I had wanted to watch San Francisco Revolver’s defense after hearing a comment on Pod Practice that they had a good, poachy defense. While taking notes on their US nationals final against Chicago Machine, I thought I might experiment with a new form of post: just posting my notes (in a slightly cleaned up version) instead of breaking it down into detailed analyses of particular plays/concepts.
The pros of this type of post: there’s a very high information density here for readers who’re interested in taking the time to analyze all the small moments from this game. The cons of this type of post: it’s less focused on any one particular topic. And I don’t spend as much time explaining/making diagrams to make sure everything I’ve noted is completely clear. Let me know what you think of it!
I tried add names where I could, there were a few numbers I wasn’t confident I could read correctly, so apologies in advance for any mistakes I made there.
Here’s the game:
And without further ado, here are my notes:
Revolver defense:
9:37 Machine scores in essentially 1 throw. The deep guy seemingly kinda gets lost, focusing on the guy right in front of him while the entire side stack goes deep? But also I can understand him wanting to focus on the cutter who’s in an active threatening space, so maybe the weak side help should’ve rotated over the top?
You see some hand signaling from both guys lower in the side stack, weird play:
12:51 Kwon way downfield on the saggy handler defense
12:54 Just look at the positioning generally, I think the thrower misses the guy at the top sideline but there’s a lot of players not super close to who they’re guarding
13:03 Lew passing off Daan De Marree (gonna call him DDM from here on out) as he goes deep, but then he and Vallee both take the same under and the O gains a few yards.
13:06 Lew jogging down the middle of the field while his guy jogs down the far sideline. It’s maybe just enough to discourage the throw to #9 (Bontemps)
also 13:06 Notice how it’s not a pure “keep someone deep” scheme — there is that moment there where 2 white jerseys are deeper than the last two Revolver jerseys. Who has the disc tho? #11 Goff, I think he’s a solid deep thrower
also 13:06 Watch how Seamus Robinson is proactively getting further away from his man
13:10 Vallee shifts on the pump fake to the little upline throw, forcing the swing. intentional?
13:12 as Goff goes backwards, Vallee just stands right in front of the disc
13:19 Chicago sends two deep and two under and there’s enough confusion that the unders get open. You can see the guy on the tip of the raven’s beak signalling to his deeper teammate.
This is where you gotta “talk from the back”... let those further under guys know they have help before they turn around and start running
(It’s interesting how 2 points into the game we’ve already seen like 3 objective mistakes playing frisbee this way. Even the best D in the country is going to make mistakes.)
13:20 I don’t like how Vallee randomly starts playing tight D in the backfield here? After playing more poachy a moment ago.
13:28 what the heck happens here with #50 Lew coming under from the deep D space and by the time you see him, he’s just staring at the ground picking at the turf? Something weird happened.
(Turnover #1), but it’s not especially due to great defense, it feels like they missed the chance for an obvious switch there with Lew staying deep, but the throw wasn’t amazing and the read wasn’t great either (as Keith says from the booth immediately after)
14:29 watch how Lew is guarding the guy running top-to-bottom on the screen but as he sees the swing pass he immediately starts ignoring that to head back towards the top sideline.
14:35 Playing a little too saggy (if anything it looks very zone-y right now), and gives up the pass to that same guy w/o there being any other receivers nearby that he’s really shutting down.
14:38 Watch how #20(?) Liston guards the under and then just stands there as his guy clears out deep
14:43 DDM make a nice hard jab step to deep cut. Liston ended up not having the deep help he thought he had a moment ago, as the field switched and a guy cut under breakside and Robinson was focused on DDM
18:30 Vallee kind of “outruns the (rest of the) pull coverage”-- he gets downfield to set a mark on, but the cutter defenders aren’t in position and Revolver gives up an essentially unguarded first pass. I think you gotta either (a) sag more as the guy running down to the handler. Don’t set a hard mark unless you’ve seen your teammates are there to guard cutters. or (b) get cutter defenders to get down there just a bit quicker
18:35 Clearly someone gets wide open deep -- watch how Lew takes off sprinting deep and one of the Machine cutters is also pointing deep begging the thrower to put it. Unfortunately for them they’re already looking swing pass. Like freeze frame at 18:33 and there’s 7 Revolver defenders on screen but only 5 Machine players.
