ISAAC TESLAA AND JACKSON MEEKS LIT UP THE DOLPHINS: DETROIT LIONS FILM STUDY #lions #detroit

ISAAC TESLAA AND JACKSON MEEKS LIT UP THE DOLPHINS: DETROIT LIONS FILM STUDY #lions #detroit

This video is a film study to focus on the contributions of rookie wide receivers Isaac Tesla and Jackson Meeks. Additional to that, Dominic Love It had a really clutch catch mid to late second quarter. But we’re going to generally focus on Tesla and Meeks. 11 catches on 13 targets, 134 yards overall, and the two touchdowns in that second quarter explosion. They were really in tune uh with with Kyle Allen. Those guys were reading the the defense in a spectacular fashion. In fact, I think the pass game was really sharp overall. There’s there’s some reads in this video that I want to show you. I think I’ve got nine plays queued up generally from the second quarter. I’ll have more to put out on this game. Been traveling um pretty much Saturday evening and Sunday morning. So, difficult to get things done. But in terms of Kyle Allen, talked about it in the reaction video last night. 21 of 25 passing the last two weeks. Very astute observations of the defense pre and post snap. I got a couple of little intricacies that I think I understand that I’ll try to point out to you in this video. Credit has to be due to the offensive line for picking up at least one if not two unusual stunts that the Dolphins ran um in this game. These two wide receivers, these two rookie wide receivers and Dominic Love it, like I said, they really put on a show yesterday. So, initially what I want to just make sure I focus on is is the field and boundary for pretty much every play I show this I want to try to create a blue line where the field and boundary is. The top side is the boundary, the short side of the field, the bottom side is the field, the wide side. Generally, tight end is going to be located um into the boundary. And that’s where I talked about in a reaction video last night that Jackson Meeks was located quite often. In this instance, he is not Isaac Tesla will normally be spot shadowed in yellow and then Meeks in orange. In this case, it’s a second possession, second and 10. They’re on the same side to the field. There’s the route delineation you’re going to get. This is one of the two overthrows that Kyle Allen had early on. You can see the defensive back falls down who’s who’s dealing with Tesla. I think they kind of get their feet wrapped up or knocked into each other. So, this is the inside linebacker here in purple that Allen is trying to deliver the ball over the top of number one. This is man free. So, you’ve got man down here in all of these yellow lines or all these yellow markers. You got man and then the free safety in the middle of the field to to help out with anything that’s an incut deep or late. Allen’s trying to layer the throw over the top of that inside linebacker. It’s a little too high, but I do like how early he’s throwing the football um quite often. We’re probably not going to see him in the regular season, but he seems to have developed to me. I was quite impressed with him last week against the Falcons and then yesterday against the Dolphins as well, even though they ended up losing the game 2417. Quick identification for Allen. And people sometimes say, well, you stare down where you’re throwing the football. He looks, gets his read, and then moves on. In this case, he looked to that side of the field to confirm something. You know, our left hand side of the screen, but the right hand side for um for Allen and the Lions offense. And then there’s the inside linebacker. And Tesla has, you know, finished off this this defensive back. There was some contact, some hand fighting. It looked like maybe their feet got tangled up. You can see the throw is just a little bit too late. I think that inside linebacker’s depth. That’s why you talk to inside linebackers about getting good depth and not just kind of sitting at the um at the depth of your alignment. You can see his toes are right on the line and then he at least gets about two yards depth such that Allen has to kind of layer or loft that throw over the top. I still think he could have probably put slightly more pace on that one. It’s a missed opportunity clearly for Tesla. That would have been a huge gain on the second possession. This is the third and 18. The catch to Tesla at the top of the field that doesn’t count. I think there’s an offensive holding um here. Love it is on. Meeks is actually off. There was a penalty that pushed them back into a first and 20 in fact. Um it’s a twoman. So you’ve got manto man down here. Man, all of these yellow lines are indicating man. And then two deep safeties here and here. That’s why it’s called two man. That’s a great coverage to play on third and long, particularly if you have a quarterback that’s not really a threat to get out of the pocket and escape in a manner that he could poss possibly gain the first down. You don’t see too much twoman against guys like Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Jaylen Herz because they’ll really kill you with that. Allen in this case does escape, but he’s not going to be able to get down the field and really threaten. There’s Tesla. It’s a perfect adjustment to seeing this safety moved over or or latch hedged over to his side. So Tesla brings the corner back to the middle and then back beers back to the sideline because he’s really he has no option to bring