FOR THE THIRD week in succession, our favourite play of the NFL weekend involves the defending Super Bowl champions, the Seattle Seahawks.
Unlike the first two weeks, this play doesn’t result in a touchdown but it does see Seattle’s offensive co-ordinator Darrell Bevell return to the college football playbook to draw up a a piece of trickery that Russell Wilson was all too familiar with.
For those who didn’t see the Seahawks quarterback’s first quarter reception (not to mention first reception in the NFL), here’s how it looked on TV:
Now, there’s an argument that you shouldn’t put your franchise quarterback at risk like this but, with a slightly better pass, Wilson scores a touchdown untouched.
Pre-snap read – Offence
Personnel groupings in American football are based on the number of running backs and tight ends on the play. If we consider that 99% of the time there will be five offensive linemen and a quarterback, that leaves five available positions.
Therefore, each personnel grouping is named after two numbers, the first being the number of running backs on the play, the second the number of tight ends.
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So groupings can be anywhere from 00 (0 running backs, 0 tight ends and 5 wide receivers) to 23 (2 running backs, 3 tight ends and 0 wide receivers).
On this play, it looks as if the Seahawks are going to run the 02 personnel grouping but, just before the snap, Marshawn Lynch takes his place in the backfield to revert to the 12 personnel grouping, as you’ll see below.
That means there is one running back (orange) and two tight ends (green and yellow) as well as two wide receivers (blue and red).
After Lynch drops in behind Wilson, this is pretty much a dressing up of the Ace/12 scheme, a staple of the Seahawks’ zone-read packaged plays that we touched on in week one.
Pre-snap read – defence
The Denver are in one of the first defensive schemes you learn as a football player, Cover 1. This means one defender – in this case free safety Rahim Moore (purple) is in zone coverage while the rest are in man-to-man.
The Seahawks have tested this coverage, and know exactly what it is, by moving Lynch behind Wilson and seeing that the middle linebacker Nate Irving (black) has followed him.
At the snap
An awful lot happens when the ball is snapped but all of it is designed into convincing the Denver defence into thinking that Jermaine Kerse (blue) is running an end-around.
This is a play where a wide receiver crosses the backfield towards the opposite end of the offensive line and takes the hand-off from the quarterback and runs towards the line of scrimmage like a running back would.
It’s a play the Seahawks ran during the Super Bowl against the Broncos when Percy Harvin made 30 yards on their second play from scrimmage and is really sold by every blocker blocking to their left and setting an edge to make it look as if a run play is going to their outside.
What happens next?
Three things really. First off there’s some great blocking on the left side of the offensive line (yellow) by James Carpenter (77) and Max Unger (60) to make sure Sylvester Williams (92) can’t get near Russell Wilson.
I don’t know the assignments but I assume it was Chris Harris (25) who had man coverage on Kearse. After the receiver drops into the backfield, Harris follows TJ Ward (43) in tracking Zach Miller (86) off the line of scrimmage (red).
Finally, with Rahim Moore (blue) taking a step to his left to defend against the end-around, it leaves one entire side of the field for Wilson to run into. Had Kearse’s pass been slightly better, the play could easily have resulted in a touchdown.
Notes
This play is one Russell Wilson knows very well having scored this touchdown in college on an almost identical one.
Coaches Film: How Russell Wilson went back to college on that trick play
FOR THE THIRD week in succession, our favourite play of the NFL weekend involves the defending Super Bowl champions, the Seattle Seahawks.
Unlike the first two weeks, this play doesn’t result in a touchdown but it does see Seattle’s offensive co-ordinator Darrell Bevell return to the college football playbook to draw up a a piece of trickery that Russell Wilson was all too familiar with.
For those who didn’t see the Seahawks quarterback’s first quarter reception (not to mention first reception in the NFL), here’s how it looked on TV:
Now, there’s an argument that you shouldn’t put your franchise quarterback at risk like this but, with a slightly better pass, Wilson scores a touchdown untouched.
Pre-snap read – Offence
Personnel groupings in American football are based on the number of running backs and tight ends on the play. If we consider that 99% of the time there will be five offensive linemen and a quarterback, that leaves five available positions.
Therefore, each personnel grouping is named after two numbers, the first being the number of running backs on the play, the second the number of tight ends.
So groupings can be anywhere from 00 (0 running backs, 0 tight ends and 5 wide receivers) to 23 (2 running backs, 3 tight ends and 0 wide receivers).
On this play, it looks as if the Seahawks are going to run the 02 personnel grouping but, just before the snap, Marshawn Lynch takes his place in the backfield to revert to the 12 personnel grouping, as you’ll see below.
That means there is one running back (orange) and two tight ends (green and yellow) as well as two wide receivers (blue and red).
After Lynch drops in behind Wilson, this is pretty much a dressing up of the Ace/12 scheme, a staple of the Seahawks’ zone-read packaged plays that we touched on in week one.
Pre-snap read – defence
The Denver are in one of the first defensive schemes you learn as a football player, Cover 1. This means one defender – in this case free safety Rahim Moore (purple) is in zone coverage while the rest are in man-to-man.
The Seahawks have tested this coverage, and know exactly what it is, by moving Lynch behind Wilson and seeing that the middle linebacker Nate Irving (black) has followed him.
At the snap
An awful lot happens when the ball is snapped but all of it is designed into convincing the Denver defence into thinking that Jermaine Kerse (blue) is running an end-around.
This is a play where a wide receiver crosses the backfield towards the opposite end of the offensive line and takes the hand-off from the quarterback and runs towards the line of scrimmage like a running back would.
It’s a play the Seahawks ran during the Super Bowl against the Broncos when Percy Harvin made 30 yards on their second play from scrimmage and is really sold by every blocker blocking to their left and setting an edge to make it look as if a run play is going to their outside.
What happens next?
Three things really. First off there’s some great blocking on the left side of the offensive line (yellow) by James Carpenter (77) and Max Unger (60) to make sure Sylvester Williams (92) can’t get near Russell Wilson.
I don’t know the assignments but I assume it was Chris Harris (25) who had man coverage on Kearse. After the receiver drops into the backfield, Harris follows TJ Ward (43) in tracking Zach Miller (86) off the line of scrimmage (red).
Finally, with Rahim Moore (blue) taking a step to his left to defend against the end-around, it leaves one entire side of the field for Wilson to run into. Had Kearse’s pass been slightly better, the play could easily have resulted in a touchdown.
Notes
This play is one Russell Wilson knows very well having scored this touchdown in college on an almost identical one.
Coaches Film: How Philip Rivers and Antonio Gates beat the league’s best defence
Coaches Film: How the Seahawks fooled everyone with their ‘triple option’ touchdown
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