Talent and Scheme

Championship weekend has come and gone, and it was about as unmemorable as it could have been. After a thrilling Sunday picked up the Divisional round, there were hopes that this would be the start of a new trend. Unfortunately, we found ourselves back on the same road we traveled for the first six games of the postseason, with a pair of contests that the home favorites ran away with.

But interesting or not, the games did their job. We’re down to two teams, and this is about the best matchup we could have hoped for. These were the two best teams coming into the postseason, and they showed what they were worth with a pair of easy victories.

Both teams won in blowouts on Sunday, but they did so in different ways. These teams are strong from top to bottom, built around elite quarterbacks, excellent coaching, and depth of talent across the roster. But they faced very different standards of competition this past weekend, standards that asked them to prove that they could win in very different ways.

New England Patriots

We’ll leave chronological order behind and start with New England’s victory over Pittsburgh. This was a game I expected to be a lot closer than it was, as the Patriots faced off against a team loaded with star talent and riding a nine game winning streak. And while I stand by my claim that Pittsburgh is the more talented team, the results on the field speak for themselves, as the superior coaching and strategy of New England carried them to a blowout win.

The main story is on the other side of the ball, but we need to give credit to the Patriots defense for holding the Steelers to a meager 17 points. On pure talent alone, New England’s defense cannot match up against Pittsburgh’s offense. Not many teams can, going against Le’Veon Bell, Antonio Brown, and Ben Roethlisberger working behind a top five offensive line. But on Sunday the Patriots found a way to overcome their shortcomings thanks to masterful schematic work.

Let’s make one thing clear before we go on: everything I say is with the understanding that Bell played only eleven snaps before going out with a groin injury. His absence greatly limited Pittsburgh’s offense, and it made everything New England was trying to do a whole lot easier. But it did not decide this game, and it didn’t change the gameplan for the Patriots defense.

Much has been made about New England’s desire to “take away whatever their opponent does best”. In general this is a bit overblown, but in this game it clearly was the driving factor of New England’s scheme. From the very first snap they played defense with the clear philosophy that they were not going to let Brown beat them on the edges.

The Patriots typically align their cornerbacks in a way that differs from most NFL teams. Rather than having their best cornerback Malcolm Butler line up opposite the offense’s top receiver, they put him man on man against the number two, and leave their second cornerback with safety help against the number one. This game, however, they changed up their strategy, using Butler against Brown while also keeping a safety over the top.

But putting their best cover guy in double coverage against Brown, they effectively neutralized him in the passing game. He managed only seven catches for 77 yards, a disappointing output for the league’s best receiver.

The downside of this strategy is that it leaves an offense’s secondary receivers free to tear through the weaker coverage on the backside of a defense, and this was absolutely the case in this game. Pittsburgh had all they could have wanted for their other receiving targets, but unfortunately they don’t have the quality of depth at receiver to take advantage of it.

Sammie Coates busted open deep early in the game, only to predictably drop a likely touchdown. Cobi Hamilton and Jesse James similarly struggled with drops. De’Angelo Williams managed to find himself wide open on several occasions, but he doesn’t have the explosiveness or the natural receiving skills that set Bell apart from other running backs. The one consistent offensive threat for Pittsburgh was Eli Rogers, but even he cost them with a second half fumble that ended any hope they had of a comeback.

Pittsburgh’s lack of offensive production was the result of excellent scheming by New England, but the true master work came on the other side of the ball. The Patriots had whatever they wanted against an overmatched Steelers defense, and they rode Chris Hogan to an offensive explosion that put the game out of reach.

Pittsburgh is one of the heaviest users of zone coverage in the NFL. This is largely a decision of necessity, as they simply don’t have the personnel to match up in man to man coverage. And for most of the season they were able to cobble together an above average defense this way, compressing in the red zone to take away passing lanes and tricking quarterbacks into costly turnovers.

The problem with a zone is that it only works if the opposing team doesn’t have a quarterback and receivers capable of recognizing the holes in it. And New England just so happens to have the best quarterback and best set of wide receivers at exploiting this style of defense. Tom Brady has tormented the Steelers for years for this very reason, and it will remain a serious issue down the road if the Steelers ever hope to get past the one team in the AFC who can match up with them on the field.