18:39 Seems like a missed chance for a spontaneous bracket. #35 McGuckin who ends up getting the disc dips his shoulder out of the way of a Revolver defender who just lets him go.
18:40 The open side handler defender looks to do a little “stunt the lane” but is just a moment too soon. But I agree w/ the thought process to be there even at the expense of maybe allowing the zero-yard swing pass.
18:44 Bit of an “overplay” by Lankford running out of bounds going for the D, but McGuckin really has no way to punish it. This is a situation where (with my American football background) I’m trying my hardest to backpedal for as long as possible. Look what happens to Lankford -- he immediately turns his hips to run, then has to turn them again when McGuckin cuts horizontally for the short pass. But McGuckin was just jogging downfield, not running truly fast enough to *force* Lankford to turn and run. Lankford has to turn his hips twice — I think I could’ve made this play with zero hip turns (in a world where I was athletic enough to be playing in this game).
18:50 Ing (like Lew earlier) jogging down the middle of the field while his guy is jogging down the far sideline). Maybe 6-8 yards gap between them? It’s also beautiful to see how **Goff ends up jogging back to him**
18:55 Handler defender once again playing downfield of the disc, allowing the trivial backwards pass.
25:47 At the top of the screen the three cutters kinda end up making a triangle of replacement cuts, and while Robinson(?) stays last back and points for someone to take his man under on the switch, it doesn’t happen smoothly enough to stop the next pass. but theoretically could have...Good news is they keep the disc on the sideline.
25:49 Again see how far Ing is from his man as the disc goes to the top sideline.
26:13 Kwon plays help D to shut down the DDM cut (watch him peeking, watching DDM as his guy walks back into the stack, before committing at the last possible moment when he sees DDM getting open), Robinson switches over to help on the scoring throw, they force the turn (Turnover #2). Probably would’ve been a goal if the throw was a little lower though.
27:42 I’m kinda impressed with how quickly #8 (Whited) starts playing defense after the pass is intercepted. Elite mental transition, he’s immediately looking around figuring out what he can shut down.
27:50 Another nice little switch at the top of the screen to easily shut down a deep cut, but the underneath guy can’t close fast enough to stop the horizontal under cut.
27:53 Again see Robinson putting his hand up calling for & getting the easy deep switch.
29:35 Robinson commits a little too hard when DDM slows down and looks like he might turn back under (give up the small gain instead of the goal!), and there’s no help from deeper in the stack the way there was on the first turnover of this point.
34:36 (Turnover #3) Honestly nothing *too* fancy on the poach here, just your typical “my guy is clearing deep into the stack, I’ll take a peek and see if I can get into that open lane” poach. Tho think about how knowing he’s gonna have deep help leaves him free to take that chance. Also see Clyburn easily passing of DDM deep at 34:32. Also think about how the length of his cut allows more poaching (”saddle point” theory-adjacent thought)
I HATE that he didn’t catch it tho. Could’ve immediately hit Lew on stall zero and be off to the races.
37:40 (Turnover #4) Hard to say anything besides “bad throw” on this one...
38:30 Kyle Lew positioning masterclass again. Even though there’s no mark on the thrower and his guy is right there, he’s still playing like 2-3 steps off, shading open side, and manages to keep a throw from going off. Then lets Bansfield go deep knowing he’ll have a switch
38:39 Robinson from the back just lets his guy have a free under cut to the sideline as he makes sure nobody’s going deep.
38:50 (Turnover #5) Partly just a bad throw. Note how Ing switched at 38:47 then is poaching to help on the throw 6 seconds later.
42:03 Again poachy handler on the first pass.
