How Jon Gruden Dissected Steve Spagnuolo
Jon Gruden destroyed the Chiefs' defense last season, averaging 35.5 points per game in two games vs. the Chiefs. How did he destroy our defense, and how can the Chiefs get that fixed in 2021?
Steve Spagnuolo’s tenure in Kansas City has largely been successful. The Chiefs haven’t had the best defenses in the league by any margin or specialized in one area. They’ve struggled to stop the run in his tenure, and they don’t dominate in any area of coverage or pass rush. But, by combining exotic coverages and blitzes with high-level talents like Chris Jones and Tyrann Mathieu, this defense has been able to force teams to play left-handed and outside their comfort zone. Sure, the Chiefs struggle with certain things on their defense, but the complexity and variation they’ve built have confused most offenses.
One team seemed to buck that trend last season, and it wasn’t some team with crazy QB talent or offensive talent. It was the Las Vegas Raiders, who had a good offense but nothing spectacular. And yet, in both games they played last year, they shredded our defense with explosive plays and downfield targets. They put up 71 points in two games against Kansas City after years of struggling vs. Andy Reid and the Chiefs.
So…how? How did the Chiefs struggle with an offense without elite playmakers or quarterback play? This was the question I asked myself this week, so I went back and watched both games to answer that question. Let’s dive into the film.
Jon Gruden has had mixed results since coming back to the NFL in 2018, but one thing he’s done well since coming back is how varied his offense is. I won’t pretend to understand the complexities of the Gruden offense, but I was worried that when he came back to the NFL that his offense was going to be static from the league he left. To credit Gruden, he’s come back to the league and updated his approach while still mixing in a lot of his West Coast offensive approach he loves.
We’ll get to how well Gruden beat everything the Chiefs threw at him, but Gruden was unloading the full clip this week. It was a performance that I’m sure Andy Reid would’ve been proud of if it wasn’t against his team. This play comes during the first 15 plays of the game, where the Raiders are trying to manufacture points and get the Chiefs scrambling. My guy Kent Swanson wrote about this with Andy Reid, but getting defenses to present certain looks and give away keys is vital with opening scripts. Gruden’s opening script was great this game.
In this play, Gruden brings out a different look by switching his left tackle and tight end. He puts his tight end, Darren Waller, at left tackle and his left tackle, Kolton Miller, at tight end. This confuses the Chiefs’ rules for alignment, shading towards the strong side, and having no one to account for Waller. But because the WR on the weakside is off the LOS and Miller is covered by a receiver on the other side, Waller is eligible for a route. The Raiders get the ball out quickly before the Chiefs can align and communicate this switch, and this could’ve gone for a massive gain if the WR on the far side executed a better block. Incredible details from Gruden.
Gruden beat Kansas City with explosive passing, something the Raiders hadn’t hit the Chiefs within the Andy Reid era. The typical game plan was to slow the game down, beat the Chiefs with the quick passing game, and drag out a football game. That doesn’t work vs. this version of the Chiefs (especially with a bad defense), so Gruden changed his tendencies by creating explosive plays in the passing game.
Kansas City is one of the most aggressive teams in “Cutting” different routes out of Cover 7, which allows their safeties to come downhill and rob shallow Over and Dig routes over the middle. In 2019, Juan Thornhill had a Pick 6 on a slant by “cutting” the slant route and getting downhill for the pick. Gruden finally drew up an effective game plan to beat that, challenging the Chiefs' aggression.
Gruden sends speedster Henry Ruggs across in motion twice to get a coverage ID from the Chiefs in this play. Once Ruggs motions when the snap comes off, the Chiefs are playing man coverage to the far side of the field, and the boundary cornerback switches with the slot defender when Ruggs pushes to the flat. On the opposite side, the safety gets a “cut” call on the crosser over the middle, pushing the boundary cornerback into the deep 1/3 of the field. Kansas City switches that route well, but the problem comes back to the slot-defender on the far side. He’s 1-on-1 with Nelson Agholor, who’s 4.3 fast and with a ton of space. Tyrann Mathieu is an exceptional player, but his deep speed isn’t superb at this point in his career. Regardless, that’s a ton of space to cover, and without a post safety to carry that route deep, that’s way too much space for a slot to cover backpedaling.
