Alliance... » Film Review: Safeties Jordan Lucas and Armani Watts

On Sunday Eric Fisher Jersey , the Kansas City Chiefs defense showed up in a huge way, actively outplaying the Jacksonville Jaguars defense, and holding the Jaguars to 14 points — seven of which were in garbage time — and forcing five turnovers.The Chiefs offense was better than they’re being given credit for.In the first half, the Chiefs did pretty much anything they wanted on just about every drive — but that simply can’t be the story after the defensive performance.As much as I’d love to bring everyone down into The Laboratory to watch snap after snap of Dee Ford dominating — while I munch on popcorn and drink some tea, as I do on the AP Laboratory Podcast that drops Wednesday mornings — even that can’t be the lead story for this week.The Chiefs lost safety Eric Murray on the first drive of the game — a game in which the Jaguars threw the football over 60 times! Murray was replaced by fourth-round rookie Armani Watts for most of the first half. But then Watts suffered an injury and 18th string safety Jordan Lucas had to step up and play huge snaps down the stretch. These young safeties were not only asked to play major roles, but played a significant part in this defensive performance — and are giving Chiefs fans a preview of what could be around the corner for them.So let’s fire up all the screens in The AP Lab, and start digging through the film to see how these guys were able to help the Chiefs achieve an AFC Clash Of The Titans win.Safety Armani WattsShowing improvementEditor’s note: We should remind you that on Tuesday, the Chiefs placed Watts — along with right guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif — on injured reserve.Safety Dan Sorensen was already on injured reserve.All three could conceivably be ready to play before season’s end, but under NFL rules, only two can return to the roster this year.So it’s a fairly safe bet that unless Duvernay-Tardif’s injury keeps him out much longer than expected, Watts is done for the year.In college, Watts really struggled in man coverage — whether it was on slot receivers or tight ends. His short area quickness and change of direction just aren’t exceptional, making it hard to stick with athletes in space. That carried over to training camp. In camp, Watts also had a hard time handling press coverage, and was often beaten quickly off the snap. Austin Seferian-Jenkins isn’t the most athletic tight end in the NFL right now — or maybe even offensive tackle on his own team — but here, Watts does a great job fighting through the physicality to hold the press. Watts keeps Seferian-Jenkins from getting into his route — or picking off another defender — and shows good feet in the process.This was goodIn college, Watts was an aggressive player that had good instincts, and always looked to make plays on the football. This is another rep against Seferian-Jenkins — this time on a slant over the middle with no help in man coverage. Watts does a good job staying balanced during the opponent’s outside fake, and trails behind him without getting grabby. When you are trailing by this much, it’s hard to undercut a slant route without hooking the receiver’s waist and extending across their body, but here, Watts pulls it off perfectly. Why to be skepticalWatts spent the vast majority of his snaps against Jacksonville in man coverage or underneath zones, and while his man coverage was solid overall, he wasn’t challenged or pressed in zone at all. His ability to have proper zone spacing — as well as his ability to read and react to multiple routes — is still an unknown. But the bigger question right now is still his run fits.The depth Watts gets here is debatable — and that could be a coaching issue — but the worry comes from how hesitant and slow he is to come to the run. Watts comes downhill slowly, and then commits the cardinal sin of slowing his feet, getting stuck in mud, and trying to react laterally to what the runner is doing.Watts has to learn to attack and reduce the running lane to the sideline, and react more quickly to the run — especially when he plays up in the box. Safety Jordan LucasShowing improvementBefore being traded to Kansas City just before the season started, Lucas hadn’t seen much playing time in the Miami Dolphins defense, and while this is just one game Cheap Mitch Morse Jersey , Lucas looked really good.Lucas was exceptional in nearly every aspect of the game, and it’s worth noting the Chiefs played him as the center field safety more than anywhere else. He also saw a few reps in underneath coverage and man-to-man. Jacksonville tight end Niles Paul is a solid athlete, and here he has a one-on-one matchup with Lucas on a corner route, with the only help coming on a slant or drag. Paul tries to shake Lucas off the line, but Lucas stays patient.When Paul tries to press vertically into his body, Lucas responds with physicality to stick right on his hip as Paul breaks to the corner. Later in the game — also in man coverage — Lucas showed fantastic feel working through traffic on a crossing route, and working from depth to undercut another pass attempt to Paul.This interception looks like a simple overthrow by Blake Bortles, but Lucas’ ability to read the field and stay in a position to take away both seams was impressive. Lucas does a good job balancing his positioning with his hips so he can break on either route immediately — all while climbing to depth.As soon as the quarterback steps to deliver the ball, Lucas is tracking it so he can adjust while coming downhill. The return is just amazing from every angle.Lucas’ ability to read the field as a center field safety like this — on a difficult route combination — is very impressive for a player with so little playing time.This was goodLucas really flies around the field — but does so responsibly, and with purpose. He breaks quickly with good angles overall — really squeezing into help or the sideline — and seems to have a fantastic grasp of each situation.Here he adjusts Terrance Smith’s alignment to play with outside leverage based on the receiver split and the coverage, and then Lucas stays home to help Smith as the