One of the more underrated aspects of the Chip Kelly offense so far this year has been the success of the screen game. We've run some pretty creative screens out of different packaged plays with read option components, etc. Obviously, the bubble screen is a big part of what we do and I'll look to cover that in Part 4 before the end of the week. ICYMI, Parts 1 and 2 are here and here.
In wanted to take some time in this part to talk about the screen game. However, I did that last week for a piece for Bleeding Green Nation. So instead of repeating myself, I urge you to check out what Kelly has been doing in the screen game over at the BGN site here.
However, I do want to expand on that post a little here by highlighting two new terms Kelly revealed to us on this piece at the Official Site. This is must watch material.
First, when describing the screen game, Kelly talks about how they try and create a "sidewalk" for the ball carrier. And as he showed in that film session the screen we ran against Washington provided a perfect illustration to what he was referring to. Here, Peters and Kelce are forming the edges of the "sidewalk at the numbers and the hashmark. This creates a clear path for Celek to run down:
Even better, Celek also has an escort in Evan Mathis to clear any "leakage", as Chip describes it. The result is a huge play and a near TD. Absolutely perfect execution of a Kelly concept:
Take a look at the same concept against the Raiders. Peters forms one side of the sidewalk on the numbers, Kelce the other at the hash. Again Evan Mathis is leading the way to clean up "leakage":
As you can see, Kelce doesn't get his guy quite at the hash and as a result the sidewalk is compressed. Celek choose to jump off the sidewalk and play in traffic instead of following Mathis. Still a big play, but potentially bigger if Kelce gets to his block sooner or Celek takes the seam:
One more. Nice sidewalk from Herremans and Kelce:
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The other thing you are going to want to note on those plays is the "ambush" player that Kelly refers to. This is a great term and a really cool concept where we allocate one of our blockers to take out the "trailer" on defense. Oftentimes, when you see a big screen play, it's often a defender from behind that catches the ball carrier. Kelly has allocated a blocker to take away some of these chasers. In addition to being a great scheme addition, it's lead to a number of fun to watch blocks, like this one by Herremans:
Slowing it down, he's initially going to block the DL in front of him (in red):
He'll then peel off:
and circle back for someone to "ambush" (insert Dr. Evil sound clip here):
And again here:
Back in the offseason when I was reviewing the Oregon film, the thing about that offense that stuck out the most to me, wasn't the pace nor the read-option. It was the absolutely unbelievable execution of plays exactly as they were drawn up. For me, this pointed to very, very good coaching. I think it's a lot more difficult to execute plays perfectly at the NFL level, but Kelly sure has to be excited on Monday's when he reviews film and sees plays like these.
In Part 4, we'll look at some packaged plays. Stay tuned here at the Chip Wagon
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