Mathieu appears to want Ward to replace the safety deep, but that’s still a ton of space for him to come and help Mathieu. Gruden drew up an awesome route combination to beat the Chiefs’ tendencies of cutting routes on anything over the middle. He put the Chiefs’ secondary in conflicts with a ton of space, and no team has the athletes to cover that much space deep. The Chiefs’ were frustrated after this play, but honestly, I think it has to due more to an excellent tendency breaker.
Gruden had a plan for everything the Chiefs did, especially when he put the Chiefs into their base defense. Gruden loves playing 22 or 13 personnel but using Darren Waller and Alec Ingold as receiving options vs. heavier defenses. Both are great athletes for a tight end and fullback, which puts most defenses in conflict because they don’t have the 2nd-level speed to cover those guys.
Gruden is willing to attack that lack of speed, calling Flood out of offset I formation. Kansas City responds with Man-Match coverage, where it’s man coverage unless the routes go underneath, then pass it on. Gruden isolates his fullback, Alec Ingold, vs. Ben Niemann. Ingold is a terrific athlete for a fullback, and Niemann struggles in space because he’s a slower linebacker. Gruden sends him on a 15 yard out, and Ingold attacks the inside leverage for a very easy completion.
Gruden had answers for everything Kansas City was throwing, especially out of his base defense. Excellent play call to attack the Chiefs’ lack of speed.
Kansas City was honestly very good against in the run game vs. the Raiders, with Anthony Hitchens playing two great games vs. the Raiders. Las Vegas mixes up their run game, but it’s primarily a Power scheme with pullers and some Duo. Kansas City held Josh Jacobs to 3.2 YPC in two matchups. Some of those were red zone attempts, but Kansas City was pretty successful with run defense against Las Vegas.
That being said, when Hitchens left the field in the first game, Gruden immediately attacked the Chiefs with three straight running plays. This was the one lousy run-play the Chiefs gave up. It’s a simple power play, with the LG pulling to the opposite B gap and the running back aiming at the outside hip of that guard and using him as a leading blocker. Ben Niemann, the MIKE, was supposed to get over the top of the block to be the tackler, but he’s slow to read traffic, and it turns into a 43-yard play.
A big part that makes elite play-callers is how they attack certain groups of players. When Hitchens went out, Gruden immediately felt comfortable running the football and had great success in the moments he was out. In any sport, you attack the weakest part of the team, and with Hitchens out, that was linebacker.
Steve Spagnuolo likes to play a lot of Cover 3 in the RedZone, protecting his boundaries from fades and deep-outs. Spagnuolo’s a diverse coordinator, but his RedZone defenses are pretty static. Gruden was ready with a great play call out of this, sending motion to push the boundary CB to the flat. When the #1 WR Weak runs an inside route, the FS comes downhill a bit to bite on the route, but when that happens, that leaves a huge throwing window for the tight end on the strongside running a slant. Waller’s a tremendous athlete, and that’s way too much space for the CB to cover, and it’s the easiest throw a quarterback could make for six.
Gruden brought out a lot of motion to get the Chiefs to bite on stuff downhill and over the middle and attack the outside cornerbacks (mainly Charvarius Ward) in space with his athletes. He wanted the matchup of Ward vs. Waller and got it with motion.
When a defense struggles, the blame tends to go to the defensive coordinator for not making adjustments. One thing you can’t say about Steve Spagnuolo is that he doesn’t make adjustments. Spags was throwing a whole bunch of coverages at the Raiders, trying to find something that stuck, but the Raiders were prepared for a whole bunch of looks.
