FanPost

Breaking Down the 2014 Defense

Now that the Giants have played their dress rehearsal preseason game I thought it would be a good time to make a closer examination of what they're doing on defense. I'm sure there are plenty of wrinkles that won't be unveiled until the real season starts, but the basic stuff we see now will probably continue through the year. Using this cut-up of defensive plays vs. the Jets let's break down what the first unit did before halftime.

Defensive line alignments:

  • JPP and Kiwanuka take the overwhelming majority of DE snaps and stayed on the right and left side respectively.
  • Hankins lines up as the RDT between the C and LG. He stayed on the field for almost every snap.
  • Jenkins lines up as LDT over the RG and rushes through his inside and outside shoulders.
  • Patterson was by far the most frequent sub coming in for Jenkins.
  • Ayers played a few snaps at RDT and LDE.
  • NASCAR is still happening. Moore's only three snaps were as LDE with Kiwi and Ayers as DTs and JPP as RDE on 3rd and longs.

Play-by-play of back seven alignments and coverages:

Play #1 (0:13) - Nickel Cover-3. Brown blitz from an advanced position. Rolle deep center. McClain strongside, Williams weakside.


Play #2 (0:35) - Base vs. run. Kennard strongside near the LOS, Williams weakside.


Play #3 (0:45) - Nickel Cover-2 w/ 3-man rush vs. a 4WR 1 TE look. Jenkins drops into central coverage with McClain in a deeper MIKE zone behind him. Jenkins ends up on tight end. Williams on a slot receiver.


Play #4 (0:56) - Base Cover-1, McClain blitz, Williams strongside near the LOS in man coverage on one paired TE, Brown forward to cover the other, Kennard weakside assigned to RB. Rolle deep center.


Play #5 (1:15) - Nickel vs. run. Williams strongside, McClain weakside.


Play #6 (1:25) - Base Cover-3. Kennard strongside near LOS, Williams weakside. Rolle forward to flat, Brown deep center.


Play #7 (1:42) - Nickel Cover-3 with both LBs, Thurmond and Rolle showing blitz but all drop into coverage. DRC vs. Decker playing much further off than McBride. Brown deep center.


Play #8 (1:51) - Base Cover-3 vs. 2 tight ends. Rolle comes forward to play his flat, Williams the other, McClain and Kennard in the middle. Brown deep center.


Play #9 (2:10) - Base vs. run. Williams strongside near LOS, Kennard weakside, Rolle coming in on a blitz.


Play #10 (2:19) - Base Cover-2. Williams strongside, Kennard weakside.


Play #11 (2:49) - Base vs. run. Williams strongside, Kennard weakside. Rolle playing up and Brown deep.


Play #12 (2:58) - Base Cover-3 with Rolle up and Brown deep. Kennard playing close to the LOS over one TE, Williams off on the other.


Play #13 (3:25) - Nickel vs. run. Williams strongside, McClain weakside.


Play #14 (3:50) - Nickel vs run. Brown playing up over the tight end as McClain appeared to be blitzing from the weakside.


Play #15 (4:04) - Base Cover-3 vs. a double shotgun back formation. Williams over slot receiver, Rolle up, Brown deep.


Play #16 (4:31) - Nickel blitz zero vs. 3WR 2TE. McClain and Rolle rush. Williams and Thurmond manned up on the tight ends, Brown on a slot receiver.


Play #17 (4:55) - Nickel vs. run. McClain strongside, Williams weakside. Rolle looked to be blitzing. Brown deep.


Play #18 (5:04) - Nickel vs. run. Brown up and Rolle deep.


Play #19 (5:27) - Nickel vs. run. Rolle up and Brown deep.


Play #20 (5:37) - Nickel vs. run Williams up close to LOS over the tight end. Brown up and Rolle deep.


Play #21 (5:46) - Base Cover-1. Kennard blitzes from aggressive SLB position. Rolle takes the tight end he abandons, Williams takes Amaro in the slot. Brown is the deep man.


Play #22 (6:15) - Nickel vs. run. Both safeties deep.


Play #23 (6:25) - Base Cover-1 vs 3WR 2TE with Rolle in deep zone and McClain in short center zone. Kennard and Brown manned up on receivers, Williams and Thurmond on tight ends.


Play #24 (6:40) - Base man across the board with two deep safeties vs. 3WR 2TE. McClain playing safety with Rolle as it's a very short field. Kennard and Thurmond in man coverage on WRs, Williams and Brown on tight ends.


Play #25 (7:08) - Goal line package with no CBs + flat linebacker/safety zone across the back.


Play #26 (7:31) - Nickel vs. run. Williams playing aggressively over the tight end.


Play #27 (7:38) - Nickel Cover-2 with Hankins dropping into coverage.


Play #28 (7:56) - Nickel vs run. Looked like it was going to be Cover-2.


Play #29 (8:05) - Nickel Cover-2 with Williams doing the deep middle drop.


Play #30 (8:30) - Base vs. run. Williams strongside, Kennard weakside, Rolle forward.


