2013 Preseason notes: Lets talk about this whole "Gap" situation . . .

The 2012 Colts defense was a work in progress. Newly hired defensive coordinator Greg Manusky was charged with building a stout 3-4 defense, with players drafted and trained in the speed-kills Dungy 4-3 defense. The results were mostly encouraging.

The 2012 Colts stayed mostly vanilla in their schemes, which makes sense given that the players had a lot of technique-based things to learn, and forcing a complex scheme on them at the same time could have been disastrous. I'm looking at you 2012 Philadelphia Eagles.

There is also the fact (and I've not seen this mentioned elsewhere) that the style of defense that the Colts played prior to 2012 did not require players who were intelligent enough to execute complex coverages and subtle line play. I'm not saying they couldn't have handled it . . . well, ok - there were some who couldn't handle it. But those guys are gone now, and hopefully things are simpler in Buffalo.

Jerry Hughes to Tim Tebow: "How many fingers am
I holding up? Let me know when I get to three."

Tony Dungy always said, "If you can count to three, you can play in my defense." 

Well, in a mature 3-4 defense, you need to be able to count backwards from ten and do some light division.

So, what can the 2013 Exhibition Pre-season tell us about what we'll see in the regular season? The answer is: a lot.

First things first, it's clear from watching the Giants and Browns games that Greg Manusky spent a lot of time watching film of the 2012 Houston Texans. Who knows, maybe he did some light housework and ran some errands for Wade Phillips. Why do I say this? Because in the course of a mere two seasons, the Colts have gone from playing one of the simplest defensive schemes in the last 40 years of the NFL - to one of the most complex.

"I'm four-gapping this biatch!"

Last season the Colts defensive line exclusively played two-gap technique, even in clear passing
situations. Basically instead of trying to get around a blocker any way they could as in the Dungy defense, two-gap technique has a large defensive player trying to control both sides of a blocker - preventing that blocker from controlling him, while also trying to just be in the way. In this sort of scheme, the defensive linemen get very few sacks and tackles - and hence little glory or attention. Their job is to control the offensive line, and keep the linebackers "clean" so they can roam sideline to sideline and make plays.

The Texans J.J. Watt racked up 20.5
sacks, despite playing without a helmet.

"Wait," you say, your hand waving plaintively in the air, "What about Watt?" You adopt the smug self-satisfied smile of a person who gets all of his football opinions from the behind-the-scenes producers at ESPN. "What about Watt?" I say, readying myself for some parrot barf.

"Well, he plays in a 3-4, I saw it on ESPN! And he had like 40 sacks!"
"Actually it was more like 20 1/2."
"A half a sack?" you snort, "Now you're just making bleep up."
"The half sack was for tackling Tim Tebow, he only counts as a half a QB."

Well, ok, here's the when, why, and the how on Watt:

The Texans do play a 3-4 alignment, but that is about the end of the similarities between what the Texans do under Wade Phillips, and what other 3-4 teams in the league do. The Texans do a lot of funky stuff, and one of those things is that they constantly shift between having their defensive linemen player two-gap and one-gap. This causes a lot of turmoil with the opposing offense's linemen - not knowing if the 320 lbs beast across from you is going to try to stand his ground and grab you, or explode into a gap on either side of you.

After discovering that all NFL Quarterbacks like Matzah Ball Soup,
and Offensive Linemen are all Crepe Eaters; the game of football
becomes easy for young Bjorn Von Werner-Kempler.

This is what I have seen from the 2013 Colts. They are switching between two-gap and one gap every couple of plays. In many cases, only one or two of the three lineman have played one-gap. This is something I've only seen from a Wade Phillips defense.

Against the Giants, the Colts played one-gap on most 1st and 10's in normal situations. On 2nd down passing situations, they randomly played a mix of the two. Midway through the first quarter after the Giants got into our red zone after that pass interference call, on 1st and goal, the Colts went one gap and blew up a pass play. On 2nd down they played two-gap. On 3rd and 1, they went one-gap and blew up a run. 4th down - GTFOTF!

I learned my tolerance from the Master: "Playoffs?!? Playoffs?!? Allow me
to answer that question with a murder-spree at your next family reunion."

"Well, I didn't hear any of this on ESPN," you say, trying to reconcile this into your media-created reality bubble, "In fact, according to ESPN, the only players on the Colts roster are Andrew Luck and Darrius Heyward Bey, and they never said they were playing any sort of gap."

This sort of attitude is why if I ever somehow became an NFL Head Coach, my era would be known for being the most hilarious, as well as the shortest. Suffering fools gladly is the #1 quality required to be a coach nowadays. And it is a talent not very many people have.

Anywho, oh yeah, we were talking about football.

Now I know that switching gap technique on the defensive line does not seem too terribly complicated. Well, it's not. But what is complicated is that each lineman needs to know what the others are doing, so they can compensate. If your left defensive end is going to charge on on that 3rd and 1 play, the other linemen need to be aware of that so that a massive hole is not left where the linemen vacated.

Plus the linebackers play a different technique in that situation. If one or more of the defensive linemen are charging into their one gap, there's going to be more blockers to deal with for you. Trust me, there's a lot to keep track of.

