Rodger's Giant Interception

[pbmax]

Once in a while, I get it right:

Expectation for nearly flawless football not a problem, players say
By Tyler Dunne of the Journal Sentinel
Dec 7, 2011

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/packers/packer-offense-embraces-high-standards-0l3brpi-135223453.html

Green Bay - No way his quarterback was at fault. Not a chance. Not the Aaron Rodgers he knows.

"You saw the interception against the Giants," Green Bay Packers tight end Jermichael Finley said. "He was out of place. Guaranteed. No. 93 was out of place."

Not quite, but close. Explaining the play with a chemist's detail, Rodgers admits he never saw Chase Blackburn. He expected the linebacker to trail Randall Cobb down the middle of the field - the New York Giants were in "Tampa-2." Instead, Cobb flattened out his angle. Rodgers should have checked down. Interception.

My only concern is that Rodgers never looked at the LB because he thought he know where he would go. So if you wanted to play all out against Rodgers, you would start by trying to confound his expectations like Rex Ryan did last year versus the Patriots. It presents an angle of attack.

But I love stuff like this. Which would make this a good time to mention he does at least two of these X and O segments on his weekly radio show. They put it on iTunes but its broadcast by ESPN540 in Milwaukee. This is not a paid promotional post.

[vince]

Cobb did flatten out the route, but he was still wide open and should have been the target on that play. It was the play action which took Rodgers' ability to read the defense's actual reaction vs. what they were supposed to do away. Even if the Mike does go deep middle, it's still a mismatch for Cobb and Rodgers didn't look to what I'd think would have been his primary read on that play.

Here's the play.

http://www.nfl.com/videos/green-bay-packers/09000d5d824bd32a/Giants-defense-INT

[pbmax]

Cobb did flatten out the route, but he was still wide open and should have been the target on that play. It was the play action which took Rodgers' ability to read the defense's actual reaction vs. what they were supposed to do away. Even if the Mike does go deep middle, it's still a mismatch for Cobb and Rodgers didn't look to what I'd think would have been his primary read on that play.

Here's the play.
http://www.nfl.com/videos/green-bay-...ts-defense-INT

That is the interesting question and probably the one he cannot answer. What was the progression supposed to be?

[vince]

That is the interesting question and probably the one he cannot answer. What was the progression supposed to be?

Yeah. I'd like to think the most explosive opportunity (down the middle one-on-one with no help over the Mike) would be the first read but that's not necessarily the case. It's probably not the highest percentage pass on paper anyway, but Rodgers has had some success with it, particularly with Jennings and Finley. Not so much yet with Cobb in that situation.

[hoosier]

Kevin Seifert has a piece on this same play. Seifert's theme is that Blackburn screwed up his assignment and that sometimes rookie mistakes win out over savvy vets. He even includes a funny anecdote about BJ Surhoff getting fooled by a bases-loaded 3-2 changeup from a rookie pitcher.

For what it is worth, Seifert does make it sound like Jennings would have been the first and best option given the coverage the Giants were showing.

http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/49720/rodgerswatch-anatomy-of-an-interception

I was a baseball beat writer many ages ago and, recently, I was reminded of a story that applies to a rare occurrence we saw last weekend in the NFC North.

In a late 1990s game, then-Baltimore Orioles left fielder B.J. Surhoff came to bat with the bases loaded. He was facing a young, hard-throwing relief pitcher whose name I have long since forgotten. The pitcher couldn't throw strikes and quickly fell behind. Facing a full count, the pitcher was one ball away from walking in a run.

Everyone in the ballpark figured the next pitch would be a fastball, a pitcher's best chance for throwing a strike or getting contact or somehow avoiding a walk. Surhoff was sitting dead red, as the seamheads like to call it, and almost fell down while swinging early on an improbable change-up.

Furious, Surhoff stormed into the Orioles dugout. As then-manager Ray Miller told us later, Surhoff yelled to the pitcher: "Learn how to play the game!"

Yes, sometimes ignorance beats veteran smarts.

[George Cumby]

Once in a while, I get it right:

Yeah, you nailed it.

In the GDT, your comment was "Rodgers didn't see the LB".

Impressive.

[sharpe1027]

My only concern is that Rodgers never looked at the LB because he thought he know where he would go. So if you wanted to play all out against Rodgers, you would start by trying to confound his expectations like Rex Ryan did last year versus the Patriots. It presents an angle of attack.

I think that is generally what every defensive coordinator tries to do for every game regardless of the QB. The problem is that Rodgers generally stayed one step ahead, or he has been accurate enough that it doesn't matter what the defense was doing.

[hoosier]

I think that is generally what every defensive coordinator tries to do for every game regardless of the QB. The problem is that Rodgers generally stayed one step ahead, or he has been accurate enough that it doesn't matter what the defense was doing.

