https://x.com/PoolPartyGaming/status...391376137?s=20

KY, do check the above link out because it shows alignment and post snap action so much clearer than the TV copy. There is absolutely no way to see the play using that. The all 11 is better, but what I linked here is the clearest way to see what happened.



KY, in cover 3, correct me if I’m wrong, but the above image is how it would have been played with the safety rotation. The only difference is we had Campbell blitzing so savage would have been playing both hooks.

Nixon as nickle was a linebacker type. He was covering the curl/flat on the offenses left. Quay was the other linebacker covering the curl flat on the offenses right. Savage was crashing down to cover both hooks. That seems like the only reasonable way to define how 3 guys were covering the 5 shallow zones in a cover 3 look.


Once you blitzed Cambell, you’re leaving everyone else in a really tough spot to cover the shallow part of the field. I don’t know why you’d call zone here. You have a nickle. In man defense you have corners and a safety (savage) on receivers with quay on the back. It’s so much simpler to be in soft man and tell your linebacker types that they can break on inside routes because they have a safety over the top than to play an undermanned zone and leave all sorts of uncertainty on how to cover the curl flats.

Whether it’s man or zone you’re short handed and have to play soft or it’s really easy to get killed. I just don’t see any advantage to making this a zone coverage. I suppose there’s no way to know if the corners were playing deep 1/3s or man because no one threatened the outside 1/3s, but it looks a lot easier to execute soft man defense here.

Whichever way it was called, savage crashing helped the run defense be aggressive and was an element of surprise in the passing game. I was sure it was man, but trying to see it the way you’re describing, I guess there’s no way to know. I don’t know how you could know which one it was any more than I do??