INDIANAPOLIS — Before the snap, an NFL cornerback almost always has an idea of what the receiver in front of him is going to do.
He spent the week studying the receiver’s offense, his tendencies, the routes he tends to run in a certain formation, a certain gap, a certain downhill and a certain distance.
The receiver has an inherent advantage. He waits in line knowing exactly what he’s going to do. Preparing a cornerback helps close that gap.
Then a quarterback like Josh Allen breaks a passer’s grip in the pocket, rushes to his left, and the cornerback sees the gap widen again.
“It’s basically backyard football.” Colts cornerback Jaylon Jones said.
From the comfort of your home, glued to the TV screen, a cornerback’s technique in a scramble situation may seem pretty simple.
Find a receiver, then find the ball.
But the art of “plastering” is not at all easy. If a defense is in man-to-man coverage, a cornerback already knows which receiver he’s supposed to cover when a quarterback escapes from the pocket, but he can’t see the passer scrambling behind him.
If a defense is in zone, the Colts We’re a zone-heavy team, and against Buffalo, they’ll likely stick to that plan, since Allen’s legs are so dangerous – a cornerback has to move from one zone to another based on step counts that it takes for the quarterback to get out of the pocket.
“It’s just about locking down the receiver,” Colts cornerback Samuel Womack III said. “Anyone in your area.”
When a receiver becomes free, the immediate instinct among fans is that the failed coverage must be the result of miscommunication.
Not if the quarterback is moving.
It’s all happening too fast for the secondary to start making a bunch of calls.
“There’s nothing you can communicate, it’s just a level of awareness for yourself: someone is in front of me, I just have to lock in and hope my other teammates have locked in on those that are around them,” Womack said.
Allen makes it harder than most quarterbacks.
The Bills’ big, powerful star is tough to sack — Buffalo leads the NFL this season with just 11 sacks allowed — and he’s changed his approach this season, emphasizing throws on the move rather than putting his head down to win himself yards.
“There’s no doubt he can beat you with his legs, and I’m not talking about running the ball,” Colts defensive coordinator Gus Bradley said. “I mean, he plays running, but he extends plays. You see a lot of explosive plays that come from that.
Allen also has the arm strength to make almost any throw.
A quarterback with an average arm might not be able to return the ball across his body with enough speed, allowing a defensive back to eliminate certain areas of the field. Young cornerbacks face an entirely different problem.
“Sometimes in college you might have receivers that don’t understand trying to get open for their guy or go to the right spot so it’s an easy throw for their quarterback,” Jones said. “In the NFL, they work on those things.”
Allen can throw it wherever he wants.
“Sometimes the analytics tell us, ‘He’s really attacking the middle of the field,’ or ‘Damn, they’re really attacking the outside edges,'” Bradley said. “Everything is red. He attacks everywhere. … When you spread out on defense, that’s the part I was talking about, where now he uses his legs to spread the play and makes plays, either passing the ball or through defenses without a cast.
Plaster is exactly what it sounds like.
The moment Allen breaks free from the pocket, a cornerback must find a receiver and stick as close to that player as possible.
“The focus is on the heavy cast this week,” Jones said. “Because he makes plays on his feet, and he’ll throw it across the field to get receivers open.”
Allen was known for trying to make spectacular throws, trying to place the ball in a tight window, and giving a defensive back interception chances.
He has only thrown two picks this season, using his legs to find the open man rather than throwing the ball into tight windows.
Indianapolis spent the week studying Buffalo’s offense, but the Colts’ cornerbacks know that a good performance against Allen could depend on the traits that made them cornerbacks in the first place, back when they started to play football, when there was no rush to shorten passes. time for a quarterback in the pocket.
The more Allen scrambles, the more the cornerback challenge becomes a feat of pure desire, the ability to play despite burning lungs and fatigue.
“Eyes and, really, will,” Jones said. “Will.”
Allen forces a cornerback out of preparation, out of his comfort zone.
The Colts have to stick to Buffalo’s receivers anyway.
This article was originally published on the Indianapolis Star: Colts vs Bills: The difficulty of defending a messy Josh Allen