post is shown. He breaks out with the receiver just in case he can undercut the ball, but as soon as the ball is thrown to the underneath receiver, he breaks immediately with speed and a great angle. This is big-time help in a clutch fourth-down stop. Why to be skepticalNone of this is to say Lucas was perfect against the Jaguars, but all in all, there just isn’t much to be worried over. There are small zone spacing issues — as well as knowing when a guy can be passed off early and when he has to stick on them the entire way — but that will come with experience.This is a bit of a nitpick, because Lucas reads this play perfectly, stays over the top and works the routes across the field. The one problem is that his first step on his break is overly aggressive, which ends up allowing the reception just in front of him.You’d like to see Lucas attack from depth-forward, or to break laterally and then come downhill at the ball — like his interception from later in the game — so he’s the one cutting off the wide receiver, rather than trying to run behind the receiver on the route.Are these young guns ready to push for even more snaps?Not only was this a great game for the Chiefs, it also gave some young talent the opportunity to showcase their abilities. Watts had been seeing his snap counts increase due to injuries — and was picking up the defense — so Watts being placed on injured reserve is bad news. But the good news is what we saw from Jordan Lucas.Even though Lucas hadn’t been given many opportunities, he made one heck of a case to be given more — thanks to his ability to close on the ball carriers quickly, read the field as a deep safety, and execute well against good athletes in man coverage.And with Eric Murray’s sprained ankle, it seems likely that Lucas could get those opportunities, and prove that he can contribute in the NFL.Chiefs vs. Broncos: How the Chiefs offense beats Denver The Kansas City Chiefs’ offense could stop playing football at halftime and would still be tied for 12th in the NFL in terms of points per game. That’s just silly to digest.Everyone sees how great the Chiefs’ offense has been this year but to put it to numbers compared to the rest of the NFL is simply unbelievable. This week, the common theme in the national and local media has been how to defend the Chiefs’ offense and Patrick Mahomes.The consensus is that no one really knows: there are theories out that are logically sound but no one has been able to implement them. Will the Denver Broncos be the team to finally find a blueprint to solve this mystery or will they be another 30-plus point sacrificial lamb? Craig and I (Kent is still watching Pat Mahomes’ throws from Week 1, or something) got down into The Laboratory and started digging through Denver Broncos film to determine who they are on both sides of the football.Denver Broncos defensePersonnel preferencesLike just about every NFL team in 2018, the Broncos spend most of their time in nickel or dime packages rather than a traditional/heavy/base defense. Against the Chiefs, assuming they follow their trends Womens Eric Murray Jersey , the Broncos will continue to keep that as their base defense getting both their third cornerback (Adam Jones or Isaac Yiadom) and third safety (Will Parks) on the field often. Pass defenseThe Broncos present a unique and new challenge for the Chiefs this year as they are predominantly man-to-man team. Up to this point, the Pittsburgh Steelers played the most man coverage against the Chiefs, and that was more as a “change-up” to their zone defense to throw Mahomes off his game. The Broncos, on the other hand, are going to run a ton of man coverage and challenge the quarterback to throw into tighter windows. The shells behind the man coverage do change up from a single-deep safety to a split safety look, with the splits being a good chunk heavier to the former. In man coverage, the Broncos’ cornerbacks look more comfortable pressing at the line of scrimmage than mirroring and playing off-coverage, but they will mix up various techniques between press-man, press-mirror, press-bail and off-coverage. Unlike years past, the Broncos cornerbacks aren’t lockdown guys that don’t need help over the top and scare opposing quarterbacks. Chris Harris Jr. is still very good but is being forced into less favorable matchups compared to years past, Bradley Roby has been up and down all year and Jones or Yiadom haven’t been able to repeat Roby’s success at nickel cornerback. Outside of Justin Simmons, their safeties and inside linebackers struggle to run with athletes and are really hoping to deny the ball long enough for the pass rush to get home. Their pass rush is still very talented off the EDGE but may lack the inside threat they expected Derek Wolfe to turn into. They move their EDGE rushers around from play to play, but Von Miller spends most of his time on the offense’s right while Bradley Chubb gets most of his snaps on the left. Shane Ray has had a bit of resurgence this year but is still mostly used as a rotational rusher. Be on the lookout for some snaps with Chubb playing on the interior with Ray outside of him as the Chiefs try to spread the field. Run defenseThe Broncos play sound defense versus the run with their defensive line taking up blocks and space allowing their linebackers to flow towards the ball. Their linebackers are big and strong and are willing to meet blockers and fill gaps quickly but aren’t the rangiest bunch. Chubb and Miller do a good job keeping contain and there often isn’t huge running lanes available. The second level and oftentimes box safety play run-first, which has been a big change for the Broncos of two years ago when the run defense was a major weakness.How the Chiefs winBasic gameplanBeing the first team the Chiefs are facing with heavy man-to-man principles, this game is a wild card from a schematic standpoint. Rest assured, Andy Reid has quite the package of plays he hasn’t shown yet based on this. The expectation should still be for the Chiefs to spread the field, throw the ball early and often and attack all levels of the field. The horizontal passing game should play a slightly larger role this week as