Packers Xs and Os Film Session: Burned by the Zone Read (Again)

Photo credit: Joe Nicholson/USA Today

After finishing the preseason with high expectations, the Green Bay Packers were soundly beaten by the Seattle Seahawks. Some things went right, but so many things went wrong. The following play I’ll break down shows one such scenario where things went terribly wrong.

In the GIF below, the Seahawks scored a 33-yard touchdown that seemed to be uncontested. The receiver was uncovered and essentially walked into the end zone.

Credit: NFL Rewind
Credit: NFL Rewind

So, what went wrong? What did the Packers do that allowed such a major breakdown?

First, let’s rewind a little bit. Let’s go back to the 2012 season and the divisional playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers. That game, the Packers defense gave up a whopping 579 yards, including 323 on the ground, to the 49ers’ offense, much of it as a result of Colin Kaepernick and the zone read play.

In the following off season, the Packers’ defensive coaching staff visited the college ranks, where the zone read originated, to learn how to better defend it.

The zone read is a slightly complex play, but it can be summarized as a quarterback option running play. At the snap of the ball, the quarterback reads the play side defensive end or outside linebacker (who is ever on the line of scrimmage and responsible for containment). If that defender stays home and seals the edge, the quarterback will hand the ball off to the running back on a dive play. If that defender crashes down the line of scrimmage, then the quarterback keeps the ball on an outside run.

There are a lot of moving pieces on this play, so teaching the defenders where to go while matching up against it is a challenging thing. Since the offense reads the play side containment defender, the defense must have other defenders rotate over to secure the outside edge and middle linebackers plugging middle run gaps. The GIF below describes the defensive alignment and play responsibilities against the zone read.

Credit: NFL Rewind

Credit: NFL Rewind

In the play against the Seahawks, the Packers’ defense was ready for the zone read. They had the defenders in the right position and should have stuffed it cold. They had done their homework and were ready for it. See the GIF below.

Credit: NFL Rewind

Credit: NFL Rewind

However, the Seahawks weren’t running the traditional zone read that only had two ground options. They were running a triple option, where the third option was a pass. This play was a new wrinkle this year for the Seahawks, and it caught the Packers totally off guard. They were totally out of position for the pass option because the boundary cornerback left his receiver to provide run support. While TV commentators want to blame Shields for having his eyes in the backfield, I believe he was coached to defend the zone read in this manner. It’s very common for defenses to put their best cornerback in the boundary and expect them to perform in run support without strong (or field) safety help.

We’ll just try to ignore the ¡olé! tackle attempt by Ha Ha Clinton-Dix. He got caught with his feet stuck, causing him to lunge at the receiver. He should have driven through the receiver.

This wasn’t as much of a disaster as many may like to think. The silver lining is they had this zone read run option defended very well (if it was a only a run), which wasn’t always the case in the past. Also, later in the game, they had the third pass option covered as well. However, by then, the game was no longer in doubt.

At least it wasn’t a Fail Mary.

I believe the GIFs embedded above to be fair use under the premise of being short clips of the original broadcast that are transformative for news reporting, commentary, critique, illustration, and teaching purposes.

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Jay Hodgson is an independent sports blogger writing for AllGreenBayPackers.com and WISports.com.

Follow Jay on twitter at @jys_h.

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24 thoughts on “Packers Xs and Os Film Session: Burned by the Zone Read (Again)

  1. I always come away feeling smarter when I see things like this. Nice job Jay, I’d like to see more of this.

  2. Very nice… I was wondering why there was WR left completely uncovered. Now I know! Thank you!

  3. I’m okay with the play working against the defense, because as you pointed out, this was an unscouted wrinkle in the offense. And as you also pointed out, it was defended properly from what they expected. The only thing I wasn’t okay with was HaHa missing the tackle and not giving the defense another chance. But even then, he was in a position to make the play. In other words, a balanced list of positives and negatives.

  4. Good article. Seems our strategists were one-upped. You’ve gotta give Seattle credit for their creativity on this play, and on how they used Harvin. I was wondering about our game plan as the game went by. Seemed Seattle had us pretty well figured out. Also, they seemed to out-effort us. I know its only one game, against the best… at a hostile stadium…, but if we’re ever going to be the best (as I know we all hope for) we can’t keep having stinky showings like this. Is it me, or is it a repeating theme where we look inept and get totally smoked in big games against really tough opponents? If we’re going to be the best, we’ve got to beat the best….or at least hang in there with them. I hope it gets fixed.

