Last week I made a big film about what we saw of Anthony Richardson in the Indianapolis Colts“Week 8 loss to the Texans. Even though the film wasn’t as bad as the 10/32 stat line would have you believe, there were still enough recurring issues with Richardson’s process/footwork that I was okay with it let him be put on the bench. “Get competent play from Joe Flacco while Richardson works on his fundamental issues.”
What did we get from Joe Flacco? GOOD…
If you use your imagination, you can almost imagine the outlines of Oogie Boogie.
(I’m sorry. I don’t know why I did that.)
The standard numbers are bad. He completed 59.3% of his passes for 6.6 yards per attempt and a negative CPOE (completion percentage above expectations). That’s on an ADOT (Average Depth of Target) of 7.6 yards, the lowest mark this season for Flacco (per PFF).
The figures put forward are not much better. His adjusted completion percentage was 68%. He stayed clean on 56.7% of his dropbacks, completing 64.7% of his passes for 124 yards (7.3 YPA).
It’s not just the numbers: he completely missed several guys. Some of the misses could potentially come from the receivers not limiting the zone, but most of his misses just looked like misses.
The positive side here is that the Vikings are the #1 defense in the league (per DVOA). While the Bills aren’t exactly a walk in the park, they have the 15th-ranked pass defense according to DVOA (12th overall) and don’t run half the funky stuff up front that the Vikings do. So we’ll likely see a better performance from the passing game this week, which would definitely be a nice change of pace.
At the cinema. While we’re trying to make it in this space, we find a fun piece from last weekend and do a little digging. Because even though the game can be frustrating at times, there are always fun and cool things happening.
This game sees the Colts reach for Dagger – a central passing concept in almost every offense in the league – in creative ways. The throw goes elsewhere, but it’s still a really cool concept.
Dagger is a two-man concept, consisting of the inside receiver running a clear route and the outside receiver running a cut route behind him. The idea is that the inside receiver helps free up space for the outside receiver in the middle of the field.
The Colts are in 11 squads (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR) in shotgun. They have a bunch on the left, with Mo Alie-Cox [81] at that time, Michael Pittman Jr. [11] like the inside man and Josh Downs [1] like the outer man.
In the instant moment, Pittman bubbles on the outside, with Alie-Cox’s first step and Downs moving upfield. This looks like a bubble screen for Pittman, something the Colts show often. They try to get the Vikings down on the bubble screen, then release them vertically behind.
After this initial action, Alie-Cox breaks free vertically while the cleanup man and Pittman work inside and behind Alie-Cox.
Flacco looks to attack the middle of the field. He turns first to Alie-Cox, then back to Pittman. But the Vikings are a tricky group. They show a unique pre-snap defense, featuring Cam Bynum [24] play the position. In an instant, they switch to an inverted Cover 2 look, with Bynum moving down the middle of the field: the exact zone the Colts are looking to attack.
As Flacco begins to feel the pressure, he moves away from the middle and works his way down to hit Downs in space.
Downs gets the ball and picks up 5 yards on 2nd and 9. I’ve seen a few different measurements of success rate over the years, but the one I’ve heard most recently in coaching circles is gaining 50% of the yards needed on 1st or 2nd down and 100% of the yards needed on 3rd or 4th try. On that level, it was a successful play.
A really fun way to get to one of your fundamental passing concepts, working it on a horizontal play behind the line of scrimmage that you show off a lot.
Albums listened to: Les Raveonettes – Pe’ahi; Good Iver I, I
This article was originally published on Colts Wire: Chronicles of the passage of the Indianapolis Colts: Joe Flacco in week 9
