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Gregg Easterbrook
Special to Page 2
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Updated: October 9, 2007, 1:08 PM ET
Attention, NFL coaches: There are a couple of guys on your roster who can both block and catch. They're open a lot. So why don't you throw to them? The guys I am talking about are tight ends.
Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Indianapolis, Jersey/A, Kansas City, New England, Pittsburgh, San Diego and Washington are running offenses that feature the tight end. Who's on that list? The NFL's three undefeated clubs, plus a team that put up 41 points at 5,280 feet in Denver on Sunday, plus a couple of other winning teams. Monday night, Terrell Owens was shut down cold and tight end Jason Witten was the Cowboys' receiving star, with nine catches for 103 yards and a touchdown. True, it might be so that the Colts, Cowboys and Patriots are getting good tight end production because they have the league's best offenses right now and every aspect of their play is superior. But Tuesday Morning Quarterback suspects one reason these teams are winning is because they are featuring the tight end.
The Tampa 2 pass defense that has infected the league makes it hard for wide receivers to get open. On most downs against a Tampa 2, there are more defensive backs than wide receivers and the safeties are deep to prevent big plays. (Attention, sportscasters, there is nothing mystical about the Tampa 2; it's basically a zone with each safety covering half the deep field. In fact, it might be easier for audiences if you just called this defense "a zone.") But the same properties that make the most popular defense of the moment hard on wide receivers are inviting to tight ends. In a traditional pass-coverage set, there's a strong safety on the tight end and a free safety deep. In a Tampa 2, there's no distinction between the strong and free safeties and both are deep; this means the tight end is covered by a linebacker. A tight end who's covered by a linebacker is an attractive target: Witten's touchdown Monday night came against a linebacker, not a safety. Add to this the fact that the tight end is a big guy, and quarterbacks love tall targets. Add that the vulnerable area of a Tampa 2 is the "seam" where cornerback responsibility stops and safety coverage begins; the seam is a part of the field of which the quarterback usually has a good view.
Roll these things together, and modern NFL quarterbacks absolutely should be looking for their tight ends in linebacker coverage in the seam. The Colts, Cowboys and Patriots, especially, are doing exactly that, with swell results. Dallas Clark of Indianapolis and Ben Watson of New England each have five touchdown receptions this season; among wide receivers, only Randy Moss and Plaxico Burress have more. Jason Witten of Dallas, Chris Cooley of Washington and Antonio Gates of San Diego have three touchdown catches apiece, outpacing most wide receivers at this stage of the season. This season, teams that feature the tight end are getting great results. And historically, teams that feature the tight end usually do well. Joe Montana and Steve Young were always looking for Brent Jones. Troy Aikman was always looking for Jay Novacek.
So why don't more NFL teams throw to the tight end? One reason is fundamental: Bad teams don't use smart strategy. Another reason, I think, is the dynamic of practices and walk-throughs. During practice, the quarterback wears a red pinny and can't be hit, and defensive backs often are told to allow quarterbacks and receivers to get their timing down. The result is that in practice, quarterbacks look for long throws to wide receivers rather than dropping the ball off to the tight end; completing a long throw in practice gets a round of applause. At game speed, the quarterback might wish he were better at finding the tight end, but by then it's too late. Hank Stram used to stand behind Len Dawson during Kansas City scrimmages and scream, "Tight end! Where's the tight end?" Dawson became really good at locating the tight end under game pressure; more coaches should teach this.
Another factor that's taking tight ends out of offenses is that with the increasing emphasis among offensive coordinators on preventing sacks -- teams have so much bonus money invested in quarterbacks that it's bad economics to let them get sacked -- tight ends are being kept back to pass block. The call "max protect" has been heard almost as much this season as "shotgun spread." The teams making good use of their tight ends as receivers also tend to be teams with the best offensive lines. Indianapolis and New England have surrendered a league-low three sacks apiece; because the offensive line performs well, the tight end is free to run patterns. The Commanders, Cowboys, Chargers, Ravens and Giants are low sacks-allowed teams, and hence are free to use their tight ends. After this Sunday's game against Tennessee, Falcons tight end Alge Crumpler blew up about his diminishing role in the Atlanta offense. The Falcons have surrendered 18 sacks; Atlanta coaches are keeping Crumpler in to block. Want to drive defenses to distraction with your tight end? First, build a good offensive line.
Speaking of the Falcons, they've dropped from first in rushing in 2006 to 21st this season, and Sunday they were heave-hoeing passes on third-and-short. Heck no, Atlanta doesn't miss Michael Vick. Right.