  5. Jay – good job. The problem that I see on the play is twofold. One, at snap of the ball Dix is just about 15 yards off the line of scrimmage. Seems a little deep to me. I would expect him to be 10 – 12 yards deep. Two, after the snap Dix is dropping straight back and not rotating to Shield’s side as he moves up to stop Wilson’s run. We can’t know for sure but if Dix is closer to the LOS and rotates properly he may be in a better position to make a tackle and even if he doesn’t other defenders may catch the receiver before he scores. I can’t fault Dix, it’s only his first game and he’s still learning and he nearly did make the tackle. The point here is that Seattle, and I am confident, other teams will take advantage of his inexperience. This play just highlights that if our DL and LBs play better our secondary may have a chance. Thanks, Since ’61

    1. You bring up a good point and question. I have no way of actually knowing if Ha Ha was out of position, but looking at the keys, I’d say he was at proper depth. Since the Seahawks were in in a balanced closed formation on the hash, the Packers called strength to the field side, and put Burnett in the field. It looks like the Packers were going cover 1, full man under. In such cases, it’s pretty standard to put your free safety at 15 yards deep shading to the boundary when directly over the ball. He made a horrible attempt at a tackle, but I think he was in the right area.

  6. Jay, these are consistently outstanding articles. Thanks. The GIFs with the dissections are incredibly helpful for us visual learners!

  7. Teams have been taking advantage of Green Bay’s slow linebackers ever since the 49er playoff debacle a couple years ago. As long as they don’t have any sideline-to-sideline speed at linebacker, teams will continue to exploit this weakness in their defense…

  8. Jay, can you explain how GB properly defended against the new wrinkle later in the game? Capers has been quoted as saying that Shields indeed was supposed to come up to support the run, so it seems you are correct. I note that another author on another site (Olson on Cheeseheadtv) broke down this same play and concluded that Shields’ decision to bite on the run thereby leaving the WR wide open was inexplicable.

    1. I don’t have a GIF of the play, but from my memory, the Seahawks tried the same play to the other side of the formation and tested Tramon Williams. When they did, Tramon stayed with his receiver, and the linebacker rotated over to contain the quarterback. It was an incomplete pass through the end zone.

      I’m not comfortable commenting on someone’s work on another site, but let’s just say Shields did play the zone read properly. The receiver running down the sideline was the responsibility of Ha Ha.

      1. Thank you very much. If the CB is supposed to follow the WR, it means that CMIII is the contain OLB and has to tackle the QB one on one in the open field. Tough assignment, particularly against certain QBs.

        Your reluctance to comment on someone else’s work on another site merely increases my respect for you. I hope I didn’t ask you to do that. As a note, Capers was quoted in the gazetteextra as indicating that you were right and Shields was correct to provide run support. I have provided the link: http://www.gazettextra.com/20140909/packers_defense_in_need_of_repair

        1. It’s all good. I didn’t interpret your comment as a request for me to talk about someone’s work.

          When I watched the all-22 film, that play looked like the Packers were in cover 1, man under. The keys were Shields walked up tight immediately pre-snap and box defenders ignored the flats. If that’s the case and it was cover 1, man under, the boundary corner is responsible for run support because he has no safety help. He has to use his leverage in the flat to turn the ball back inside to the OLB. The free safety is too deep for run support and asking the OLB to chase down the QB on that angle without outside leverage help is asking too much. The field corner does have safety because the strong (field) safety is nearby and can play the run if the cornerback carries a receiver vertically. The field safety and OLB can pursue the quarterback.

          That’s how many teams play the zone read run. It sounds like Capers at least quasi-prepared his defense for an option pass, but that wasn’t the best defense for it.

          Then, Capers made an in-game adjustment and told his cornerbacks to stay with the receivers on the zone read option and let the LBs deal with the QB. It worked because another pass from that play wasn’t completed. I’ll have to re-watch the film sometime and see the alignment adjustments.

  9. Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I’ll try to thank or “thumbs up” everyone who expresses kind words, but if I miss one, it wasn’t intentional or a snub. I enjoy making these articles and I’m glad that you enjoy reading them.

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