In case you haven’t seen it yet, the guys over at The Only Colors have posted this clip of Michael Floyd’s first quarter touchdown, in which he blows right past a helpless Eric Gordon, illustrating perfectly what is likely to happen when you try to cover an elite wideout with a linebacker.
Gordon’s job was to bump Floyd off his route and disrupt the timing of the play, and there certainly should have been safety help deep to the right side of the field, especially given that ND overloaded that side of the field with three receivers, none of whom broke to the middle. I’d love to see a wider angle of the play to get an idea of what may have delayed Trenton Robinson from getting over to pick up the coverage; unfortunately, I think he was just late.
Regardless of blame, expect more five-wide sets from opposing offensive coordinators looking to exploit linebackers in coverage, at least until such time as Pat Narduzzi starts mixing in more nickel coverage.
Painful, huh?