In other news, nothing good has happened to Buffalo since the Pan-American Exposition in 1901. Sure, the Bills twice won the old AFL in the 1960s, but how many of Buffalo's citizens were even born when that happened? As the country has boomed since World War II, greater Buffalo is among the few urban regions that has lost rather than gained population. The city's economy has been contracting for three decades. Rust-belt industries move out, but unlike in other places that happened, high-tech industries don't move in. Buffalo offers a fantastic corporate-relocation value: top-quality housing stock at far below the median U.S. price, ideal summer weather, a strong cultural scene, the last open-for-development urban waterfront in the United States, a human-scale city where you never waste one second of your life stuck in traffic jams. And sure, it snows. But they plow. Having lived in Buffalo, Chicago and Washington, D.C., I can attest that snow is less disruptive to daily life in Buffalo than in Chicago or our nation's capital. Yet despite how attractive Buffalo seems as a corporate destination, companies don't come, and the city keeps spiraling downward.
All true sons and daughters of Buffalo cherish a magic-realist belief that if only the Bills would win the Super Bowl, the city's fortunes would be transformed. Actually, I think this would turn out to be true! Instead, what Buffalo has is an NFL team that lost a game Monday night by surrendering nine points in the final 20 seconds. You might have gone off to bed, but as the clock struck midnight on the East Coast, the Bills completed one of the worst collapses in football annals.
You've probably heard that Tony Romo threw five interceptions despite facing Buffalo's injury-depleted secondary -- the Bills' secondary has so many injuries it should be called a tertiary -- but Dallas rallied to win on a long field goal on the game's final snap. Buffalo was plus-5 in takeaways, and had three touchdowns on returns, yet still managed to lose. You have to work very hard to blow a game when you're plus-5 in the takeaway column and score three times on interceptions and kickoffs. Work hard to lose Buffalo did, and central to the collapse was coaching error, not player error.
Leading 24-16, the Bills faced third-and-8 on the Cowboys' 11 with 6:21 remaining. Buffalo had been using a simplistic, high-school-style offense of runs up the middle and hitch passes. The Bills threw down the field exactly once while throwing sideways or ultrashort 30 times, and ran outside twice (for a 5.5-yard average) while running straight up the middle 22 times (for a 3.1-yard average). Owing to turnovers, Buffalo took possession in Dallas territory three times on the night, but owing to the Bills' predictable offensive game plan, they netted only one field goal. Nevertheless, the Bills found themselves with an eight-point lead and deep in Cowboys' territory with 6:21 remaining.
Had Buffalo simply run up the middle for no gain, then kicked a field goal, the Bills almost certainly would have won -- they would have held an 11-point lead and kept the clock moving, and Dallas didn't score to pull within an onside kick of victory until 20 ticks remained on the clock. Instead, Buffalo offensive coordinator Steve Fairchild called a pass that was intercepted, ending the team's chance for a secure lead -- and it wasn't even a decent gamble because the Bills' ultrashort passes to that point were netting 4.6 yards per attempt. There were at least 20 coaches on the Buffalo sideline and in the press box. Somebody is supposed to stay on top of evolving stats like net passing -- on well-coached teams such as New England and Indianapolis, you'd better believe the guy making the calls gets evolving stats during the game. But with a secure lead just one snap away, Buffalo needlessly put the ball into the air, and needless to say, it was intercepted.
Then the Bills got possession again, still leading 24-16, and faced third-and-7 near midfield with 3:58 remaining. Again they threw -- incompletion -- again stopping the clock. Dallas didn't score its touchdown until 20 seconds were left: Had Buffalo simply run up the middle for no gain on either one of its late-fourth-quarter third downs, keeping the clock moving, the Cowboys would have run out of time and the home team would have won. In Week 1 -- when the Bills also lost on a field goal on the final play -- on a third down with about two minutes to go, the Bills also threw incomplete and stopped the clock; the Broncos kicked the winning field goal as time expired. TMQ's Law of the Obvious holds: Sometimes all a team needs to do is run up the middle for no gain, and things will be fine. Buffalo, 1-4, would be 3-2 today -- and talking about its monster upset of the Cowboys on "Monday Night Football" -- if the Bills' coaches had simply kept the clock moving with runs when holding late leads against Denver and Dallas. You have to work really hard to lose a game in which you were plus-5 on turnovers, but the Buffalo coaching staff was equal to this challenge.
So It's Really a Book About Tony Romo? The football diagram on the cover of the Michael Lewis book "The Blind Side," about the left tackle position, depicts a quarterback throwing the ball directly into double coverage.
