May 23, 2013

Cleveland Browns Film Room: Week 1 Red Zone Offense

September 15, 2011 by 14 Comments

Each week this season, we’ll take a seat in our very own WFNY Browns film room and break down a little tape from the previous week.  Do enjoy.

This week, it would have been easy to kick off and show you all ’the huddle’ play, but really there isn’t much point to that. The end result would have been something we already know – a time out should have been called. Instead, I’d like to look at something the Browns put tremendous emphasis on in camp: the red zone offense.

If you went to camp, chances are you saw the Browns working on this. They have a couple different packages that they will run, but first, let’s take a look at the successful TD to Evan Moore.

The first thing we should look at is the personnel. On first down, the Browns ran Hillis with Marecic leading for a three-yard gain. On second down, the Browns went with a max protection pass, putting Greg Little, Josh Cribbs and Brian Robiskie into pass patterns. Colt rolled right and threw the ball away as both Robiskie and Little were well covered.

So on third down the Browns bring in Moore, who splits out wide left (top of screen), Cribbs is the wide man on the right, and Little is the slot receiver on Cribbs’ side. Ben Watson is the tight end on the right (strong) side, and Hillis lines up beside McCoy in the shotgun. This is your very standard pro set formation.

At the snap, we see Hillis take off immediately out of the backfield. We also see the Bengals’ safety is cheated towards the strong side of the formation – as he should be - which is going to help open the passing lane to Moore. The Bengals have seven men dropped in coverage. Ben Watson gets off the line without getting jammed.

Here we see why the play is successful: Hillis takes away the extra defender on that side of the ball with his route. Moore is able to get inside position, most likely because Hall is fearful of the fade route on which Moore has him at an extreme disadvantage. Ben Watson occupies both linebackers over the middle, creating a quick window for McCoy to deliver the ball.

Here’s another shot of Watson taking both linebackers out of the play. Also notice the safety is never going to cover that much ground to stop the quick slant pass.

(Sorry for the quality on this one, couldn’t get it just right.) Here we see Moore make the catch with Hall on his back shoulder. It was a perfect throw, and a well executed play. Save perhaps for Josh Cribbs, who got tangled up with his cover man on the other side and fell down.

**

Fast forward to the third quarter. On their first drive of the half, the Browns move the ball to the red zone again. McCoy hits Watson putting the ball on the Cincy 8-yard line, before Hillis gets a first down with a powerful run off-right guard to the 4-yard line. First and goal; Hillis tries going left and is stopped for a 1-yard gain. The Browns abandon the run at this point.

Does this formation look familiar? The difference here is McCoy is not in a shotgun and Hillis is lined up directly behind the QB. Robiskie is in Cribbs’ spot wide right at the top of your screen. Evan Moore is wide left, with Leon Hall lined up against him again. Moore is 6-feet-6-inches. Hall is 5-feet-11-inches. The fade route here, as before, favors the Browns.

It favors the Browns if it is executed correctly that is. Here the ball is under thrown. On a fade route you have to put the ball where only your player can get it. Moore had the outside position. If the ball is thrown to the back corner pylon, it is a touchdown.

Hall makes a nice play on the ball, there is no question of that. This pass could have still been a touchdown if Hall hadn’t played it as well as he did.

Now it is third and goal on the 3-yard line. Plenty of options if you are the Browns. Hillis. Watson. Moore again. Instead the Browns decide to go with a fade to Cribbs on the other side of the field. This may have been a route McCoy checked to at the line of scrimmage, as he seemed to make an adjustment at the line.

Same formation, same result. Bad execution. The ball comes out of McCoy’s hands very quickly here, and Cribbs doesn’t really have any position on his man. The ball ends up right in between the two, and their hands get tangled. Incomplete pass, and the Browns kick the field goal.

The problem with the fade, is that the ball is in the air before the QB really knows if the WR is going to get position or not. There is no time to look for a second option. Execution of this play has to be perfect, and in this case it wasn’t. That isn’t to say the Browns should scrap it, as they do have an advantage with Evan Moore on the play. McCoy has completed these passes before in practice and game situations. He will do so again.

