Cover 2 means corners start at 5 yards off the LOS and are responsible for the flat and shallow (up to 10 yard) patterns while passing off the deeper routes to the safeties who have deep half coverage. In a game, the DB’s will try to disguise it better but I believe the D was only running cover-2 so it’s not like anyone should have gotten fooled.
The ball to Calderella was underthrown. Whether that was Wilson’s intent is up to speculation. However from the clip I saw, the corner (16?) doubled the RB to the flat while 18 bit on Calderella’s slow release allowing him to run free while 42 covered King’s vertical down the hash. With the whole third available to the QB throwing to an uncovered receiver, a pass which required the receiver to slow his momentum and turn towards the one defender who could potentially leave his man (42) and make a play on the ball doesn’t seem like the most desirable option.
Typically, a QB will try to underthrow when he thinks the defender will be in tight(er) coverage with his back to the ball and will aim for the opposite side of the DB’s leverage. I would say that a better explanation is that Calderella was so wide open and Wilson “took too much off” trying to avoid an overthrow as the defenders had already taken themselves out of the play. Think Bentley to Covey against WSU in the Drew Lisk game. Covey was so wide open that Bentley threw a high arcing ball that Covey almost had to fair catch before trusting his speed to take it to the house. Because even a 20 yard completion that the defenders can recover and make a play on is more desirable than a potential house call thwarted by a ball the receiver can never catch up to.
That’s as charitable as I can get because the defense didn’t provide any reason for that ball to be thrown short and to the inside. As for the DN commenter you beat 2 high with slants, verts and deep outs away from the safety. That ball turned a vert into a deep in which played into the strength of the defense.
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