42:16 #12 (Smith) commits too hard as his guy starts to move under/horizontally and gets beat when it turns into an upline cut.
52:21 (Turnover #6) just poaches everywhere when Machine has the disc deep in their own endzone, daring them to throw something deep. And it works. “Get to the sideline early” on the pull. (Also, didn’t the disc roll out of bounds? By rule I think he was supposed to take it to the front cone)
53:38 easy pass off switch of the cutter running horizontal across the midfield line.
53:54 Ing is pointing out his man at 53:49, then kinda rotates over to the break side (bottom of screen) as if he’s covering that half of a bracket (at least I assume that’s what it is b/c it’s kinda hard to figure out any other way to explain how he positions himself here), but then when a pass makes it thru on the open side he’s out of position (not saying it’s his fault) as “his” guy cuts back towards the open side, and the two deeper defenders aren’t thinking of helping. Maybe a tiny bit of ball watching (+ layout watching) too. But if the other half of his bracket does a better job shutting down the cut to that side, maybe none of this happens.
54:00 (Turnover #7) Seems like just a pure drop / thrower could’ve put more touch on it, nothing really special happening defensively here.
55:58 Again poachy handler setup after the pull:
57:41 (Turnover #8) Technically one of Machine’s turnovers but with the benefit of slow motion the community seems to near-unanimously agree that it was a good (inbounds) catch
1:04:17 Vallee commits a little too far forward even tho there’s already two defenders there to guard two Machine players, and then the next pass gets off too. Hard to say for sure but it seems a little more like they might be actually playing zone on this point, not just poachy.
1:04:28 (Turnover #9) Just a bad throw, really. Offense hadn’t really even been under pressure this point.
1:07:26 (Turnover #10) Kinda straight up drops it.
1:09:45 This time it feels like the handler D was a little *too* poachy off the pull, giving up about 10 yards on a pass to the side handler. I like poaching the lanes but if giving up that much on a pass between handlers is not very sustainable. This was a little too much “stand right in front of the disc” and not enough “stunt and recover”.
1:10:00 Defender chases Smith (#15) a little too hard to the breakside, and then gets beat when he turns back to the open side. Feels like Revolver never really got pressure on this possession overall, I really don’t understand why #8 (I think? doesn’t look like they have a #0) ran towards the disc on the completion at 1:09:49...why not stay downfield with DDM?
1:13:43 Hard to tell exactly what happens here b/c the camera shot doesn’t show the whole field until right before the throw. Revolver poaches off the “side stack” so much that the handler just throws a hammer right to two cutters as soon as the disc is checked in. Maybe they needed to keep one guy a little closer there? Clyburn is helping over the top more in the centerfield, could he have shaded more that way?
Might also count Clyburn’s reaction as “defensive overplays“—he could’ve (a) realized early that he wasn’t gonna get there, and started backing off to guard the next pass, or (b) realized late that he wasn’t gonna get there and stopped early to at least put a smothering mark on, but instead he (c) jumps at a disc he’s multiple feet away from D’ing and isn’t back to good marking position in time to stop the scoring throw from going off.
1:17:31 I like how #8 Whited takes those first few steps deep as another cutter (i.e. not currently his man) starts a deep cut, that’s the kind of “last back mentality” I think good D needs, then he recovers back to a position he likes when he sees that throw is not going up.
1:17:55 (Turnover #11) Just an impressive footblock.
1:20:07 Robinson is just a split second too late finding the next cutter he needs to shut down. Or maybe it’s the wing defender at the bottom of the screen (#8 Whited I think?) who messes up by letting the cutter he’s near draw him deep, when he should’ve let him go and taken the under cut. Machine does a solid job of kind of flooding the strong side—maybe the whole D should’ve shifted a couple steps further that way, e.g. Vallee didn’t really get anything done in the spot where he was.
