NFL: Column: QB question in Tampa and a Patriots problem

Week 2 is over and Ryan Fitzpatrick and Patrick Mahomes are still the stars of the young season. After Mahome’s last week, SPOX editor Adrian Franke looks at the Buccaneers and the quarterback theme in his column this week. Besides, the Giants have a problem and Deshaun Watson is just a human being.

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It is – besides Patrick Mahomes, who was already discussed in more detail last week – the surprise of the still very young season: Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have not only won their first two games, they are also one of the most explosive offenses of the league after week 2.

That suddenly makes the quarterback position in Tampa a real topic: Jameis Winston is still closed for a game and the way the Steelers Secondary currently presents itself, especially without Joe Haden, Fitzpatrick could put on spectacular numbers again.

And then? Is the (possible) leading register of the NFL then put on the bench? Even though the position is becoming increasingly difficult to defend, I say yes. And there are three reasons for this.

On the one hand, we should not forget how good Jameis Winston looked, especially in the second half of last year. He is the future of this franchise, not the 35-year-old Fitzpatrick – as good as he may play at the moment. The emphasis here is on “current” – and this leads to point 2: Ryan Fitzpatrick had these phases again and again in his entire career! He is one of the most extreme quarterbacks of the last ten years in terms of ups and downs, which is one of the constants of his career.

And then there’s the third point: Since head coach Dirk Koetter handed over the play calling to his offensive coordinator Todd Monken, we see a completely different Buccaneers open. And Winston will be able to take advantage of that.

One example is the second long touchdown to O.J. Howard: The Buccaneers tie four defenders (marked blue here) to Underneath, while the slightly deeper out-breaking route draws the defensive back on the right side of the defense. Howard leaves this behind in a one-on-one matchup with a linebacker, just under 15 yards downfield and with only one low-positioned safety (not shown here) – who, however, has no good angle to the tight end due to Howard’s route towards the sideline.

From then on it is a catch-and-run with one of the most athletic tight ends, which has a receiver as a blocker on its side.

And there are other examples. For example, DeSean Jackson’s touchdown in Week 1 against the Saints from the slot when Monken forced the deep Saints safety in Cover 3 into a one-on-one matchup with the Speedster. Or the other long pass to Howard on Sunday against Philly when Tampa Bay attacked the Seam Routes – the areas between the Eagles coverage zones – with four vertical routes.

Or the first Play from Scrimmage against Philly, the 75-yard touchdown to DeSean Jackson: The Buccaneers come out in 21-personnel at First and Ten, with the fullback before the running backfield. The Eagles react with an 8-men box and Tampa’s play design punishes this: Jackson gets a one-on-one duel outside, the safety rather covers the in-breaking route and in the end it’s a simple touchdown.

The First Down Plays of the Buccaneers as well as the respective space gain are shown. Runs and passes are shown in chronological order. The last 3 runs were made at the final Buccaneers-Drive, Kneel-Downs are not included.

Tampa Bay was generally brave against the Eagles at first down, with several long pass attempts and – excluding the last drive – also on the way to a good first down run pass ratio.

And they also show creativity in the Red Zone.

The short touchdown pass to Mike Evans is one example. What I always praise with the Chiefs can also be seen here: The Buccaneers build in distractions away from the actual play. The first clear read is Mike Evans at the top of the screen, but the fake screen on the other side is distracting.

At the same time the running back helps as an additional blocker, as the bucs generally like to do, and Evans gets a one-on-one matchup with in-breaking route. This is an extremely ungrateful matchup for a defender and Fitzpatrick gets the ball right between the linebacker and the lower positioned safety to Evans. Touchdown.

All this does not mean that Fitzpatrick would not play well at the moment – on the contrary! He regularly has great passes downfield, in tight windows and with perfect timing. The long pass to DeSean Jackson early in the third quarter at Third Down was spectacular – and here you could list several more from the Saints game alone.

It is only necessary to preserve the perspective, to recognize the circumstances and to consider the causes. I’m very curious what the Buccaneers will do if the offense against Pittsburgh explodes again. Personally, I would still go back to Winston.

The exciting matchup question prior to the match was: Would Jacksonville break the identity of his defense to take Rob Gronkowski out of play? If that had been the case, the game could have been completely different. Sure, with a Jalen Ramsey/Safety combination Gronkowski could have been eliminated as far as possible – but New England would have attacked the resulting gaps without any question.

