Analyzing Peterson's 35-yard TD in Atlanta

[Rieux]

Watching the replays of Adrian Peterson’s game-clinching fourth-quarter touchdown yesterday makes for some fun analysis. (ETA: Courtesy a post in a different thread by Mothman, said replay is available online here.)

The situation: the Vikings are up 13-3 late in the fourth quarter and three plays into a drive ensuing from Anthony Barr’s brutally effective fourth-and-one strip-sack of Matt Ryan.

Taking over on the Atlanta 40-yard line, the Vikings have run Peterson to the right for four and Peterson up the middle for one, and now it’s third-and-five on the 35 with 4:23 remaining on the game clock.


On the big play, Minnesota lines up with QB Teddy Bridgewater under center; Peterson as the single setback eight yards behind him; Charles Johnson as the lone wide receiver on the field, split wide right; and all three tight ends on the roster clustered just off left tackle—Kyle Rudolph on the line of scrimmage and MyCole Pruitt (to the outside) and Rhett Ellison (inside) behind him. No one appears to have any illusions about what the Vikes are planning (the rueful joke where I was watching yesterday was that Vikings offensive coordinator Norv Turner’s game plan for most of the day appeared to be “Peterson-Peterson-Peterson-field goal”): Atlanta puts nine men in the box (with a tenth, FS Ricardo Allen, not far away), and the cornerback covering Johnson appears to be the only Falcon on the field who isn’t staring straight at Peterson.

At the snap, Rudolph turns inside and stands up RDE Tyson Jackson while the right side of the offensive line slants leftward, leaving LDE Kroy Biermann unblocked but walling DT Ra’shede Hageman off from the play and penning DT Paul Soliai in between C Joe Berger and the Rudolph-Jackson clash. SLB Nate Stupar lines up as the fifth Falcon on the line of scrimmage and tries to penetrate around Rudolph—but Pruitt, cracking back, pushes Stupar inside, into the pile of bodies (Jackson, Rudolph, Soliai, Berger) forming off left tackle. Stupar eventually manages to get loose, recover, and pursue, but he’s too late to catch the play.

Bridgewater takes the snap and tosses the ball to Peterson, sweeping left. Ellison and LT Matt Kalil pull around Rudolph and Pruitt to lead Peterson around the end. Kalil hits SS William Moore hard, knocking him off balance toward the sideline and (like Stupar) just out of the play. As he breaks the line of scrimmage at the 35, Peterson cuts upfield, inside Kalil’s block.

The Vikings’ guards, meanwhile, have fired off the line of scrimmage, headed for the second level; RG Mike Harris does an effective job pushing WLB Paul Worrilow backward, while LG Brandon Fusco largely whiffs in his block attempt on MLB Philip Wheeler. Still, Fusco holds up Wheeler just long enough that Peterson is able to surge past him at the 31-yard line. Wheeler gets a hand on Peterson’s right bicep, which will end up being the only contact the Falcons make with him on the play.

At that point, it’s all up to Peterson and his final lead blocker, Ellison, who is having his way with CB Robert Alford. (The fact that the Vikings’ blocking TE has an advantage on the corner of approximately 60 pounds in weight and seven inches in height, along with a concomitant reach advantage, probably helps.) After meeting Alford at the 32 and shoving him backward five yards, Ellison manages to get between the Falcons corner and the sideline just as Peterson is clearing Wheeler at the 31. Ellison hits Alford again at the 25, pushing him inside; fortuitously, the two players find themselves directly in the path of Worrilow, the last Falcon with a chance at cutting Peterson off from daylight. Worrilow collides with Ellison, forfeiting all of his momentum as Peterson crosses the 25.

At that point, Peterson has nothing but open Georgia Dome turf between him and the end zone, in the wide three-yard gap between Ellison and the sideline. Moore and Wheeler are in pursuit, but it’s clearly hopeless; Peterson starts high-stepping at the 8.

(It’s a little unclear to me what Allen was doing on the play; starting from a position mirroring Peterson, 8 yards behind the line of scrimmage, the Atlanta safety initially broke forward and to his left, which I guess put him in position to guard against a cutback--but Wheeler, Biermann and Hageman were all well placed to do that. Had Allen instead moved rightward, with the flow of the play, and had he managed to avoid the Ellison-Alford-Worrilow pile-up, he very likely would have been able to stop Peterson around the 15. Confusing.)


Anyway: great play, especially by three tight ends who all won their blocks (Ellison most crushingly), and then that guy carrying the ball.

I haven’t specifically looked into the matter or anything, but my knee-jerk feeling is that several of Peterson’s best runs in recent weeks (notably the clinching home run in Oakland and then the very first play from scrimmage yesterday, a nice eleven-yard carry on a play that looked a lot like the one in Oakland) have seemed to involve two or three tight ends lining up together and clearing out a corner for Peterson to run around. Am I imagining that trend?

[DK Sweets]

I don't have the percentage numbers, but at the very least, you're not imagining big gains behind multiple TE sets. It's been a big play formation for us.

If we can start hitting on TD plays out of that formation (instead of Teddy's INT) that could actually be our best formation.

[PurpleMustReign]

I don't have the percentage numbers, but at the very least, you're not imagining big gains behind multiple TE sets. It's been a big play formation for us.

If we can start hitting on TD plays out of that formation (instead of Teddy's INT) that could actually be our best formation.

I'm sure it is because we have goodblocking TEs. Ellison is a beast at blocking and Rudolph has improved significantly. Pruitt is doing well too.

[Rieux]

Heh! Check out the Broncos' game-winning overtime TD from Sunday night. By most measures, it's the same play—pitch sweep left, three receivers clustered off tackle, two crack back while the third and the LT lead the back around the end.

I think two of the three guys that Denver stationed on the left end were WRs rather than TEs, and the blocking assignments for the offensive linemen appear to have been slightly different for the Broncos than the Vikings. Still, the play looks awfully similar. So does the result.