Commanders struggling to defend read-option
The Falcons had success with the read-option against Washington, which will need to be corrected quickly ahead of the Giants game this week.
One of the concerning parts of the Commanders victory over the Falcons on Sunday was the way the Falcons were able to run the ball. The Commanders have been mostly a stout run defense, especially on the inside, which makes sense given the level of play the team is getting from Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne. They’ve been a little bit vulnerable on runs to the edge but generally they’ve played the run well.
One issue they have come across is defending the read-option. This has been a consistent problem for them since Ron Rivera became Head Coach and installed Jack Del Rio as the Defensive Coordinator. The read-option is a run scheme where the quarterback reads an unblocked defender and either hands the ball off to the running back or pulls the ball and keeps it himself based on how the unblocked defender plays it.
The Commanders typical response to the read-option has been the scrape exchange, where the unblocked defensive end crashes down inside on the run while a linebacker scrapes to the edge to replace the defensive end outside. Sometimes they’ll change up their scheme and bring down a safety to account for the threat of the quarterback keeping the ball. The Falcons had clearly done their homework and saw a vulnerability, as they implemented an adjustment to help defeat those two defensive schemes.
Here is the first example of a read-option keeper from this game. The Falcons align in a pistol formation with quarterback Marcus Mariota a few yards back from the center and the running back aligned behind him. The defensive end to the right side of the line, James Smith-Williams, is the read defender here. The Falcons leave him unblocked and Mariota will read him while the running back approaches to receive the hand off. Smith-Williams actually holds his position and doesn’t give an easy read to the quarterback, but he just begins to shuffle down the line which tells Mariota he can pull the ball and get around him to the edge.
Now, on a normal read-option play with the Commanders defending it with either a scrape exchange or in this case, a safety coming down from deep, this wouldn’t be a huge issue. However, the Falcons add a twist onto the run. The tight end that aligned on the right side of the line initially fakes blocking Smith-Williams before arcing around him and working to the next level. When Mariota then gets around Smith-Williams, he has a lead blocker out in front of him. The tight end is in position to block the safety and give Mariota a free run. Fortunately for Washington, safety Darrick Forrest avoids the blocker, but he’s unable to prevent Mariota from converting on third and short.
The Falcons came back to this arc blocking twist throughout the game.
This is another read-option run with the same design, just from a different look. This time instead of the tight end on the line of scrimmage arcing around the unblocked defender, the fullback in the backfield does that assignment. Montez Sweat crashes a little more intently inside on the run, telling Mariota to pull the ball and keep it. The fullback arcs around while the tight end actually does a terrific job working up and blocking Kam Curl, who was scraping to the edge to account for the quarterback run. This gives Mariota a free run into the secondary with his fullback out in front as a lead blocker. Mariota picks up five yards comfortably before a defender gets close to him and then slides to avoid taking a big hit.
As the game progressed, the Commanders attempted to go back to that scrape exchange option, but couldn’t stop the quarterback run.
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