it further in towards the hash or the numbers because of the presence of this safety. So just midplay adjustment if you ask me. Really high level by Tesla. And when you get the end zone angle you’ll see how nice of a catch it was. Unfortunately doesn’t count on his official ledger. Like I said the end zone angle is um a little bit better. This defensive end gets up field on skipper and that’s what allows Allen to kind of um dip underneath and then move out of the pocket to his right or left on the screen. Eyes up, ball ready to throw. He’s very very technical with some of the things he does. Puts this ball in back towards Tesla’s like back hip. Doesn’t throw it too far outside. A lot of the times when you’re moving to the right, your throw tends to kind of fade or slide to the right because of your momentum. And that didn’t happen here. He’s on top of this. He’s on top of this throw. There’s some actually downward plane angle to it. And Tesla, great catch. Like I said, doesn’t count, but still gives you an idea of of how well he played on the night, even though he only had four catches on five targets overall. We’ll move forward here to the third possession. You can see the ball is in the middle of the field. I have the the blue line between the hashes. Tesla and Meeks are up top. And it’s just your classic levels concept from the Lions. I mean, classic for the Detroit Lions under Ben Johnson. They ran this a lot. Outside receiver goes under, inside receiver a little bit deeper. And they kind of are looking for, you know, what what this inside linebacker here is going to do relative to the safety that’s on that side of the field. In this case, he moves over and just opens up the little underneath route. We call it Z under to Tesla. Some tight man coverage here if you ask me. And Tesla just shows his strength. Another opportunity for you to think about what man free or cover one is. All of these guys here are in man on the running back man there. And then middle of the field, you got your low hole dropper and then free safety in between the hashes for anything high or late. It’s a completion that counts. Like I said, it’s on the third possession, so Detroit doesn’t score here, but like to give you the um as deep of a look as I can possibly check out how the Dolphins are trying to get this done. this inside inside linebacker on our right, the defense’s left. He’s taken Vaky. Now, that could be predicated on Vaky’s release. If Vaky releases to this side, which is where he goes, then that inside linebacker would take him. We would call it a banjo read. Vaky kind of looks to pass pro for a moment and then goes out to our right, his right as well. Do it the other way. Let’s say that, for example, Vaky released to this side. It’s possible that this inside linebacker would take him and then the other inside linebacker would move to the low hole. Banjo Reed, tandem, whatever people want to call it. That’s that what that might be what’s occurring here. I’m not sure. But, um, in any case, that’s how it works out. The way that I have it drawn up. Um, I think Allen pretty much knows where he’s going to go with the football. Once this inside linebacker moves to the low hole, middle of the field, 8 to 10 yards deep, low throw to keep it safe from the uh, defensive back. Give give Tesla a chance to catch it. 40 to 60% chance. In this case, I mean, the dude’s like 80%. I know. I know that. catches to targets isn’t always a great illustration. Uh but catches to targets him been been extremely efficient so far. You kind of wish selfishly that you could see him play a little bit more, but I think they’re going to sit him down for the third game. Really no more else to see if you ask me. Fourth possession, of course, this is the first touchdown for Detroit and Meeks is up top here. Tesla down at the bottom. It’s a second and 10. Cool concept, very similar to the little levels that I talked about. It’s quarter quarter half or cover six uh by the Dolphins. I’ll draw that up in here in a moment. But here’s the inside linebacker that’s kind of being manipulated. Watch what Allen does. This is the little intricacy that I’m talking about. I mean, it’s basic for NFL quarterbacks, but for people like us to be able to pump fake and get that inside linebacker to break, I think Allen knows exactly what that inside linebacker is doing. If you can, and I know I’m zoomed out a little bit, try to keep your eye on um on here on Allen as he pump fakes. And I run this three or four times so you can see it. Watch what it does to this inside linebacker. He breaks down with that little stop route by the tight end. And that gives enough of an opening for Allen to squeeze that throw in the middle of the field. Um, let me diagram quarter quarter half for you guys here. So quarter quarter half, you know, some people call it cover six. One quarter of the field, one quarter of the field down here, this safety one half of the field. Quarter quarter half, right? 