Film Breakdown: Schematic Look at How Joe Burrow and the Bengals Can Attack the Raiders' Defense

Can Cincinnati's offense stay hot this week against Las Vegas?

Author:
Mike Santagata
Publish date:
Jan 13, 2022 8:44 AM EST

The Bengals may have scored over 30 points against the Raiders the last time that they played, but Joe Burrow only threw for 148 yards and one touchdown.

To be fair, that stat line comes prior to the passing offense really opening up. Joe Mixon and the offensive line had a fantastic day running the ball, but some of those points came because of the defense. The score itself is also a bit misleading because it was a tight game up until the last few minutes. The Raiders defense really did not do a terrible job. It was their offense that truly let them down with turnovers and a lack of points.

Let’s learn about the Raiders' defense and how the Bengals can attack based on what they did in the previous matchup.

The Raiders Defense

The Raiders play a straightforward defense that really gained popularity in the 2010s. This offseason they hired former Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator Gus Bradley. Bradley brings with him the same defense that the Seahawks played during his tenure.

When it comes to the big guys, the Raiders play a 4-down even front. More specifically, they typically play an over front. All this means is that there are four down linemen, the nose tackle is not head up over the center, and they set the 3 technique to the run strength.

Against this formation, the Raiders put their 3 technique in between the left guard and left tackle because the tight end is on that side. In a one tight end formation, they will dictate the rushing strength. You can also see how they set the nose tackle over the right guard rather than head up over the center. This is a very common front although it is losing style with how popular the odd front has become.

On the back end, the Raiders usually play a Cover 3 shell of some sort with Cover 2 and Cover 1 as change-ups. Cover 3 is what the Seahawks used during the Legion of Boom era and was the most popular shell to play up until last season. Almost every variety of Cover 3 has the same core zones in it. There are two curl-flat defenders who will be responsible for the outside, two hook zones which are the shallow interior zones, a deep middle of the field safety, and two deep thirds.

Blue is the deep middle of the field in this visual. Red is the deep third, yellow is the curl-flat, and purple is the hook zone. This variation would be Cover 3 buzz with the strong safety taking the strong hook and the linebacker to that side playing the curl-flat zone.

The difference between this and Cover 3 sky is just that in Cover 3 sky, the strong safety will play the curl-flat and the linebacker to that side plays the hook zone. Those are the two most common cover 3 variations that are played in the NFL. When I watch them on film, it seems like they play 3 sky against balanced looks and they like to play 3 buzz against trips or any 3 by 1 formation. This is most likely because they like the get the strong safety as the one taking over routes against a 3 by 1 formation.

The Raiders play more Cover 3 than any team in the entire National Football League, and it makes sense because they are very good at it. They know the weaknesses of the coverage and they make adjustments to try to patch those holes. The 3 buzz against trips looks is one example of that. Still, it is a defense that is exploitable.

Attacking Cover 3

There are three main ways in which an offense will try to attack a coverage. They can combine some of these and dress up the ideas differently, but in general, an offense will try to do one of these three:

A Horizontal Stretch: this is a play in which the offense will try to force one defender to try to take two guys with an emphasis on side to side. Common concepts that use this are dragon and stick.
A Vertical Stretch: this is a play in which the offense will try to force one defender to try to take two guys with a deep route and a shallow route. Common concepts that use this are flood and levels
Isolation: this is a play in which the offense will try to isolate one of their receivers against what they believe is a mismatch. Common concepts that use this are comebacks or lucy.

Against Cover 3, the stretches come against any of the underneath defenders. Those are the curl-flat and hook zone defenders. If it is a concept to attack the middle of the field such as levels, then it puts the hook defenders in conflict. If it is a concept to attack the outside such as dragon then it is to put the curl-flat defender in conflict. Any of the defenders can be isolated, but against Cover 3 it is common to isolate one of the linebackers or the outside corners.

With all of that in mind let’s look at some concepts the Bengals could use on Saturday.

Make sure your audio is on for these clips as I will be breaking down the concept and why it is effective against Cover 3 in detail.

This concept is dragon or slant flat. The idea is to stress the curl-flat defender who will be forced to cover the flat and the slant.

Shock is an example of isolation along with a vertical stretch. The stick route is to isolate the slot receiver against a linebacker in bad leverage while the slot fade concept is a vertical stretch on the deep third corner.

The 4 verts portion of this play is mostly window dressing to clear out the defenders, but it is a horizontal stretch deep down the field if they do not carry all of the vertical routes. The lucy route in this concept is an isolation again of the slot receiver against a linebacker.

This example is from the Chargers game against the Raiders, but it’s a concept that I've seen the Bengals utilize. The idea here is to isolate a receiver against the deep third corner with an out route. These can also be comeback routes. With the Bengals all-star wide receivers, I would not be surprised if they went to this.

Those are only four concepts that the Bengals could use to attack Cover 3, but they are four of the concepts that I would carry into this upcoming game. There is a multitude of ways to effectively attack Cover 3 and I am sure that the Bengals will find some way to do it. It may come down more to execution than anything.

Attacking The Over Front

There are two run concepts that the Bengals can utilize from their game against the Raiders earlier this season to attack the way that they like to play defense: wide zone and lead toss.

The Raiders’ defensive line likes to fly up the field and get penetration. This is something that defensive line coach Rod Marinelli has taught since the 1970s and he's very good at it. He is one of the biggest reasons that some of their defensive linemen have had career years. However, his style of fast-playing defense can also be exploited.

This example is wide zone. The reason wide zone works so well against an even front is that the even front will present bubbles. What I mean by bubbles are areas that are uncovered by a defensive lineman. The B-gap bubble is where most coaches like to run wide zone. This is the side of the defense with the 1 technique. This play is a great example of why it works.

The other way that the Bengals could attack the Raiders defense is by taking advantage of how they like to fly upfield. With how the defensive ends like to get penetration, they can be taken advantage of by running around them. This lead toss play is a fantastic way to do exactly that. The other reason this play works so well is that in Cover 3, the help for the defense is mostly to the inside. This means that a toss play like this is going against where they want to keep the ball.

Overall these six concepts are going to be something to look for on Saturday. I don't think the Raiders will get out of their Cover 3 shell, which means the Bengals receivers will be one on one on the outside and that they will put a linebacker on Tyler Boyd from time to time.

I could see them playing the run differently, but they will still be in their 4-down even front for a majority of downs so it can be exploited in the same way.

I am interested to see how the Bengals will attack this defense and what adjustments will be made from the previous matchup.

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