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Special to Page 2
(Archive | Contact)
Updated: October 9, 2007, 1:08 PM ET
Attention, NFL coaches: There are a couple of guys on your roster who can both block and catch. They're open a lot. So why don't you throw to them? The guys I am talking about are tight ends.
Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Indianapolis, Jersey/A, Kansas City, New England, Pittsburgh, San Diego and Washington are running offenses that feature the tight end. Who's on that list? The NFL's three undefeated clubs, plus a team that put up 41 points at 5,280 feet in Denver on Sunday, plus a couple of other winning teams. Monday night, Terrell Owens was shut down cold and tight end Jason Witten was the Cowboys' receiving star, with nine catches for 103 yards and a touchdown. True, it might be so that the Colts, Cowboys and Patriots are getting good tight end production because they have the league's best offenses right now and every aspect of their play is superior. But Tuesday Morning Quarterback suspects one reason these teams are winning is because they are featuring the tight end.
The Tampa 2 pass defense that has infected the league makes it hard for wide receivers to get open. On most downs against a Tampa 2, there are more defensive backs than wide receivers and the safeties are deep to prevent big plays. (Attention, sportscasters, there is nothing mystical about the Tampa 2; it's basically a zone with each safety covering half the deep field. In fact, it might be easier for audiences if you just called this defense "a zone.") But the same properties that make the most popular defense of the moment hard on wide receivers are inviting to tight ends. In a traditional pass-coverage set, there's a strong safety on the tight end and a free safety deep. In a Tampa 2, there's no distinction between the strong and free safeties and both are deep; this means the tight end is covered by a linebacker. A tight end who's covered by a linebacker is an attractive target: Witten's touchdown Monday night came against a linebacker, not a safety. Add to this the fact that the tight end is a big guy, and quarterbacks love tall targets. Add that the vulnerable area of a Tampa 2 is the "seam" where cornerback responsibility stops and safety coverage begins; the seam is a part of the field of which the quarterback usually has a good view.
Roll these things together, and modern NFL quarterbacks absolutely should be looking for their tight ends in linebacker coverage in the seam. The Colts, Cowboys and Patriots, especially, are doing exactly that, with swell results. Dallas Clark of Indianapolis and Ben Watson of New England each have five touchdown receptions this season; among wide receivers, only Randy Moss and Plaxico Burress have more. Jason Witten of Dallas, Chris Cooley of Washington and Antonio Gates of San Diego have three touchdown catches apiece, outpacing most wide receivers at this stage of the season. This season, teams that feature the tight end are getting great results. And historically, teams that feature the tight end usually do well. Joe Montana and Steve Young were always looking for Brent Jones. Troy Aikman was always looking for Jay Novacek.
So why don't more NFL teams throw to the tight end? One reason is fundamental: Bad teams don't use smart strategy. Another reason, I think, is the dynamic of practices and walk-throughs. During practice, the quarterback wears a red pinny and can't be hit, and defensive backs often are told to allow quarterbacks and receivers to get their timing down. The result is that in practice, quarterbacks look for long throws to wide receivers rather than dropping the ball off to the tight end; completing a long throw in practice gets a round of applause. At game speed, the quarterback might wish he were better at finding the tight end, but by then it's too late. Hank Stram used to stand behind Len Dawson during Kansas City scrimmages and scream, "Tight end! Where's the tight end?" Dawson became really good at locating the tight end under game pressure; more coaches should teach this.
Another factor that's taking tight ends out of offenses is that with the increasing emphasis among offensive coordinators on preventing sacks -- teams have so much bonus money invested in quarterbacks that it's bad economics to let them get sacked -- tight ends are being kept back to pass block. The call "max protect" has been heard almost as much this season as "shotgun spread." The teams making good use of their tight ends as receivers also tend to be teams with the best offensive lines. Indianapolis and New England have surrendered a league-low three sacks apiece; because the offensive line performs well, the tight end is free to run patterns. The Commanders, Cowboys, Chargers, Ravens and Giants are low sacks-allowed teams, and hence are free to use their tight ends. After this Sunday's game against Tennessee, Falcons tight end Alge Crumpler blew up about his diminishing role in the Atlanta offense. The Falcons have surrendered 18 sacks; Atlanta coaches are keeping Crumpler in to block. Want to drive defenses to distraction with your tight end? First, build a good offensive line.
Speaking of the Falcons, they've dropped from first in rushing in 2006 to 21st this season, and Sunday they were heave-hoeing passes on third-and-short. Heck no, Atlanta doesn't miss Michael Vick. Right.