1:20:37 watch Kyle Lew as his man goes upline, and he just stops in the lane as his man keeps going, making it impossible for DDM to get open to that side. In a way they were kind of triple teaming Daan De Marree on this play given what Vallee does a moment later:
1:20:41 Vallee goes for the aggressive poach block, doesn’t get it, DDM smart enough to hit the next man immediately. Revolver has 3 “defensive overplays” in 10 seconds, with the layout at 1:20:32, Vallee’s layout at 1:20:41 and Seamus Robinson coming off his man to try to help-the-helper and guard the man Vallee left, but he’s so late that he would’ve been better off just staying where he was. (Notice how then Ing almost gets the D on the scoring pass, this is a pretty good sequence to exemplify “helping the helper”, just a step too late. Keith calls this out too after the score! Overall I’d have to give pretty high marks to his analysis in this game)
Everything else (Machine defense, Revolver offense)
7:51 good job “beating D to the 2nd option”
13:05 I like how Nate Goff isn’t running, he’s kinda shuffling/sidestepping further into the open space.
13:20 a good resolution to a double cut. also notice how both are calling for the pass.
13:48 really getting a body into the D before making the cut by #79 Ing, honestly I might call a foul if I’m on D here, I love playing that ‘seal the defender’ game but this was maybe a little too much. Tho also the D was trying to block him from getting across the field, so maybe him sliding in front of Ing was a foul too?
13:56 Goff tries to stay in the lane but Lew reads it well enough to get it to the 2nd man.
15:37 The “travel” on the flick huck looks especially bad in slow motion
17:00 Seems like Machine missed a chance for a little switch when Frankenburg slashes across for the score. Also, the defender at 16:58 seems like they made (in retrospect at least) a poor decision -- they come up to help the handler cut but are nowhere near close enough to actually affect the throw. Then they guy they left alone is way open for the next pass
I think this is some good “point five frisbee“ from Revolver. You don’t really think of the forehand inside break being a stall zero throw, but #43 Prior recognizes that’s what he has and just goes for it immediately. (Immediately after the score Keith points out “the defenses are not executing the game plan very well”)
23:24 look where Hecht is standing as the centering pass is thrown and where he finally sets his pivot foot. and as the disc lands at 23:20 he’s still looking downfield so he know how much time and space he has. (see Catch the centering pass facing forwards)
24:15 They chase Hecht too hard to the far sideline then get back back to the middle when he stops hard. Compare to the Lew/Ing positioning previously (screenshots above).
24:18 is a good example of what I’d call bad (not working hard to get downfield of the disc) defense by the guy in the dump space (Smith?) [I haven’t written a full post explaining my thoughts on this topic before but maybe will sometime]
It’s kind of an interesting cut for the score because that guys in a “front of stack” position, and it seems like his defender is thinking “he’s gonna make cuts that are horizontal or towards the disc, he’s not gonna cut deep at an angle towards the endzone, because....who does that in this situation?”
27:05 I kinda hate this pick call, “it’s everything that’s wrong with the sport” (kinda)
27:20 I like this tiny dump-> breakside throw sequence. Feels like a lost opportunity for Machine that they didn’t switch to shut down the throw.
27:43 Kinda an impressively bad throw to be seeing in a national final (as Keith soon comments on)
31:14 Very poachy mark from Bansfield coming out of the pull
31:57 Feels like (in retrospect) Bansfield commits a little too hard to stop an option that he was a little late to anyway, leaving his own guy too open for the help D to help him in time (Tho, if Keith’s analysis a minute later is to be believed, maybe the defender in the middle was supposed to stay in the middle?). Good job “finding the 2nd option” by Hecht (maybe even something of a look off!).
35:10 Again compare what happens on Clyburn’s pass to the help D we saw from Kwon a couple minutes ago. And great “point five frisbee” to be looking for that shovel into the endzone IMMEDIATELY.
35:11 Vallee has the slightest bit of hesitation on this cut. And then, while the disc in still the air his defender puts both hands up as if confused by something. not really clear to me what happened here exactly.
