Ifs, whiffs, and gifs.

I want to highlight the ugly first. On third and four, with a blitz there is one hot route. And it is outside the numbers. Every other route is far beyond the 4 yards needed for a first down, not to mention covered. Was Lockette supposed to do something more helpful than he did? I dunno. But an awful play call for beating a blitz.


The bad. Wilson rabbits with an open receiver, and likely a very good gain. The lineslide turns out to be a very bad guess on the playcall, but with a little anticipation by Russ this is an easy pass and catch.


The good. I would still like that ball out just a bit quicker, but Russ used his pocket and made a nice gain out of it.



And what was most definitely the dumbest play call of the day. Seattle goes big, to sell play action with 8 seconds left in the first half. A run carries the risk of taking most of the clock, so I am thinking great, this is a pass to Jimmy or some cool shit like that.

But nope, it was a real play action play. Which wastes scarce time. It gets worse, it was a designed rollout after a half ass play fake, which also wastes time. It gets worser. Jimmy is actually being used as a blocker in a situation seeming made for his skillsets catching the ball. It gets worse, by the time he whiffs, big surprise, he turns to become a pass catcher. in the field of play, not the endzone.

The Rams were never going to bite on that play action, not with 8 seconds left, and nothing about that play fooled them. Not the jumbo set, not the completely uncalled for play action fake, and not shrinking the field by 2/3 with a rollout. THe last play of the game didn't really bother me, at least Bevell died with the horse that brung him on that play. But this play, before the half? it stinks.

Those plays where Russell put some mustard on passes to Graham are ones I would like to see more of. Graham actually has good hands and I think Russell has been unable to hit some of those passing lanes in the past because of the receivers he has had to work with. Seems like those types of throws with some force are usually drops in the past.

Thanks for the gifs, those were helpful to see.

Thanks Scotte , nice job. There was alot of ugly in that game.

More proof that Bevell should be in Cleveland.

Awesome notes. Couple questions, since I don't know this and you will:

Play 1: Why not get the ball to Baldwin on the left whose defender has been picked on the rub by Lockett? Of course, Wilson picks Lynch as his first read, so that makes it impossible, but if he had started at the other direction, seems like it's possible for a big gain. Not enough time for that to develop?

Last play: Could it be that the intention was to draw the DB off Baldwin in the corner toward Lynch and then throw it to him in the endzone? When I first saw this, I wondered why he didn't throw it earlier to Lynch but then wondered if Lynch was a decoy until the play didn't develop as they hoped. Not sure Baldwin is the best target for that in any event.

THis play was always going at Bailey. It was an Iso, and the ball is actually out before he falls.

I thought a worse play by Cary Williams was this one. The first one was a physical mistake, this play he doesn't appear to know what he is doing.

Bigpumpkin":9u54w5x7 said:

Sooooo....I hear you calling for Bevell's head?

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Bevell has called good games in the past. He can call them again. I do think his route trees are rubbish, though. I will post a contrasting play from the Rams in a bit that is a cool 3 man route combo, something you rarely see from Seattle.

DavidSeven":3kx1nkd6 said:

Awesome notes. Couple questions, since I don't know this and you will:

Play 1: Why not get the ball to Baldwin on the left whose defender has been picked on the rub by Lockett? Of course, Wilson picks Lynch as his first read, so that makes it impossible, but if he had started at the other direction, seems like it's possible for a big gain. Not enough time for that to develop?

Last play: Could it be that the intention was to draw the DB off Baldwin in the corner toward Lynch and then throw it to him in the endzone? When I first saw this, I wondered why he didn't throw it earlier to Lynch but then wondered if Lynch was a decoy until the play didn't develop as they hoped. Not sure Baldwin is the best target for that in any event.

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Unexplainable play action is just dumb to me, why do you want your QB looking anywhere but at his targets on a play where the D is not going to bite on PA (an I will point out that the Rams were not fooled even a bit)

I don't usually get to hung up on if the other team knew you were going to run or pass. I simply don't understand making the play harder than it has to be, especially given the clock and location.

Awesome post and thread. Thanks Scotte. On the first video highlight it seems that Russell didn't even look to the other side of the field. He targeted Lynch from the get go and stuck with it. Isn't this the type of play many of us criticize Kaep for. I'm in no way suggesting that Wilson is consistently playing like Kaep but on that play he executed like Kaep would do.

Russell's best year was 2013, IMO. He's fallen a bit in 2014 and thus far is shaky in 2015 but the season has just started so there's time. I hope he gets back to his play in 2013. He just seems a bit distracted the past couple of years. It's all fixable and I'm sure he will work to improve and fix it.

hawkfan68":9ydwda7l said:

Awesome post and thread. Thanks Scotte. On the first video highlight it seems that Russell didn't even look to the other side of the field. He targeted Lynch from the get go and stuck with it.

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More I look at it, the more I think the ugliness of that 1st play is on Wilson. I just don't think Lynch is the correct pre-snap read, as you said. No threat to go deep, so the DB isn't going to play off. He'll play close and try to jump it, which he does.

The other side looks more favorable pre-snap, and Lockett gets the CB off Baldwin with the rub. I think they ran something similar to this against the blitz in the New Orleans playoff game (play where Baldwin gets his helmet ripped off while falling out of bounds).

I highlight this play for a few reasons. Foles took a shot, but delivered.

