Can someone explain to me what #54 Smith and #48 Thomas are doing on that play? Thomas looks like he is playing zone and then has a oh-no moment and realizes it is man coverage and his man ran right by him. I have no clue what Jaylon Smith was doing on that play. It looked like the RB was his man and he was 10-15 yards deep.
Jaylon Smith called the play and he did not even know his own responsibility. So it looked.
Smith is caught in no man's land. If he comes up to defend the RB, the TE behind him is wide open. Watch the play develop, Jones appears to be looking deep and when he sees Smith turn to cover the wide open TE, Jones quickly throws the out to the TB. If Smith doesn't turn to try to cover the TE, Jones flips him the ball for an easy TD.
Seems like Thomas was confused on the play. Which seems to be a hallmark of a Nolan defense. This has happened in earlier games. A few times in the Seattle game, it looked like half the DBs were playing zone and the other half were playing man.