At this time of year, can an NFL play really be "unstoppable"?
The infectious grooves of Taylor Swift, I mean, of course they're unstoppable. The Ice Bucket Challenge. The Polar Vortex. That scene where Baby Groot dances to "I Want You Back." All unstoppable.
But on the gridiron, in the playoffs, when NFL defenses have four months of tape to dissect what your offense does best, perhaps no single play can accurately be termed unstoppable. As with a kitchen remodel, throw enough resources at a problem and sometimes you can make it go away.
Still, when I talk about plays that are unstoppable (as I did before the season started and after six weeks), what I'm really talking about are plays that show up on tape again and again and have a terrific overall success rate.
I thought it would be fun to dive back into a season's worth of game film and focus on the eight teams still alive in the NFL playoffs. Which plays that you'll be watching this weekend are the toughest to stop?
Here's my list, in ascending order of unstoppability, along with images of all the plays. Hit me up on Twitter @CHarrisESPN if you feel like I missed a great one.
5. C.J. Anderson zone runs behind six linemen.
Back in October, my No. 1 unstoppable play was Julius Thomas split wide, running option routes that tormented the safeties and linebackers assigned to stop him. No doubt the Denver Broncos would like to get Thomas back to the point where he can run such routes with dominance again, but he suffered a high-ankle sprain in Week 11 and didn't score another touchdown (he had 12 through 10 games). Thomas' injury partly explains the Broncos' emphasis on running and the emergence of Anderson, an undrafted second-year player who has succeeded in the power-running game where higher-profile players such as Montee Ball and Ronnie Hillman failed.
I don't want to imply that Anderson's success (since Week 10, he's second in the NFL in rushing yards and tied for the lead with eight rushing TDs) is merely the result of some gadget; he's a pretty good player. He has legit power, a bit of quickness, good instincts and can catch the ball on checkdowns -- a prerequisite in a Peyton Manning offense. However, like Knowshon Moreno last season, Anderson has gotten to run against a ton of six-man fronts: 112 of his 179 attempts (62.6 percent) this season have come with six men in the box. (Compare that with rushing champ DeMarco Murray, who saw six in the box on 132 of 302 regular-season carries: 43.7 percent.) Anderson's per-carry average against six in the box is 5.4; against seven or more, it's 3.6. One solution the Broncos found to combat a stacked defense is using Paul Cornick as a sixth offensive lineman:
Here, against eight in the box versus the Chiefs, Cornick is lined up outside left tackle Ryan Clady (No. 78). Virgil Green (No. 85) is assigned to help Cornick with defensive end Tamba Hali, but Cornick winds up not needing the help. He blows Hali out. As you can see, all Broncos linemen fire out left, the hallmark of a zone-running attack. Left guard Orlando Franklin (No. 74) sees defensive tackle Allen Bailey trying to slice through to the inside, and he stops running to seal him off, creating a lane. Anderson takes advantage to the tune of a 16-yard gain. As this Week 13 game against the Kansas City Chiefs progressed, the Broncos got more daring with Cornick, often not giving him help and assuming he'd handle a defensive end one-on-one. With Cornick on the field as a sixth lineman in Weeks 13 and 14, Anderson carried it a combined 23 times for 121 yards.
Alas, that's where the sample size ends. Cornick injured a toe in Week 15 and hasn't played since. As of this writing, the Broncos believe he'll practice this week and play Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts, and I think you'll see him out there playing some tight end. Obviously, Manning makes Denver go, but when its offensive line was struggling in November, it was this six-lineman formation that got the Broncos going again.
4. Jordy Nelson and the Cover 2 window.
This one is a holdover from my October list. Nelson finished fourth in receiving yards and tied for second in receiving TDs -- and he is no one-trick pony. He's fast, he's got good cutting ability on the run and his body control is tremendous. Defenses still often bring corners tight on Nelson when he's out wide and put a safety over the top. But there's still that window: when the corner passes Nelson off and the safety moves laterally to cut him off down the sideline. Aaron Rodgers just loves that throw:
Here the Buffalo Bills are playing it conservative as the Green Bay Packers have it deep in their own territory on a second-and-6, losing by six points. Corner Mario Butler has Nelson at the snap and doesn't play bump; he sees Nelson is alone on the offensive right side, so the plan is to stick with Nelson and rely on safety Bacarri Rambo for help down the field. There's no true "passing Nelson off" to the safety, but there is a window. Rodgers pumps, Butler bites and Rambo is a bit late getting over. This is picture-perfect stuff. Alas, this play featured an infamous drop from Nelson in the Pack's upset loss in Week 15. But the play was there, and it should be there again against Dallas.
