In his very insightful post, ELCHALJE raised the question:
"On Plax's catch, I remain amazed how he gave just the slightest tweak to his route to give the New England defender the idea that he was headed for the inside. Being one on one with Plax, wouldn't you think that the defender would prevent the outside move first and look for help on the inside?"
In researching the matter, I reviewed the video of the play. What I noticed was that the Giants seemed to dupe New England into an incorrect coverage scheme. But why? The Patriots are renowned for proper alignment. I then reviewed the entire final drive. I believe that I may have found the answer.
During the drive, which lasted twelve plays, the Giants played a four wideout, single back set on ten of the plays. As best I can tell (the quality of the film made it difficult to read the uniform numbers), the wideouts consisted of Plaxico Burress, Steve Smith, Amani Toomer, and David Tyree. Brandon Jacobs was the single back in all ten four wide sets. The Giants operated their four wide sets out of two formations:
Split left, split right, double slot, either left or right (hereafter: trips left or trips right).
Split left, slot left, slot right, split right (hereafter: spread).
In the trips formation, Burress plays left end, Tyree right end, Steve Smith the inside slot, Toomer the outside slot. Jacobs lines up weakside to the trips, usually staying in to block. The Giants do not use any motion on any of the four wide plays.
New England countered the Giants' four wide set with a 3-3-5 nickle defense. New England may have utilized some rotation on the line but, for the most part, their personnel looked, left to right for the offense, as:
DL: Seymour, Wilfork, Warren
LBs: Thomas, Seau, Bruschi
CBs: Hobbs, Samuels
Nickle: Merriweather
Safeties: Harrison, Sanders
The following is a play-by-play breakdown of the drive. I include the pre-snap location of the ball, as this will become important as the Giants approach the end zone.
Play One: First down. Giant 17 yard line, right hash, trips left. Pass to Toomer, middle right, complete, eleven yards, first down.
Play Two: First down. Giant 28, right hash, trips left. Pass to Toomer, middle right, incomplete. It appears as if Steve Smith ran the wrong pattern, as he brings additional coverage to Toomer's location.
Play Three: Second down. Giant 28, right hash, trips left. Sideline pass to Burress, incomplete.
Play Four: Third Down. Giants 28, right hash, trips left. Pass to Toomer, left hash, nine yards. Fourth and less than one, Giant 37 yard line.
Play Five: Fourth and one, Giant 37, left hash. The Giants go eye formation, wideout left, wideout right, double tight end right. H-back tight end comes in motion left. Fullback lead/tailback dive right. Madison Hedgecock obliterates a linebacker; Jacobs for one/plus yard. First down.
Play Six: First down, Giant 38, just right of the left hash. The Giants change up the formation. Spread formation: split left/split right/slot left, slot right. Right slot is close to the right tackle. A strong Adalius Thomas outside move flushes Manning right. Manning is able to scramble for six yards.
Play Seven: Second down and four, Giant 44, right hash. Spread formation. Deep out, right sideline, incomplete. It appears as if the receiver (Toomer?) broke off the pattern too soon. Asante Samuel had a shot at an interception, but a further look shows that he may have landed with a toe out of bounds.
Play Eight: The Play. Third and four, Giant 44, right hash. Spread formation.
The Patriots show a 3-2-6 set. The defensive linemen overload the left side, showing a zero(shade left)/3/7 front. Two linebackers cover the right side of the line, sitting in the 3 and 5 positions. The nickle and dime backs are up close on the slot receivers. The remaining defensive backs are in a Cover Two, with the LCB even yards off the LOS, the RCB ten yards off. Both safeties are playing very deep.
For the first time in the drive, Brandon Jacobs lines up to the strong side/short side of the field. The New England defense correctly reads an “under” clear out pass to Jacobs. No Jacobs help against the pass rush.
The Pats are not fooled by the Jacobs release; he is covered by the linebacker from the get go. The much maligned David Diehl pushes his man to the outside. The two interior lineman stunt, with Seymour getting the hand on Eli. Eli breaks loose and finds Tyree in the middle of the field. He actually overthrows Tyree, who is wide open. Great catch. Giant first down on the Patriot 24. First down.
Play Nine: First Down. Patriots 24, middle of the field. Other than the fourth and one play, this is the only time the Giants use a tight end in the entire drive. Manning is flushed right and is tackles for a one yard loss. Looks like a bad spot: Manning at least got back to the LOS.
Play Ten: Second and ten. Patriot 25, right hash. Trips left. Manning passes left, incomplete to Tyree.
Play Eleven: Third and Ten. Patriots 25, right hash.
I am going to talk a bit more through this play than in the previous ten. To this point, the Giants have shown trips left five times. All five times, the ball was snapped from the right hash. In all five situations, the Patriots have shown a similar alignment in the secondary. Cover Two with the corners and safeties, with a press man-2-man coverage on the inside slot. The front three shows a 5-3-3 (left to right) alignment, with the weakside linebacker outside the weakside DE, and a two LB bubble over the ROT. The corners consistently play an inside technique against the two wideouts.
