This is a bit old but it is a good example of the four verticals play: Against the Baltimore Ravens, Carson Palmer of the Cincinnati Bengals hit Andre Caldwell on the play. Baltimore was in two-deep man coverage, where they had two deep safeties and the other players were in man coverage. Indeed, four verticals is not really a great play against this coverage, but Caldwell, whose job it was to “bend” inside the split safeties, beat his man and was therefore open. If you don’t remember the play, it was a game winner.
Not sure how much it adds to the analysis, but doesn’t Palmer also beat Lewis here by going over his head when he appears to be playing robber on this play?
I think he looked him off so that Lewis steps toward Coles first. I think it was a pretty good play considering that the guys covering were Chris Carr and an aging Ray Lewis. The outside receivers did a good job spreading the safeties out so that Landry couldn’t help.
It looked like Caldwell did “beat” his man in that the first defender tried to hold him near the line and he shoved him out of the way.
NFL Films / NFL.com did an excellent breakdown of this play, with lots of camera angles, player intereviews and more:
http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-films-anatomy-of-a-play/09000d5d81367c53/WK-5-Anatomy-Palmer-to-Caldwell-beats-Ravens
[...] was also a good article over at Smart Football about a vertical play that the Bengals used against the Ravens. Posted by [...]
I think it was a pretty good play considering that the guys covering were Chris Carr and an aging Ray Lewis.