OUR FAVOURITE PLAY of week two in the National Football League came in the San Diego Chargers’ upset win over the reigning Super Bowl champions – the Seattle Seahawks – on Sunday night.

The entire game was an offensive master-class from Philip Rivers and Frank Reich as they dismantled a Seattle defence rightly regarded as having the best secondary in the game.

This Antonio Gates touchdown in the third quarter a perfect example of how well they used the veteran tight end but, as we’ll see, it’s a play the Seahawks should have seen coming.

In case you missed the touchdown, here is how it played out on TV:

Source: Fox

It is just one of a number of examples in the game of how the Chargers used their offensive formation to create favourable match-ups for Gates in the red zone.

Pre-snap read – Offence

For this score, the Chargers utilised a personnel grouping known as Posse/11 which means having three wide receivers (black, purple and orange), a running back (yellow) and, of course, a tight end (green) – in this case Gates – on the field.

They line up in a 3×1 Double Slots formation which simply means there are three receivers on one side of the field – two in the slot role – and a tight end on the other.

Pre-Snap read – Defence

The Seahawks are in a Cover 1 Robber – or Rat – defence. Cover 1 means Seattle are only playing with one deep defender – in this case Kam Chancellor (red) – covering a vast area of the field. The other members of the secondary and the linebackers are in man (or one-on-one) coverage.

The Robber in this case is Jeron Johnson (blue) and his job is to sit in the middle of the field, reading Philip Rivers’ eyes in an attempt to determine where he is going to throw the football. Theoretically, this eliminates any short passes the quarterback can make to the middle of the field forcing Rivers to throw to the outside into contested coverage.

In an ideal world – for the defence – the quarterback does not see the Robber (or, at least, doesn’t recognise him as being the Robber) – leading to an easy interception if he throws towards the middle of the field.

At the snap

On this particular play, Gates is lined up one-on-one with KJ Wright (#50) which is exactly what the Chargers hoped for as a tight end – especially one as physically imposing as Gates – should win a contested pass the vast majority of the time when facing a linebacker.

The wide receiver closest to the line of scrimmage – Eddie Royal (orange) – is there to keep the deep safety Chancellor honest, and hold him away from Gates’ side of the field.

The receiver to his right – Malcolm Floyd (purple) – not only keeps his man-to-man marker Marcus Burley (#28) out of the game but he also attracts the attention of the Robber Johnson (blue).

Richard Sherman, the self-proclaimed best defender in the game, is as far away from the football as possible, keeping track of Keenan Allen (black).

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What happens next?

Having achieved exactly the match-ups they wanted at the line of scrimmage and held Chancellor on the right – as Rivers looked at it – side of the field for that extra split second, we see some expert route-running from Gates to achieve separation from his defender and facilitate the pass from his qaurterback.

It must be said that Rivers does a great job of stepping up to make the throw as the pocket – the protective zone around the QB – collapses around him and you can see he already has eyes on Gates (circled) who is in the process of separating from his defender by leaning towards him to create leverage.

As you ‘ll see, Rivers throws the football to Gates’ back shoulder – to ensure that only his tight end has a chance of catching it – as soon as separation actually occurs down field and the veteran does the rest, even show-boating with the one-handed grab.

Chancellor, who has been held to the other side of the field by the route of Eddie Royal, arrives a split second too late to make the play.

Notes

The Seahawks really should have known what was coming. Here’s how the Chargers lined up for all three of Gates’ touchdowns on Sunday:

One:

Source: Fox

Two:

Source: Fox

Three:

Source: Fox

The only difference with the last score being they flipped – or switched sides – on the play.