Not exactly. It's more like Blackburn and the Giants were very lucky they didn't give up a huge play. If you buy Rodgers's public account of what happened, he saw that the Giants were playing cover 2 and so he "knew" the middle linebacker would be getting a deep drop with responsibility for the slot receiver (Cobb). That would have left Jennings open on his slant or whatever he was running. Problem is, the rookie ML blew his coverage (or somehow read Rodgers's mind and jumped the flanker's route) and turned out to be where Rodgers didn't expect him to be. The point is, when a defense plays cover 2 the middle linebacker has responsibility for the intermediate middle. If Rodgers had seen what Blackburn was doing (for instance, if they had called a pass with no play fake), he would also have seen Cobb running free down the seam. It is very unlikely that a professional defensive coordinator would have intentionally risked giving up a long touchdown on the unlikely chance that the opposing QB decides to throw a blind pass on that particular play. The Giants caught lightning in a bottle on that play.

[Upnorth]

Isn't this play similar to what Urlacher did to Arod last time we played the bears? Different route he cutoff but same disguise defense, and same window (could have taken a checkdown but pushed it upfield instead).

[Noodle]

Good observation about the possible effect of play action -- that is the big drawback, the QB's has to turn his back to fake the handoff and loses an opportunity to scan downfield.

One thing I don't want to see happen with A-Rod is blaming his mistakes on the mistakes of his teammates (which I know this post is not doing). This "blame the receiver" thing was particularly rampant with his predecessor, who was never at fault for a pick according to some. I got a whiff of that with all the complaining about drops in the Giants game. Yes, there were a few drops, but there were also a number of poor throws that didn't give his receivers much chance.

And I was a little disappointed in A-Rod for not acknowledging his own failings when he was asked about whether he was frustrated with the drops. He should have said, "yeah, sure, but I'm also disappointed that I didn't throw the ball better today, and that's what I'm going to focus on."

[hoosier]

In the Seifert article he is quoting as acknowledging that he committed the cardinal sin of QBing: throwing the no-look pass.

[ThunderDan]

Not exactly. It's more like Blackburn and the Giants were very lucky they didn't give up a huge play. If you buy Rodgers's public account of what happened, he saw that the Giants were playing cover 2 and so he "knew" the middle linebacker would be getting a deep drop with responsibility for the slot receiver (Cobb). That would have left Jennings open on his slant or whatever he was running. Problem is, the rookie ML blew his coverage (or somehow read Rodgers's mind and jumped the flanker's route) and turned out to be where Rodgers didn't expect him to be. The point is, when a defense plays cover 2 the middle linebacker has responsibility for the intermediate middle. If Rodgers had seen what Blackburn was doing (for instance, if they had called a pass with no play fake), he would also have seen Cobb running free down the seam. It is very unlikely that a professional defensive coordinator would have intentionally risked giving up a long touchdown on the unlikely chance that the opposing QB decides to throw a blind pass on that particular play. The Giants caught lightning in a bottle on that play.

Isn't that what Jarrett Bush did to Rothleisberger in the Super Bowl?

[George Cumby]

Isn't this play similar to what Urlacher did to Arod last time we played the bears? Different route he cutoff but same disguise defense, and same window (could have taken a checkdown but pushed it upfield instead).

My recollection was that Finley ran the wrong route on that one. I specifically remember Jennings and Finley having a fairly heated discussion on the sidelines immediately after the play.

[Upnorth]

So i went and looked at it (talk about picking at a scab) on nfl.com again and I was wrong, Finley was inside, Nelson was outside. Urlacher jumped the route, but did hide then jump like the Giants defender did. Route tree was completley different, but LB play was similar.

[sharpe1027]

Not exactly. It's more like Blackburn and the Giants were very lucky they didn't give up a huge play. If you buy Rodgers's public account of what happened, he saw that the Giants were playing cover 2 and so he "knew" the middle linebacker would be getting a deep drop with responsibility for the slot receiver (Cobb). That would have left Jennings open on his slant or whatever he was running. Problem is, the rookie ML blew his coverage (or somehow read Rodgers's mind and jumped the flanker's route) and turned out to be where Rodgers didn't expect him to be. The point is, when a defense plays cover 2 the middle linebacker has responsibility for the intermediate middle. If Rodgers had seen what Blackburn was doing (for instance, if they had called a pass with no play fake), he would also have seen Cobb running free down the seam. It is very unlikely that a professional defensive coordinator would have intentionally risked giving up a long touchdown on the unlikely chance that the opposing QB decides to throw a blind pass on that particular play. The Giants caught lightning in a bottle on that play.

I agree that on that play particular play, it may not have been intentional, but that wasn't my point. Defensive coordinators generally try to confuse the QBs by doing something different/unexpected. Capers does it more than many.

BF-OBOALOO, the play doesn't seem to give much of a way to attack Rodgers and the Packer's offense.