In other news, nothing good has happened to Buffalo since the Pan-American Exposition in 1901. Sure, the Bills twice won the old AFL in the 1960s, but how many of Buffalo's citizens were even born when that happened? As the country has boomed since World War II, greater Buffalo is among the few urban regions that has lost rather than gained population. The city's economy has been contracting for three decades. Rust-belt industries move out, but unlike in other places that happened, high-tech industries don't move in. Buffalo offers a fantastic corporate-relocation value: top-quality housing stock at far below the median U.S. price, ideal summer weather, a strong cultural scene, the last open-for-development urban waterfront in the United States, a human-scale city where you never waste one second of your life stuck in traffic jams. And sure, it snows. But they plow. Having lived in Buffalo, Chicago and Washington, D.C., I can attest that snow is less disruptive to daily life in Buffalo than in Chicago or our nation's capital. Yet despite how attractive Buffalo seems as a corporate destination, companies don't come, and the city keeps spiraling downward.
All true sons and daughters of Buffalo cherish a magic-realist belief that if only the Bills would win the Super Bowl, the city's fortunes would be transformed. Actually, I think this would turn out to be true! Instead, what Buffalo has is an NFL team that lost a game Monday night by surrendering nine points in the final 20 seconds. You might have gone off to bed, but as the clock struck midnight on the East Coast, the Bills completed one of the worst collapses in football annals.
You've probably heard that Tony Romo threw five interceptions despite facing Buffalo's injury-depleted secondary -- the Bills' secondary has so many injuries it should be called a tertiary -- but Dallas rallied to win on a long field goal on the game's final snap. Buffalo was plus-5 in takeaways, and had three touchdowns on returns, yet still managed to lose. You have to work very hard to blow a game when you're plus-5 in the takeaway column and score three times on interceptions and kickoffs. Work hard to lose Buffalo did, and central to the collapse was coaching error, not player error.
Leading 24-16, the Bills faced third-and-8 on the Cowboys' 11 with 6:21 remaining. Buffalo had been using a simplistic, high-school-style offense of runs up the middle and hitch passes. The Bills threw down the field exactly once while throwing sideways or ultrashort 30 times, and ran outside twice (for a 5.5-yard average) while running straight up the middle 22 times (for a 3.1-yard average). Owing to turnovers, Buffalo took possession in Dallas territory three times on the night, but owing to the Bills' predictable offensive game plan, they netted only one field goal. Nevertheless, the Bills found themselves with an eight-point lead and deep in Cowboys' territory with 6:21 remaining.
Had Buffalo simply run up the middle for no gain, then kicked a field goal, the Bills almost certainly would have won -- they would have held an 11-point lead and kept the clock moving, and Dallas didn't score to pull within an onside kick of victory until 20 ticks remained on the clock. Instead, Buffalo offensive coordinator Steve Fairchild called a pass that was intercepted, ending the team's chance for a secure lead -- and it wasn't even a decent gamble because the Bills' ultrashort passes to that point were netting 4.6 yards per attempt. There were at least 20 coaches on the Buffalo sideline and in the press box. Somebody is supposed to stay on top of evolving stats like net passing -- on well-coached teams such as New England and Indianapolis, you'd better believe the guy making the calls gets evolving stats during the game. But with a secure lead just one snap away, Buffalo needlessly put the ball into the air, and needless to say, it was intercepted.
Then the Bills got possession again, still leading 24-16, and faced third-and-7 near midfield with 3:58 remaining. Again they threw -- incompletion -- again stopping the clock. Dallas didn't score its touchdown until 20 seconds were left: Had Buffalo simply run up the middle for no gain on either one of its late-fourth-quarter third downs, keeping the clock moving, the Cowboys would have run out of time and the home team would have won. In Week 1 -- when the Bills also lost on a field goal on the final play -- on a third down with about two minutes to go, the Bills also threw incomplete and stopped the clock; the Broncos kicked the winning field goal as time expired. TMQ's Law of the Obvious holds: Sometimes all a team needs to do is run up the middle for no gain, and things will be fine. Buffalo, 1-4, would be 3-2 today -- and talking about its monster upset of the Cowboys on "Monday Night Football" -- if the Bills' coaches had simply kept the clock moving with runs when holding late leads against Denver and Dallas. You have to work really hard to lose a game in which you were plus-5 on turnovers, but the Buffalo coaching staff was equal to this challenge.
So It's Really a Book About Tony Romo? The football diagram on the cover of the Michael Lewis book "The Blind Side," about the left tackle position, depicts a quarterback throwing the ball directly into double coverage.
LINK
