Buccaneers Week 4 Tape Study: What we see in the 2017 Giants

On the first play we’re going to look at, the Giants come out lined up with Eli Manning in the shotgun, and three receivers. Two are down at the bottom of the screen, or right side of the offense, while Brandon Marshall is the lone Giants receiver up top.

He’s lined up against rookie Rasul Douglas, which on paper looks like a solid match-up for New York.

As the play progresses, Marshall and his teammate Odell Beckham Jr. are both met with man coverage on the outside.

Marshall is circled in red with his defender while Beckham is circled in yellow with his. Notice Douglas, who is covering Marshall is already turned to run with his receiver by this point in the play. This is an indication of how important Philadelphia may have seen keeping the play in front of them.

On the bottom, the Eagles defender still has his man in front of him, but is trying to keep his eyes up field at the same time, and has a perpendicular body position to Beckham as the speed threat closes the cushion between defender and receiver.

As Manning throws the ball, notice again the positions of the defenders to the two outside Giants receivers.

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It’s clear by now, the safety playing deep had over-the-top coverage on the inside slot receiver as he is not overly concerned with what’s developing beyond the numbers of the field.

If you look at this photo and the one previous however, you will notice the defender on ODB at the bottom of the screen is just breaking into a running stride while Beckham is already at full speed.

Meanwhile, the ball is coming out for Marshall and his defender is a step ahead of him, and stacked on his route as the ball comes out. This gives the defender the advantage in the initial stages of the pass because he’s got optimal position to make a play on the ball without having to worry about the receiver’s position as he has both in his sights.

A couple of frames later, the ball is in the air. However, there is a strong difference in the top of the play and the bottom.

In the top, where the ball is headed, the offensive player is in a big disadvantage. By this time, you can see, he’s trying to run around his defender while tracking the ball. Not an easy task by any means.

At the bottom though, Beckham is clear of his defender and behind the secondary looking to see if the pass was headed his way. The defender now is not only trying to track the ball, but keep up with one of the fastest men in the NFL, who has just beaten him up the field due to poor coverage execution.

In the end, Marshall’s only chance at making a valid play on the ball was to gain the inside position. Douglas played this perfectly however, and drifted in towards the pass gradually as the pass neared the two players, ensuring he had first rights to the ball.

The only play Marshall had was to pass interfere, or play the ball once it enters Douglas’ vicinity. He chose to do the later, but the rookie held on for a key interception early in the game.

This play was the fourth of this specific possession, and had followed two completions before it. The first, was a 14-yard completion to Beckham while the second was an 11-yard pass to Sterling Shepard.

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Philadelphia’s defense maintained a top-coverage focused scheme though, and when Manning attempted to beat it, the Eagles’ defender was able to make the play largely because he was already in solid position at the time of the throw.

However, if Manning’s pre-snap read had taken him to Beckham’s side of the field, this could have been a much different play as the faster receiver was able to get behind his defender.

Showing just how crucial it is to keep the Giants receivers in front of you as a secondary player.

Where some chances can be taken are with the linebackers.

New York likes short and intermediate passes, and Manning prefers to get those out quick, mostly on his first read.

Early in the game, this approach was on full display.

Later, the Giants showed what happens when you don’t keep top-coverage on their receivers.

In the photo above, the Giants are lined up again in the shotgun. Beckham is at the bottom of the screen again as well.

About five yards into his route, Beckham makes a move to the inside. If the Eagles defender matched up on Beckham follows the apparent game plan, then he’ll maintain his coverage on top and not come up on the in cut. Notice, all the other Philadelphia defenders are following this discipline, and have ensured their defenders have no advantage over the top.

The corner’s desire to make a play gets the best of him, and as Beckham breaks back out to finish his double move, the defender is caught with all of his weight and momentum moving forward.

When Manning delivers the ball, his receiver has a clear path into the endzone, and the cornerback is nowhere near in position to make a play.

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Had the defender stayed true to his priority of not allowing the receiver to get behind him, then perhaps the Giants are forced to find another outlet, or try to see if Beckham can come down with one of his patented highlight catches.

Given the advantage the defenders all would have had on this play though, it’s likely the down ends with an incompletion, completion in the field of play, or a turnover.

This all gets even more important because of what it allows the Buccaneers linebackers to do, if the secondary can keep a lid on things.

Due to the constant top coverage on Giants receivers, Manning resorted to throwing many quick slants and in-routes.

For Philadelphia’s linebackers, seeing this pattern gave them the chance to jump routes knowing they had back-up behind them to keep the receiver from getting lose.

Earlier in the first half, an interception was forced by the Eagles defense when a linebacker did just that, and tipped the quick pass into the hands of his teammate.

It didn’t work every time. The Eagles defenders are competitors, and it’s hard to ask athletes at this level for so long. However, it worked the great majority of the time which is why Manning threw for 366-yards, three touchdowns, and lost the game.