Pattern-match zone or simply Match zone is run by the Patriots, Ravens, Broncos, Seahawks this year and we'll see it today vs the Titans who are running it with Vrabel as HC. The Broncos used it against the Chiefs in week 4 and although they lost 27-24, the benefits of match zone were obvious for the offensively challenged Broncos.
Farrar interviewed Saban on its origination by him and BB while in Cleveland and why it's perfect against the read-option and spread offenses coming out of the college game. The Patriots run this D approximately 40% of the time against good passing offenses in passing situations because it's easy to disguise as we saw vs Aaron Rodgers who didn't know wtf was going on. It's hard to learn and communication is important; the Pats didn't run it much at the beginning of the season. As the season goes along we'll see more of it as the execution progresses. If we see the Chiefs in the playoffs, the Pats should be ready.
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Part 2 of "The Match Game" by Doug Farrar
“This started with the Cleveland Browns,” Saban said at a 2010 Mississippi coaching clinic, via
ElevenWarriors.com. “I was the defensive coordinator in the early 90s and Pittsburgh would run ‘Seattle’ on us — four streaks. Then they would run two streaks and two out routes, what I call ‘pole’ route from 2×2. We got to where could
not play 3-deep zone because we rerouted the seams and played zone, and what I call ‘Country Cover-3’ (drop to your spot, reroute the seams, break on the ball). Well, when [Dan] Marino is throwing it, that old break-on-the-ball [expletive] don’t work.
“So, because we could not defend this, we could not play three-deep. When you can’t play zone, what do you do next? You play man (Cover-1), but if their [players] are better than your [players], you can’t play Cover-1. We got to where we couldn’t run Cover-1. So now we can’t play an eight-man front.
As Saban pointed out, the 1994 Browns lost five games, and three of them (twice in the regular season, once in the playoffs) were to Pittsburgh. And when Saban tried to move from Cover-3 to Cover-1 (a single deep safety with man coverage outside), the same issues arose. As he said, “If their [players] are better than your [players], you can’t play Cover-1.”
And so, the Browns couldn’t present eight-man fronts against Pittsburgh’s power running game. Something had to be done. What did Saban do? He combined zone and man coverage, and came up with the pattern-matching concept.
“We came up with this concept — how we can play Cover-1 and Cover-3 at the same time, so we can do both these things and one thing would complement the other,” Saban said. “We came up with the concept ‘Rip/Liz match.'”
Put simply, basic pattern-matching has a defender playing zone through the first part of a route. Then, as the receiver makes a move to affect the stem of the route, the defender switches to man coverage. It gives defenders and their coaches added flexibility to take receivers upfield. In combination coverages, pattern-matching also allows defenses to affect multi-receiver sets to either side, as you see in the NFL’s current spread concepts. The “Rip/Liz” language simply tells the defense which side is the dominant alignment—“Rip” for right, “Liz” for left.
ESPN analyst and former NFL defensive back Louis Riddick, who broke down two plays in Part 1 of “
The Match Game,” played for Saban and head coach Bill Belichick in Cleveland in 1993 and 1994, and he was introduced to pattern-matching from the first day he hit the Browns facility. Saban and Belichick had already dialed it up by that time.
“Pattern-matching was always a part of what the safeties and cornerbacks did,” Riddick told me. “If we called it Cover-4 (four-deep, man-based coverage), there were very specific reads for us when routes got into that 10- to 12-yard area. The coverage turned from zone to man. You ‘buy’ a route based on which way the receiver went — whether they broke to your left or your right, and where your help would be coming from. It always started off as a zone call, but once they got into your specific area, the specific depth you needed them to get to, it quickly turned to man.
“It’s what Nick and Bill had talked about — there was no way you could play spot drop coverage when the receivers had options as far as ‘we’re just going to go where you’re not.’ Once the receivers got down the field, it had to turn into man. It was what I learned, and it made sense.”
And if it made sense then, it certainly makes sense now, when receiver formations and route calls are so much more advanced. In addition, the complexity of option routes, in which receivers decide their tail ends of their routes depending on the actions of the defenders covering them, makes traditional spot drop coverage all the more difficult to maintain.
Like Riddick, Matt Bowen is an ESPN analyst who played defensive back in the NFL. As a co-host on the network’s “NFL Matchup” show, Bowen watches as much tape now as he did in his playing days. Bowen also
coaches at the high school level, so he’s got a great eye into all levels of the game. And like Riddick, Bowen is surprised that NFL teams aren’t using more match coverage against modern offenses. Especially when offenses run plays at a hyperactive tempo and defenses are more stressed than ever.
“Defenses are caught right now where they just want to get alignment and assignment. And when you’re just playing alignment and assignment football, I don’t think it’s good enough anymore. And that’s where you say, “OK — my guys can line up, and they can adjust.’ That’s it. And that’s great, if you’re in OTAs. But in the game, from a defensive perspective, what’s your disguise? How are you going to set the tempo for the offense? When a defense dictates the tempo, they take over the game.”
So, how does pattern-matching make a difference? I reached out to another high school coach for a surprising set of answers.
Cody Alexander is a former Baylor defensive graduate assistant and the current secondary coach at Midlothian High School in Texas. He has a great website about defensive scheme called
MatchQuarters.com. Alexander has also written a book, “
Cautious Aggression: Defending Modern Football,” which is how I discovered his defensive philosophies. If you think a high school secondary coach doesn’t have a thing or two to teach NFL defensive coordinators, you should read Alexander’s book and think about how dogmatic some NFL defensive coordinators can be.
much more here:
https://touchdownwire.usatoday.com/...-nick-saban-re-imagined-defensive-coverage/2/
and here:
Defeating The Perfect Beast; the Mahomes Conundrum
https://touchdownwire.usatoday.com/..._medium=recirc&utm_campaign=rail-most-popular