Film room: Dalton, Thielen pose threat to secondary

Duo combined for nearly 150 yards in the one game they played together last year

Week 3 is a great opportunity for the Las Vegas Raiders to put it all together and have a dominant performance while improving their record to 2-1. The Raiders play the Carolina Panthers who, let’s be honest, have been a complete mess for over a year now.

However, the Panthers’ head coach Dave Canales decided to make a quarterback change ahead of the contest, benching the struggling Bryce Young for well-tenured veteran Andy Dalton.

Dalton has become a journeyman over the last five years, but he did make one start last season and had an impressive outing with 361 yards and two touchdowns while delivering four “big-time throws”, according to Pro Football Focus. Dalton’s primary target was Adam Thielen, who had his most productive game of the year with 11 catches, 145 yards and a score.

The Raiders will have to have a plan for those two on Sunday, so let’s dive into the film and see how Dalton and Thielen had success together last year.

Especially considering they hadn’t played much together, Dalton and Thielen had some pretty good chemistry last year and this scramble drill is a good example.

Seattle had tight coverage here with this Cover 3 look so Dalton leaves the pocket. Thielen quickly recognizes that and finds some open grass/turf and Dalton hits him to get a big gain third and long and pick up the first down. Also, the Red Rifle showed some impressive toughness this game as he took a hit in the chops while delivering this ball.

The Seahawks are playing Cover 4 this time and again, nothing is open so Dalton scrambles. You can see Thielen turn his head to check if any defender is barrelling down on him but there isn’t, so he’s smart to stay where he’s at while No. 23 freezes and ends up in no-man’s land.

Dalton eventually finds the receiver and makes a good throw on the run to move the chains once again. This is another example of those two being on the same page.

This is where having a veteran connection can really pay off.

Thielen is running a seam read route which means if the middle of the field is open (MOFO), he runs a seam route along or just inside the hash marks. And if the middle of the field is closed (MOFC), he runs a curl.

The Seahawks have a good play call that could confuse younger players as they have a one-high look pre-snap (MOFC) but roll to Cover 2 (MOFO) post-snap. On top of that, the defense is running Tampa 2 where the middle linebacker (Bobby Wagner) is responsible for carrying the slot receiver deep to take away the middle of the field (MOFC).

That’s a lot of information for a wideout to process in a short amount of time. However, Thielen has been around the block for a while and makes the correct read to run the curl route against MOFC coverage. Simultaneously, Dalton recognizes the coverage and sees Wagner dropping, so he throws with great anticipation to hit Thielen right out of Thielen’s break.

The result is another third and long pickup because the wide receiver and quarterback were on the same page.

To be fair, this clip is from late in the game when Seattle is up by two possessions. Regardless, this is a nice throw and catch to put six points on the board.

The Seahawks are running Cover 3 where the corner at the top of the screen reads the outside receiver first and then Thielen in the slot. So, the corner is a little late to pick up Thielen on the seam route. Dalton recognizes that and lets it rip while Thielen makes a great contested catch in the endzone with the corner on his back and the safety barreling down on him.

Another example of good timing between these two.

We’re moving onto a couple of plays against man coverage.

It’s third and short here and Thielen does an excellent job of creating separation on the whip route as the corner gets turned around and is nowhere near the receiver when the ball gets there.

Meanwhile, Dalton is facing some pressure so he can’t step into this throw and the pass is far from perfect. However, Thielen makes a nice grab to come down with the ball and keep the drive alive with a first down.

On this one, Seattle’s defensive tackle gets some pressure with a nasty spin move but Dalton is quick to recognize it and leave the pocket to buy some time.

Meanwhile, Thielen is running an over route and—similar to a pass-rusher using a cross chop—uses his arm to prevent the defensive back from getting hands on him and creates separation. To finish, Dalton resets his feet and makes a great throw across the field to hit Thielen for an explosive play and another third-down conversion.

The safety likely isn’t thinking Dalton can make this throw as he follows the quarterback’s path as the quarterback leaves the pocket, and he sees the receiver at the bottom of the screen running a go route.

Technically, the safety isn’t wrong here but this might be something Tre’von Moehrig or Marcus Epps will want to keep in mind because the corner at the bottom isn’t in a bad position while the nickelback gets beat badly. This is one of those situations where, in a perfect world, the safety adjusts his primary responsibility.

To paint the full picture, here are a few incompletions between Datlon and Thielen.

The first two plays are much better man-coverage reps from No. 23 as he plays the slot fade and out route perfectly. The last one is an example of how Robert Spillane and/or Divine Deablo should play that seam read route in Tampa 2 as Wagner stays deep and drives on the curl route to break up the pass.

All-in-all, Dalton gives the Panthers a much better chance to win on Sunday, so the Raiders will need to make sure they keep this veteran connection in check.