Atlanta Falcons

If the story for New England was one of technical brilliance overwhelming a competitive level of talent, then the story of the other game was how sometimes talent can be enough. Atlanta is an excellently coached football team, with a wizard of an offensive coordinator who constantly puts his players in the best position to succeed. But on Sunday none of that mattered, as they beat the Packers down by virtue of being better on the field at every single position.

This wasn’t a secret coming into the game. Green Bay is not a particularly good football team, and they made it this far only thanks to a superhuman effort by Aaron Rodgers. Through two playoff weeks this was looking like another example of how far a superstar at quarterback can carry a bottom ten roster, until he ran up against a quarterback capable of matching his play.

Let me make it perfectly clear where I stand on this. Aaron Rodgers is the best quarterback in the league. Matt Ryan outplayed him this season, he deserves the MVP award, and he was the better player on Sunday as well. But if you gave me one player to take from any team in the league, I would grab Rodgers in a heartbeat and probably not even think any other names.

But that’s a different story than the one we witnessed on Sunday. On Sunday we saw a quarterback who got everything he could have wanted and took full advantage of it, against a quarterback who came up short because he couldn’t elevate his teammates to that same level. Rodgers wasn’t the problem for the Packers, but the fact remains that they have no hope against an opponent like this when he isn’t beyond perfect, and his performance on Sunday fell far short of that mark.

The Falcons won the quarterback battle, and with the way they dominated everywhere else on the roster that was really all they needed to put this out of reach. They didn’t find much success running the football, but they didn’t need it, as they moved the ball at will through the air. Even when things went poorly, they still found ways to succeed, converting on ten of the thirteen third downs they faced.

Green Bay’s defense is slightly below average when healthy, and they have not been healthy in a very long time. With Sam Shields on injured reserve and both Damarious Randall and Quinton Rollins struggling with injuries throughout the year, they were forced to turn to second year undrafted free agent Ladarius Gunter as their top cornerback. If they hadn’t realized already, Gunter’s humiliation last week against Dez Bryant showed them that he had no hope against Julio Jones, and they sent a safety that way for help the entire game.

The problem is, even a safety wasn’t enough to stop Jones. Unlike the Steelers the Falcons have enough weapons that they can move the ball consistently without their star involved, and they found plenty of success scheming plays to produce big yards for Mohamed Sanu and their other secondary receiving options.

But even when they went at Jones, they still were able to get whatever they wanted. Jones’s strength and athleticism is unmatched in the NFL, and he made multiple plays that no other receiver could even dream of. He ran at will through Green Bay’s secondary, catching everything thrown his way and making tacklers look like fools as he sprinted through them and past them down the field.

Atlanta’s dominance on offense was thorough enough to win them the game, but their performance on defense is what made it a blowout. After some early struggles that ended in good luck with a missed field goal and a costly fumble by Aaron Ripkowski, Atlanta clamped down on Green Bay’s potent offense and held them scoreless through the first half. The Packers got nothing on the ground, and even when receivers ran open in the defensive backfield they weren’t able to complete enough to consistently move down the field.

The one area that I expected Green Bay to have a clear advantage was along the offensive line. Atlanta got great production down the stretch from Vic Beasley, but the rest of their line was a genuine problem area, as they struggled to generate pressure outside their star.

That wasn’t the case in this game. Every player along their defensive line played spectacularly, but particular praise has to go to Ra’Shede Hageman. A second round draft pick in 2014, I’ve mentioned Hageman here before as someone Atlanta desperately needed to step up. And step up he did, with the best performance of his life on the biggest stage. Hageman has always been up and down, but when he harnesses his pure gifts, this 6-6 311 pound monstrosity is capable of doing mind blowing things. He tossed linemen aside like they were nothing on the way to the backfield, recording a sack and three tackles for a loss.

Atlanta was the best team in the NFC this year, thanks in large part to the performance of their quarterback and their offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan. But they really didn’t need either of those things on Sunday. They went out, and the beat down a Packers team that didn’t even belong on the field with them, showing off the breathtaking skill and athleticism that will make them a nightmare for the Patriots ten days from now.