All Twenty-Tuesday: (Not) Covering Julio Jones

Target No. 1: No Catch (0 rec/0 yards)

As we take a lot at each of Julio Jones’ targets from last week’s game, we’re going to keep track of what was gained on each particular play and what that brought his game total to.

The Bucs started the game off in man coverage much like they did against the Dolphins and Jets in the weeks prior. Playing their defensive backs in man coverage allowed for defensive coordinator Mike Smith to dial up pressure whenever he needed to since he was leaving his coverage players with limited help – much more of a high risk/high reward strategy than we previously saw in the beginning of the year.

However, even on the first play, which was a success, we did see tendencies that came back to bite them later. What we have in the play above is Cover 1. That means that one of the safeties is playing a deep zone and the rest of the defense was in man coverage. Safety Justin Evans played this deep zone very deep. Because of that, he was able to keep up with the speedy Jones and even make a better play in the air than the receiver himself did. Some blame Evans here for not picking the ball off, but this was a rookie’s first time going up against the best receiver in the NFL. I would have played it safe and gone for the knock away, too.

It was good coverage, but we’ll see later on how the Falcons adjusted to how deep Tampa Bay was playing its safeties later in the game.

Target No. 2: Catch For 9 Yards (1 rec/9 yards)

On Jones’ first reception of the game we saw our first glimpse of what is called “quarters coverage.”

In quarters, the deep parts of the field are divided into fourths (hence the name). Both outside cornerbacks and both safeties each occupy an even fraction of the field depending on where they’re line up, and if a receiver comes into their area, that becomes their assignment.

On the play above, which was third-and-7, Bucs cornerback Ryan Smith was tasked with covering Jones. The Falcons star took advantage of the soft cushion in coverage – which is by design because with the field divided up into fractions, you don’t have help deep in your zone. Smith recovered nicely to stop the play after the catch, but it was a catch nonetheless.

Target No. 3: No Catch (1 rec/9 yards)

Jones’ third target of the game came the very next play after his first reception.

On the play above, in a first-and-10 situation, the Bucs were again in their quarters look with their nickel corner in man coverage (which isn’t uncommon in today’s age of quarters coverage since teams play a lot of nickel formations). This time, Jones ran a quick drag route over the middle with no one directly in front of him.

The play went for an incompletion, but again hinted at problems that would comeback to bite the Buccaneers in the future. Smith like to keep his safeties “multiple” as to not tip which one is playing free safety and which one is playing strong safety to the quarterback before the snap. Good idea in theory, right? The problem is that it can give lots of space to certain receivers like it did in the situation above.

The pressure did a nice job of forcing a quick, off-rhythm throw, which resulted in an incompletion, but due to the fact that the safeties were so far back, if Jones got that ball in stride the defense would’ve been in trouble.

Target No. 4: Catch For 51 Yards & TD (2 rec/60 yards/TD)

Jones’ fourth target was frustrating.

For one, it was wide receiver Mohamed Sanu throwing the ball, not quarterback Matt Ryan.

Another frustrating part was strong safety Chris Conte and one of the linebackers were coming up to guard the same player, the running back out of the backfield. Perhaps Conte should have been helping on the back end with Evans instead? I’m not sure.

But, in the end, it was Evans who got burned for the touchdown. People were complaining that it was a push off when it happene’d, but that was just savvy wide receiver work by Jones. He got in a hand battle as the ball was coming down and made just a little bit of contact. They’ll never call that.

In Evans own words, “He just made the play and I didn’t.”

Target No. 5: Catch For 20 Yards (3 rec/80 yards/TD)

Jones’ fifth target and third reception of the game came on an interesting look that did everything right except defend a perfect pass.

The coverage above appears to be a Cover 3 Buzz look. Cover 3, as some of you might know by now, is when the deep parts of the field are divided into thirds, so both outside cornerbacks and one safety are playing deep. You can tell this is Cover 3 and not Cover 1 because the outside cornerbacks are watching the quarterback, not watching the wide receiver (difference of man versus zone).

The “Buzz” part of this Cover 3 is due to the fact that a linebacker is covering one of the flats. The flats are the areas to the left and right of the line of scrimmage all the way to the sideline. This zone usually runs about five yards deep. The other variation of Cover 3 are called “Cloud” and Sky.” Cloud is when a cornerback occupies the flat (both words start with “C”) and the second safety takes the deep zone, and Sky is when one of the safeties take the flat (both words start with the letter “S”).

Linebacker Kwon Alexander actually played this nearly perfect once he saw the running back not bail to the left of your screen. It was just a perfect pass.

Target No. 6: Catch For 25 Yards & TD (4 rec/105 yards/2 TDs)

Oh, boy.

On Jones’ second touchdown catch of the day, the Buccaneers were in their 3-3-5 formation. They had Kendell Beckwith and Lavonte David as the stand up linebackers with Alexander in the middle. Will Clarke was the nose tackle and Ryan Russell and Gerald McCoy were the defensive ends, which was odd, but that’s not why this play busted so bad.

