Jarrett called for offside before he gets to the sideline.

1st & goal ATL 4 – I hesitate to call this a misread because it may have been a designed throw to Hines in the flat, but Ebron successfully picks Hilton’s man and Hilton had an easy TD if Brissett comes back to the right (picture below). They may have called Ebron for OPI, though. The pick was pretty egregious.



2nd & goal ATL 4 – I think Reich or Sirianni saw what happened the last time on the goal line and realized they could get Hilton on a quick out if they got Brissett enough time. Solid play and really well run route from Hilton.


5th Drive (1st of 2H):
This drive came down to the OL getting beat on what was otherwise a great day from them.
1st & 10 IND 25 – Nelson got pushed back badly, which blew up an outside run for a loss of 4.
2nd & 13 IND 21 – Smith got bullrushed & Castonzo got beat around the edge. Brissett had no options and took a sack.

[VeveJones007]

6th Drive (4th Quarter):
This drive got off to a really bad start. Delay of game, followed by Brissett missing Campbell in the middle of the field.



But Brissett made a great read of a busted coverage to hit Allie-Cox for a short throw and nice YAC to pick up the 1st on the next play to get the offense back in business (picture below).



3rd & 5 IND 40 – This was one of the biggest plays of the game. Pre-snap motion from Mack told Brissett it was man coverage. Spread formation from the O and wide 9 set from the D told him the middle of the field was open. He waited to see if Cain or Rogers clearly won on their in-breaking slants. When they didn’t, Brissett took off up the middle for 7 yards and a huge 3rd down conversion.



The next two plays were two off-target throws from Brissett. First was a deep cross to Ebron in man coverage. Pass was slightly behind Ebron and allowed the defender to break it up. Second was a Cain target. Looked like Brissett rushed it due to pressure up the middle (blown block by Glowinski again).

After Rogers was held giving the Colts a first down, a couple nice playaction calls from Reich get the Colts down inside the 10 from there and Mack does all the work to get in the end zone.


7th Drive (Final Possession):
This is where Reich iced the game. Falcons loaded the box and Reich hit them with playaction on two key plays to convert on high percentage passes. It’s so nice having a coach who knows what the defense is giving him and he works it to his advantage.

The other takeaway is just how important Doyle and Allie-Cox are to this running game. We saw it last week with the long run to Wilkins, but here was another back-breaking run to the heavy TE side of the formation in 13 personnel. You only convert this play if your TEs effectively seal the defenders on the right side of the line.

[VeveJones007]

Other notes:

• Nice coverage and tackle on the kick return from Milligan
• Scouting report is clearly out that the Colts like to blitz Moore out of the slot. 3rd straight game that a team hit an easy completion in the area he vacated, one of which was an easy 1st down pickup to Sanu on 3rd and 10 in the 3rd quarter.
• Malik Hooker’s reputation probably saved the Colts in the redzone in the 2Q. Hooker bit hard on a double move from Jones, which would’ve been an easy TD. Instead, Ryan went the other way and targeted Willis (incompletion).
• Tyquan Lewis with a nice inside rush to force an incompletion and FG attempt in the 2Q.
• Pretty terrible coverage from Rock Ya-Sin on 3rd and long on ATL’s 2nd drive of the 2H (picture below).



• Ditto Wilson and Geathers on 3rd & 13 later on the same drive.



• Coverage breakdown from Wilson and Moore in the 4th quarter, followed by another play where they were in sync.

Breakdown:


Corrected Coverage on the very next play:


• A few really nice tackles in space by Kenny Moore.
• Not a chance in hell that PI call on Wilson in the 4th was a catchable ball.
• All in all, the pass rush was a major issue in the 2nd half. So often, Ryan had 4+ seconds to throw without a bit of pressure. Houston was chipped most of the game and Autry was routinely doubled. When Turay was on the field, he generated a few nice rushes. Hopefully it’s just a matter of getting his neck healed up and he’ll get more action. There were certainly some issues in coverage as well (as I noted above).

[VeveJones007]

This one deserves it's own reply.

• 2nd drive: 20 yard run from Mack. Just look at Nelson. He blocked the DL for five yards with 1 arm, then uses the other arm to block Deion Jones. Absolutely unreal strength.

[VeveJones007]

Added screenshots above and posted to the below Twitter thread.

https://twitter.com/VeveJones007/sta...382543360?s=20

[ChoppedWood]

Awesome stuff man, awesome! Thanks!

[VeveJones007]

Here’s a six minute breakdown from Baldinger. He noticed a lot of the same things, but he has accompanying video.

http://www.nfl.com/videos/baldys-bre...y-s-Breakdowns

[smitty46953]

Nice job VeveJones007 !!!

[YDFL Commish]

Originally Posted by VeveJones007

Here’s a six minute breakdown from Baldinger. He noticed a lot of the same things, but he has accompanying video.

http://www.nfl.com/videos/baldys-bre...y-s-Breakdowns

The play at 1:11, Jacoby had Cain open for a TD down the seam. Baldy missed that one.

The bright side is that Reich's play designs almost always seem to have somebody open.

[VeveJones007]

Originally Posted by YDFL Commish

The play at 1:11, Jacoby had Cain open for a TD down the seam. Baldy missed that one.

The bright side is that Reich's play designs almost always seem to have somebody open.

Disagree. The single high safety had it covered until the ball was already gone. Maybe you get a 15 yard gain, but it’s a much lower % throw when your goal is to move the sticks on 3rd down.