A few simple and basic, yet effective, curveballs on 3rd down from Jeff Hafley.
All season long, Jeff Hafley has been using creative ways to get to his preferred third-down coverage, Tampa-2. He has a variety of ways to get to it, different zone drops for different defenders, and can use any combination of pass rushers that include the safeties off the edge. Any defender can sprint to the deep half from the second level and play deep safety.
On third and long all season, this coverage has been instrumental to the Packers ability to close out games late. They’ve generated multiple sacks and turnovers off of this coverage. In week 15 it would have made sense to see it run a handful of times.
But Hafley reached into his bag for another adjustment on third down that left the Seahawks‘ offense tattered and beaten. The result: two interceptions and seven total sacks on quarterbacks Geno Smith and Sam Howell in a 30-13 win.
Hafley called a nice change up to his Tampa-2 coverage on third down by showing cover-2 pre-snap and having the coverage rotate to cover-3 and using the same simulated pressure fronts up front that he normally shows on post-snap Tampa rotation.
Here in the first quarter, the defense is showing cover-2 pre-snap. Even when they run Tampa-2, they don’t show cover-2 pre-snap. Later in this game, Hafley stuck with Tampa-2 on late game third and long obvious passing situations.
These are the actual zones with the coverage rotation. The post-snap picture for the quarterback shows them rotating to cover-3 cloud from a 2-deep shell and shows defenders in the mugged pressure front bailing to underneath zones.
On third down, Seahawks offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb game-planned for the Packers to be in Tampa-2 post-snap, the evidence being the play call/route concept to the left here with a corner/flat concept designed to stress the cover-2 squat corner.
Against cover-2, the quick out would occupy the corner and the corner route would have a window with the safety bailing more vertical. But against 3-cloud, the safety can get over the top of the corner route as the deep third player. Quarterback Geno Smith sees he has no throw and doesn’t have time to get to any other routes in the progression before the pressure gets to him for a sack.
Later in the second quarter, Hafley called a similar pressure but from a mugged front. Instead, the Packers defense got into a 5-man front and sent the 4th rusher from the second level from a 3-3-5 defense and 5-1 front.
Quay Walker is the 4th rusher here with Brenton Cox (#57) and Aaron Mosby (#53) as the zone droppers from the line of scrimmage. Safety Xavier McKinney backs up to the deep middle third before the snap and Evan Williams walks up into the seam.
Post snap, both safeties switch responsibilities with McKinney buzzing down to bracket D.K. Metcalf and Williams rotating to the deep middle third.
Not quite a disguised cover-3 from cover-2, but the Seahawks were ready for it anyways with Geno completing the stick route in underneath cover-3 zone between the flat and strong hook player.
Later in the third quarter, the Seahawks tried to throw a dig route over the middle on 3rd-and-12 but the post-snap rotation muddied up the throwing window for Sam Howell, in for the injured Geno Smith.
The defense is in a 2-high shell pre-snap that rotates to cover-3 buzz weak post-snap. 3-buzz is a common coverage with the safety on the backside away from trips spinning down to the buzz zone and looking for any crossers from the “final-3” receiver across.
The play call has the slot running a dig over the middle, which would be a good route versus cover-2. He could settle in the zone between the strong hook and middle hook zone defenders. But the rotation is to cover-3 buzz, placing an extra defender in the second level and closing off the window to the dig route. Howell has to escape and throw it away.
Outlook
Some of these are basic adjustments by Hafley that one could reasonably expect but the remarkable thing about them is how Hafley anticipated what the Seahawks would do on offense and how he adjusted to it. In recent weeks, Packers opponents have been taking advantage of some of the voids in the Packers pass coverage and throwing dig routes behind linebackers who don’t gain enough depth.
The solution? Muddy up the throwing lanes with disguised rotations that depart from previous tendencies. It will be interesting to see what else Hafley can come up with. By the time the playoffs start, opposing offenses will have a lot to deal with.