Excellent post. Your central thesis is really what I was trying to say, but you did sooooo much better. We don't know exactly what was supposed to happen. In hind-sight, it seems to me Heath should've played Goff because the TE was blocking down, but who's to say the TE wasn't just supposed to chip and then leak out to a pattern to give Goff an option, but got too tangled with Crawford and couldn't. It's why I'd love to be a fly on the wall when they do film review with the players and team after games to know what was supposed to happen and why it did or didn't.
From the offense's point of view, the TE should continue blocking a lineman unless/until the person covering him rushes the QB. He occupies two defenders that way.
From the defense, Heath has got to engage the TE or rush Goff. Standing there is a tactical loser. This has to be determined *pre-snap*. Heath has got to line up to immediately engage the TE, or blitz.
The lineman being blocked has to be part of this game. If Heath blitzes, the lineman should do his best to keep the TE engaged and prevent him from going out for a pass.
I'd really like to hear the explanation on this, because someone screwed up, whether the coaches or Heath. Maybe both.
We failed with the pre-snap tactics. It's just a loser to stand and watch the TE block a lineman, whether or not the QB is running to escape the pocket. Unless, in fact, you really *plan* to blitz, and are waiting for the TE to engage to do it.
Coaches? Heath?
And then just as a general case, you're in man coverage and the QB breaks contain and scrambles toward the sidelines. Are you supposed to take the QB or stick on your man?
Given the short distance to the QB and the engagement of the TE in blocking, Heath should have blitzed. Goff would have had no chance.
But was that his assignment? Was that how he was coached? I dunno.
It's a massive screw up either way. That's why it's so hard to decide. Heath consciously got his assignment entirely wrong, or they gave him a really bad assignment in the first place. Both seem very unlikely, and hard to believe, but it's one or the other.
The most natural blame falls on Heath, but he's our most veteran DB, and supposed to be one with high football IQ coming into the league, let alone with years of experience. His failing is mainly lateral agility.
