How The Titans Offensive Scheme Dismantles Defenses

[Music] [Applause] every season there is a team that out of nowhere shocks the world with a surprise run at the playoffs teams that nobody had projected to do anything suddenly catch fire and become forces to be reckoned with in the post season whether it's personnel changes the scheme finally clicking into place or a combination of those and more the right players coaches and team can come together at the perfect time to tear up the leak however there's reasons why those teams were a surprise in the first place and too often that newfound success ultimately proves unsustainable the 2019 tennessee titans are a perfect example of a team that started from the bottom now we're here when after a dismal 2-4 start to the season with marcus mariota at quarterback the veteran ryan tannehill stepped in and ignited them to a 7-3 finish and a wild card berth where they sent tom brady and then lamar jackson home before losing in the afc championship with derrick henry truck sticking through the league per usual paired with tanil playing above and beyond the best football of his career the titans offense got literally twice as good they went from .44 points per minute with mariota to .99 with tana hill and for context the chiefs super bowl offense finished second with .77 the titans were good really good but as we've seen before there are no guarantees you'll improve in the off season everyone was wondering if tannehill who went from a fringe starter to all of a sudden playing like a top five quarterback would continue his astonishing ascension now in 2020 heading into week 13 we have our answer the titans are 8-3 second in the afc in point scored and are sitting atop the afc south with tannehill king henry plus aj brown johnny smith and several other key players the team has proved that 2019's success was not a fluke when their offensive coordinator arthur smith was hired at the beginning of last year he designed a system built around the titan's best players then when tannehill was plopped into the mix that system took off and has created long-term sustainability their approach and philosophy begins with derek henry running the ball then from there they flawlessly weave in play action concepts off of the same run action to make the run and pass indiscernible when tanil took over last year they led the league in play-action pass rate at 52 and this year they're the third highest by creating a package of concepts from identical formations and personnel groupings that seamlessly flow together everything looks the same to the defense today we'll go step by step on how they built this package and why every area of each concept is devastating even just by itself everything the titans do works because of derrick henry and the zone run system they've designed for him inside zone mid zone outside zone the king dominates in whatever they can cook up for take this example against the ravens tied 24 up in overtime where the titans are running wide zone zone schemes call for each lineman to take lateral bucket steps to force the defensive line to attack towards the sideline as opposed to downhill wide zone tells henry to set his track towards the outside leg of the tight end then he can either hit this front side on a bounce read or if the line is flowing hard enough he can cut back through these naturally open lanes though the concept is designed to go outside henry immediately sees pernell mcphee flash towards the edge so he turns his attention towards the open c gap with justin ellis the a-gap defender derek wolfe the b-gap and patrick queen in the c the linemen have to hold wolf inside and not allow queen to make it over the top as henry heads towards that sea gap he sees queen through the line so he knows he has to press his blocks to hold both defenders queen isn't sure if henry's going back to the a-gap since ellis didn't really hold his position or if he's continuing to the c and cause henry pushes the b-gap till the last second both he and wolf are caught inside this creates better leverage for each of the linemen especially when henry gets wolfe to dive inside and as he clears the first wave his vision speed and power take over and he wins the titans the game usually a back this massive who might possess henry's crazy speed doesn't have adequate stop start ability but he can almost play like a smaller backwood and immediately reset and burst in and out of his cuts at top speed and somewhere earl thomas is smiling that he is not there the zone run game is the first thing on every defense's mind as they prepare for the titans so as the offense adds more elements for them to think about each individual concept and similar concepts become even more effective here's their split zone run which is a common variation for zone schemes conceptually speaking it has the same zone blocking techniques up front but adds a skill player sifting across the formation to kick out the end man on the line of scrimmage since it's inside split zone henry is now reading the inside leg of the guard and because of the sift action from johnny smith there's a better chance for him to hit this back side you can see him reading the defense at the mesh point he can use a bounce read which is covered up a bang read which also isn't there or a bent read which brings him all the way across the formation once again by pressing those gaps tight to his blockers each defender jumps heavier into each gap which helps give henry the opening he's looking for no running back in the nfl is his size but even the guys who come close can not move their feet this fluidly which is just another aspect that makes him special when the titans use these condensed formations with all 11 players in the frame there are a million different things they can do off of this look with the texans playing man look at everything they have to account for with the corners on the receivers