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  • http://www.twitter.com/clevstrikesback Nick Paparodis

    Good read Rick! I love seeing more football games analyzed with film because it shows things its just impossible to see the first or even the second time around. It gives you a much more level headed understanding of who truly did good and bad on any given Sunday.

  • Vengeful Pat

    Great analysis Rick… I love these pieces. I am perfectly fine with the first fade route to Evan Moore… he’s an excellent receiver with a big height advantage so it makes perfect sense. If McCoy did indeed audible to the Cribbs fade, then I hate that call. Cribbs has not proven to be the type of receiver who is proficient in that situation, nor does he have a height advantage over the cornerback. So I’m guessing that either a) Shurmur called a play and the defense were lined up well to defend it or b) McCoy was embarrassed about underthrowing the previous attempt to Moore and wanted to show everyone that he can make the throw. The fade is especially tough in wet conditions. A QB needs to be extremely accurate with that throw and even a slight slip due to wet hands can mess it up.

  • TA

    Up by 1 at the 4 yard line in the third quarter is when I turned to my dad and told him we need to run Hillis on second down, run Hillis on third down and then run Hillis on fourth down if necessary. I was sadly disappointed with the next three plays. I kept waiting for Shurmur to unleash the beast, especially inside the 5.

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com/ Rick

    Pat I couldn’t agree more about the audible to Cribbs. I didn’t like the call when I saw it live, and I hated it more on tape. The defense was positioned in exactly the same formation as it was on both plays I diagrammed. I can’t imagine the audible call had anything to do with the blocking scheme. It may have been a check with me type of call at the line, but in either case McCoy would be the one making that decision.

  • humboldt

    Awesome Rick. More of these sorts of features throughout the season please!

  • MrCleaveland

    I hate the fade. Way too often it’s just a wasted down in a place where you can’t waste downs.

  • Charlie R

    If you find yourselves in a second and goal situation from the 3 o4 4 yard line and you have a back like Peyton Hillis and you still decide to pass, how do you not use play action!? The Browns didn’t use play action – to freeze the LBs and safeties – on second or third down. Also, fades are terrible because it forces a QB to make a quick decision, not allowing them to read through their progressions…perhaps finding an open receiver.

  • Justin

    Excellent idea to do this guys! Love it. Can’t wait to see more analysis like this each week. Hopefully breaking down more touchdown drives of course.

    Keep up the wonderful work.

  • mgbode

    one of my favorite goalline plays is the scissor-run. raiders ran it last week with Reece and McFadden though not on the goalline.

    RB and right side of OL run/block as if it’s a sweep right. Left side of OL blocks a dive left. QB takes a step as if he’s going to toss the sweep and hands it behind to the FB who has not moved (and he takes the dive left).

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com/ Rick

    Charlie- good point about the play action. If you are going to run play action, this would be the place to do it, and hit Watson on an out route.

  • Vengeful Pat

    Rick – wow if they were in the same defensive positions, then yeah it sounds like McCoy got too big for his britches. A naked bootleg would have been fun there… McCoy’s got good speed, but then I guess there’s also the concern of him taking a big hit near the goal line. Play-action is also a fantastic idea.

  • -bobby-

    What I would like to know is if Moore gets an option route there and its up to him and McCoy to make the right reads. If they have an option btwn fade and slant, and see the CB cover in then obviously hit that fade. If he lines up even or outside of Moore then the slant has to do it. Im guessing when in shotgun the S was able to cheat down showing a big lane for the slant. When in the ace formation the S doesnt know which way peyton will go causing Moore to run a fade. Hopefully in the future McCoy locks that pass down so he is hitting that back pylon everytime. Moore could be extremely dangerous there. After the 1st fade, I agree with everyone that its ridiculous to go for it again. I dont know if PA is the right call because then your back to throwing a fade (with the natural assumption of the defenders biting in). A rollout of any kind, or a draw would have been interesting to see. They certainly need the redzone O to be more effective this year then it has been the past 12 season+ 1 game.

  • Shamrock

    Moore and Watson should always be on the field it’s McCoy’s only hope.

  • RyInCBus

    I’ve got to imagine that the failed RZ trip was a result of an inexperienced QB running a new system in the first game of the season. I’ll be much more concerned if we’re still dissecting this type of misread in Week 6. But great stuff Rick! Please do this more often!