For the first part. Peppers himself came out and said. I screwed up. That he was supposed to stay in his zone and that when he saw Palmer escape the pocket he vacated his zone to go after Palmer. So that is where McGinn got that from.
I would say it was completely a MISSED ASSIGNMENT. Randall responsibility was Fitz no matter where Fitz went. If Fitz went shallow across, Randall is suppose to back off and let Peppers cover him short, but Randall is still supposed to follow him across the field deeper to protect from Fitz turning up field again. Randall completely dropped him and dropped into a Zone coverage.
Originally Posted by: PackFanWithTwins
McGinn fancies himself as a journalist, the #1 rule in journalism is that people lie. You have to check out the story before going to print. The story told by Peppers makes no sense because it indicates he had a 25 yard zone to cover. McGinn should have realized that this was a true leader saying, “it was my fault.” As opposed to the a weasel saying, “no comment” or “we have to play better.” As opposed to the arrogant asswipe anti-leader who says, “it was Janis’ fault.” 😂 And McGinn should have known better.
And yes, of course, Randall missed an assignment; but it was based on the failure to make a correct SPOT READ! Which is 100% different than missing an assignment because you don’t know where you are supposed to be or what you are supposed to do.
Capers said they were in a 3 hook. And given there was a 2 man blitz with Peppers dropping this would put the corners in a cover 3, not man. Ergo, Randall’s coverage responsibility is to let his man go on a cross that would cross the face of Peppers and drop into his deep 1/3 and this is not necessarily a shallow cross or to match Fitz on the deep cross. The depth of the inside route that Randall must cover is based on the depth of the hook zone defenders and Peppers dropped to 8 yards. Now watch Fitz’ route, he comes off the line as if to run a shallow cross. Then he turned up field; then continued on his deep cross and that should be a 15 yard penalty for tricking the cornerback.😂
Also, Burnett’s TE [on Randall’s side] went outside so Burnett “matched” him. Hayward’s slot guy [opposite Randall’s side] was running a deep cross and Hayward’s job as the other seam/curl to flat defender is to “carry” his guy to whomever is covering that deep 3rd, which would be Randall.
So Randall, sees Fitz go shallow cross; looks over and sees Hayward’s slot guy, the very speedy Brown, going on a deep cross to his 3rd and he drops back to pick up Brown. The decision whether to cover Fitz across the field or drop into deep 3rd is a SPLIT-SECOND decision.
Dix took a few steps toward Fitz, but when Palmer took off to his right, Dix stopped and ran to Palmer’s right.
Like I said, it was a perfect storm play. Fitz ran a great route; Randall made a wrong read; the pass rush somehow missed Palmer; Dix didn’t continue on his path to cover Fitz because he saw Palmer rolling right; Fitz made a great run; and the tackling and angles by several players was not great.