1PW: HOW THE LIONS USED THE JOKERS SET TO CREATE SPACE AND EXPLOIT THE RAMS #lions #detroitlions

this video is part of a series that I do each week called one playay Wednesday for week one this is the second iteration of it this is going to be a Joker's formation play actually two of them that Ben Johnson used in their week one win over the Rams the Joker's formation is characterized by having two running backs in the back field and the quarterback in the shotgun St Brown is obviously not a running back so I'm using the formation designation regardless of what the positional uh value is of a particular player you've got Gib and St Brown that are both in the backfield there's been a lot made and talked about in terms of St Brown's limited production in week one against the Rams credit to the defense on some level how to what degree I don't know but the Rams played great defense I thought a lot of Zone keeping things in front and they did a nice job of preventing golf from getting rid of the ball in time but these plays I think are going to illustrate the brilliant design of Ben Johnson's scheme his offense in general and the gravity that St Brown has I'm going to go through these in a progressive manner meaning we'll look at the first one first so we're going to back up slightly here and it's not Joker's initially this is a second drive it's a first and 10 from the Rams 24 yd line but St Brown's going to go in motion and at the snap he's pretty much in the same position that I just showed you on the previous picture Joker set and I think it's using the gravity of St Brown you're getting a fake sweep to him to the top side and then Gibbs is running excuse me Montgomery is running through and you get this I call it second man through concept and this is I've seen this three times last year all to the left for Ben Johnson's offense I should say all to the left and all into the boundaries so golf's going to open up to St Brown who's running the sweet path watch some of these defenders in here I think at least two of them that are kind of drawn by that attention by that by that flow number one you got 37 who's in man with st Brown so he's gone number two you got the inside linebacker Rose boom who was a problem for any concepts for Detroit to get anything done additional to that it's Montgomery I misspoke a moment ago and said Gibbs it's Montgomery running a wheel out of the back field so it looks like you've got one layer to this obviously he's not going to get the football a second layer I'm sure gof is checking that if no one guards the wheel we're going to go and head up there and give Montgomery a chance to make a play but the real I think Brilliance of this is the third layer of the third piece of it and it's a second man through concept oftentimes when we say second man through what we mean is two players run through the same area of the field the same Blades of grass well this is Turf you know so perhaps you know better words could be used but look at where the path that Montgomery went on it's not the same path and then check out leapor coming from the other side of the field his pre- snap alignment is next to the line he's been lost by the Rams defense runs right through where the feet of Montgomery were a moment ago where I paused it easy completion into to the left Flats like I said saw this three times last year maybe conceptually similar some would say to the the game-winning touchdown pass to Brock Wright I don't think so because that was under Center I think this is the same flavor food you know maybe some different seasoning on it maybe cooked a different way same play Endzone angle here is lorta same brown offc screen to our left he's going to come into the screen and then still be in motion at the snap it's legal because he's moving backwards so again and 37 is in man trailing with him 56 is going to go to our left hand side of the screen his left it looks like you're setting up a wheel to Montgomery and it's a good job by 54 51 excuse me of identifying that nope into the boundary away from the nickel Defender it's 11 personnel so the nickel Defender is set to the field that's the guy who was chasing St Brown I think it's great design you can't do designed plays like this maybe every snap that's fine but Ben Johnson his guys do this enough such that I think there must be extensive periods to execute some of these particular plays that have a high level of design to get perhaps one player open you know with two options maybe the wheel for Montgomery is the first option but you've got to assume that that that's going to be covered so one possession later I think they settled for a field goal there on the second possession this is the picture I showed you a moment ago you can see the the pre- snap alignment is actually Jokers so there's no motion here lorta is set as a wide receiver to the top side of the field and you actually do have a screen here still conceptually you could almost categorize this as second man through because you're getting St Brown motion and then he's now threatening a wheel could be a wheel sit wheel comeback whatever and then Gibbs basically replaces the feet of St Brown you can see all the space that is afforded to Gibbs they actually get Rose boom blocked for he's he looked like to me the guy that if you don't get him blocked the play is going to be hindered or disrupted completely little bit fortunate for the the Lions you have an inside linebacker Blitz from this side so I wonder what how this would have turned out what the output would have been if 51 doesn't Blitz when you get the endzone angle back again you'll see what I mean so St Brown shuffle motion wheel he's going to end up off screen 51 his feet there he's going to be the Blitzer the 56 ends up having a deal with someone his tandem his partner inside linebacker is gone he's out of there so they've lost a second level support player just by the nature of the call ragn now gets up to 56 and you've got the ball to Gibbs for another 14 yard gain it's never good for any defense for jir Gibbs to get the ball get past line the line of scrimmage untouched he's just so good with understanding leverage and being able to manipulate and make cuts and then when you have offensive lineman in this casee only one really to the outside and the second zeitler to the inside just a huge Lane the Rams are fortunate if you ask me that it didn't go for more that possession finishes with the touchdown run by Gibbs a great effort obviously what I like of of the two play calls I showed you um if you accept that they are both Jokers I mean one of them the first one to lorta was pre snap motion that created a Joker's alignment the second one they actually lined up there but I think that's that's part of the Brilliance of what Ben Johnson is showing is that sometimes it's motion that creates the formation sometimes the formation is shown to the defense early Gibbs finishes with this touchdown first touchdown of the season I believe so what I like about the the two plays I showed you and perhaps I should have covered it with some when I talked about it a moment ago is the differential timing of the plays versus a direct Run play a direct Run play out of that formation maybe St Brown runs wheel and you hand the ball off to Montgomery or you hand the ball off to Gibbs a direct Run play let's say that it's 1.8 after the snap something like that 1.8 we'll call it it's proba that's probably a little slow a a typical play action to release let's say 2.7 the wheel to leapa was probably far beyond 2.7 in terms of ball is snapped when is the ball out of the quarterback's hands an end route to touching another player so we would track stuff like that direct run plays counter or delay run Concepts play action reverses because you would get coaches that and this is not play type run pass or direction or field and Boundary this is a different type of tracking and trying to determine a coach's intention based upon the formation it would be how long did they take to get rid of the football either via handoff toss or pass out of each particular formation and I think Ben Johnson I don't know if he us utilized or has ever said the words differential timing but there is an element where if you ask me there's always out of each formation a play that's 1.8 seconds in in terms of release probably a direct handoff 2.5 to 2.7 in a play action 3.4 in and occasionally you get ones that extend out a little bit longer maybe my timing there isn't sufficient for you or doesn't make sense but hopefully the point remains or the point stands that Ben Johnson's offense has differential timeing to the release of the football to the second player whoever's going to attack wide receiver tight end running back whatever and these two plays I thought were examples of using St Brown's gravity and changing up the timing almost like a baseball pitcher who has a fast ball that's 96 a couple of other pitches in the 87 88 89 range and then maybe two change UPS one that's one that's a 10 mph differential and one that's 14 and Ben Johnson looks like a guy as a major major league baseball pitcher who's got six or seven pitches you have no idea which one's coming and he's even got different versions of each pitch so those are two plays I picked to show for one play Wednesday you guys have to let me know as lions fans or football fans in general if you enjoyed them I have a whole folder of these that I'm creating or a whole playlist I should say on YouTube that I'll link up here at the end appreciate you guys time