Stampede Blue
The Colts can’t stop winning and won’t stop scoring. Even if you were quite optimistic about this team, like myself, there’s just no way you could have predicted this type of start. Let’s breakdown some of the key plays that led to Sunday’s dominant win.
Let’s start with this video game-ish run from Jonathan Taylor. Shane Steichen talked about this play at his press conference, but this is old school Iso.
This isn’t a creative play, this is a “let’s line up and play football” play. It’s as simple of a scheme as there is. But when you feel like you’re tougher, stronger, and more dominant at the Line of Scrimmage…. this is what you get.
Iso is a 2-back downhill man-scheme run. The OL is Big on Big and the FB will block the Mike linebacker.
In this case the OL is Big on Big to the Will LB. The SAM is on the line of scrimmage so the TE has him man-on. FB Tyler Warren has the Mike man on. The RB just follows the lead blocker to daylight.
The blocking get’s JT up on the safety, and that’s about where the play should probably be dead. Well, Jonathan Taylor makes an incredible cut, then a spin move, then high steps a third tackler…. just unfair.
The Pittman touchdown was one of my favorite plays of the game. It was so simple, yet so effective. The Titans in the high Red Zone (different teams have different definitions but let’s call it +20 to the +15) love to play Tampa 2 defense.
What is Tampa 2? In it’s simplest form, Tampa 2 is a way to “close the post” in Cover 2, which is the coverage’s most vulnerable area. The Mike LB will become a “middle runner’ and his job to open his hips to the passing strength of the formation and look to match any vertical route.
The downside to this defense? The Mike LB can’t make a play on any in-cut coming from the weak side of the formation because his hips are turned the wrong way.
So the Colts create a hi-lo on the LB to the boundary. He has to match Warren, so the Colts have the perfect opportunity to sneak a glance behind him and away from the middle runner.
It was a perfect call in that situation.
The Colts had multiple “throwback” style passes last week which I thought was interesting. A throwback pass is a movement style pass where the QB will setup outside the pocket and throw across the formation in the opposite direction from where he setup from.
I’ve heard this route called a bunch of different things, but let’s just call this a “nod post” route from Josh Downs. The Colts get a premiere look on this play. In single high coverage, the slot defender will always carry routes from outside leverage to maintain the structure of the coverage. On a normal post route, a nickel is fine playing...