25 cents plus 25 cents plus 50 equals a dollar. And then down to the bottom side, you’ve got a corner sitting in the flats being your flat defender. Whereas on the other side of the field, you’ve got normally it’s a nickel safety or a defensive back who is responsible for the flats on this side of the field. So everything’s covered. really is. It looks like a cover three um when you when you break it down, but it’s a differential in who’s who’s covering the flat. This is what makes it different from a cover three. Very similar to what old school coaches used to call a cloud cover three, uh which you know has been around forever. End zone angle of this one and you’ll get a better view of Allen, how he kind of pump fakes and moves this inside linebacker we’re talking about right here. The motion by Zilstra created a two by two set. So over to the boundary is the focus for Allen. It’s where he looks um initially. This is just the type of slick behavior or or recognition and awareness that you you get from a backup quarterback and you feel like you’re in a pretty good place. He’s getting that inside linebacker to break. Talking about here on Zelstra and then open up the route for open up the space, excuse me, for Tesla’s route to stick onto between these two inside linebackers here. Hopefully I said that in a way that makes sense. Quick recognition if you ask me by um by Kyle Allen. Nice location on the throw. Just playing extremely good football right now and and just way ahead of Henden Hooker. You kind of have to say it if you want to evaluate things fairly. It’s no shot at Hooker. It’s just reality for for him to go in there and be 14 of 17. Tremendous performance. Like I said, they didn’t get a touchdown until their um until their fifth possession. It’s going to come on this this fourth and seventh throw. Really kind of of cheating the system, if you will, out of 11 personnel. So, um the Dolphins run the glitch blitz, which is something that the Ravens and Mike McDonald out the Seahawks run. A lot of teams do it now. It really takes advantage of offensive line rules and how you pass pro. But let’s check out the throw first from the all 22 angle. Meeks up top and spot shadowed in orange. Hopefully I’ve I’ve done that in orange for him um every single play. Tesla down at the bottom teamed up or tagged up with Kennedy. I’m not really consequential on this play. There’s the two routes and it just gives trouble for whatever reason to this corner and this safety. I think the safety is supposed to take Meeks, but it’s a stacked delineation. It’s a stacked alignment by those guys. So, who’s one and who’s two, right? Because they’re both right on top of each other. You you normally start with the outside receiver. In this case, Kennedy would would be one. And then the next receiver in would be two. If there was a tight end here, he would be three. But down to this side of the field, you don’t have a tight end. So three would be the running back. Who is one and who is two up to the top side with Meeks and Zilster, right? Because they’re stacked on top of each other. Um, so that’s part of the reason it works. Let’s talk about the glitch blitz. Um, it’s a great play to run to try to confuse quarterbacks and not allow them to throw anything over the middle. Well, the offensive line does a great job of picking this up. The guard and tackle move out to this nickel defender um late and then up to the top side Craig Reynolds picks up the other edge defender. Really, it’s it’s utilizing taking advantage of pass pro in a numbers game. It’s a predetermined dropout by this defensive tackle and this defensive tackle. It’s always those two guys. I call it the glitch blitz. I’m sure people smarter than me have have a better name for it. There’s essentially roughly what you’re getting. This defensive tackle stepping to the guard for a moment and then dropping out. We’re at the end zone angle, so the the depth of their drop isn’t great. I really need to kind of like like flatten it there. But this defensive tackle also dropping out and then occupy the left tackle, occupy the right tackle such that the edge blitzer here and then there’s a nickel DB offscreen is blitzing. One or both of them can come free. Mike McDonald, in my opinion, really patented it. I’m not saying that other people haven’t used it. He probably got it from someone older than him. Uh the Lions picked it up well. This is about as good a job, if you ask me, of picking up the glitch blitz that that I’ve seen really anyone do since 2022. The first time I saw Mike McDonald unveil it. Check out the guards reactions. So here and here, right? They’re the ones that are being occupied. Um or they’re also being occupied along with the tackles. 74 and 52. When they recognize these guys dropping out of here, they bold out and look for work and basically Skipper and 74 end up handing this off to each other. Reynolds takes the other edge defender away from what looked like the overload pre- snap. Nice little pocket for Allen to throw from on a fourth and seven. I don’t think you can complain about that at all having that amount of time and that amount of space. This is the time period when Allen is nine of nine passing on the fourth and fifth possession and really just flip the script completely in terms of the dynamic between Detroit’s offense and Miami’s defense. I know that starters weren’t out there for either team. Uh but but I thought it was a great moment to see them generate some offense and and really get back in the game. Miami hadn’t really done much on offense either. Detroit’s defense under Kelvin Shepard shutting down the run game early, especially in the first half. Let’s get back to some of the film. This will be fifth possession. This will culminate clearly with Tesla’s touchdown on the little stutter fade. Love it on the field in purple. Tesla here and the route combination I think is all designed to go to Love it with a