Chandler Cox A-Day Breakdown

[StatTiger 3,188]

During the 2015 A-Day game, Jeremy Johnson was 4 of 6, throwing the ball beyond 20-yards of the line of scrimmage (66.7%). Last season Nick Marshall completed 39.7% of his passes thrown beyond 20-yards of the line of scrimmage. Marshall improved his deep ball percentage in 2014 from his 28.3% during 2013, but it fell short of Cam Newton's 44.4% during the 2010 season. In his limited play, Jeremy Johnson has completed 40.0% of his passes beyond 20-yards during the past two seasons. The screens and short passes along with the running game, force the opposing safeties to cheat up. When this occurs, Jeremy Johnson will have plenty of opportunities to make teams pay vertically.

The play...

On this play the offense faces a 2nd &14, with the intent of running a vertical route with their H-Back, Chandler Cox. At the snap Chandler Cox releases out of the backfield into the flat. Markell Boston bites on what appears to be a short out-route into the flat. The 2 WR's on the boundary side, clear space for Cox as he turns his out route up the side line on a delayed wheel-route.

Jeremy Johnson steps up in the pocket and makes his deep throw down the side line. Cox has to adjust to the ball, slightly under thrown. He makes an acrobatic move on the ball, to haul it in from its highest point for a big gain and an Auburn first down. The play also has a check down built in with Peyton Barber releasing out into the flat after Cox turns up the side line.

Later in the first half, Auburn appears to run the same play from the same formation but Gus Malzahn changes up the primary target to Melvin Ray on a deep out route. During the play the secondary bites on Cox, leaving Ray wide open. I will break down this play to Ray later on. It is always interesting to see how Malzahn makes slight adjustments to plays, depending on how the opposing defense play the original play.

[cooltigger21 0]

Good stuff Stat. That's what I like most about Gus. He can have one play and have three or more options with the exact same personnel and formation.

[AURex 1,984]

Cox made a very good catch against redshirt freshman Markell Boston, and I look forward to seeing him make some catches like that in games next year. But let's be real. The #1 offense was playing against the #2 defense, on a team where even the #1 defense last year couldn't defend the pass worth a crap, finishing 13th in the SEC in passing defense. CWM has expressed his disappointment so far in the play of the secondary, so I'm not flaming individual players or saying anything the coaches haven't already said.

I want to see Cox make those kind of plays against Bama, UGA, and LSU, and I'm hoping it happens a lot!

I'm a big fan of JJ. I'm convinced he's going to be a great QB for Auburn, and the Auburn offense will once again be very good. But his passing percentage against Auburn's #2 defensive secondary doesn't really tell us anything. I just don't think A-Day games tell us much about actual SEC competition. It's an exhibition.

But I sure *hope* the Auburn defense is a whole lot better next season.

Still, I really enjoy your analyses, Stat. The visual breakdown of the way plays develop is always interesting. It is the way the plays are drawn up in the playbook, and I like seeing that played out on the field. So I look forward to the next installment, displaying the variation to Melvin Ray, which was also a really cool play to watch. Thanks!

[WFE12 9,191]

great to have a real FB on the team this time, really want to have everyone playing at their natural positions, no more hybrids

[ClaytonAU 4,606]

great to have a real FB on the team this time, really want to have everyone playing at their natural positions, no more hybrids

Why?

[bigbird 60,368]

I think Ronnie Brown was the last back we've had that ran the wheel so effectively. Cox did a great job controlling his body and making a play on the ball.

[triangletiger 1,599]

I think Ronnie Brown was the last back we've had that ran the wheel so effectively. Cox did a great job controlling his body and making a play on the ball.

Carl Stewart did a good job on the wheel routes as well.

[mustache eagle 2,388]

I thought fannin was effective as well

[Tigerfinz 1,362]

I think Ronnie Brown was the last back we've had that ran the wheel so effectively. Cox did a great job controlling his body and making a play on the ball.

Carl Stewart did a good job on the wheel routes as well.

That's what I thought as well

[bigbird 60,368]

I had forgotten about Carl, he was good as well.

[McLoofus 35,182]

Eric Smith and Fannin were both good on the wheel routes on 3rd down in '09.

Hopefully JJ can consistently get touch on his short-to-intermediate passes. We're probably already way ahead of where we were in terms of those passes getting batted down.

[WFE12 9,191]

great to have a real FB on the team this time, really want to have everyone playing at their natural positions, no more hybrids

Why?

i just was thinking that,really on defense, lbs switching lb positions is fine but, things like safeties playing lb, i don't too much care for

[douggwilliams 61]

Heath Evans either ran a wheel route or something similar. That is when I became so impressed with his athletic ability.

[Tiger 8,817]

Heath Evans either ran a wheel route or something similar. That is when I became so impressed with his athletic ability.

Heath Evans was the man! A FB playing out of position at HB and he was still pretty productive!

[Man on Fire 11]

Nice job Stat! Wish colleges would give access to All-22 tape, We often have to make assumptions about what defensive responsibilities are. Here are a few things that stood out to me on that play.

-wow, give Gus dangerous players at every position and you're in trouble. He essentially flooded the boundary (short side) with four routes.

-we are in Cover 3, as far as I can tell. The fact that Boston attacks the flat route and we have a single high S tells us that.

-a post/9 route combo is hard enough to defend, a wheel route or out'n up into the space behind it is a great idea.

-equally important to that catch was JJs form and execution on the pass, that's NFL Grade stuff.

-Boston (flat route responsibility) is specifically instructed to stay on top of the flat route to guard against the wheel, because teams often attack coverages by occupying deep help and getting 1on1 with either a smaller or slower defender. Muschamp will fix a majority of this stuff, but it won't happen immediately. Repetition is so important.