Baskett TD

Got a better look at Hank Baskett's 90-yard TD from Sunday watching NFL Network last night, and now I think I understand what was going on.

My previous thought was that Fakhir Brown gave up the slot man to Corey Chavous and he wasn't supposed to. I wouldn't have been surprised if Brown, who missed all of training camp with a rotator cuff injury, might have made such an assignment error in his first game back. But I didn't know what was going on on the back side of the play.

From the top: Ron Bartell's lined up across from the slot man, Brown across from Baskett. Bartell blitzes. Correct move. Brown swings over to pick up the slot man and sits down in the short zone. Correct move. If McNabb goes to the slot man as his hot receiver, Brown has an excellent chance to break up the pass or pick it off. Baskett and the slot receiver both run upfield, though. Hell, the slot may have run the wrong route for all I know. But a Ram, I think OJ Atogwe, rotates over to pick up the slot man. On some of the replays, you can see OJ right on the slot man. (Obviously I didn't pick up on this last Sunday.) Corey Chavous' only responsibility all along was to stay with Baskett. But he didn't trust that the slot man would get picked up and left himself in "no man's land". McNabb goes to Baskett; Chavous is horribly out of position; 90-yard TD.

The Rams blew a similar coverage earlier in the game to surrender a 32-yard completion to Jason Avant. Same thing. Bartell lined up in front of him and blitzed. Pisa was supposed to provide support from the far side on that play but didn't get there. Chavous probably had that in mind when he blew the Baskett TD.

But the blame for that TD is completely Chavous'. My apologies to Brown that I guessed wrong. And to Jim Haslett that I didn't understand the coverage.

I do not apologize, however, for criticizing Haslett's use of blitzes on third-and-long on both plays. This is all avoided with straight defense.