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The most unstoppable aspect of each Super Bowl team’s offense featuring PlayAR | Check The Tape w/ Terez Paylor

Yahoo Sports Senior NFL writer Terez Paylor is joined by Los Angeles Chargers CB Chris Harris Jr. to explain what makes Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Tom Brady so tough to defend on play action and why Kansas City Chiefs WR Tyreek Hill is a matchup nightmare in the slot.

This episode of Check the Tape features Yahoo Sports’ PlayAR. You can experience these plays and many more with PlayAR in the Yahoo Sports App. Every NFL game has simulated replays of key plays in augmented reality, so you can see the big plays from every angle.

Video transcript

TEREZ PAYLOR: Big-time players make big-time plays in big-time games. The great Santana Moss once said it, and nowhere is this saying more accurate than in the Super Bowl-- specifically, this Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And with all eyes on each team's dynamic offenses, I'm gonna be joined this week by three-time All-Pro quarterback Chris Harris, Jr. of the Los Angeles Chargers. Just take a look at each team's offensive X-factor-- Tyreek Hill's juice in the slot for the Chiefs and Tom Brady's play action mastery for the Bucs. So let's check the tape this week with some state-of-the-art augmented reality to break it down.

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The Bucs possess the league's third-ranked offense in terms of DVOA, and a big reason for that is Tom Brady's excellence on play action, where his passer rating skyrockets from 96.6 on regular plays, which his 12th in the league, to 124.4 on play action, which is third in the league according to Pro Football Focus.

CHRIS HARRIS JR.: His fakes-- I mean, I remember when I was a rookie, he got me on the play action one time-- me and Welker, Welker came off like he was blocking and then he just ran into the sidelines to the end zone. But, like, it was all Tom because of his play fake.

TEREZ PAYLOR: OK, here's an example. NFC Championship game, and it's first and goal at the Packers' 8. The Bucs are in a heavy formation with six offensive linemen and two tight ends. It is reasonable to assume as the safety that they're running the football, and that's what Packers safety Adrian Amos assumes, too, especially given the way Brady manipulates him by selling the heck out of this like it's a run.

CHRIS HARRIS JR.: Safety, you want to have great eyes with the O-line. But the first thing you look at is the receiver. See them block the corner? You kind of-- you stay deep. If you had blocked number 23, then he could shoot the gap. But he never blocked the corner, so then you stay deep. If he had solid eyes, he would have seen the guy running straight up. So it was definitely Tom Brady being able to sell the fake for sure.

TEREZ PAYLOR: Brady would need to execute like this against the Chiefs team they hit for a few big plays on play action in their 3-point week 12 loss to Kansas City, even though the fact they fell behind early blunted the effectiveness of it somewhat.

And guys, that's something they simply can't afford to have happen again, especially given the strength of this Chiefs second-ranked offense in terms of DVOA, which the Bucs also learned firsthand when they surrendered 13 catches for 269 yards and three touchdowns to Hill as he repeatedly burned Todd Bowles' man and one high heavy coverage in week 12.

CHRIS HARRIS JR.: Those guys on the Bucs, they've seen what happened the first game. They came out aggressive. They were blitzing a lot. And that's not a good game plan going into playing the Chiefs.

TEREZ PAYLOR: One way the Chiefs will test the Bucs is by putting Hill in the slot, where he has the fifth-most yards in the league and second-most touchdowns. Here's an example from the AFC Championship game of why he's so lethal there, especially against one high. All right, a second and 10, the Chiefs are running a simple RPO. Both Harris and Tony Romo, who was calling this game for CBS, knew this was coming because whenever the Chiefs have four skilled players on the same side of the formation, that's what they like to do.

But even if you know what's coming, that doesn't mean it's easy to stop, especially in this defensive formation with only one deep safety. And when Hill gets the ball in this one-on-one coverage, that makes this a track meet, one you will lose against Tyreek Hill, which, again, the Bucs found out a couple of months ago.

CHRIS HARRIS JR.: He's the fastest I've seen playing in the NFL, you know, my 31 years. It definitely makes it tough, man. You've got to be able to be good in the slot. You can't do it all game. You got to pick and choose and then try to disguise it and trick Andy Reid when you can play man. So that's what we try to do. We try to sprinkle it in. We gonna still run man, but it's a cheese wheel. We got to sprinkle it in a little bit.

TEREZ PAYLOR: That's what I expect the Bucs to try to do this time because if they don't, Hill could have another huge day, and the Bucs could find themselves down early, once again limiting the effectiveness of their quarterback's greatest tool, the play action.