How Kirk Cousins Played Week 4 vs. The Saints

[@TheJellitin]

London has grown a lot and Mooney has been a wonderful pickup. Just wish we'd run the ball more so everything on offense didn't feel so hard.

[@HarrahATL]

@@TheJellitin I've had criticisms towards the run game lack of variety, but I think they did a better job this game running a less lopsided split of inside/outside zone, mixing in some crack toss plays as well.

[@maya_coqsalonga]

At 21: the slant to #8 gets broken up again because Pitts is slow to change direction and rounds of his route. It looks like laziness. If he jukes to the outside and gets his wheels going on the slant that's an easy pitch and catch. I saw the same thing from #8 earlier. The coaches have to fix that. It's too bad Tampa is coming up Thursday night instead of Sunday. It's too short a turn around to prepare for such a big game. The league should just schedule the Jets v Jags every Thursday night.

[@DaeDaeATL]

@@maya_coqsalongait’s a coaching thing bro pitts don’t like how Zack is running the offense so he’s not gonna try 🤷

[@Rubberglass]

Great breakdown.. subbed!

[@BiddyBiddyBiddy]

Love your break-downs. Better than Chase Daniels break-down videos, lol. Subscribed, keep up the good work. RISE UP!~

[@HarrahATL]

Really appreciate it and glad you enjoyed!

[@michaelk8710]

Kirk seems to be trusting where receivers will be (most I've seen so far) with the anticipated throws, and it wasn't a complete INT disaster, that's a good thing. This game was necessary, and we didn't pay the heavy price for the gained experience. I've watched Kirk for 12 seasons he's never slow to learn new systems, however, young receivers always need time learn how to hit their "spots" with correct timing in a new system. Kirk needs to look for Pitts more on the go route, seems to be the only play he gets a step on defenders. I also think Rondale Moore's injury was a huge loss for the team, we didn't really replace him. My wish is Falcons trade for Davante Adams at the deadline (or similar without a mountain of cap hit). Even a good slot would do. BTW, if you watch the INT again, Woerner and Saints defender blocked the view of Kirk, precisely when McCloud fell.

[@HarrahATL]

@michaelk8710 That's some good insight on the Kirk pick! I see what you mean, hadn’t really thought about if his vision was just blocked. Still think you can't blind throw it, but I get it to an extent. I think we've had issues with receivers knowing where to settle in zone vs. man on some concepts. I also think they had the right idea targeting Pitts late on the drag route, the play he got tripped- get him going across the field vs. man coverage, just a bit unfortunate that their legs got tangled.

[@michaelk8710]

@@HarrahATL Kirk doesn't have the luxury of throwing receivers open like he did with Vikings, these guys have been largely covered for the lack of better scheme as Zac learns more. The only way this works right now, with these receivers, is anticipation and trust they will make it to their spots. I bet he looks for Pitts more in the seam go route.

[@harrislaurent429]

London's breakout is coming, his numbers have gone up every single game just trust the process. He put up 170 against the bucs last year with Ridder. Kirk and London are starting to gel better just give it some time

[@michaelk8710]

​@@harrislaurent429 London is improving, but it's not about one player. The offense is 29th in both 3rd% and RZ%, I don't see good situational and deceptive plays to scheme guys open when we need a 1st. Maybe Kirk just needs to get the ball out sooner, I thought he was getting through his reads better last week. Guys are not open often, but he needs to find them when they are.

[@michaelk8710]

@@harrislaurent429 How about 154? You called it... Kirk put on a clinic tonight. Have to say, receivers played well and made it to their "spots" tonight.

[@architchawla6278]

What do you think of Zac Robinson so far? I know he’s gotten a lot of flak, but I don’t think he’s been awful. His passing concepts seem solid. I think the one thing I would like to see with him is employing Tyler Allgeier in the second half with some different running schemes to help with their issues regarding time of possession. So far, he almost kind of feels like Ken Dorsey to me. His side of the staff has designed good set pieces, but I don’t think that so far at least (hopefully we see improvement over the course of the season of course), they’ve been able to assemble those set pieces to create a good production design. But again, hopefully we see improvement from the offensive coaching staff over the course of the season, and I think we have been seeing incremental improvement the last four weeks. He is a first-time play caller, and I know others who have been in that position have done well from the jump, but I’m still kind of OK with him having a learning curve and learning on the job too.

[@HarrahATL]

@architchawla6278 I think Zac Robinson, outside of week-1, has been a solid/fine play-caller. I think his gameplan early vs KC was good, and in this one, I liked that he leaned on extra blockers until the OL proved they could hold up. I don't see anything revolutionary from Zac right now, but I think you really start to evaluate him week 10-17. To me, those will be the games everyone should be comfortable, Zac should have learned some lessons, and the offense, ideally, will be rolling.

