I just purchased Alex Kirby's new eBook where he breaks down every play of the Carolina Offense vs. Denver Defense. As I went through it, I noticed that many of my Pro Style Spread Offense principals and variations of plays were being demonstrated within Carolina's offense. Even though Denver had a great defense, it was fun to read about the chess match going on in the biggest game of the year and know that football is football at any level it is being played.
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I had to ask Alex if he would allow me be his affiliate and tell all of you about the book – which he obliged gratefully. So I'm pumped to offer it here for you. I also was able to get permission to share an exclusive play from the book so you could see just how detailed these breakdowns were. What I really love about this book is that it takes that deep dive into the game that you can only get through serious film analysis. Here's a sample so you can see for yourself.
Analysis
This play is an example of Carolina getting really creative with formations and audibles at the line.
Stacked receiver sets are something that we’ve seen a little bit of so far in this game, in addition to bunch formations, but in this case we see the tight end Ed Dickson split all the way to the right to the numbers as a way to decipher the kind of coverage that Denver is playing. With the corner and strong safety both playing over the top of the two-receiver stacked set, it’s clear that the defense is likely playing man to this formation. Cam brings Dickson in motion back to the formation, and the strong safety chases in coverage.
As soon as he recognizes this, Cam makes the audible, and brings in the receiver Brown in tight to the formation, changing the play to a pass concept much more suited to the type of man coverage that they’re seeing here.
In this case, it’s the classic mesh concept, a staple of passing games for decades where two receivers come from opposite sides in order to create a natural rub on the defenders in man coverage, and create a guy who’s wide open once he comes out the other side.
This is an incredibly well-designed variation of the mesh play, because it’s designed to get #10 Brown the ball, and the play is set up so that there are three other receivers in the concept that help clear away the coverage.
First there’s the flat route from Ed Dickson, whose route Brown comes over the top of but the corner Talib has to work hard to avoid the strong safety covering him. Next there’s Olsen, whose corner route removes the Sam linebacker from the middle of the field while the rest of the interior defense comes on the pass rush. Finally there’s Ted Ginn coming from the opposite side of the formation on a slightly deeper crossing route designed to create a rub on Talib.
It doesn’t succeed completely, but all these different obstacles Talib has to wade through as he’s chasing Brown from right to left across the field creates enough space to make Brown an open receiver, and he’s only chased down from behind because he has to make such a sharp turn to cut up the sideline and aim for the end zone.
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