defenders have to cover the entire field rather than spaces.Look for route combinations and alignments that cause chaos, for the Chiefs to manipulate the second level and for matchups to be isolated when they favor the Chiefs. The Chiefs may not have a ton of running room early in the game but as it stretches into the second half, the lanes will open up as the box lightens. Clutter is your friendNormally, defenses would prefer multiple players being in the same space rather than offenses, but when done on purpose with a goal in mind, it can be a huge benefit for the offense. Seen on the slant touchdown above, the rub by the slot wide receiver gives Sammy Watkins extra space at the catch point to collect the ball and square upfield for extra yardage. When defenses go man to man with their coverage, they open themselves up to these rubs and pick type routes by the offense. Beyond simple picks and rubs, the Chiefs should utilize Reid’s background in the West Coast offense and spread the field horizontally and use a variety of mesh concepts to get that extra couple of steps. Another way to create that chaos is through alignment. When an offense goes with tight or stacked formations, there is a natural rub on the defensive backs off the line of scrimmage, as they have to fight through their own teammate/s and other receivers. To counter that, teams will either switch their assignments based on release and often have one defensive back playing in off-coverage, which allows good wide receivers to take advantage and manipulate their leverage. When working from such a tight split Youth Tyreek Hill Jersey , there is a lot of field the off-cornerback has to cover, giving up a two-way go to the wide receiver rather easily.Make the second level moveNormally, RPOs are designed to beat zone defenses as they pull players who are watching the ball out of their assignments. To combat that, teams have shifted to man coverage against teams that favor RPOs, and in the cyclical world, offenses have not adjusted to man coverage vs RPOs. Tagging a slant onto the traditional bubble RPO when facing man coverage has been one of those adjustments. Rather than trying to read a second-level defender, against man, the goal is to manipulate a box defender (often inside linebacker) that must flow with the running back whether a run or pass is called. This player is then taken out of position to help any other cornerback that may have lost leverage which leads back to the slant. As a cornerback, a slant is an incredibly difficult play to defend in man coverage based on the amount of field there is to cover. When all inside help is lost, a cornerback has to be jumping the slant route to even have a chance. Look for the Chiefs to dial back up these man-beater routes attached to RPO looks that pull the help defenders out of the equation.Additionally, another ideology against man coverage when an RPO is called is to turn the play into pure play-action and attack over the top. A slant-and-go or any other double move will give the cornerback the idea of another quick pass out of the RPO when the goal in its entirety is to attack over the top. It’s hard to run a pure RPO offense against man coverage, but there are ways to still manipulate the defense. Exploit your matchupsThe matchups are easily determined against man coverage and when there is a WR-CB matchup that favors the offense, the Chiefs need to give their guys a chance.Whether attacking a safety tasked with man coverage or the nickel cornerback, there is going to be a clear mismatch on any given play that favors the offense. It won’t always result in a vertical win but when you have the speed and weapons the Chiefs do, this kind of play is possible or even likely every play. Anytime the Broncos decide to go middle of the field open (MOFO) and put a linebacker on coverage vs. either of Kansas City’s tight ends, that’s a massive mismatch right down the seams. After the Steelers game, this shouldn’t be something seen frequently. To avoid the one-on-one matchups on the outside, Denver will have to cycle to split safety looks as well.Attack even boxesAt some point, playing man coverage will result in more resources being poured into the pass coverage rather than run defense. Inside linebackers will stay home a little longer, defensive linemen will turn into safeties on the field who play deep/out of the box and split safety looks will be the norm. As the defense morphs into this more conservative, protect-over-the-top defense, the box gets lighter and the numbers become favorable for the offense.Even when the defense is clearly spinning a safety into the box late, the numbers still favor the offense and should present a pure one-on-one of running back vs. safety as long as blockers are executing. Whether the running back wins the matchup or not doesn’t matter when five-plus yards are regularly picked up before contact. To this point, teams have played zoned against the Chiefs, allowing them to keep numbers in the box while attempting to defend the pass. With man coverage preferred by the Broncos, they won’t have the same luxury. ExpectationsThe Denver Broncos defense presents a unique and new challenge to the Kansas City Chiefs offense, but it isn’t anything that should catch them by surprise. It’s a basic defense from a schematic perspective that asks for high levels of execution that haven’t been met on a consistent basis at this point. The game will challenge Mahomes‘ ball placement and decision-making but there shouldn’t be too many looks or situations that he’s confused as to what he is seeing. The run game may start slow like weeks past but should have the opportunity to pick up in the second half.The key to the offense winning is going to be the ability to exploit one-on-one matchups, whether that be by design with rub/pick routes or by pure talent. The use of RPOs to manipulate the help defenders and the ability to attack the even-numbered boxes only assist in generating those favorable matchups. The Chiefs are one of the few teams in the NFL equipped to beat man coverage in every possible way at every position on the field, making this an extremely dangerous game for the Broncos defense.