If I’m really, truly using this space to break down the biggest play of the game, I only ever had one choice. I tried to get cute and go with something else, but it had to be Roethlisberger-to-Brown. And that’s fine. It was a tremendous play and, like pretty much every play in football, it had way more going on with it than it had originally seemed.

I’m tired and probably getting sick, so let’s stop all the chit-chat and get down to talking a little football.

Antonio Brown [84] is the lone receiver on the left side of the line. The Steelers are on the left hash and Brown is running a corner route, so putting him in the slot is the only thing that gives him enough room for this route.

The Packers are essentially in Cover 3 Zone Under, but Josh Jones [27] acts as a bracket defender on Brown. Think of Jones as playing deep man coverage on Brown, picking him up after he clears the underneath zone of Kevin King [20].

King’s job is to play underneath on Brown: if it’s short, he jumps it or keeps Brown in front of him and tackles. If it’s deep, he passes off to Jones over the top, while falling underneath the route.

Brown runs deep, so King falls underneath the route. He is turned sideways to keep an eye on Brown and to see what Ben Roethlisberger [7] is doing. He sees Brown running the corner route so he drops wide.

Jones is playing Brown up the seam, which is where the initial route is taking him. When Brown cuts to the outside, Jones has to turn to recover. And, while he closes well, he’s still a step slow.

But, honestly, I don’t know how much that matters. He could have been on Brown’s hip and this pass still could have been complete. Great throw by Roethlisberger and tremendous catch by Brown.

Two more things to look at.

1. I said that Jones may not have been able to make a difference even if he played this perfectly, and I believe that. But I’d much rather have an actual safety playing over the top of that route. Someone like, say, Morgan Burnett [42]. You can see Burnett here, dropping from the middle. I originally thought his role was to drop deeper and under a possible seam route, but that’s not the case. He’s just dropping back into a middle zone. In a situation like this, I’d much rather have Jones in the box dropping and Burnett playing over the top.

2. Nice spin move through the middle by Kyler Fackrell [51] to move Roethlisberger and get some pressure on him. I’ve been hard on Fackrell throughout his short career, but he has turned in a couple solid games.

Before we get out of here – for real this time – let’s take a second to think about the nature of Cover 3 and how that factors in here. Please accept my hastily drawn example on a legal pad.

This is by no means a perfect example, but it’ll work in a pinch. Cover 3 is exactly what it sounds like: the field is split up into thirds, with each defender responsible for that side. I’ve used dashes to show the thirds, but they have another purpose: they show the seams.

Any coverage has its weak spots. For Cover 3, one of those weak spots is the seam between zones, and that’s what it looks like the Steelers may be attacking here. Brown releases up the field, tracing that seam on the left of this diagram. Let’s look at a freeze frame:

This is where Brown begins to cut to the corner, but you can see the predicament of Jones. If you look to the other side of the field, you’ll see the receiver that started in the right slot clearing the middle. Ha Ha Clinton-Dix [21] is the safety in the middle, so he is responsible for the middle of the field. He can’t peel off the middle to play Brown over the top of he leaves the other receiver wide open in his zone.

King has underneath coverage on Brown at this point, so you can see why Jones played this the way he did. If Brown goes up the seam, he needs to be in a position to run with him, because no one else is able to. With King underneath, Jones doesn’t need to play the corner route from the jump. In fact, he shouldn’t. Putting himself in a position to play a corner route only puts him out of position on a seam route.

To reiterate (and to close this out): this was a tough play for Jones to defend. He declared a bit too early on the seam route and hesitated once Brown cut, but it still took a perfect throw and catch to beat the coverage. Sometimes you can play things well and still get beat. That’s just life.

Album listened to: Sufjan Stevens – The Greatest Gift