On this play, the Giants change up. Sitting on the right hash, they play a trips RIGHT. Burress split left, Smith inside slot, Toomer outside slot, Tyree split right. In what is clearly a designed play, Toomer and Tyree run push goal line patterns, creating an underneath one-on-one with Smith covered by Patriot nickle back Brandon Merriweather. For some reason, Merriweather releases off of Smith and doubles up on Toomer. Manning lets the play develop, then hits Smith on a twelve yard completion. Out of bounds; time stopped. First down Giants at the Patriots 13 yard line.
I have not been able to observe what pattern Burress ran on this play. What is obvious is that he was left, one-on-one, against Ellis Hobbs, a much smaller and less physical defensive back, with two thirds of the field to work with. Perhaps Hobbs had help on this play. Most likely, given that Manning worked a drop step to the right, he ran a short slant or deep middle. But undoubtedly the Patriots’ apparent gaff in coverage did not go unnoticed to Burress, Manning, or the Giant coaching staff.
Play Twelve. First and ten, Patriots 13 yard line, right hash. The Patriots decide to go for broke. They run a modified Bear "46" to attack the Giant pass rush defense.
The Giants again show a trips right, short side, with Burress spilt left. Jacobs is the lone back, five yards deep, over the LOT. New England shows a true Bear "46" nickle. The three defensive linemen cover, from the offensive line point of view, the 5-3-3 gaps. That is, outside the LOT, the LOT/ LOG gap, and the ROG/ ROT gap. The left (weakside) linebacker (Adalius Thomas) aligns in a 7 (outside blitz) position. The remaining two linebackers (Seau and Bruschi) are tight to either side of the ROT. LCB Hobbs is seven yards off the LOS, opposite Burress; RCB Samuel is ten yards off Tyree. Safety (Saunders?) is ten yards deep, covering Toomer, but shading the middle. Nickle Merriweather is tight up on Smith. Most importantly, the second safety (Harrison?) is lined up in a classic “46" SS alignment: five yards off the LOS, directly over the LOT. Where he sits, he is in no position to help out in coverage against Burress. Given the impending safety blitz, the remaining Patriot DBs are in man-2-man coverage. CB Ellis Hobbs is on his own against Burress.
As the Giants line up, Manning points, first to Thomas, then to the SS, as blitz pickup responsibilities. Just prior to the snap, Thomas crowds the line and the safety walks up into the “1" gap, between the center and the LG. As the ball is snapped, New England comes with seven pass rushers: the three D-linemen, the three linebackers, and the SS. Thomas, as expected, comes wide from the left. Seymour, the weakside DE, comes in straight, as does the weakside DT. The SS comes straight into the center’s gap, the strong side DT with an outside move. Seau, the inside LB loops to the right guard; outside linebacker Bruschi loops outside of the right tackle.
The Giants face a textbook “46" blitz pass rush: linebackers coming hard and wide from each side, with a third LB and the SS up the middle. Seven pass rushers against six defenders. I do not know if the play was called from the sidelines or was an Eli Manning audible, but the response was perfect. A textbook “hot read” to Burress. The line call was perfect. As was the execution.
As the ball is snapped, the Giant line falls into what we used to call a “cup left” or “cobra left” pass blocking scheme. Basically, this is a zone blocking scheme, curling the pocket into the direction of intended hot read. The hot read call does not require much time to fight off the pass rush, but it is imperative that no pass rusher have a clean lane to the quarterback. The scheme is as follows: Left tackle Diehl drops five yards deep and faces to the outside. LG Seubert drop steps and also faces left. Center O’Hara, RG Snee, and RT MacKenzie do not drop at all; they remain close to the LOS and slide block into any pass rusher that enters their area. Importantly, RB Jacobs must make the correct read as to where he is needed. And he does exactly that.
The lines collide in the following manner. Diehl is able to push Thomas to the outside. Seymour takes a few step in, then stops. He may have had the responsibility to cover Jacobs, or he may have been a “spy” in case of a quarterback draw. Perhaps he was just confused, but he does not engage any offensive lineman. Seubert holds the point, obstructing Seymour and helping to clog the middle. O’Hara takes on the left side DT. Snee blocks Seau, while MacKenzie takes the right side DT. O’Hara and Snee successfully clog the middle, taking the blitzing safety out of the play. Brandon Jacobs rotates all the way over from his left side position to the outside right, sealing off Teddy Bruschi. Bruschi, who is clearly wants to know nothing about Jacobs, basically stops in his tracks.
The three Giant “trip” receivers on the right side of the field run the same patterns as the previous play: Toomer and Tyree push to the goal line; Smith runs an “under” pattern. Once again, nickle back Brandon Merriweather fails to cover Smith and doubles on Toomer. Smith is wide open at about the seven yard line, perhaps with an open sideline to the end zone.
But that is not the play call. The pass to Burress is clearly the play. Manning takes the snap, drops two steps, and throws to the corner left end zone. Burress fakes an inside move, leaving Ellis Hobbs behind, and breaks into the left corner of the end zone. Catch. Touchdown.
I have some additional analysis to add later. But for now, have fun.
BigHitterDalama
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