Poor Angles, Poor Tackling
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
On St. Louis’s first drive of the game they played some early games with the Oakland defense. After back to back WR screens to speedster Tavon Austin (#11) they ran a fake WR screen on one side then came back to the traditional screen to RB Tre Mason for the 35 yd TD. Part of this play is favorable coincidence for St. Louis (Burris blitzing), but most of the problem comes from poor angles, players being out of position, and bad tackling.
St. Louis comes out in that lovely 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR) that the NFL loves so much with a 2×2 alignment for the receivers. Oakland is in their nickel package (3 DLs, 3 LBs, 5 DBs) with Cover 4 coverage and an inside blitz from LB Miles Burris. After the snap Oakland reads WR screen again and bites hard on the fake taking CB T.J. Carrie and LB Sio Moore out of the play entirely. DE Justin Tuck and Miles Burris nearly get to QB Austin Davis fast enough to disrupt the play (which happens often when Oakland runs screens), but are a split second away when Davis throws the screen pass to Tre Mason.
At this point three main things happen: 1. Charles Woodson is clearly held by TE Jared Cook; 2. S Brandian Ross takes a terrible angle toward the play and finds himself unable to make a tackle, letting Tre Mason run around him; and 3. CB D.J. Hayden makes a horrifically weak attempt to bump Mason out of bounds instead of making a clean tackle and/or putting his body behind the hit. The result is a quick and mentally trying TD for St. Louis.