Even though the designed overload blitz on the right side failed, Smith slipping in coverage is why this play was a touchdown.

This play began the question of “Why wasn’t Brent Grimes on Jones the entire game?”

Target No. 7: Catch For 22 Yards (5 rec/127 yards/2 TDs)

Jones’ fifth catch of the day again appeared to either be against quarters coverage or some sort of Cover 2.

The only thing we can really tell for sure is that both of the safeties drop to deep zone immediately. Grimes’ play makes this one a little bit harder to identity, because it appears he’s either locked in on the shorter route or he just tries to cheat it. That opened up the space over the top of him in the soft spot between the corner and the safeties on the sideline.

Target No. 8: Catch For 11 Yards (6 rec/138 yards/2 TDs)

Quarters coverage again.

This is where things started to look a lot like the Vikings and Cardinals game. No pass rush with nothing to knock the timing off between the quarterback and wide receiver, and when you pair that with safe, off coverage, you’re going to give up plays like the one above a lot.

Target No. 9: No Catch (6 rec/138 yards/2 TDs)

See what happens when you get to the quarterback?

Even when playing off coverage, if you can disrupt the pocket, it can make up for a lot of mistakes or miscommunications in the secondary – what it really does is makes the coverage look bigger.

The Bucs have struggled to get to the passer this season, and yes, that is the main source of their troubles. Without pressure, secondaries are sitting ducks, especially against the like of Jones. The Bucs did a good job of getting after Ryan here and it showed. The problem is that these plays have been few and far between this season.

Target No. 10: Catch For 23 Yards (7 rec/161 yards/2 TDs)

On Jones’ seventh reception the Buccaneers were in Cover 1 instead of Cover 3.

As you can see, Smith chased Jones all the way from one side of the field to the other, and Evans was up close to the line of scrimmage to chase the slot play. That left safety T.J. Ward alone to man the back end. He did fine, even though it was still pretty deep, and would have perhaps been able to knock the ball loose if he hadn’t hesitated to move at the end of the route. Not sure why he did. It seems like it would be in Ward’s nature to want to go after someone like that. He appeared to second guess himself.

Not good.

This play was made possible by Atlanta adjusting its routes according to that very first target to Jones and Tampa Bay not adjusting to predict the Falcons would attack the open space. The Bucs left their safeties very deep, so Jones adjusted his route to be a little more shallow.

Target No. 11: Catch For 10 Yards (8 rec/171 yards/2 TDs)

Once you hit a couple big passes on a defense, then things can really open up underneath for an offense.

Take the play above, for example. Because Jones had been so effective as a deep threat, that meant that the Buccaneers had to be even more cautious against him and give him even more space. That meant that they weren’t going to press coverage him (they hadn’t all game, really) and the result on a quick play is one like the one above.

At that point, the Bucs were just at Jones’ mercy.

Target No. 12: Catch For 5 Yards (9 rec/176 yards/2 TDs)

If you can’t contain the little stuff, keep doing it. That’s the motto in football. If low risk plays are working, no need to go to the higher risk ones until the defense proves they can stop you.

Jones had great blocking on the play before and had great blocking in the play above, too, because the Bucs would not move their defensive backs up to play close to the line of scrimmage in fear of a deeper pass.

Target No. 13: Catch For 44 Yards (10 rec/220 yards/2 TDs)

If things weren’t unraveling for the Bucs coverage on Jones before this play, this was the one that send it down the hill.

The Bucs were in a Cover 3 look here with one safety (Conte) as a “robber.” What a robber does is he appears to play in a 2-deep safety look pre-snap, but then jumps into a zone right beyond the linebackers to try to cut off post route, 10-yard in route and quick passes to seam routes. It’s a unique look for safeties, but the Bucs do it so often that it’s lost a lot of its luster.

Even though the team was in Cover 3, Grimes followed Jones across the middle because he knew they were in trouble – and they were. Jones blew right passed the robber zone and into open space.

Target No. 14: Catch For 9 Yards (11 rec/229 yards/2 TDs)

The play above was yet again quarters coverage that Jones, Ryan and Falcons offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian knew how to beat.

Not much to say about this one that hasn’t already been said. Off coverage and quarters zone gets beat by these kinds of passes every time with no pass rush.

Target No. 15: Catch For 24 Yards (12 rec/253 yards/2 TDs)

On the final Jones catch of the day, the Bucs finally played press coverage against Jones (nothing else had worked, why not?).

Smith actually played Jones pretty well, all things considered, but the play above was just the best receiver in the game doing what he does best; turn on a dime, break a tackle and get yards after the catch. I actually liked the type of coverage here. They at least gave Smith a chance to make a play. I wish they would play less scared like this more often – they did when they were winning.

It’s the same story with the Buccaneers defense. They can’t get after the quarterback, and because of that, their indecisiveness on the back end leaves too much space for quarterbacks and receivers to make connections in rhythm.

Why the Bucs didn’t simply put Grimes on Jones or double him every play is beyond me.

Turn to the next page to discuss what has to happen from here with this defensive philosophy.