1 big play and how it happened: Dreessen TD

[Joe_is_the_best]

Hopefully this will by my weekly thing... I don't know as much about the intricacies of the game like Lomax, Anti, etc. but I'm trying to learn more.

Play: Joel Dreessen 22 yard pass from Peyton Manning, TD.

Here you can see the Broncos in shotgun with a 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 RB set. The Raiders appear to be playing cover 2 zone with the safeties drifting towards the sideline, Wheeler is playing man on Dreessen. The weakness here for the Raiders is the middle of the field, and that's exactly where Manning goes.



It starts with the play action, where Michael Huff gets sucked in and is taken out of the play. The line is blocking perfectly with Beadles/Walton double teaming Bryant. Shaughnessy is coming across Clady, who shoves him away from Manning.



As you can see below the SS Branch really had no chance and didn't read Manning well enough, choosing to stay equal distance from Dreessen and Decker. Giordano is also late to the play.



That leaves the LB, who turned to see the ball fly over his head to Dreessen. The play was well executed and played toward the Raiders weakness on the play, which was the middle of the field and also the fact that Giordano is a CB at heart not a S.



It didn't look like Peyton averted his gaze from Dreessen, so he needs to be careful with that in the future. Peyton has awesome placement though, which is refreshing. I know this was pretty simplistic, but it's always interesting to go back and analyze a play. Hope you liked it.
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[PackAtBroncos07]

The sole reason I have Dressen starting in my 20 team league is this play. I expected to see a lot of it this season and hopefully we keep seeing more of the same or similar plays.

[elwayfan07]

The Patriots have been murdered between the hashes so far this year. I fully expect both Tamme and Dreesen to have big games this week
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[JerseysFinest27]

Hey Joe, great idea with this. Im looking forward to the rest of the year and seeing what you have to offer.


Whats funny to me about this play is that Manning actually had every read open, showing either the Raiders defense really sucks or this was a perfect play call from McCoy/Manning. Look at how wide-open Decker is in the cover-2 hole! Same with Stokley in the post and Demaryius in the stop. It looks like Routt on the bottom of the screen, he clearly bit on the playaction, leaving Decker a wide-open whole in the defense along the sideline. It also seems like on the 3rd pictures hes calling for the ball. Thats the type of read Manning wants. He makes a good throw to Decker giving him one-on-one with the safety.

That being said, Manning took what the defense gave him. The safeties played Cover-2 over-the-top coverage along the sideline and Manning made a beautiful throw into tight coverage.

What a great playcall. Good job to McCoy and Manning there.
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[Cruzp23]

too me it looks like huff is blitzing which is why the safety stayed out wide the thing that made this play a touchdown was the perfectly thrown ball he couldnt have put it in a better spot if it was underthrown a lil cud have been picked
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[broncosfan07]

[Joe_is_the_best]

[broncosfan07]

[lomaxgr]

Great stuff Joe. I must say that the Raiders coverage baffled me on this play, and I think my limited coverage knowledge wasn't enough to see what they were playing. It is clear that everyone on the backend is in zone coverage, but Philip Wheeler is in man coverage on Dreessen. The key to the play is keep the two deep Safeties wide of the hashes.

Giordano is held by Demaryius' 12 yard curl route, and Branch is held wide because of Decker's exact same route. This frees up the seam, so it is vital Dreessen wins his 1v1 matchup. He did (not by much), but the perfect throw from Manning makes it (by NFL standards) a relatively easy catch.
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MUFC OK