During my work compiling After Further Review each week, I come across a lot of stuff that won't make the column. With the All-22 available, and screen shots easy to take and study, I thought it a good idea to come up with a new concept here at the site Prisco's Pics -- as in pictures.
You get Prisco's Picks -- the game picks -- early each week. Now you will get Prisco's pics, interesting things I pulled out of some of the previous week's NFL games to take you inside the game.
Some will break down a player. Some will break down a scheme. And we will highlight the good and the bad.
Hope you enjoy it. I have fun putting it together. And will do so each week. All the following pics are from Week 2 games.
The first two pictures were something funny that caught my eye. The Panthers were down a man as the Saints attempted to snap the ball. That led to No. 98 (Thomas Keiser) scrambling to come off the sideline and get into the play. As you can see in the first frame, where he is circled in yellow, he's rushing onto the field.
In the second picture he, you can see he's actually getting in on the tackle on Mark Ingram.
The Houston Texans are one of the best teams at freeing up receivers and backs to catch the football with pick plays. They call them rubs, but they are picks. Here's one against the Jaguars.
In the first picture, you can see Kevin Walter running inside from the slot. He is in the white circle. He will run inside and get a pick on Jaguars linebacker Kyle Bosworth in the blue circle. Bosworth has the coverage on Arian Foster in the yellow circle. With the pick, there is no way he can get out there, which the second picture shows. It's an easy completion to Foster with nobody out there on that side.
One of the problems young receivers have coming into the league is that they want to round off routes. They aren't precise enough. Here's an example of Jaguars rookie receiver Justin Blackmon doing just that. As you can see, Blackmon (yellow circle) is working the middle of the field. The Texans are in two-deep, which means the linebacker is dropping in the middle. Blackmon should take the blue path, but instead takes the red.
The second picture shows how he's rounding off the route in the red, rather than making a sharp cut like the blue line. That allows the linebacker an easier coverage as he just sinks further back.
The last thing I want to highlight is the Ravens use of an overload blitz against the Eagles.
In the first picture, you can see the Ravens have three guys lined up to the left side of the offensive formation. The No. 1 yellow circle is safety Bernard Pollard, who gets a sack on this. The Eagles block down to the right, which leaves two players to block three. Left tackle King Dunlap (with the No. 2 red) takes one, and running back LeSean McCoy (Red No. 1) takes the other. That leaves Pollard free to slide between them to sack Mike Vick, which you can see in the second picture as Pollard (yellow circle) has a clear path to the quarterback.