WE’RE GOING TO try a slightly different Coaches Film this week as there wasn’t really a touchdown that stood out as being worth of break down.
(Well, there was, but Gamepass decided to act up when I went back to look at the Taylor Lewan ‘fat guy’ touchdown for the Titans.)
Instead, I’m going to focus on a single 29-yard play from the Oakland Raiders’ comfortable win over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.
The play came three minutes into the second quarter and involved the use of Johnny Holton, the least known of the Raiders five-strong wide receiver line-up.
However, as we’ll discover later, this play failed not just because of what happened on the field on Sunday, but in the Jacksonville practise facility the week before the game.
If you missed it, here’s how it looked on TV:
Pre-Snap Read: Offence
The Raiders are in their 11 Personnel Grouping with DeAndre Washington (red) at running back and Mychal Rivera (blue at tight end).
They’re lined up with Seth Roberts and Amari Cooper out wide right and left respectively, while Holton (yellow) is originally in the slot beside Cooper.
However, as we’ll see below, when he shifts to the slot on the other side of the offensive line, the result is chaos in the Jags’ defence.
Pre-Snap Read: Defence
Before Holton goes in motion, Jacksonville is lined up in the same ‘spread’ defence we saw with the Patriots last week with Tashaun Gipson (orange) as the single high safety with cornerback Arron Colvin (pink) lined up on Holton.
The idea of this defence is that players are supposed to defend a zone. But, once Holton goes in motion, Colvin throws the entire defence out as both he and linebacker Paul Posluszny (black) theoretically match up with the same receiver.
To add to the chaos, Johnathan Cyprien (green) drops back into the safety position while Gipson moves towards the line of scrimmage leaving a huge gap to the left of the Oakland offensive line.
At the Snap
Raiders quarterback Derek Carr fakes the handoff to Washington before tossing the ball to Holton who is coming back around the line, hence this type of play is called an ‘end-around.’
At the exact moment Holton touches the ball, you can see just how much space there is in front of him:
A few seconds later and the play looks even better for Oakland as all their blocks are lined up for what should be a touchdown run:
However, Rivera doesn’t so much block Cyprien but push him directly into the path of Holton meaning, instead of a 69 yard touchdown, the Silver and Black must settle for “just” a 29-yard gain.
Where did it all go wrong
There’s clearly a failure on the players’ part here, in that two players defend the same zone once Colvin forgets his assignment.
However, the bigger blame lies with the Jacksonville Jaguars coaching staff who should have had their players drilled to recognise the play that was about to unfold.
Prior to Sunday, the Raiders had 400 offensive snaps and Holton was involved in only 14 of them, touching the ball on just three occasions.
Twice — against Atlanta and Tennessee — he ran end-arounds. It’s not to say that was what was definitely going to happen on that play, but he was involved in just five snaps on Sunday and two were end-arounds so it’s pretty clear how the Raiders are using the undrafted rookie.
And that’s why you should always study the game tape.
