Corner DeAngelo Hall wanted a chance to make big plays. So he kept after defensive coordinator Jim Haslett about playing more zone, giving the corners more ability to read the quarterback and less responsibilities in coverage.
Instead, the Redskins play more man coverage. And Hall intercepted four passes; three of them coming in man coverage.
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“It’s all about going out there and executing the call,” Hall said. “That’s what we said as a defense, definitely as a secondary.”
But there’s little doubt that Hall has wanted to play something different. He said it didn’t stem from being less comfortable in man.
“When you’re in zone, you have no responsibilities,” Hall said. “It’s easy to stop the hitch when you’re playing the flat. It’s easy to stop a fade when you’re playing cover-3 and you have deep pass and you have a linebacker buzzing the flat. When you’re man to man, you have to stop every single route. You’re protecting for the fade, they got comebacks. You protect for the comeback, they got the fade. They got the double move and they got the slant. They’ve got every single route. Obviously it will be a lot easier to cover someone in zone than it is man to man.”
The fact that he got the picks in man doesn’t change his belief that he likes zone. But he knows it helps someone else.
“It helps Haz feel he can call a lot more man to man,” he said. “In some situations you want man to man. The game gainst the Colts, we ran a lot of zones where we felt, let’s run man. That last drive we finally got in his ear enough that the last drive we needed to stop before the two-minute warning. The last three snaps were all man to man. We challenged those guys and they punted. There are certain times when you want it. It’s real finicky. You have to go with the flow of the game. It’s something coordinators and players try to hone in on and find the best formula.”