36:41 Kinda embarrassing to not be catching this particular pull (...as Keith mentions lol)
39:26 Maybe another “defensive overplay” though the score a few passes later is more just “crazy good pass” than anything else. But if Lew didn’t go for that pass, they had a big 2-on-1 advantage
44:14 They kinda gave up the pull play BUT I’ll say at least the help defense saw it and was ready to react to it, the disc just got put to a spot where only the cutter could get there first.
50:44 Surprisingly (to me) he may have actually not been in the air yet when he caught it? Didn’t get called tho.
54:01 Double cut from Chicago. [For my notes, might write about double cuts soon]
54:27 Machine defense has seemed really out of gas this whole possession since the turnover (as the announcer immediately says).
1:00:52 Gordon really threads that pass in there. He’s a master of those little backhand passes to space when the defender doesn’t have eyes on the disc.
1:02:18 You don’t have to call a foul. Machine tries to poach it but not quite close enough
1:02:30 Clearly Machine gets kinda confused with the numbers, as Revolver has a 2-on-1 at the disc for a score. You can see in the drone replay (1:03:23) that all the guys at the front of the endzone more or less have their back to the disc. Yet another reason to hate faceguarding -- no one who grew up playing basketball would’ve made this mistake...
1:04:56 DDM poaches way into the lane to discourage the next pass from going downfield. So the offense swings it. And then his guy cuts breakside for the continuation pass. And the defender who’s already there is focused on his own man when he may have been able to switch onto DDM’s man filling that spot and stop the next pass from going off.
1:05:42 DDM lets Robinson go deep, calling for the switch, then he (DDM) floats towards the breakside where the guy who was deep is coming under. Except then Robinson turns and goes back under on the open side. The guy guarding Ing, who’s now going deep, could’ve switched onto this under cut where Robinson gets the disc, but *he* (I believe it’s #17 North) isn’t looking to play switchy in the moment so two people are near Ing deep and Robinson gets the disc. (And then two people go to mark him. Machine D getting a little worn out The 2nd defender had tried to poach off Lankford but was way too late)
Really highlights how against a smart offense poachy/switchy play has to be a whole team philosophy. This switch probably would’ve worked, but it needed to become a triple switch and didn’t. That’s the 2nd moment this possession where DDM plays what I would call smart defense but “his man” gets the pass because his teammates aren’t on the exact same page he is. After the score you can also see the double switch moment in drone view at 1:06:26
1:11:27 Marginally disappointed with how this pull is handled by Revolver. Not the worst mistake in the world but at least slightly suboptimal to let the disc get that far after bouncing.
1:12:00 Defender kinda stops guarding his own man (or was he expecting help) b/c the pass to Gordon is in the air right in front of his face, and as a result Gordon has an immediate 10 yard follow up. And it just so happens at the same moment Adkins’s man had bit too hard when he faked coming back under, and *he* (the defender) slows down a little b/c of the temptation to play D on Hecht with the disc. The two defenders who were furthest downfield both had their backs more or less turned to Adkins and don’t look to help until it’s too late. So kinda just a waterfall of small errors that all happened to go off at the same time.
Also peep the “inside pivot” cut from Adkins at 1:12:02, keeping his body open to the thrower.
1:12:20 “Blink of an eye is kinda what you get with this offense” Keith says (point five frisbee). He follows it up by saying you’re in trouble if the offense is moving the disc at “stall three”, but I think it’s pretty obvious watching that they’re trying to move the disc at stall zero, not stall three.
1:20:20 Notice how Rutledge Smith (#15 Machine) gets open by shuffling slowly into the open side, making it harder and harder for Robinson to keep an eye on both him and the disc (walking before cutting)
1:22:54 Machine is playing their switchy defense, but there’s a bit of a miscommunication as the guy guarding Hecht (cutting top to bottom across the screen as we view it) leaves him to focus back towards the center of the field, but the other defender who was in that area also pinches in, leaving Hecht wide open near the sideline.
Hecht definitely gets a little lucky that his game-winning throw isn’t a turnover.