I'll be writing more about the Colts defensive scheme; but I'll tell you right now - we goin' BEAST mode this year. Yah boiz.

Freeney at Defensive Tackle: Frame by Frame Breakdown

Freeney at DT in a passing situation vs Tennessee in week 17

This is one of the plays that Freeney (circled) played at DT in the week 17 matchup against the Titans.  The player to his right is Kenyatta Dawson number 96 and he is at Freeney's right defensive end position.

At the snap of the ball those two players execute a "twist" play where the RDE crashes down into the offensive left guard, hoping to take the left tackle with him.  Freeney at RDT "twists" around to his right trying to loop around to the QB.

Now the defensive line twist is nothing special in the NFL, you see it every week.  The difference here is that you usually don't have a player with the explosive speed of Freeney coming from the inside to the outside looping around the offensive tackle - usually it is a slower defensive tackle.

That had to have put this in to screw with whoever their first round opponent was going to be.  Why else do it now?

Let see what happened the next play - we will go frame by frame here:

Here is Freeney at DT again - the ball has just been snapped

This time instead of the twist, Freeney rushes into the left guard and spins clockwise, the QB has just gotten the snap and has taken his first step back

The guard is thrown off balance by the violent spin to the inside and now is beaten, the QB is still not done dropping yet

At this point Freeney is through the line, just as the QB is taking his last step

Freeney has flushed the QB to right (offense's left side) throwing off the timing of the play (notice the QB in relation to the hash mark)

As we can see, Freeney was single blocked here by a guard with disastrous consequences for the offense.  The left guard was completely unprepared for someone as fast and skilled as Freeney coming at him.

Will we see this against the Jets?  Probably.  But at the very least the Jets will have to devote some of their preparation time to dealing with this eventuality - and getting the Jets to waste time on it is still a win for the Colts.

How the Jets Defense challenges the Colts Offense

The primary matchup that everyone else has been talking about is that between the Jets corners vs the Colts WRs.  It is expected that the Jets Darrelle Revis will again match up against Reggie Wayne and that Antonio Cromartie is going up against Garcon.

I think that the Colts outside WRs will be mostly taken out of the game.  This is based on recent games the Colts have played against strong man to man teams.  I expect that we will see Wayne catch a couple of the ten yard hitches that he is famous for and that they will hit Garcon on a few short slant routes, but I don't see the Colts getting any downfield passes to Wayne or Garcon since they are being defended by patently superior athletes.

Where the Colts will make their passing yards will be in man to man matchups against the Jet linebackers and safeties.

The Jets know that this is their weakness, so they will probably have to do some tricky things to keep from getting taken apart.

What we will see is a tough (but not bump and run) man to man on the outside and on the slot and running backs.  Where the tricky part is that the Jets will have a linebacker or lineman in a short zone defense about 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage who will be keying on Peyton Manning's eyes.  This will be primarily to protect against quick crossing routes by Jacob Tamme.  This also helps the Jets control the Colts draw play as they will have someone with eyes in the backfield at all times.

Will the Colts be able to defeat this scheme?  Yes, but it will hinge on the time that Manning has to throw the ball.  You will still be able to have success throwing over the middle against this defense, but it will take time for Tamme to clear the middle and get away from the zone defender.

In this example the Colts are running a crossing pattern with Jacob Tamme at TE.  The Jets are shown here in one of their typical blitzes.  The SS, LILB, and the ROLB are all blitzing.  The LOLB is covering Tamme and the RILB is covering the running back.  The FS is in a zone defense covering the deep middle of the field.  The cornerbacks are all matched up on a single receiver in man.

The important player to look at is the Right Defensive End (RDE) for the Jets (in red).  Instead of rushing the passer as usual, he spins around and takes a position in the short middle of the field - covering that area in a zone defense.  As a large lineman, he does not have much range.  The hope is that Manning will not see him and throw a ball right to him, or that at least Manning will have to delay his throw to Tamme until he clears this area.  

This also has the effect of delaying Manning's switching to his secondary receiver (which in this case would be Garcon).  This can throw the timing of the whole play off.  By the time Tamme clears the zone area, if he is not open it will probably be too late to hit Garcon on the short In Route he is running.  The Jets would hope that the rush will have gotten to Manning before he can hit the check down receiver (the RB).

This is just one example of how this works - just a small part of the chess match between Manning and Rex Ryan.

Freeney at DT in passing situations: trouble for the Jets?

The Jets have one of the best offensive lines in football.  The one chink in the armour is young Matt Slauson at left guard, who replaces the departed Alan Faneca.

Coincidence or not - during the Titans game Dwight Freeney was lining up at right defensive tackle in passing situations.  If he does this vs the Jets, he would be matched up against the young Jets left guard Matt Slauson.

In those situations Freeney was spinning like mad and caused considerable problems for the Titans offensive line.

The short-area lateral movement of a offensive guard is generally not very good and this is a perfect situation for a player as quick and strong as Freeney to dominate.

I'll be watching this match-up on Saturday to be sure.

You also might want to check out this article: 

How the Jets Defense challenges the Colts Offense