What no one is talking about with the Crowell pick...

[MikeInRoch]

Denny was in coverage! It looks like from the replay that 5 Bills were after the QB, but Denny was in coverage against the TE (For the life of me, it looks like it's "61", but there is no 61 on their web page - 81 is McMichael, so maybe it was him.)

Anyway, I would think that most of the time Denny against a TE would be a bad mismatch, but he had really good coverage.

[OpIv37]

it's a Lebeau-style zone blitz where they apply pressure from Denney's side then have him drop into coverage where the blitzer would be. The idea is to confuse the offensive blocking scheme.

Typically it would be a mismatch for a DE to be on a TE that far down the field, but the short field helped, Denney stayed with him, and he had some help from Crowell (obviously).

it's one of those situations where the D allows a mismatch under the assumption that the pressure on the QB will more than counteract the mismatch.

BTW I think Denney's like 6'7" or something ridiculous like that- if nothing else, he had height on his side against the pass.

[Mitchy moo]

it's a Lebeau-style zone blitz where they apply pressure from Denney's side then have him drop into coverage where the blitzer would be. The idea is to confuse the offensive blocking scheme.

Typically it would be a mismatch for a DE to be on a TE that far down the field, but the short field helped, Denney stayed with him, and he had some help from Crowell (obviously).

it's one of those situations where the D allows a mismatch under the assumption that the pressure on the QB will more than counteract the mismatch.

BTW I think Denney's like 6'7" or something ridiculous like that- if nothing else, he had height on his side against the pass.

Reaching up without jumping he has a large advantage.

[FlyingDutchman]

Its called a zone blitz

[ddaryl]

Crowell owes Denny an INT.

Denny would have been able to run that one back some. Nice job by Crowell keeping the toes in.

Culpepper should have been shot right then and there for actually throwing that ball.

[Jeff1220]

Could you imagine if Denney had a pick on top of his 3 sacks? He would've surely been NFL player of the week.

[jamze132]

I highly reccomend not using the zone blitz anywhere other than your own redzone. There is nothing like watching a replay of a TE or a freaking FB burning a DE over the top. Yeah it may confuse a QB and O-line who aren't acustomed to seeing it on a regular basis but I think the risk/reward factor is too high to impliment that style of defense religiously. It worked out for us that time. And I also think that Denney rushing the QB is going to be more effective then trying to fool anyone with him in coverage.

[MikeInRoch]

But in this case, it was NOT a Zone Blitz - why? Because Denny was covering man to man. He didn't just run to a place to defend - he followed the TE.