Also note how, a few seconds earlier (1:22:51), Hecht’s man tries to layout D the reset pass (yet another overplay), leaving him out of position when Hecht immediately runs away. He has to run extra hard to attempt to get back in position and I think him being a half step behind mentally (as he’s over-working physically) leaves him in position to not make the smartest play in communicating all the potential switches.
Honestly I think Machine’s defense was pretty solid too. Revolver was just a tad better at not making defensive mistakes, and a tad better on offense at exploiting defensive imperfections.
Final thoughts on Revolver D
Looking at Machine’s turnovers, it’s not always easy to say that Machine turned the disc over because of Revolver’s schemes.
#1 at 13:28 — A huck that wasn’t quite good enough. The offense wasn’t under a ton of pressure so far that point.
#2 at 26:13 — A slightly high throw. Technically an accuracy issue, but Revolver played good help defense in the moments leading up to this pass, perhaps we can say the mental strain that defensive pressure put on the offense helped lead to the throw being slightly more inaccurate.
#3 at 34:36 — A good (but perhaps not exceptional) poach into the lane—possibly it was actually a switch that just looked like a poach b/c we never got to see the switch completed due to the throw being released. Knowing he had deep help enabled the confidence to poach so I’d definitely give the scheme some credit here.
#4 at 37:40 — Just a bad huck (at 0 stall count after a stoppage)
#5 at 38:50 — Throw floats too much. Mostly an accuracy issue but the help D was there to make sure the Machine receiver didn’t have extra time to wait for the disc to come down.
#6 at 52:21 — Pretty suffocating, poachy defense from Revolver with Machine backed up against their own back line. But the biggest mistake on this point was not catching the pull. Good job by the Revolver D to exploit that mistake to the fullest though.
#7 at 54:00 — Receiver was open, just dropped it (and/or should’ve put more touch on the throw)
#8 at 57:41 — Not actually a turnover, slow motion pretty conclusive that it was caught inbounds
#9 at 1:04:28 — Just a bad throw / bad decision to huck when the offense wasn’t under pressure.
#10 at 1:07:26 — Stone cold drop
#11 at 1:17:55 — Nice footblock. Individually great D but not really related to Revolver scheme.
11 turns. 1 was a bad in/out call by observers. 1 great individual mark defense. 2 drops. 3 obviously bad hucks/bad decisions to huck. That leaves 4 that you could give some amount of direct credit to the scheme (being maybe a little stingy here on purpose).
It’s easy enough to point out places where they made small mistakes, but on the other hand, they did enough right to get a big win over Machine. I’ve written before: “Don’t try to figure out how to be one step behind all of the time. Figure out how to be zero steps behind, some of the time. Even if that means you’re 10 steps behind on some other passes” We see some of that here—while there were some plays where Machine got very open due to small Revolver mistakes, there were other plays where no one got open at all.
Overall the philosophies that stand out to me about Revolver’s defense are:
Poachy handler D, especially right after the pull
Lots of switching
Lots of help, particularly:
helping over the top
helping the helper
Smart positional play:
sagging towards the middle when guarding someone far from the disc
Staying in threatening areas when guarding a player who tries to clear out away from them.
Knowing you’ll have help over the top enables clogging up more space near the disc.
Focus on scheme over matchups — look at how many different players guarded Daan De Marree over the course of the game.
This is pretty in line with most of my beliefs around good defense. I haven’t written any posts specifically about switching, but that’s just b/c I don’t think I have anything to say about switching that hasn’t been said already. For some of my previous posts that do touch on concepts we’ve seen here, check out:
I think the Revolver defense still has lots of room to grow, too (a scary thought). Three of their biggest D-line contributors—Clyburn, Lew, and Robinson played their final college season in 2025 (Clyburn, Lew) or 2024 (Robinson). (Plus Lankford seems to still be in college) They’re already one of the closest examples I’ve seen to a team playing the way I believe defense should be played...I think if the D line can sharpen up their positioning and instincts just a little more, they can become a truly suffocating defense to play against.