Silver And Black Pride
Defense wasn’t the Las Vegas Raiders’ biggest problem in the Week 2 20-9 loss on Monday Night Football against the Los Angeles Chargers. However, Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert did manage to complete over 70 percent of his passing attempts (19/27) for 242 yards and two touchdowns, while the Raiders earned an ugly 43.4 coverage grade from Pro Football Focus.
While Herbert didn’t have many highlight throws, attempting just three passes 20 or more yards down the field and four in the 10-19 yard range, per PFF, he seemed to have an answer for everything that Las Vegas’ defensive coordinator Patrick Graham was throwing at him.
How did that happen? Let’s flip on the tape and take a look.
Herbert catches the Raiders in Cover 3 here, and the Chargers have a good playcall for the coverage.
Ladd McConkey (No. 15 at the bottom of the screen) motions into a bunch formation with Quentin Johnston (No. 1) as the receivers switch release post-snap, meaning McConkey goes inside off the line of scrimmage and Johnson goes outside. Then, Johnston runs a deep corner route and since Las Vegas is playing Cover 3, cornerback Eric Stokes has to carry Johnston down the field.
But one of the big problems here is that safety Isaiah Pola-Mao is favoring the single-receiver side of the formation for some reason. Against a three-by-one set, the corner across from the single receiver is locked in man coverage, which Kyu Blu Kelly (top of the screen) does here by lining up in press coverage with eyes on his man post-snap. The reason for that is so the safety can cheat to the passing strength pre-snap, but Pola-Mao is doing the opposite.
That becomes significant because the safety can’t help on the deep route since he’s lined up on the opposite hash mark, forcing Stokes to carry Johnston down the field. As a result, the corner is put into conflict and can’t get to the out route from McConkey, allowing an easy pitch and catch for a 25-yard gain.
ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky did a good job pointing out the play above on the broadcast, as the Raiders get caught in Cover 3 again.
Despite the Chargers being a three-by-one formation, Kelly is just covering the deep third of the field this time instead of being locked in man coverage. So, when Johnston starts driving toward the middle of the field on what looks like a deep over route initially, Kelly tries to pass the receiver off to Pola-Mao — who cheats to the three receiver side post-snap this time — and pick up McConkey on the crossing route.
However, Johnston runs a pylon route instead of the deep over, reversing toward the sideline rather than continuing his route across the field. With Pola-Mao moving toward the other side of the field and Kelly no longer working for depth to pick up McConkey, Johnston has a lot of open space to work with and Herbert lets it rip for a 60-yard...
