Mediaboss Marketing

Midway through the third quarter of Super Bowl LV, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are winning on the scoreboard, holding a 28-9 lead over the Kansas City Chiefs.

They are also winning on a different board. The chessboard. At this point in the game Tom Brady and Byron Leftwich are winning the chess match with Steve Spagnuolo, the defensive coordinator of the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Buccaneers opening drive of the second half, which culminated in a touchdown run from Leonard Fournette, provides two prime examples. First is this third-down conversion with Brady hitting Fournette with a simple checkdown:

Before the snap of the ball, Spagnuolo has his defense in a pressure alignment. Brady checks the protection at the line of scrimmage, bringing Rob Gronkowski in to a wing alignment on the right side of the formation. Rather than send Gronkowski who has already caught a pair of touchdown passes in this game into a route Brady asks him to block.

However, Spagnuolo does not bring pressure. Instead he drops seven into coverage, hoping that Brady now does not have a downfield option with Gronkowski now kept in to block. But Brady calls his bluff, taking the simple checkdown to Fournette for the first down.

Then a few plays later with the ground game going, Byron Leftwich and Brady turn to the play-action game. Watch the action of the offensive line up front as they sell the run, pulling a blocker in front of this play. This freezes the defense, allowing Gronkowski to get vertical for an easy read and throw:

Then the touchdown run from Fournette, which is in some respect a mirror image of the above play-action throw to Gronkowski. Only this time a blocker pulls from the left to the right side, getting in front of Fournette for the touchdown:

Right now Spagnuolo and the Chiefs defense are guessing, and the Buccaneers are winning. Both on the chessboard, and on the scoreboard.

View original post here:
Tom Brady, Byron Leftwich winning the chess match with Steve Spagnuolo - Touchdown Wire