But i also want to contrast what a 3 wr combo can do for a QB. First, Foles gets to watch 3 routes develop at once. Add play action and freeze the linebacker, and now that 3 man combo is even better.
Except Seattle rarely runs these types of route. we might see a rub, or a play like the one to Baldwin for 35 yards in the NFCCG that was a two man combo, but we don't see stuff like this. Contrast this with the route combos you see in the first GIF i posted. And now you see why some good football minds have called our offense simplistic. Which is fine, when it works.

But wouldn't you prefer your QB get the luxury of reading the routes of 3 WRs without changing his field of vision? Contrast that with the gif of WIlson's interception, where he had pretty much 5 individual targets all across the field, behind a line that is so very unlikely to give him time for more than one read.

If you see 3 WRs together in Seattle, it is probably a bubble screen.

On the PA roll out at the goal line (remind me where we were at with time outs at that point?), imagine if Russ hits Marshawn right away and gives him some room to run with a full head of steam instead of making him tip toe to stay in bounds. That's a likely TD there IMO.

Oh and thanks for posting these, Scott.

Scotte, do you have an idea what the break down of assignments were on the wide open pass play to Cook?

It seemed pre-snap, Bailey and Irvin were handling the two tight ends on the strong side and that Cary Williams and KJ Wright were covering Tavon Austin. Is that right?

After Cook motioned across the formation was Bailey supposed to follow him and Bruce stayed with the inline TE 1-on-1 or could it have been that Bailey and Cary were supposed to switch assignments?

Pete said he though Cary had a great game, so that tells me it probably was on Bailey to follow Cook.

Also, the first play with Lockette's and Graham's route converging into each other is just rubbish play design (unless Graham took it too deep or Lockette to shallow).

Was number 1 supposed to be a screen? The line lets every one through and the receivers for the most part just trot their routes. It looks like maybe Jimmy and Lockette run routes into each other?

DavidSeven":1f0avzvg said:

hawkfan68":1f0avzvg said:

Awesome post and thread. Thanks Scotte. On the first video highlight it seems that Russell didn't even look to the other side of the field. He targeted Lynch from the get go and stuck with it.

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More I look at it, the more I think the ugliness of that 1st play is on Wilson. I just don't think Lynch is the correct pre-snap read, as you said. No threat to go deep, so the DB isn't going to play off. He'll play close and try to jump it, which he does.

The other side looks more favorable pre-snap, and Lockett gets the CB off Baldwin with the rub. I think they ran something similar to this against the blitz in the New Orleans playoff game (play where Baldwin gets his helmet ripped off while falling out of bounds).

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What I really hate about the play call is that they only need 4 yards, and the rams show blitz, but the only short route is the one to Lynch, outside the numbers. Why no hot route when the Rams didn't hide that they were blitzing? No hot route isn't on Russ.

Zebulon Dak":2umskrwc said:

On the PA roll out at the goal line (remind me where we were at with time outs at that point?), imagine if Russ hits Marshawn right away and gives him some room to run with a full head of steam instead of making him tip toe to stay in bounds. That's a likely TD there IMO.

Oh and thanks for posting these, Scott.

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We had one timeout at the time. But 8 seconds. Which is so much why I hated the play call, a handoff fake and rollout eat valuable seconds, not to mention have your QB take his eyes off what the D is doing. If Russ had thrown that to the back of the endzone, the clock might have run out. As it was, we had 2 seconds left. I would have actully preferred a run, I think that would have surprised the hell out of the Rams. Even with the big set on the field.

I still can't believe a play was called that had Jimmy blocking in that situation. The one guy who is technically always more open than any other player on the team was not in the endzone.

brimsalabim":34glj3yk said:

Was number 1 supposed to be a screen? The line lets every one through and the receivers for the most part just trot their routes. It looks like maybe Jimmy and Lockette run routes into each other?

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A screen would be pretty unlikely, it was an empty backfield.
It was a good defensive call. Threaten a 6 man blitz, have Aaron Donald zone drop into the middle and send 5, 4 of them pretty much on the one side, and you get a numbers mismatch in your blitz.

I just can't fathom why Lockette isn't running a 4 yard hitch right behind the blitz.

Recon_Hawk":2grhwk9v said:

Scotte, do you have an idea what the break down of assignments were on the wide open pass play to Cook?

It seemed pre-snap, Bailey and Irvin were handling the two tight ends on the strong side and that Cary Williams and KJ Wright were covering Tavon Austin. Is that right?

After Cook motioned across the formation was Bailey supposed to follow him and Bruce stayed with the inline TE 1-on-1 or could it have been that Bailey and Cary were supposed to switch assignments?

Pete said he though Cary had a great game, so that tells me it probably was on Bailey to follow Cook.

Also, the first play with Lockette's and Graham's route converging into each other is just rubbish play design (unless Graham took it too deep or Lockette to shallow).

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If nobody followed him on the motion, it was a zone, and Foles probably knew where he was going before the snap. I assumed Wagner had Cook, but I can't say for sure who screwed up. I do love that play design though. In fact, up the page on one of the bailey screwups they run another nice 3 man combo route that messes up the zone on the right side.

Our run blocking is iffy at the first level, but is very good at the 2nd and 3rd levels. I would have been just fine with Bevell calling a run on the last play before halftime. 7 yards is a long way to go, but with the first level selling out in the pass rush and probably two of the 2nd level guys being blocked, you're probably looking at a safety having to drop Lynch at the 2 yard line in open space when Lynch has a head of steam. Not saying it's a sure TD, but it's the kind of play Lynch scores on all the time in normal game situations.