possible later availability for Tesla on the deeper outs. Just a layered pair of outs. Love it is is kind of rounded a little bit. clear out down here by Kennedy to to pull this corner out of the field of view. And you can see how quickly Kennedy I mean, excuse me, how quickly Allen is identifying that the clear out is successful, meaning it’s holding this corner and opening up all this space for Allen to throw to love it on top of. I know there’s a lot of colors going on on the screen. If it’s too much, feel free to let me know. I feel like I wonder if some of the annotation isn’t helping for some of the YouTube content ID structure, but you know, I could drag I could be wrong and find out as early as Monday or Tuesday that I am. For this being a third and 12 and a nine yard gain, this is a win for the Detroit Lions under um under Dan Campbell. They’ll play on fourth and three from their own 38 in the second quarter in the regular season as well, not just the preseason. Same play from the end zone angle. I think just another example of quick identification. Allen very smooth in his delivery and operation in the pocket. Once again, you’ve got a a a nice little pocket for him to throw from, especially where he’s looking. That seemed to really be lined up or fit for the Detroit Lions offensive line and and Allen um when he was on the field in the first half, meaning wherever he was looking, he had clear lanes to throw. Sometimes that can be a little bit random, but this is a great throw. We got to give him credit for this throwing this thing out there. He’s releasing it. I don’t know if I talked about it real in real detail. He’s releasing it before Love it makes his cut down here from the all 22 angle. So, Love it is is just making his cut and Allen is already starting to throw the football. Get this out there. A nine yard gain like I said on a third and 12 sets them up for critical fourth and three. This gives you an idea of how well Tesla is reading things. This is mesh versus zone. Mesh would normally be a drag all the way across the field, another drag all the way across the field, and then someone sitting down in the middle of the field as a as a third option once those double drags uh sift the defense out. Basically pull an inside linebacker with them. So, there’s a lot going on. My apologies. I didn’t know that I had it um diagram there. And then late, you got Meeks as a as a deeper inut over the top of all that is. So it’s slightly different because you’re getting a clear out route here such that it allows Meeks to possibly fit into that open space a little bit later. So conceptually the same exact thing as what I diagrammed initially. really quick loss by the left tackle in pass pro and u Allen is forced to you know get rid of it with you know a little bit of trepidation here as as a fan watching it because like I said it’s a fourth and three um in this case a read by Tesla and a 40 I think is is that Horton I might be wrong there with the name because they they identify zone you got some type of mixup in coverage by the Dolphins at the bottom side of the screen we’re talking about what occurs between these two players here They’re really stacked on top of each other. Um it doesn’t necessarily matter because Allen doesn’t target the tight end Hback. He really could have. Tesla sits down, converts to fourth and three. Really important for the from the standpoint of Tesla’s individual stats as well as Meeks because he gets a big reception on the very next play. Same play, end zone angle. The left tackle’s loss super quick. Tesla’s route is is kind of drawn up by that yellow line and Kennedy with the clear out to create the space for for Meeks to possibly fit on top of later in the progression. So I think that Tesla and um and 40 have red have red zone and so normally you would run all the way through here. In this case he kind of sits down short of the hash. Additional to that 40 does the same thing. Sits down because they don’t want to run into zone defenders. They don’t want to force um they don’t want to force Allen to throw the ball into a zone defender who’s kind of sitting there waiting. So, another illustration, another example, I mean, of Tesla being advanced, recognizing things during the game that he’s taught. All of the guys are taught well clearly and all of the guys can do it in a practice situation. This is live processing on the fly with Tesla and Allen. A lot of times people say, “Oh, they’re on the same page.” And yes, that does apply, but this is a read and a reaction. Anytime you get a guy, a rookie, who can read it in time with your quarterback, you’re in a great situation, especially because you’re talking about a fourth or fifth wide receiver at this point, but but someone who’s definitely going to get on the field um during the regular season. Big hitter to um to Meeks up top here against what I think is like a fire zone. So fire zone means fiveman blitz and six in coverage. Usually it’s three deep, three under. This is Meeks running up the seam and really Allen takes advantage of the dropping out of this inside linebacker or excuse me that outside linebacker and then this inside linebacker basically doing a switch drop. So he’s lined up on the right for the defense the top side of our screen and then he pushes over here and then this OB drops out that allows Meeks to fit into that seam. Allen quick recognition again, gets to his back step and the ball is out. He’s