[@michaelk8710]

O'Connell wasn't the best play caller at first either with the Vikings. Decent plays, not a ton of scheme, mixed with a few terrible situational calls, pretty much same thing here. Now he has Sam Darnold looking like an MVP. It's not Darnold as much as it is O'Connell calling plays that his offense can execute. That begs the question, is Zac calling plays we can execute cleanly on 3rd down and tight RZ attempts? Is he opening passing lanes and springing guys open with the scheme? Yes, and no, to each. I said early that by week 8 they would be humming, and Zac is learning just as much as players. We played behind the sticks most of this game so, I hope they worked on false starts for Center this week. We need to sustain drives and punch in RZ attempts, we need higher success rate situational plays.

[@davidwillis8623]

Our biggest problems from what I’ve seen on film this season are (in no order): - Lack of a true No.1 WR - Kirk Cousins has a lack of zip on the ball so every throw has to be anticipated - No one goes has a huge game (I want to see someone put up a 150 yard, 2 TD game) - No game changer on Offense that plays WR or TE (only Bijan and Allgeier are capable of taking games over) - No true FB (too many runs get stopped in the backfield where if we had a FB they would have had a better chance)

[@thesavvyninja885]

Kirk has always been a anticipation throwing qb. He throws to spots where wrong should be.

[@DaeDaeATL]

Drake London is definitely better than most starters dude like your fn dumb it’s literally the beginning of the year. And last time I checked he put up 1000 years receiving with crappy qb play since we drafted him so I don’t wanna hear no “ lack of true wr 1 “ the dude goes up against the top cornerbacks in the league like do you realize how tough it is to get passed those guys? Oh right I forgot you don’t play in the NFL so of course you don’t 😂💀

[@ryanadonis]

Great review of all of the throws. Where do you see defenses giving up the most vs the Falcons? It seems like Bijan is left wide open on a lot of pass plays and he doesn't get targeted.

[@HarrahATL]

@ryanadonis I think both the RBs on checkdowns are an easy option on passing plays, but I think the concepts this offense seems to really like are corner/out throws with the high-low concepts, and over the middle balls. Given that those are areas Drake excels and the chemistry he's beginning to build with Kirk combined with the fact defenses right now are content to leave Drake 1-on-1, I think he could be in for some big weeks. Time will tell, though!

[@ryanadonis]

@@HarrahATL I agree, it almost feels like Falcons make it harder on themselves. I understand today's defense does a lot of zone look but man coverage type of feel, but its about time Falcons just take their shot on players rather than hope something gets open

[@jaylew651]

Looking at this video I e seen multiple clips where I just see sports route and scratch my head

[@HarrahATL]

@@jaylew651 We definitely run a lot of spot/stop routes. Not necessarily my favorite; I prefer dynamic routes where you have guys moving across the field, but there is a place for stop routes and hitches in the league.

[@VonVBG]

Hey, so glad I found your channel, I really was curious why our offense just doesn’t feel like it’s where it needs to be right now and this definitely gives me insight so you have earned my subscription. I wanna ask you though, why do you feel Kyle Pitts isn’t producing? Is it him? Our scheme and coach? Is it Kirk?

[@HarrahATL]

@VonVBG For me, I think it's a combination of a few things. We're not *trying* to feature Kyle in the offense; you wouldn't have him in-line blocking and chipping as much as he is (and he's improved at it) if your intent was to feature him in the passing attack. Part of the reason we're not featuring him is he and Drake have overlapping skillsets (they're similar speed, similar build) but Drake imo is better at using his height than Kyle is to box out DBs. The other part is the player. Pitts, if I'm honest, doesn't win 1-on-1 against DBs as often as featured weapons do. He flashes and wins enough I think he's a good player, but Drake consistently wins. Pitts is a bit hesitant at the top of his route stems, so when he breaks out, it's not sharp and he's definitely not as physical as Drake is working across a DBs face like we see several times in this video. All that said, I think Pitts could be used a bit better. While I think he's only "good," I think you can try to run him on some of the concepts we see RayRay and Mooney on- these overs, outs, and crossing routes that will allow him to catch the ball in space and hopefully make some YAC. In particular, I remember Pitts being good under Arthur as the glance player in the hitch/glance you see Drake get the ball in this video, and also in some of the deep-out route concepts like sail. And a small part of it is Kirk. If he hits Pitts on the massive opportunity we saw on Sunday, or for the win last week in the endzone, vibes around Pitts would be a lot different.

[@VonVBG]

@@HarrahATL I agree completely, the way that we use Pitts does not seem to fit his best tools, he’s definitely not physical. I looked back at some of his college highlights and he was set wide in the formations a lot of times and they essentially used his height as an advantage and he was featured in Florida’s offense in a manner that he won’t be in ATL, and without that it doesn’t produce much. I always felt as though he wasn’t physical and doesn’t embrace his size on top of not beating defenders with his movement. I would love to see more receptions for him similar to his big catch against the chiefs in week 3 that he almost took into the end zone. He would be best utilized deep imo but it seems like we don’t do that with him/do it enough. I actually have two more questions.. 1.) Do you think Bijan is/will be everything we hope for him to be? And I feel like we should utilize Allgeier a bit more to be a true 1-2 punch. What’s your thoughts? 2.) How good do you think our defenses truly is? I think they have kept us in our games and played a HUGE part in winning us games. I know the pass rush is basically non existent, but where would you rate us in the league despite that?