Play #31 (8:35) - Base Cover-3. Williams blitz from strongside frees up Kiwanuka. Rolle forward.


Play #32
(8:55) - Nickel Cover-3. Brown forward.


Play #33 (9:06) - Base Cover-1. Williams strongside, Kennard weakside, Rolle blitz.


Play #34 (9:30) - Nickel Cover-3. Williams strongside blitz, Rolle up, Brown deep.


Play #35 (9:57) - Nickel Cover-3. Rolle up, Brown deep.

Identifying tendencies:

  • This looks to be a predominantly Cover-3 defense.
  • The starting cornerbacks play sides. DRC on the left, (will be) Prince on the right.
  • Not much press coverage but the corners play fairly close up most of the time.
  • We don't play dime packages.
  • No three-safety looks either. The only back seven personnel shift is Kennard/Thurmond.
  • The safeties frequently switch roles between deep cover man and blitzer/short cover man.
  • The reason for that is they keep to one side - Rolle right and Brown left, so the coverage in front of them dictates who goes deep and who comes up to cover a flat (or man up on someone as we see less frequently); and if you want a blitz from the right it's got to be Rolle, from the left Brown.
  • In nickel Williams almost always plays over the tight end as the best cover linebacker. McClain occasionally takes the strongside role putting Williams in the middle, probably to give him a smaller zone in certain blitz situations.
  • Williams and Kennard play over the tight end alternately in base three linebacker defense. Kennard offers superior run defense on the strongside (though Williams' has been solid as well this preseason) while Williams is the better cover option on the tight end (though Kennard appears fine when asked to man a short zone as was pretty much always the case in this game). I'm not really sure how who plays where when is being determined though. In man situations I'm assuming Williams will be the preference - in play # 4 Kennard is played on the weakside even though there are double tight ends on the right and we see man coverage with Williams and Brown taking the assignments.
  • The linebacker covering the tight end often lines up very aggressively. This position allows for more effective blitzing and run defending, press-bail zone coverage and press-man coverage.
  • Mostly 4-man rushes but some linebacker and safety blitzes. Nothing too interesting beside that zero blitz but they're probably (hopefully) saving more of that stuff for the regular season.

Visualizing the Giants' Cover-3 defense:

Cover-3 was the most common concept employed so let's map out how it happens with our personnel.


It's defining characteristics are the two deep sideline zones manned by the outside corners and the deep central zone patrolled by one of the safeties. (In these questionable MS Paint illustrations you'll have to imagine those outer CB zones are a bit fatter toward the end - once they've moved all the way back they're responsible for a full 1/3 of the deep field.) DRC and Prince will always have those same jobs but Rolle and Brown will not. In basic seven man coverages one will take the deep zone and one will come forward to cover the flat on his side of the field. Here's how it looks in base three linebacker defense:

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The strongside linebacker, Williams in this case though Kennard has assumed the same role, moves out to cover the flat on his side of the field. That side's safety, in this case Brown, takes the deep center zone while the other comes forward to take the other flat zone. The middle and weakside linebacker play a pair of central zones to complete the coverage.


In nickel the same principle applies but it's the slot corner's position that dictates what the safeties do:

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In this case Thurmond is on Rolle's side of the defense across from the opponent's slot receiver and takes responsibility of that side's flat, allowing Rolle to lay back and take the deep center zone. Brown's side has nobody doing that job so it becomes his. The two linebackers Beason and Williams take their central zones with Williams opposite the tight end.


Blitzing out of Cover-3 is easy because the back end remains covered by the pair of speedy outside corners and the free safety. What you give up is numbers in the short/intermediate zones, not too great a risk. Here's one we've seen with Kennard blitzing from an aggressive SLB position:

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As you can see, Rolle, Beason and Williams have to cover a swath of the field which would otherwise be manned by four men. A safety blitz shows a similar tradeoff:

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Note that the linebackers are flipped in this scenario with Beason over the tight end to give him a more manageable zone similar to McClain in Plays #1 and #17.

In conclusion, things I like:

  • Cover-3 takes advantage of our speed at cornerback.
  • Cover-1 and double high safety nickel looks utilize the man coverage abilities of DRC/Prince/Thurmond/Williams to lock down the primary receiving threats
  • Experimenting with Williams as the MIKE in nickel Cover-2.
  • Minimizing Kennard's man cover assignments on tight ends. I saw a couple of these vs. Buffalo and wasn't sure it was a good idea. Now he's pretty much just playing zone, blitzing or matched up with a back if it's man, two curious assignments on wideouts notwithstanding.
  • Ayers at DT.

And things I don't:

  • Running Cover-2 at all.
  • Dropping DTs into coverage even if it's occasional.
  • An unwillingness to ever take the MIKE off the field and play dime with JWill as the sole linebacker can lead to really bad looks like in play #3.
  • Having the safeties plays sides. Rolle should be the full time aggressive/strong safety. He's truly great in that role but has had some issues with deep zone coverage in the past
  • Kiwanuka at DT.
  • Moore only being used when they have four DEs on the field.

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