I'm somewhat surprised to hear the coverage be referred to as a Tampa 2 variation. From my understanding, Tampa 2 refers to zone coverages wherein the MLB drops to the middle third. On this particular play, Eric Weddle was closest to the area, playing just above the sticks. C.J. Mosley and Chuck Clark were covering the deep seam/hooks. In my eyes, and this is purely my initial interpretation, but it ended up appearing to be more akin to a combo-coverage three-deep variation of the Cover 2 sink, with man coverage on the outside.
We came out in a dime package, specifically 3-2-6. Matthew Judon, Willie Henry and Za'Darius Smith are technically down linemen in three point stances. Terrell Suggs is in a two-point stance and is therefore an ROLB. Weddle makes a check to Chuck Clark, pointing out his zone, after Andy Dalton motions TE C.J. Uzomah to the right slot and motions RB Giovanni Bernard to the inside, who runs a delayed hitch route after protecting the A-gaps. Weddle shuffles backwards into his zone, settling in underneath, sitting down closer to the vertical seam than the actual middle third. That to me signifies the Cover 2 sink, which when in a three-deep package, sends the two outside safeties to cover the deep halves outside of the hashes and sits the middle safety in the vertical seam. I should mention that it's normally run our of the quarter package, which gives me reason to question my interpretation. That aside, not only is it countered perfectly by Tyler Boyd's go route from the right outside slot, but Canady also sees Mosley in front of Boyd and sells out to Brandon LaFell, quickly flipping his hips toward the sideline and drifting in LaFell's direction. Upon realizing that Boyd is the intended target, instead of flipping his hips back inside, he makes a full turn-around the other way, losing Boyd's location in the process, overestimating his depth, and ultimately overrunning the route and the tackle lane. In short, from the attempt to basically double LaFell and the poor coordination that followed, it was among the worst ways to perform the task.
That being said, in my personal opinion, a significant portion of the onus falls on the play call, which as per usual, begun with multiple defenders showing faux A-gap blitzes, causing them to run to their zones and then react afterwards. To Pees' partial defense, we did send a couple of blitzes on the drive, so it wasn't entirely an empty threat. But on a 4th and 12, why not allow your defenders to sit in their zones and guard the sticks instead of worrying about getting to their placements first? To me, it's a microcosm of the same issue that was on tape for multiple weeks, which was innately there to exploit due to the design of our zone looks. I do feel that if Canady simply backpedaled like Weddle and Jefferson, instead of starring down LaFell before the ball was even throw, that he'd have a clear chance to prevent the completion. But like the execution, the call itself left a lot to be desired as well.
