IN THE BUILD up to Sunday’s NFC Championship game, many pundits were talking about how the Seattle Seahawks would use the read option and run all over the Green Bay Packers.
Now, while I felt the option would feature in any victory for Seattle, I also suggested that Russell Wilson’s arm could play a bigger part than many expected.
Afterall, in the Divisional Round against the Panthers, Wilson was eight from eight on third down, throwing for 199 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.
He was, as his 153.8 passer rating reflected, quite simply perfect.
When the third year quarterback finished the first half having completed only two of nine attempts for 12 yards, no touchdowns, three interceptions and a 0.0 passer rating, I was beginning to feel rather silly.
However, while Wilson improved slightly in the second half – 9/17 for 177 yards and an interception – it wasn’t until overtime that he justified my belief that his ability to read what the defence is showing makes him exceptionally dangerous in the passing game.
Despite the entire stadium being enveloped in the palm-soaking atmosphere of winner takes all football, with nothing less than a place in Super Bowl on the line, Wilson forgot all about his earlier mistakes and delivered the most perfect pass you’re ever likely to see in a game of this importance.
For those who missed it, or if you somehow managed to forget the play, here’s how it looked on TV:
Pre-snap read: Offence
The Seahawks are in their TANK/22 personnel grouping. We’ve gone through the different personnel groupings before but feel free to refresh your memory here.
TANK/12 specifically is a grouping that sees Seattle line up with two running backs (blue), two tight ends (red) and a wide receiver (out of shot) and is used quite often in the Seahawks zone-read pre-packaged plays.
Pre-Snap read: Defence
With the above formation in front of them and Marshawn Lynch – 157 yards – running the ball so well, Green Bay’s free safety Ha Ha Clinton Dix (#21) has his team playing the run, with five players (yellow, red and blue below) in man-on-man pressure and another ‘spying’ the quarterback.
Unlike zone coverage – which we looked at last week – man coverage is designed to put as much pressure on the quarterback as possible. As you can see below, as well as the QB Spy (green), there are also two outside line backers (purple) as well as three defensive linemen trying to get to Russell Wilson on this play.
A QB Spy, by the way, is a player – in this case Sam Barrington (#58) – whose job is to watch the quarterback and stop him for running the football. It is particularly useful against a read-option or mobile quarterback.
At the snap
This is where Wilson proves just how good a reader of the game he is.
With Green Bay moving their safeties into man pressure and rushing five players, the quarterback can see that, crucially, there is no safety help in the middle of the field which means there is the potential to create a real one-on-one match-up for his receivers.
However, he only has one wide receiver – Jermaine Kearse (#15) – in this formation. To maximise the opportunity and cement the lack of safety help in the middle of the field, Wilson moves his full back Will Tukuafu (#46) out of the backfield and over to the left, forcing strong safety Morgan Burnett (#42) to move with him.
This leaves Kearse at the bottom right – the only person getting the football on this play – in a one-on-one battle with cornerback Tramon Williams (#38).
What happens next?
There are essentially three phases of man coverage, all of which should see the cornerback ‘inside’ – that is closer to the centre of the field – than the receiver.
Even phase: While in the ‘even’ phase, the cornerback is lined up side-by-side with the receiver which forces the quarterback to throw the football through him. It is the most difficult man coverage to beat.
Hip phase: Some cornerbacks like to trail their receiver, essentially play in their back pocket, which again forces a quarterback to have to play past him. However, this ‘hip’ phase does provide slightly more room for both receiver and quarterback.
Out of phase: There are situations where the cornerback wants to play ahead of the receiver and use his frame to change the movement or alter the speed of the attacking player. Unlike the first two, this phase sees the defender prioritise playing the man rather than playing the ball.
As you can see above, Kearse wins the initial battle at the line of scrimmage by getting inside Williams. However, in fairness to the defender, he recovers somewhat to sit on the hip of the receiver within a few steps.
Apart from failing to regain control of the inside of the field, Williams’ coverage is probably going to be good enough to save a touchdown nine times out of ten.
However, here’s where Wilson’s arm comes into it. The throw is perfect and hits Kearse’s upfield shoulder – the shoulder closest to the endzone – dropping perfectly into his receiver’s hands for the game-winning touchdown.
With this final angle, you can really see just how good the pass had to be to beat Williams’ coverage:
Notes
You can’t really ask for a better throw with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line but is was was even more impressive when you consider what had gone before it.
Over the course of Sunday night’s game, Russell Wilson threw the ball in Jermaine Kearse’s direction six times. On four of those targets, the Packers intercepted the Seattle quarterback.
Indeed, Kearse would only make one catch in the game, but he – and Wilson – made sure it was an important one.
- Originally published 13.45pm
