 Takes the snap and Lana trying to get there. Garnal threw it. It bounced up, fumbled around, and ultimately recovered. It was into the hands for a brief moment of James Vaughters. Hey there, Falcons fans. Welcome to the Falcons Film Review, powered by Microsoft Surface. I'm DJ Shockley, and please excuse my hotel room. Hopefully, the Braves can wrap it up tonight in game six. That is where I am in Houston. But we still have some Falcons business. Make sure we count on that and get you guys some of these X's and O's and talking about what happened in the game versus Carolina Panthers. Let's dig into some of these plays, and let's jump on the defensive side of the ball and talk about some of the intricacies of Dean Pease's defense and what it looks like pre-snap as opposed to what happens post-snap. All right, let's go to the film and look at what happens. Now, let's start at the line of scrimmage. Let's look at both of these linebackers that are in the A-gaps. You got two guys in the A-gaps looking like they're gonna have what we call a simulated blitz or a simulated pressure. Now, to the quarterback, to the offensive line, you say, okay, if these guys come, who are we going to block? But these guys are actually not going to come. They're actually gonna bail. But the other guys I want you guys to pay attention to, this is what we call a two-tamp-a-look. Right now, across the board, it looks like it's gonna be some type of man coverage on the outside. The guy I want you to pay attention to is in the slide down here at the bottom, my man, Eric Harris. He is going to be what's to be called the two-tamp-a-guy in the middle of the field. Usually, you have these linebacks. The linebackers that are in the A-gaps, yeah, he's gonna go to the middle of the field. But usually these linebackers in the A-gaps are the ones, one of them is the ones that carries through the middle of the field for what we call a two-tamp-a-coverage. Two-tamp is you got two safeties on the outside, you got zone on the inside, and you got a linebacker that run through the middle that takes away anything that goes down in the middle of the field because that's where you're most dangerous in a two-tamp-a-look. But Eric Harris is the one who goes to the middle. And then on the other side, the other slot defender is on the outside of the Avery-Williamsman. He's the guy who's gonna be the other half-field safety. Now he's gonna go towards the Falcons sideline, be that cover-two safety, and that middle-field safety here, he's gonna rotate towards the Carolina sideline and be that other cover-two safety on the outside. All right, so let's watch what happens. Also at the top of the screen, let's watch this game. The detackle at the top of the screen, he's gonna loop around, and then the end on the other side, he's gonna loop around the inside, and there's gonna be what we call an ET gang. The end and tackle they replace, and that's where the pressure comes from. All right, so at the snap of the ball, you're gonna see everything that we talk about here, what's gonna happen. Movement up front, now you see these guys bail. Now we see him bail. Now you see Eric Harris at the middle of the field. Eric Harris is at the middle of the field. He's taking away anything coming across the middle. This is where Donald wants to go with the ball. But now you see the half-field safety going here. You got your other safety down at the bottom, and you got eyes on the quarterback. And then remember that game I talked about up front? Look at the pressure now. Look at the line of scrimmage change right here from up front. This is only four guys blitzing, and you got four guys with the pressure. The pocket is pushing, and Donald had to hold on to the football because what it looked like pre-snap was not what it was post-snap, and it confused him a little bit, and now the pressure was able to get home, and as the play continues, you can see you get to Donald, and that is why this place was so successful. Marrying the back end with the front end is what D&P preaches, and you saw it firsthand here, of what this Falcons defense can look like when all 11 guys are playing on the same page. All right, let's stay on the defense side of the ball and talk about something that was really a hindrance for the Falcons in this ball game was third down. This is a particular play that happened on third and sixth, and the Panthers drew up a really good play against the Falcons to try to create a first down here. Now, the first guy I want you to pay attention to is at the bottom of the screen is the running back, and we call this a running back display. So he's out of the backfield, and now you see the guy covering him? It's Dion Jones. Usually Dion is on the inside, inside the box, but now because he's outside of those numbers, that tell you automatically this is man coverage, and that's the number one thing a quarterback wants to know. Do I have man? Do I have zone? That gives him an idea of where he wants to go with the football. So now you know you have man coverage, and now this back is going to go back into the backfield. Once he goes back into the backfield, Dion would absolutely go with him. So that gives you a further notice of what coverage it is for the quarterback. Now here's the route combination that really worked and why it was so successful. Start with this, we're going to start with this running back. He's going to run an option route. So option route gives him the option to break inside or break outside depending on the leverage of the linebacker. So Dion's going to play him, and now he has the leverage. Now the other guy to pay attention to is the route combination. This tight end at the bottom, he's going to run a free release go route. By running this free release go route, it gets this corner out of here. And that's important because if that corner's gone, there's nobody on the outside for Dion Jones. He has leverage. So now this back has a really good space to run its option right on. And they have created it by formation with this tight split by this tight end. And now they got a great opportunity to create what they want, which is they first down. At the top, they also run the option route as well. The inside guy, Robbie Anderson, is going to run an option route. And the middle guy is also going to run a little option route on top of the slot defender, which is sitting on about the 29 yard line. And that's where it's going to create a nice pick and rub play for them. All right, so let's get back into the play and show you exactly what happened on this particular play. As the play is about to get started, you see the play get started and now you see Dion Jones has the outside leverage here and we pause it here. Now you see the option there, boom. We breaks inside there. And once he breaks inside, so here's what's important. Look at the bottom of the bottom of the field. There's nobody down there because look at the corner right here. They're started by that tight end. He is released on the upside. Now he has gotten that corner out of there. And now look at where you have this back. He can work inside. He can work outside. This is just a very tough matchup for any linebacker. And usually you put your best backs on this. And now it's an easy completion here for the Panthers. And as the play continues, you can see it's just tougher Dion to cover that because he has so many ways to go on this particular play. Sometimes the offense does a good job of what I call just getting it done as far as distributing the football, but also creating these ways to get the football open. So sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but this time the Panthers created a really good play and that's why they were really successful on third down. All right, well, thank you guys for joining me. Looking at the defense today. Hopefully we get some medals next week and we get the dub and also keep rooting on those brains. I want to thank you guys for joining me for Falcons Film Review, powered by Microsoft Surface. I'm DJ Shockley. We'll see you next week.