It’s a simple Cover 1 concept here, with Dan Sorensen as the free safety. Kansas City is playing man across the boundary. The #2 WR (Point-Man on the Condensed) starts to run the Over route, and Sorensen starts to move to the Robber spot to take away that spot. This wasn’t the correct read from Sorensen because the #1 WR to the bunch runs a “9” route or a straight vertical route. Ward’s expecting some help, but with no help there, that’s way too much space to give for a 4.2 wide receiver with empty grass. Poor read from Sorensen and the Raiders attack.
Gruden was attacking the deep middle of the field often vs. Kansas City, killing their looks anytime they went single-high. In single-high, the middle of the field should be “closed” with a safety, but Gruden challenged the Chiefs’ secondary in space and forced them to cover a lot of ground.
Kansas City is playing “Cover 3 Buzz Weak”, where the Weak safety buzzes to the Robber/Hook zone and plays the intermediate zones. The strong safety replaces him deep, giving a Cover 3 look. The #3 WR to the Trips side runs a Sitdown route at 10 yards, which holds that Buzz safety in the middle. The #2 WR runs a post to attack that safety and runs a phenomenal route. He widens his route to sell the seam route, getting the safety to open his hips completely. He then attacks the inside on the post, and that throwing window is WIDE open for Carr to hit. This play sealed the game for the Raiders and capped off an excellent day for Jon Gruden.
One of the fundamental problems Kansas City had last year was that they couldn’t stop the run and load up in the box and play Cover 1 behind it. Even on obvious passing downs, Cover 1 wasn’t a suitable shell for the Chiefs. In the 2nd game, Las Vegas came out with the same condensed look to the boundary, prompting Cover 1 again from the Chiefs (see above).
The Raiders know they’re getting this shell out of it, so Gruden aligns his #3 WR, Darren Waller, vs. the Chiefs’ worst coverage defender, Dan Sorensen. This is a matchup the Chiefs don’t want to have, so to bait the free safety, he sends his point-man on a dig over the middle, holding that free safety temporarily, then just sending Waller straight downfield on a vertical route that Sorensen has no shot of covering. Easy completion before the free safety has time to rotate to that side of the field. Attack weaknesses.
Kansas City seemed more aggressive to play straight man coverage this week than Cover 7, and while Gruden didn’t have as many man-beaters this week, there were still some cool designs included. He sends his #3 WR to the condensed side on a mesh route over the middle, and his backside WR on an “S” route, taking an inside release and working back out. Gruden wants to create conflict in the middle of the field between those guys, gets the cornerback on the “S” route side stacked, and Carr throws a great ball to hit that window. Great play design here, giving Carr a two-level read vs. man that the Chiefs would have a hard time defending.
Conclusion
The return of Jon Gruden to the NFL has been mixed. I think his team-building method hasn’t been successful since coming back, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Gruden seems to be behind on NFL defense, not prioritizing speed or athleticism in a critical way for modern defense, especially in his secondary. His offensive team-building has been terrific, but his overall offseason strategies and vision for this roster haven’t been great.
That being said, one thing is absolutely true about Gruden; he’s a terrific offensive coach. His playcalling has progressively got better since returning to the NFL, and he and Derek Carr are in total sync with everything. Gruden maximizes matchups well in the run game and has enough speed on the perimeter now to challenge teams that stack the box. He also uses Darren Waller incredibly well, putting him in various spots to get looks he loves. Gruden might not be Andy Reid or Kyle Shanahan calling plays, but he belongs in that tier.
Beating a Steve Spagnuolo defense isn’t easy. Spagnuolo brings many looks at you, which challenges an offense that wants to beat certain coverages with play calls. In the two games the Chiefs had vs. Las Vegas, Gruden had all the answers. Yes, the Chiefs defense needs to be better at getting pressure vs. Carr and play smarter defensively. But Gruden also called two amazing games vs. the Chiefs and deserved absolute credit for two masterpieces.
(That being said, I’m totally cool with the Raiders keeping Gruden around. He can stay for the entire 10-year contract if he wants)