On Sunday against the Colts, Washington's secondary gave up touchdown passes of 30, 48, 73 and 79 yards. There was another pass that should have been caught by Colts tight end Coby Fleener that would have gone for a 53-yard touchdown. Fleener was so wide open he could have moon walked into the end zone had he just taken the time to make sure he caught the pass. The only physical breakdown, where you had two Washington guys in position to make the tackle and they both whiffed, was one Fleener's 73-yard touchdown. The rest of the plays were all coverage busts, so I wanted to diagram those plays to show what went wrong.
Washington’s secondary is the team’s biggest problem, not RG3
The RGIII and Colt McCoy quarterback drama is far more interesting for the media to dissect, and while it’s not pretty under center in Washington, it’s the secondary that has been the bigger disaster. Stephen White reviews its latest work.
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The first play happened with 6:13 left in the first quarter; the score was 3-0, Washington, and the Colts were looking at first-and-10. This was the Colts' third drive of the game on offense after the first two ended in turnovers. Andrew Luck fumbled on their first play and then threw an interception on the second drive. Needless to say, the offense needed to get on track in a hurry. A Fleener 30-yard reception was just what the doctor ordered.
The Colts split Fleener out wide to the left then had him motion in inside of receiver T.Y. Hilton. On the snap, Hilton (blue line) ran a skinny post while Fleener (red line) ran a 5-yard out-and-up. If the route combination looks familiar, it's basically the old scissors route I drew up earlier in the season when the Broncos had success with it against the Seahawks.
This second image shows how Washington matched up with the route combination. It appears to be something like cover 2 man with corner David Amerson (yellow circle) matched up against Hilton (yellow circle) and safety Phillip Thomas helping out over the top of the route. Now that would seem to leave linebacker Trent Murphy (red circle) on Fleener (red circle) man-to-man. However, Murphy doesn't follow Fleener even on the "out" part of the route.
As you can see in this shot taken after the snap, Amerson and Thomas are converging on Hilton while Fleener is running away from Murphy, who has his eyes planted back in the backfield. It’s game over at this point. All Fleener has to do is catch this ball and it’s as good as six points.
As we will see on the next play, catching the ball when you are wide open isn’t always a given.
Fleener had an opportunity to add to his already impressive day had he simply caught a pass up the seam when he was wiiiiiiide-ass open. It would have covered 53 yards and resulted in an easy score had he just secured the catch first. Instead of four catches for 127 yards and two touchdowns, he could have had five catches for 180 yards and three touchdowns, the latter two numbers representing what would have been career highs. He literally let it slip right through his hands. Still, he was wide open, so it’s worth taking a look at what got Washington’s secondary in trouble again.
This first shot shows the route combinations on both sides, because this time it was something on the opposite side of Fleener (red line) that was crucial to him getting open deep down the seam. That “something” was Hilton (yellow line) running a go route on cornerback Bashaud Breeland. Reggie Wayne’s (blue line) 10-yard comeback route also played a role in getting him open. Tight end Jack Doyle’s (white line) route to the flat didn’t really make much of a difference, but I didn’t want him to feel left out so I drew it up too.
Now this time it appears that Washington is going with some version of cover 3 with a single high safety, Ryan Clark (yellow circle). Clark ends up matching up over the top of Hilton's (yellow circle) go route even though Breeland (yellow circle) appears to be in good position the whole way. On the other side, Amerson (blue circle), who did not have a good day at all, decided to jump Wayne's (blue circle) comeback route even though linebacker Keenan Robinson (blue circle) is buzz dropping under the route rather than staying deep, which was a huge problem.
With Amerson up on Wayne’s route and Clark rolling over the top of Hilton’s route, you can see that there is nobody left to cover Fleener’s (red circle) route deep up the seam. It appeared that Luck was also a little surprised at how open Fleener was, because his pass wasn’t really on target. It was high and a little short which, in theory, could have allowed the Washington defenders to catch up to Fleener before he crossed the goal line. In reality, those dudes were so far out of position that they would have needed rocket boosters to run him down. Unfortunately, Fleener got a lil’ too excited and dropped what was a catchable ball.
No matter, with the way Washington was playing on the back end, there were sure to be more opportunities to go deep.
For example, the next play we will examine, when Colts receiver Donte Moncrief hit the Washington secondary for 48 yards and a touchdown up the seam on the other side of the field.
Hakeem Nicks (yellow line) and Hilton (yellow line) both run 5-yard stops. Moncrief (red line) starts off a yard or so inside the numbers and then runs right to the inside edge of the numbers up the field on a go route. On the other side, Wayne (white line) runs another 10-yard stop while Fleener (blue line) runs a deep corner route that will end up being crucial to Moncrief getting open.
For Washington’s part, it appears to be in another single high safety look with Clark (blue circle) being the guy who is supposed to have the deep middle. I think it’s cover 3 again. If so, that Amerson (yellow circle) kid is evidently not one to learn from his previous mistakes, because he again jumped a short route, this time Nicks’ (yellow circle) 5-yard stop route. That wouldn’t have been so bad, but Clark rolled over to cover Fleener’s (blue circle) corner route, which initially looked like a run-of-the-mill go route up the seam.
This is just after the snap, but the jig is already up for the Washington secondary. You can see Amerson (yellow circle) breaking ever so slightly up while Moncrief (red circle) is blazing up the seam and Clark (blue) is already headed to the other side of the field. I mean, seriously, this was like taking candy from a baby, but not all evil and stuff. Even Geno Smith couldn’t have fucked that play up. Too soon?
OK, let’s move on to the second 70-yard-plus touchdown through the air that the Colts pulled off Sunday.
Let me start off by saying I know a lot about defense but ... I don’t know what kind of fucking coverage this is supposed to be by Washington. Regardless, it might want to rip that page out of the playbook and set it on fire.
Anyway, I’ve drawn up all the route combinations, but there are really only two routes that mattered on this play. The second-most important route is Hilton (yellow line) running a 10-yard out-and-up on the right side from the middle of a trips formation. The most important route, the money-maker so to speak, is Moncrief (red line) running a skinny post. Yeah, it’s sort of the same as the aforementioned scissors combo, but with a different payoff this time.
What might be most noticeable about this second shot is the fact that there are three different defenders with yellow circles around them, denoting that all three guys ended up covering Hilton (yellow circle). Now look, T.Y. Hilton is a baaaaad boy, but you don’t exactly need to pay that much attention to the man. That’s especially true if you are Thomas and appear to be playing a two-deep coverage of some kind.
You might have also noticed that Moncrief (red circle) doesn’t have a corresponding red circle around anybody on defense. Yeah ...
Amerson (yellow circle) started off covering Moncrief up the field initially, but then the guy with maybe the least amount of awareness on the field all day noticed Hilton running the out-and-up and decided to drop off Moncrief and get over the top of Hilton’s route. I can’t even honestly say whether Amerson was wrong or not, but I will say it’s never good to be involved in this many coverage busts in one game. But in fairness, it could have been Thomas (yellow circle) who screwed up by trying to get over the top of the out-and-up and allowing Moncrief to run right past him up the field all alone.
Maybe.
All I do know is 79 yards later, Moncrief’s score made it 49-27, Colts, and Washington didn’t get closer the rest of the way. I know the quarterback controversy is getting all the attention right now, but if Washington doesn’t fix the back end of its defense, it won’t much matter who lines up under center. It certainly hasn’t to this point.
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