Third Down Thursday (NFL Week 6, 2023)
This week’s article is UNLOCKED and features creative ways to attack defenses using tight bunch: two similar open field and red zone concepts and forcing defenses to a Quads push out of a Tight Bunch.
This season, we have been highlighting my favorite 3rd down concepts each week run by the group of coaches known as the “Fun Bunch” during their time together in Washington in the early 2010s and the featured coaches in “The Playcallers” podcast by Jourdan Rodrigue at The Athletic: Sean McVay (Rams HC), Kyle Shanahan (49ers HC), Matt LaFleur (Packers HC), and Mike McDaniel (Dolphins HC). In Week 6, the Packers were on a Bye, leaving us only 3 teams to cover. When one of the four teams is on a Bye, I will keep the article unlocked for everyone to see my favorite concept of the week and the cutup at the end.
RAMS
The first concept I want to highlight this week is a mid red zone concept by the Rams. This looks like a red zone version of F Scout Bow with a Y Wheel brilliantly tagged on.
On 3rd & 8 from the 13, the Cardinals show a Double Mug look, but both linebackers drop out to what appears to be Red Quads coverage. The Cardinals play a Box check over the bunch, and regular Quads to the open side, essentially leaving Kupp 1-on-1 with the CB unless he breaks in to the Weak Safety. Kupp (F) does a great job stemming the CB and breaking for the pylon to receive a perfect pass by Stafford, but I want to focus on the concept as a whole.
In addition to the Scout, the Williams (HB) occupies the flat defender to ensure nothing can get underneath Kupp’s Widen Scout route. In Quads coverage, the Weak Safety is reading the #2 receiver, which is the HB in this formation. When he breaks out, the Safety will “rob” (undercut) the route of #1 (F in this formation), but because the route is breaking out, he can’t get there in time.
On the other side of the formation, we have a Tight Bunch flank to which the defense checks to Box coverage: CB has first vertical out, SAF has first vertical in, Nickel has first low out, Linebacker has first low in, which completes the “box.” Bow is already popular for beating Triangle coverage, and the tagged Wheel transforms the concept to beat Box as well. Because the Z’s Basic route is the only vertically-stemming route, he is going to command the attention of both deep defenders, but because the formation is condensed, the Safety isn’t playing with inside leverage. Had Stafford not thrown to Kupp, Nacua (Z) would have come open, assuming Stafford looked off the Weak Safety. Atwell (X) runs a Short Hook, which occupies the Linebacker and keeps him from sinking underneath Nacua’s Basic.
The Wheel is what really intrigues me about this play. Higbee (Y) only runs a Flat here, but in the Shanahan/McVay system, the Wheel is a Flat first that turns up the sideline if the ball isn’t thrown. Against Box coverage, this should be 1-on-1 against the flat defender, so if he bites at all on the Flat, the Wheel up the sideline should be wide open. On this play, the ball is gone before Higbee has the opportunity to Wheel, so we only see the Flat.
DOLPHINS
On 3rd & 10 from the CAR 41, the Dolphins run a similar, more open-field friendly version of the concept we just covered from the Rams. On this play, the single receiver runs a Go as he has plenty of field to work with compared to the Widen Scout in the red zone from the Rams. In both instances, we get the QB trusting his guy (Kupp & Hill) to win one-on-one, the HB controlling the weak flat, and a hitch with a deep in-breaking route behind it on the back-side. We’re going to highlight and explain some of the differences here that make this a concept coaches of all levels should consider adding, as it has open and short field applications.
The first difference is the HB. In the red zone, the Rams ran Scat protection (or Scram, as they call it) and released the HB into the flat immediately. Knowing the route wouldn’t take as long to develop lessens the need to keep the HB in to protect, in my opinion. Personally, I prefer Scat protection for Quick Game and Jet protection for Drop Back passing in general, and that idea is shown here. In the open field, the Dolphins ran a Jet protection. The stutter release from the HB is a check release to ensure he isn’t needed in the protection to give the priority routes time to develop and come open.
The other primary difference is in the Rail/Wheel. As stated earlier, the Wheel is a two-part route, whereas the Rail is one: get to the numbers and get up the sideline as fast as possible. The Dolphins achieve that goal by activating their signature Cheat motion to get Berrios (F) on the move pre-snap. It appears to me that the Panthers are running Cover 8 with a Trix check, but I am less sure on this one than last (so if you know, please inform me and the other readers!). Cover 8 is Cover 2/Halves to the passing strength (the bunch) and Cover 4/Quads away (the single side). Trix is a 3x1 check to have the Weak Safety responsible for #3 if he goes vertical. He doesn’t on this play, so the Weak Safety can play his Deep 1/4. The Strong Safety is playing the Deep 1/2, which means he needs to help on the deepest route on that half of the field. As such, he also widens with the Cheat motion, leaving two underneath defenders for the two receivers remaining.
This is where I have trouble deciphering the coverage and think that it may have been a bust. The two-man concept being run is Chevy. The Chevy route is a 6 step post, and the short route is what they call a Tony. It is similar to a Short Hook but is run slightly shorter and has the ability to break outside vs. certain leverages. On this play, both linebackers converge on the Tony route, leaving the Chevy open over the middle of the field. Again, if the QB didn’t like his matchup with the single receiver, he could have looked the safety off and thrown over the middle to the route wrapping behind the linebacker-controlling route.
49ERS
The 49ers use brilliant formationing of the defense on 3rd down this week. The pass was incomplete, but the concept is highly notable. The formation starts out in some form of 2x2 (clip starts post-motion) with a condensed stack to the weak side. Motion into and out of stacks and bunches forces a defense to communicate post-play call and all be on the same page in potential fractions of seconds, and the first motion of this play turns the condensed stack into a tight bunch. From there, Juszczyk (HB), lined up on the weak side of the QB, sprints out of the backfield to create a 4 strong/Quads flank for the defense. This presents problems for any of the 4 main types of coverages. Spot drop zone won’t have enough players to cover the 4, man has to sort out the bunch without getting picked, and both match coverages involve so much trading/pushing routes and communication involved that it just takes one defender to not be on the same page to bust the coverage.
However, one of the difficulties on offense of quads is not having enough space for offense eligibles to work without having one defender being able to cover two routes. A common concept for offenses out of quads is to have at least one receiver on some version of a crossing route, which Shanahan does here with Kittle (Y) on the Shallow Cross.
Arizona goes with a 5 man pressure Cover 1 call on this play. A common bunch check for that which gets employed here is Lock & Combo. The jamming Nickel is locked man on the point man in the bunch, and the CB and LB are playing Combo/In-Out on the two off receivers in the Bunch. The Safeties are also comboing here, but against the HB. Whichever side he flares out to, that safety will cover him while the other rolls to the middle of the field. Notice the safety rotation before the HB motion with the Strong Safety back farther than the Weak and the rotation after the motion.
In the end, the 49ers get Aiyuk a decent amount of space, and the QB misses him on the throw. The throw hits the 35 yard line, but it should have hit the 30 yard line to allow Aiyuk to come back to it on the sideline, away from the leverage of the defender.
While these were simply my favorite concepts of the week, there were many more worth viewing, and they can all be seen in this 18+ minute cutup of every Week 6 third down play from the teams coached by the “Fun Bunch.”
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