Film study is integral to success in the NFL. NFL teams have whole staffs of analysts and scouts who spend hours and hours each week dissecting film. Staffs search for a slim edge they can exploit to win the next game. In Week 4 of the 2021 season, Atlanta Falcons film study showed a weakness in the secondary of the Washington Football Club. When the Falcons played Washington, they exploited that weakness. The Falcons noted Washington’s secondary has a weakness for the curl-flat-post concept. So the Falcons hit them with the same concept Buffalo used, too.
I previously wrote about Atlanta’s use of the curl-flat concept to victimize Washington. Atlanta tagged a post route for Cordarrelle Patterson over the top to put the safety in conflict.
Washington’s attention to Kyle Pitts’ curl route (and a mistake by the field cornerback) allowed Patterson to run untouched into the end zone.
#MattyIce❄️ goes DEEP to CP!
📺: FOX | @ceeflashpee84 pic.twitter.com/trfhmdU0i8
— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) October 3, 2021
At the time, it looked like a nice play call by the Atlanta staff that hit at the right time in the game. However, reading John Kinsley’s piece on Buffalo QB Josh Allen, you notice something in one of the play clips he analyzed: Buffalo victimized Washington with a curl-flat-post concept one week earlier.
Film Study: Twin Concepts
Buffalo is in 11 personnel with TE Dawson Knox and RB Devin Singletary in the backfield with Allen. At the snap, Singletary passes in front of Allen for play-action, and Knox peels off to run an arrow route. Singletary runs into the boundary flat. #1 Emmanuel Sanders is aligned to the boundary, and he runs 20 yards downfield and curls back. #13 Gabriel Davis is aligned wide to the field, and he runs 19 yards down field on his curl route. You have curl-flat to the field and curl-flat to the boundary. The slot (looks to be #14 Stefon Diggs) runs 30 yards downfield before angling into a post. Twin concepts, mirrored on each side with a post over the top.
Safeties bite on the Diggs’ post route leaving Davis wide open, Allen hits him for a 23 yard gain and the first down. The next week, the secondary is so concerned with Pitts’ curl route they let Patterson victimize them on the post.
Same concept, back-to-back weeks, Washington is victimized, and film study proved fruitful for the Falcons.
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