and safety and linebacker on the tight ends all this action creates a gaping hole for henry zach cunningham is jeff swayman man so if adam humphries picks him on a pass play swaim is wide open to the flat justin reed is johnny smith and has to follow him to the flat as well but since jonnu is blocking that completely wastes reed in the run fit and he runs right out of the play in many ways the titans have created a positionless offense where each player can be effective in multiple spots their receivers can block their tight ends can catch everyone in the unit is big and everyone is fast that versatility can be deadly especially when you're gearing up every play for king henry and you see aj browns flying up field to smash you with a block but it turns out it's play action and he breaks inside for a 70 yard touchdown what feels like 80 percent of brown's career production has come on the drift concept which is a quick hitting play action pass that's designed to suck up the linebackers so brown can quickly find the void behind them once they fire up towards the line of scrimmage to stop the run his quick twitch agility acceleration and speed are a perfect fit to attack over eager defenses sometimes to break alignment tendencies or to sync up with the run action the titans will even have him fake a stock block to mess with the secondary then he'll accelerate into his drift route if you go to any 2019 aj brown highlight compilation you'll see this happen repeatedly but the drift route is not a simple play or route whatsoever just one that ajb has mastered here's an example against the colts where brown's lined up against rocky assin who's in man coverage the titans will often position brown inside the numbers in a cut split so the drift route can hit quicker which can be tougher for the corner since brown is more of a two-way go rakiasin is playing soft press with outside leverage so he'll try and jam brown a few yards off the line to open space to the inside brown attacks his outside leverage with a spray release faking like he's running a spray out his head shoulders and body give rock a hard sell outside to move him in that direction and with rock off balance all brown has to do is beat this inside arm to get wide open not only does he use a white move but he first grabs rock's arm like it's a goger then wipes straight up with his other hand he presses vertical to keep rock outside then on his sixth step gives a violent stick inside to break free and take it the rest of the way with aj brown and derek henry alternating off plays that look nearly identical it is brutal on the defense and has been a perfect fit not just for them but ryan tan hill as well with quick hitting concepts like this drift route every detail of the play needs to be executed with impeccable timing which is one of tan hill's strengths in plays under two and a half seconds this season he has 16 touchdowns to just one interception and can easily control the underneath to intermediate areas of the field on a consistent basis the play action game fits his skill set well he's in the right system for him and can help elevate the titan's elite surrounding talent so now that we've seen the zone scheme paired with the split action and the drift concept we can see how the titans mix in all these different things then bring them all together against the texans tied 36 36 in overtime they run a play-action pass off of split zone action with the drift concept behind it and even add a fake end around just to really screw with the defense but when the drift route slips and falls henry who was initially the fake guy in play action slides to the flat and picks up 54 yards to set the titans up for the win they're forcing the texans to account for all their individual concepts wrapped up into one here's henry on the fake the linemen all looking like they're zone blocking the split action coming across the formation which also makes for a perfect seal on the outside a receiver on the fake end around who can also turn into a receiving option to the flat then tan hill looking to find the drift who's not there so after all of that he goes to find henry wide open up the sideline they're not asking tanhill to be a player he's not they had a system in place that needed a quarterback and tannehill was a good quarterback who needed a system the titans have proven the importance of not just having a long list of great play calls and concepts but a cohesive group of concepts that ebb and flow off of one another any coach can steal any play and install it but having a true system is what separates the great from the good when everything looks the same to the defense you can run just a few concepts over and over they might know what's coming they just don't know when it's coming so if they're overplaying one thing the titans can just feed them another does the offense have warts sure they're not perfect and now that their defense has fallen off they need tana hill henry aj brown and the rest to carry them but this is a team that rose from the ashes of mediocrity built and toughened through adversity they're not gonna sneak up on anybody but they don't need to winter is coming and that's when the king starts to catch fire with tan hill at the helm it's time for the titans to turn up [Music] uh [Music]

Channel: AlexRollinsNFL

Views: 37,904

Keywords: tennessee titans, nfl, titans, derrick henry, derrick henry highlights, football, derrick henry titans, derrick henry top plays, titans film breakdown, ryan tannehill, titans highlights, derrick henry film breakdown, ryan tannehill film breakdown, 2020 titans, ryan tannehill highlights, derrick henry mix, derrick henry playoffs, titans daily, tennessee titans live, titans td, nfl highlights, aj brown, aj brown highlights, running back, quarter back, alex rollins, titan up

Id: a4Xt3E2LWt0

Length: 11min 43sec (703 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 05 2020