Breaking Down Segun Olubi's Interception vs Carolina: Film
The Indianapolis Colts cruised to an easy victory over the Carolina Panthers this past Sunday. The team's 27-13 win was fueled by a strong defensive effort, with the Colts coming away with five sacks and three interceptions against the inept Carolina offense.
One of those players to come away with an interception in this game was Segun Olubi. Olubi, 24, is a former undrafted free agent that secured the Colts' backup MIKE linebacker job this offseason in training camp. With an injury to star linebacker Zaire Franklin, Olubi was thrust into the starting lineup for the first time in his career.
It was far from a perfect start for the young linebacker, but he certainly made his mark on Sunday for the Colts. The second year player came away with an interception on an excellent coverage play in the fourth quarter of the game.
Today, I dive into the Colts' coverage call on that interception and detail how Olubi was able to come away with the big time play.
Tampa 2 Defense Returns
Indianapolis Colts Defensive Coordinator Gus Bradley is known as a cover three specialist in his defensive scheme. His defenses practically live in cover three and he does little to disguise this prior to the snap. His version of the cover three, however, has deep roots in the classic Tampa 2 zone.
Seattle Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll lived in Tampa 2 defenses in the early part of his career before adopting the patented Seattle Cover Three that we all know and love today. Gus Bradley is quite similar in this regard, as he spent three years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2006-2008) prior to heading to Seattle in 2009 to coach the Legion of Boom.
For the sake of brevity in this article, all I will say is that the famed Seattle Cover Three coaching tree has heavy overlap with the old Tampa 2 defenses of the early 2000's. That background is more of a fun intro to the conversation about this clip from this past Sunday.
The Tampa 2 zone defense was/is a variation to the classic cover two zone that many NFL teams adopted around the league. Cover two, traditionally, features a spot drop zone coverage meant to attack the sticks. It features two deep defenders with five underneath defenders to eliminate underneath throws. This coverage, however, is susceptible to vertical routes.
The Tampa 2 zone sought out to eliminate that weakness by having the MIKE linebacker play the inside vertical route. Here is a picture from the play we are discussing to show what I'm talking about:
NFL.com
The MIKE linebacker, Segun Olubi, is responsible for the hook zone over the middle but will turn and run with any vertical route up the seam in order to alleviate stress on the deep safeties. This allows those safeties to help the boundary corners without having to worry as much about the middle of the field.
With this responsibility, Olubi is the only defender to initially not have zone eyes on the play. He is matching that vertical route up the seam, so his initial assignment is to simply take away that option for the quarterback.
So Olubi, as a result, is the only defender with eyes on his man rather than having eyes on the quarterback (Darrell Baker Jr also has eyes on his man at the top of the screen but he is pinching that player to the sideline before finding his flat zone).
Carolina Panthers' QB Bryce Young either attempts an aggressive throw into Olubi's man coverage, or is simply fooled by the Tampa 2 call and thinks that it is a traditional cover two defense that he is seeing. Regardless, he makes an errant throw over the middle of the field that Segun Olubi is able to capitalize on.
Olubi does a fantastic job of locating his assignment, getting into great position, and finding the ball to come away with the interception on the play. Olubi's positioning and eye discipline made this interception make much much easier that what it was in real time.
The Indianapolis Colts have mostly lived in cover three match ever since Gus Bradley took over in 2022, but the veteran DC does like to go back to his roots from time to time. This Tampa 2 coverage call was a throw back to his early days in the NFL, and it led to an interception late in the ballgame.
There wasn't anything particularly special about this play. Segun Olubi simply made a routine football play in a coverage that fooled a young quarterback. Olubi was perfect in his assignment, and he was able to come away with a massive turnover in his first career start.
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