just really in tune with what’s happening with the coverage. I called it a two deep four under. That may not be the best name for it to be honest with you. It looks a little sloppy right here. It certainly doesn’t look like it, but what I was what I was perceiving earlier was that the two deep the two safeties that I just drew the horizontal arrows and then this being your being your four under guys here. I know they’re not all at the same depth, but in any case, big hitter Tami on that same fifth possession where Detroit’s going to go down, take a 14-7 lead. Let’s talk about Allen for a moment. How quickly he’s getting rid of the ball. Gets to his backstep and he’s ready to throw the football. knows where he’s going. It’s a zone overload from the right hand side. So, this edge defender is stunting to the inside. Nickel DB blitzing off the edge and then this inside linebacker fitting between them. He’s unblocked because the running back Vaky actually wasn’t unblocked. My apologies. Vaky peels back to the inside to pick him up. Skipper takes the nickel. Vaky peels back for the inside linebacker. Again, a really nice job by the Lions um offensive line of picking up a somewhat um intricate blitz or that was that was disguised well. I wouldn’t call this an anticipation throw. This is just reading the defense and see recognizing the coverages that you see. We know they did joint practices together for two days and the quarterbacks, offensive staff, offensive coordinator clearly were um looking at things, looking at film thereafter in preparation for the scrimmage or for the uh for the preseason game. The third one for the Lions. All right. So, the touchdown pass to Tesla here. It’s a first and 10 late second quarter. There’s some overlap here. Meek spot shadow there. Tesla here. And then Kennedy is the the third man, the point man in the bunch, if you will, who’s essentially running an occupy route to hold this safety to hold this safety and allow Tesla to get isolated on the corner. Additional to that, you can see that there’s a pump by Oops, my apologies. There’s a there’s a pump fake here by um Allen. Trying to get the right color and the right graphic. The pump fake here by Allen that times up with this little stutter by Tesla. They’re trying to catch the corner looking back in the back field. I don’t know that it really does a whole lot to the corner. He’s definitely putting his foot in the ground to break on something whether you know whether it’s an outbreaking route in breaking route. Certainly from this angle and the leverage it looks like Tesla would be breaking towards the sideline but that pump fake is timed up perfectly with Tesla’s little stutter and that’s designed to get that corner to look at the quarterback. See the pump, see the ball separate from the hands. It’s a basic fourman rush and they take advantage of it for a big touchdown. Tesla’s second. There’s the pump fake. We’ll run it a couple of times so you can see it. Clearly can’t see the corner. Not until Tesla is out jumping him. You get a a little bit of a misleading angle here from from the first of all, the quality of the video is not great. I think it’s like 720. But that’s a cameraman’s leg. It looks like it’s the ball. It’s not. We kind of lose the ball a little bit because Tesla’s got it under control there. Out jumped the guy. Another great timed catch if you ask me. And what I love about this situation, but with these guys, these two rookies and love it. They’re all celebrating for each other. You can see how excited Meeks is for Tesla to have got another touchdown. Put them up 14-7. Things weren’t as interesting in the second half. You just didn’t get as sharpness or as consistency from the offense, I should say, when Henden Hooker was under center in the shotgun. Kyle Allen’s outplayed him. It’s not a shot at Henden Hooker. It’s just reality. these two wide receivers and Dominic Love it were a big part of it. Um I think that Tesla is probably not going to play in the next pre the fourth preseason game. There’s no reason to. I don’t need to see him. You know that he can play. He can contribute. He can make reads whether it’s man or zone. He can win in the red zone on jump ball situations or elevated throws. Allen made a nice throw there. Two perhaps misses on the night. 14 of 17 overall. Brilliant performance. I don’t think we’ll see him in the final preseason game either. You guys are welcome to let me know what you think of some of the plays that I I broke down, some of my thoughts about these two rookie wide receivers. Really three guys that have come into Detroit and and competed with each other, but also done a great job competing against defenses for the other team. And in this case, you know, really scalded Miami’s defense in the second quarter. I know Meeks had some big catches late fourth quarter as well when Hooker was in the game, but those guys were really impressive on those two touchdown drives on the fourth and fifth possession. Appreciate you guys time, man. If you enjoyed the video, please let me know in the comment section. Number one, I think other Lions fans would enjoy checking out my video here and and some of the ways that I tried to analyze the game. Please consider grabbing a link to this video, sharing it out on social media to help this content get more reach.

#lions #detroitlions #detroit #nfl #football #preseason #nflpreseason

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