3. DeMarco Murray behind a left tackle kickout.
Here's another repeat from October, and it still works great. Overall, Murray averaged 4.7 yards per carry behind that insane Dallas Cowboys offensive line, but going left, he averaged 5.4. Left tackle Tyron Smith kicking out to deal with an aggressive defensive end has been a big part of this. Again, I don't want to paint a picture of a "gimmick"; this is much more about technique. In large part, the Cowboys actually don't repeat the same running play over and over. They'll go zone, they'll go power, they'll run in any direction. But the concept that sees Smith barreling outside to create a seal, with left guard Ronald Leary and center Travis Frederick either running left to zone block or doubling a defensive tackle, is particularly successful again and again:
This run from Sunday's wild-card game actually sees Jason Witten (No. 82) helping Smith (No. 77) on defensive end Devin Taylor, to the point where Smith actually frees up and crushes linebacker Josh Bynes. Leary (No. 65) and Frederick double Ndamukong Suh, which gives Murray two options. The RB assumes linebacker overpursuit (and in fact, may not anticipate Smith taking on Bynes), and cuts back to the right of the Suh double-team for a slashing 8-yard gain. The Detroit Lions boast a legitimately great run defense and held Murray in check for a half. But when their pass rush got overaggressive in Sunday's second half, plays of this variety -- where Witten and Smith were able to use a defensive end's momentum against him -- opened things up for Murray.
2. Marshawn Lynch inside-zone read-option.
The Seattle Seahawks used to be more of an outside-zone team in the mold of Arian Foster and the Houston Texans, but this season they've had so much success with the inside zone thanks to Russell Wilson's incredible season running the ball. Defenses simply become paralyzed by the threat of Wilson running free to the outside, and Lynch takes full advantage. He rushed for four touchdowns in Week 10 against the New York Giants, and all four came on inside-zone runs, with three of them featuring Wilson's read-option outside-run fake. (For good measure, Wilson actually kept one of these for Seattle's fifth rushing score.) The Seahawks run this concept a ton: Lynch was second in the league in carries out of a read-option look (102) behind only LeSean McCoy. Here's one from Week 11 against the Kansas City Chiefs:
The zone concept here is run left: Center Max Unger pulls around left guard and lays a good downfield block on a linebacker, while the other linemen zone left looking for a seal technique. Left guard Alvin Bailey finds such a seal on nose man Dontari Poe, and left tackle Russell Okung fires left (a la Tyron Smith) and demolishes Tamba Hali.
Mostly this is just good execution, and the Seahawks can do it because they have good players, including Lynch who isn't merely an in-traffic beast; he's also so smart about his cutbacks and sets up his blockers with excellent patience. But don't lose sight of the "option" part of these plays. Wilson always watches the offside defensive end carefully. If that guy doesn't contain or scrape, Wilson will keep it. And even if he doesn't, that "other" defensive end -- here it's Justin Houston -- can't be a factor in tackling Lynch, because he has to be so concerned with Wilson.
1. Rob Gronkowski seam route.
The New England Patriots hope this year's playoff run is different from their past several, because Gronk is healthy. He's the most important non-QB offensive player in the NFL because you pick your poison with him: Either you play him one-on-one with a linebacker or safety (good luck), or you rotate everything in his direction and give Tom Brady's other weapons more room to roam. Because of his size (6-foot-6, 265 pounds), speed and excellent strength, Gronkowski is a complete pass-catcher. But the seam route has just been killing teams:
What's going on here is pretty simple. Brady sees Cover 3 with a single safety high, with linebacker Jason Trusnik lined up across from Gronk. On this particular play, Brady also has Julian Edelman running a seam from the slot, which means safety Reshad Jones has to consider each side of the offensive formation live. This hesitation -- and some eye discipline by Brady -- keeps Jones in the middle of the field long enough to hit Gronkowski. Jones gets in a nice hit, but he's too late to prevent the catch and a 34-yard gain.
How do you defend Gronk on this play, and in general? First and foremost, if you're giving him a free release off the line, you're asking for trouble. In Week 16, the New York Jets held him to six catches, 31 yards and a TD, and every time he lined up inline or in the slot, they chucked him. (But bumping him on the outside with a corner is a bad idea.) The Chicago Bears repeatedly neglected to hit him at the outset of his pass patterns in Week 8, and Gronkowski caught four seam routes en route to a season-high 149 yards receiving. The San Diego Chargers tried moving versatile safety Eric Weddle around the formation with Gronk and supported Weddle with Jahleel Addae. They had Weddle do his best to chuck Gronk, knowing that if the much bigger man got away, Addae was there for backup.
Mostly, though, defending any seam pattern is a matter of smart safety play. Asking a linebacker to turn and run with Gronk is crazy. With two safeties back, a defense can cheat one man Gronk's way while still having someone in center field. Of course, that makes you susceptible to the run, or to combination routes with players such as Edelman or Brandon LaFell.
In short, the Baltimore Ravens -- and any other future playoff opponent this winter -- will have their hands full with Gronkowski, the most unstoppable tight end in football and the executor of the current gold standard of unstoppable plays.