An inside look at the key plays and trends from the Dolphins-Colts game after reviewing the Coaches Film:
1. Charles Clay’s 31-yard touchdown: How’d it happen?
Clay scored on a 31-yard catch-and-run on second-and-8 early in the second quarter. How’d he do it? We see before the snap that he is going to run a deep out pattern and Brian Hartline (bottom of screen) is going to run a crossing route. The Colts are in man defense with a single-high safety, and the cornerback lined up over Clay is going to blitz.
Hartline’s crossing route creates nice separation for Clay, who catches the ball midway between the numbers and the sideline.
The impressive aspect of this play comes next, as Clay is able to turn the tight corner at full speed, maintain his balance and stay in bounds.
And he stays on his feet just long enough to be able to dive into the end zone.
As Mike Sherman said, “I never thought he’d be able to negotiate that turn.”
2. Chris Clemons proves: Every step counts.
Donnie Avery hauled in a 48-yard catch over double coverage early in the second quarter. As Clemons proves on this play, every step counts.
Notice before the snap that he is lined up on the 32:
Andrew Luck runs a playaction fake, and Clemons’ first step is forward 1 yard:
He quickly changed his direction and tried to race back, but that one step forward was all Avery needed to get separation and make a diving catch:
As for Sean Smith, well, he just got burned on the play.
3. Dilfer’s Dime of the Day: Ryan Tannehill drops it in to Hartline for 35 yards.
Trent Dilfer has a great segment on ESPN called “Dilfer’s Dimes” in which he highlights the best passes of the week. He doesn’t work for us, but we’ll help him do his job, anyway, with this beautiful 35-yard throw from Tannehill to Hartline late in the first quarter.
Hartline runs an out-and-up on the cornerback playing man coverage. As we see here, Tannehill lets go of the ball while Hartline is still making his first move toward the sideline:
Tannehill puts the perfect amount of loft on the throw, and drops it right into Hartline on a dime:
4. Robert Mathis’ sack: Was it really Jonathan Martin’s fault?
Martin took some grief from fans after the game for giving up a 9-yard sack in the first quarter, but I’m not convinced that it was his fault.
We see before the snap that Mathis is lined up wide outside of TE Anthony Fasano, who will go out for the pass after the snap. Martin is responsible for Mathis, while John Jerry is responsible for the rusher lined up over Martin:
That’s a long way to go for Martin to slow down the speedy Mathis, who not surprisingly gets around the edge:
And Mathis is able to get to the quarterback with relative ease:
Perhaps Tannehill should have instructed Fasano to stay in and chip Mathis instead of sending him up-field.
5. Athletic Olivier Vernon Play of the Day.
Seems like we feature this guy every week, so we might as well just name a category for him. Vernon had yet another freakishly athletic play when he tipped Adam Vinatieri’s 54-yard field goal attempt with 2:29 left in the second quarter.
Here we see Vernon completely hurdle the offensive lineman after the snap:
He lands on his feet and is able to jump up again and tip the ball:
It was the second straight week that Vernon deflected a field goal attempt.
6. Preparation of the Week: Colts’ kickoff team.
The Dolphins pulled off a surprise onsides kick two weeks ago against the Jets, but the Colts were having none of it. The Jets’ players lined up on their own side of the field, and those precious few yards cost them a recovery, but notice how the Colts’ players line up on the Dolphins’ side of the 50:
7. Tactic: Colts play the deeeeeep safety.
This was a typical defensive alignment for the Colts on Sunday, with a single-high safety playing really, really deep off the ball:
Many times, the Colts disguised this look until the last possible second, then had a safety sprint back to the middle of the field right before the snap. Hartline’s 35-yard catch down the sideline was the Dolphins’ only deep pass of the day.
8. Scheme of the day: Hartline uses the double pick to gain 13 yards.
If you like seeing how players work off each other to get open, then this play’s for you. This is a third and 7 play from Indy’s 43 yard line on the Dolphins’ first drive of the day. Hartline is the outside receiver in the bunch at the top:
We hit R2 on our Playstation controller and see that Hartline is going to run a short drag across the middle of the field:
The first pick comes from Clay and Davone Bess at the line of scrimmage, who help Hartline get a clean release. But notice that after the snap, there are two linebackers still in position to cover Hartline:
That’s where the second pick comes into play. As Hartline runs underneath, both linebackers get caught up in Fasano running a slant over the middle. Meanwhile, the running back has his back to Hartline and is focusing on Reggie Bush:
Hartline is wide open when he catches the ball, and Tannehill puts it right on the money to lead Hartline into the open alley for a 13 yard gain:
9. Penalty of the Day: Jimmy Wilson gets clotheslined:
Ultimately, the Dolphins declined this penalty on Jeff Linkenbach because the Colts missed the field goal. But Linkenbach gives Wilson a forearm worthy of the WWE as he flew around the edge:
10. Reggie Wayne 9-yard touchdown: How’d it happen?
Wayne had an easy time catching a 9-yard touchdown pass on third down in the second quarter. First off, Sean Smith gave him 6 yards of separation at the line of scrimmage:
Then he backpedaled even more right at the snap. Meanwhile, Wayne is going to run a post, and look at all that real estate. It appears that Smith is either expecting the corner fade, or expects to have safety help over the middle:
But no one is there, and Wayne is wide open when Luck throws the ball:
11. Run of the day: Reggie Bush breaks everyone’s ankles.
Suffice to say, Bush’s 18-yard touchdown run was spectacular. Here we see that three unblocked defenders should have him corralled around the 15:
But Bush plants and cuts back so hard that Mathis completely overruns the play and Kavell Conner falls over:
Oh no, there’s still another unblocked defender in his way!
Not a problem, Bush will break his ankles, too:
12. Missed Opportunity of the Day: Karlos Dansby drops a pick-6.
Smith got a lot of grief for dropping a would-be interception late in the game, but Dansby could’ve put some points on the board in the third quarter if he could’ve just held on to this pass:
And no one was going to stop Dansby from getting to the end zone:
13. Block of the Day: Jake Long seals the edge.
Long would be the first one to admit that this wasn’t his finest day as a pass blocker, as Dwight Freeney got him for a sack and several pressures.
But Long did a nice job here to get out front of Daniel Thomas on this toss sweep and make the key block to spring him for 20 yards:
14. Dilfer’s Dime No. 2: Andrew Luck threads the needle to Reggie Wayne.
Look at how close Jimmy Wilson is to deflecting this pass. Instead, it’s just out of his reach, and Wayne gets another third-down conversion:
NOTEWORTHY
Wasn’t able to describe these photos, but two more interesting observations from the coaches tape:
* Three of the Colts’ longest third-down conversions — third and 12, third and 14 and third and 20 — all came on the same play: A deep button hook. The Colts’ receivers got a ton of separation on the cornerbacks all three times.
* When the Dolphins changed to a “QB Spy” defense, who did they use as their spy? Olivier Vernon, of course. He has quickly developed into their most versatile and athletic defender.