[@HarrahATL]

​@VonVBG Bijan has been really good, but I think we need to see him hit some big explosive TD runs to really sell me that the pick was right. I also think an underrated aspect of Bijan/Allgeier is that they're both really good in pass pro and as receiving backs. That elevates your rotation so much- cannot overstate how crucial it is. I like keeping the 60\40 split to keep them both fresh. Defensively, I like what we run. I had a video on the LBs from week-1 and a coverage check video for week 2. What stands out to me is how good the secondary is; you see it in the way we don't get challenged vertically by the safeties very often. Pass rush has been bad, and Troy had a solid week-1, awful week 2, solid week 3, and a great week 4. He's crucial to fixing our run defense while keeping good coverage. Defense has been average/good, which is about where i expected. I'd manage expectations if you think they're a top 12-ish unit. 15th-20th is where I see them.

[@VonVBG]

@@HarrahATL I agree once again, with the importance of having a run game I think we HAVE to use both our backs especially with them have two separate running style. But I think once our line becomes healthy again we We will see more consistent run gains even though our pass block seems to be good with the backups as well. I agree defensively as well, I like the coverage we have over top. I also like how Alford and Hughes are performing as well. As far as the rush is concerned I think Judon is making at least one big rushing play each game even if it’s not a sack, like the tip that caused the pick 6. He’s a bit older and coming off of a tough injury so I do like what he’s bringing to the team. However our run defense was suffering bad against the saints, we picked it up but I think Taysum Hills injury helped us out with that, we don’t seem to do well with physical runners. Even the chiefs backups had some nice runs against us, enough to keep them afloat. I think we are a top 20 defense, we aren’t shut down defense but we usually make at least one big defensive play a game and get stops when we need them. A lot of teams seems to be able to get 1 or 2 lengthy clock chewing drives against us a game, we typically lose the time of possession battle.

[@maya_coqsalonga]

1st throw, if you're going to consider London as a top 10 receiver in this league he's got to make that catch. Justin Jefferson makes that catch everytime. The top 20 receivers in the league catch it 9 out of 10. The second was a LAZY route by Pitts. The ball came out as fast as it could but Pitts rolled into that slant instead of making a move to open up some separation. That's not on Kirk or Zac.

[@maya_coqsalonga]

Ray Ray was wide open on that play behind Pitts. I think he was going to Kyle to get him involved and it was predetermined to get him the ball

[@HarrahATL]

@maya_coqsalonga I'm with you on the catch. Some people get up in arms about not perfect deep balls; I'm more "throw a good enough ball and give your guy a chance" when it comes to those plays. I don't think I was as high coming into the year on Drake as some others, but I do think he's rounding into a low-end WR1 like an Amari Cooper type. It also may not have been clear, but I think Kyle in general isn't explosive out of his breaks; it's a real issue. There were some more glaring examples in a few of the earlier games than this one. I still think we can occupy that underneath player better with the double slant, but I also think given the throw hit Pitts in the hands and he doesn't even really take a big hit, you'd like to see him hang on.

[@kingslayer3796]

I don’t get Zac. Pitts is running WAY too many slants and hitches and not enough posts and corners. He had 1000 yard season running mainly intermediate/downfield routes, tears up his knee, now they want him to cut and stop on a dime running short routes? How does this make sense?

[@ATLien4life]

It's called being a Decoy.

[@HarrahATL]

@@kingslayer3796 I'm with 'ya. I don't know if Kyle will ever be the guy we envisioned, but we're certainly not giving him the chance to be. I'd use him something like how the 49ers use Kittle in the passing game.

[@DelilahHD]

What software do you use to annotate your videos?

[@HarrahATL]

I use a software called Epic Pen and a physical drawing pad to write over my screen as I record with OBS Studio!

[@DelilahHD]

@@HarrahATL Thank you!

[@thesavvyninja885]

If a ball hits a receiver in the hands, ita a ball they should catch.

[@HarrahATL]

@thesavvyninja885 Not gonna hear me disagree- gotta catch it. That said, I do think we can help our guys out with better balls and better spacing.

[@348iceberg]

at 4:20 Pitts does a horrible job with the chip block. At this point, I think we need to trade Pitts. he has the ability to be a great player I just think that he is not gonna play up to his full potential with us.

[@HarrahATL]

@348iceberg I think it's something to consider, but I also think you don't ship him out too early because the value he'd bring isn't super high. Try and use him on concepts he's better with- less slants, more overs, seams, and crossers. If he hasn't performed well enough closer to the deadline, consider it.

[@DaeDaeATL]

If you’ve never played in the NFL (no one cares)🤣💀