The Chiefs Wide Open 4Q TDs and What to Learn from Them
Feb 13, 2023 3:46 pm
Coach ,
Kansas City seemed to be a heavy underdog with no one taking them in the pregame show, but Andy Reid, Eric Bienemy and the offensive staff, set the Chiefs up for a win with two well designed plays for touchdowns.
The Chiefs used two well designed plays to take advantage of man coverage and create wide open throws for Patrick Mahomes.
The first play brought the receiver inside on motion and popped him right back out to the flat. The rest of the play was a split zone look, but it didn’t really matter. Mahomes saw the defensive back turn to run and he knew he had the flat.
Kelce was running a corner route, but the play was clearly designed knowing how the Eagles defensive backs would react to chase the motion across with speed in order to not get beat on the other side of the formation. The problem for them was the receiver put on the brakes and went right back out to the flat.
The second play was similar, but this one was off of a drop back action. The same motion was utilized with the receiver running in with speed to the inside receiver and then quickly reversing and getting into the flat. The defender reacted the same way as the first touchdown and the throw and catch were wide open again.
The Chiefs studied the defense well and called the right play in the right situation twice and the rest is history.
Obviously, what we learn from this is that motion puts major stress on a defense and can open up opportunities for the offense.
It’s a simple thing you can do to give your offense an edge.
I often hear coaches talking about shifts and motions as “window dressing.” One of the most common uses of movement is to try to disguise some of your favorite formations by shifting or putting a player in motion into the formation that you prefer to use in order to keep the defense from getting early recognition keys and to identify theirs.
This is certainly a sound strategy and a great use of movement. A shift of strength forces the defense to recognize, communicate and adjust. You can view this as three more opportunities in which the defense can make a mistake. They have to recognize, communicate and adjust. If they get one of those wrong, the offense can have an advantage.
The key to making motion stressful is the speed at which it is run. Both Chiefs receivers were in a full sprint to make it look like they were going to go all the way across. That made the difference.
Let’s take a look at how three different coaches utilize motion.
Stress points to make the pass game better
Defenses certainly want to find a way to disrupt timing, especially if that mean the ball gets checked down and not to your top receiver.
A strategy that works is to utilize motion. Eric Marty, offensive coordinator for the USFL Michigan Panthers likes to put stress on defense PRE-SNAP. His belief is that motions create two formations on the same play
Coach Marty creates STRESS POINTS for the defense and makes the pass game better.
Here Coach breaks down his return motion can help free up your dynamic route runner (click on image for video):
Get defenders to exchange roles
In this example, we used a shift then a motion to get the free safety to have to rock down to support and the strong safety to roll back to deep middle. In studying this team this was a match up advantage to get out full back on their free safety who was not nearly as good on run support. Here it is:
Video: Movement to Change Defender Responsibilities
Escort motion
Paul Alexander identifies what he calls escort motion used by the Ravens. This type of motion does present problems for the defense in how it affects numbers. Coach Alexander explains here:
For a team like the Ravens that sees plenty of cover 3 to get an 8-man box, this kind of motion creates a number advantage as Coach Alexander illustrates in the diagram below. The defense doesn’t rock down and the corner is left to support:
Return to the same side
Mark Carney, the new Offensive Coordinator for Kent State, shows how they utilize a receiver motion across then returning back out to the other side to create a bubble surface while they are running an inside zone RPO:
This is a favorite motion of the Chiefs, especially when they had Tyreek Hill.
The idea is to get beyond thinking of motion as window dressing. Planned properly and utilized in the right situations, advantages can be gained in a number of different ways as the Kansas City Chiefs and these four coaches show.
Always be growing!
Coach Grabowski