Last night New England scored 28 points, 4 touchdowns all from Tight Ends. On 3 of those scores we saw an interesting offensive scheme. New England goes out there with 4 Tight Ends in a goal line offense, but on a couple of the plays they send the tight ends out wide.
First example.
Rob Gronkowski's 2nd TD of the game. Here we see 4 tight ends Hoomanawanui (47), Michael Williams (85), Gronkowski (87) and Chandler (88) all packed in tight for goal line offense. The Steelers send out 4 defensive backs to cover any of the tight ends who go out for a route in the event of a pass. Patriots run play action, Hoomanawanui and Williams stay in to block while Gronk and Chandler go out for passes. Gronk gets behind two defensive backs and scores. The defensive backs were unable to stick with Gronk and also had a serious size disadvantage.
Second example.
Scott Chandler's touchdown. Pittsburgh puts out their goal line defense to matchup with New Englands 4 big bodies. Gronk and Chandler go out wide on the left and Hoomanawanui goes out wide on the right. Michael Williams stays inside as an extra blocker. The Steelers are forced to put linebackers on each body and play man coverage. Gronk draws 2 defenders and "picks" Chandler's defender allowing him time to reach over the goal line for the score.
Third Example.
Rob Gronkowski's 3rd TD of the game. A little bit different of a first look with Gronkowski as the Tight End on the left, Chandler as the Fullback, Williams as the Tight End on the right, and Hoomanawanui as the Tight End sent out wide right. Brady then puts Chandler and Gronkowski in motion. Steelers play man coverage with linebackers on the Tight Ends since they are in their goal line defense. Brady throws a quick fade to Gronkowski who is too fast for his defender.
Summary: The real genius of this type of play is that it is a goal line set so the defense has to keep the offense honest and play the run when you see all of those big bodies trotting out on the field. But when they go out wide, there in lies the problem. It's pretty much a pick your poison situation. You can try to put big bodies on the Tight Ends but as they showed, they are very quick and have good hands so it will be very difficult for linebackers to stick with them. If you go with defensive backs you can try to have better success with stick with the Tight Ends, but then there are size disadvantages to consider. It should be an interesting watch any time the Patriots get in the Red Zone this season.
