No, not the "Dutch Rubb"….he's cooked up a hex that favors the Eagles by 6.5 points…
I'm referring to a pass play that Kyle Orton likes to practice and loves to execute. It involves tandem receivers or bunch formations. It basically is a "legal pick play". Setting a basketball-style pick downfield is technically illegal in the NFL. But when was the last time you saw that penalty called?
The play requires great timing and excellent orchestration by the receivers to mask its true intent, which is to cause a cornerback or safety who is in single coverage on one guy to get "rubbed" or bumped off his coverage by another guy.
I think we'll see Orton try to beat the Eagles secondary with the "rub", in addition to throwing a lot of screens to try to tire out the Eagles linemen and linebackers by making them run sideline-to-sideline.
Perhaps rightly so, Dallas sees the Eagles' secondary as its weakest link. Although Cary Williams and Bradley Fletcher have been playing well at the corners, they have been flaunting a lot of man-press coverage—which requires a lot of over-the-top insurance from the safeties. That creates some "perfect storm" opportunities in a game for Orton to set up a "rub".
The good news is Brandon Boykin as the Eagles' ever-improving slot corner is capable of defensing and sniffing out potential "rub" situations. No doubt he will be targeted with the "rub". Boykin is good enough to beat it or switch off on it. The only problem is, the "rub" is difficult to practice against. Defensive backs practice against teammates who are not going at full speed. They do a lot of "walk-through" drills to practice switching off coverage of one receiver to another when their fellow teammate gets picked away from his assignment. But in a real game, things happen faster and a split-second moment of indecision can result in a big pass play.
The "rub" or the "legal pick play" is really just a variation of what Peyton Manning used to call his favorite pass play—"Levels".
The concept is simple: the outside receiver runs a five-yard in-route, and the slot receiver or tight-end runs a ten-to-twelve yard square-in (with a slight outside release).
On the backside, the outside guy runs a take-off (or sometimes a comeback at eighteen yards) and the backside slot or tight-end runs a "divide" or seam-read. The divide route involves a read by the receiver— against single-high defenses like Cover 3 (also known as middle-of-the-field closed), the receiver keeps it up the hashmark in the open void in the seam; against middle-of- the-field open defenses (like Cover 2), he will break on a post route into the open void in the middle.
The quarterback begins by "peeking" or getting an "alert" read of the divide route. If that route comes open or the safeties get out of position, the quarterback throws the ball on rhythm at the end of his drop for a big play. If it is not open, he goes into his normal 1-2-3 progression.
Unlike most pass concepts which are read deep to short, this play is read short-to-deep. (Though with Peyton Manning — who likely has an excellent idea of where he's going with the ball on every play — the difference between "coverage reads" and "progression reads" is blurry.) But the philosophy of the play is to throw the five-yard in-route whenever it comes open; they want to treat it like stealing yards and to get the ball into a playmaker.
This, I believe, will be the basic "Levels" mentality of Kyle Orton's approach on Sunday.
If the Eagles defender comes up for the quick in-route, the quarterback looks for the square-in behind him. In other words, this is a two-man high-low or vertical stretch concept, which puts the underneath defenders in a bind with a guy in front of and behind them.
Enter "the rub"…
It's just an extension of the "Levels" game… and used if your corner or even a linebacker is observed by Kyle Orton to be playing in man coverage.
In that case, the outside receiver will try to run his route underneath the slot man such that he will get a "rub" (not a pick of course, those are illegal and no self-respecting offense would ever use them, haha…) and should come open right in the quarterback's vision.
Below is a diagram of how Aaron Rodgers and the Packers have used the "rub" play from trips (bunch formation). They use it a bit more as an inside hitting route. Both of the outside guys in trips run five yard in- routes, and the inside guy runs his square-in at 10-12.
Just sumlin to think about when watching our guys work against Orton on Sunday. The tendency is to think of Orton as coming into this game "cold". But the fact is he knows the "Levels" game like the back of his hand…and he's no stranger to the "rub".
The best way to neutralize the "Levels" computer in Orton's head would be to overload it with a tremendous pass rush. I have a good feeling about that as an Eagles fan. I think the Eagles defensive line rotations and outside linebackers have the advantage in this one. To me it's the key to an Eagles win.
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