Instead, we saw something that you don’t see often and that can be easily broken down – Tom Brady ran out of weapons in Jacksonville. What is meant is: Because Jacksonville just managed to take Gronkowski almost completely out of play within the structure of his own defense (2 REC, 15 YDS), the rest of the Patriots-Offense was individually so clearly inferior that Brady hardly had a chance.

So New England lacked the reliable slot receiver to attack Jacksonville Underneath – Julian Edelman’s return should give this team a completely different face. That the run game wouldn’t work against this Jaguars front was not surprising, but the Gronk matchup gave New England no chance against the outstanding Jaguars outside-corner duo with their receivers.

And what was the plan? For most of the 30 or so routes of the tight end, Jacksonville’s answer was Tashaun Gipson. According to NBC Sports, safety did not allow a catch in 13 duels with Gronk and Jacksonville also used a safety double coverage against the tight end. There were also some Linebacker Safety Double Covers.

On the other hand, there was hardly ever a duel with Ramsey that many hoped for, and at least once New England could take advantage of it; at the Hogan touchdown just before the end.

Gronkowski was isolated on one side of the formation to force Ramsey into a direct duel. The Patriots started the game with a play-action fake and motion from a receiver that then went into the flatrack, and two Jaguars defenders (marked yellow) were quickly removed from the game. Gronkowski took Ramsey with him and then it only took a bad corner of the deep safety to let Hogan march through to the touchdown.

The fact that Jacksonville Gronkowski was able to defend without moving too far away from their own identity in terms of coverage is a huge encouragement to the Jaguars should another duel occur in the playoffs. Even if the statics of the defense would be tested completely differently by the Edelman-Gronk combination.

At the same time, however, we must praise Jacksonville’s offense. Apart from another ugly interception over the middle, Bortles had a spectacular game at times, with precise deep passes, critical scrambles for new first downs and a very good game overall.

You also have to praise the coaches: The Jaguars, without the injured Leonard Fournette, threw the ball in 65 percent of the cases for 8.3 yards per pass attempt and were much more aggressive in their whole approach than can often be observed: Bortles threw 17 (!) passes over 10 air yards far down field (10 completions, 157 yds, 3 TD), five over 20 yards. Brady had only seven such passports (2 completions, 26 YDS, TD) for comparison. The Jaguars were braver at First Down, Bortles are now 4-0 in games without Leonard Fournette.

The problems in the Falcon’s Red Zone were the big issue after the opening bankruptcy against Philadelphia (again): Matt Ryan brought one of nine passes against the Eagles, stayed without a touchdown and threw a pick. Especially the same uninspiring play designs were an issue. Against the Panthers the situation was noticeably different – not only because of the perfect 4/4 quota in the Red Zone.

The first touchdown of Calvin Ridley shows learning effects: The Falcons use the width of the field by running five routes and keeping Ryan in the pocket.

Julio Jones and Mohamed Sanu’s in-breaking routes at the top of the screen tie the three defensive backs on this side. The tight end Underneath draws linebacker Luke Kuechly and the flat-route of the running back forces a defender to go outside to give Ryan a free throwing path.

Just minutes later, before half-time, Atlanta added another Red Zone touchdown, this time with a short second down. And the pattern is strikingly similar.

Again Atlanta plays a 5-route-concept, again one side of the formation – the right side – is isolated: The Falcons have the matchup between the tight end and the running back against two defenders. And again there is a short flat route of the running back to tie a defender and clear the way for the pass.

At the same time, the concept against the Zone Man mix Carolina plays here is ideal – the route concepts on both sides of the formation ignore the middle of the field, which virtually takes the two (zone) coverage players of the Panthers posted here out of play. All in all, this is a comparatively easy read for Ryan, who, when the tight end wins his route against a linebacker, basically knows immediately where to go with the ball.

Is everything all right in Atlanta in one fell swoop? Of course I don’t. But the Falcons have shown the best possible reaction at the most important construction site. At least that is encouraging in any case.

Page 1: QB-Discussion in Tampa? And: New England’s problem, Atlantas Turnaround

Page 2: Manning, the Packers flag, Raiders, Running Backs, Watson, Arizona – your questions