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Defensive Breakdown: Redskins vs Panthers
By Dillweed | August 26, 2008
Run Defense vs Panthers
| Run Left | Run Middle | Run Right |
|---|---|---|
| 5 carries for 82 yards (16.4 ypc) | 8 carries for 111 yards (13.8 ypc) | 1 run for 13 yards |
Jordan Gross, Carolina’s left tackle, is a force to be reckoned with…and Jeff Otah on the other end is a mammoth but there is still no excuse for what went down on Saturday. Even without the 3 big runs (31, 50 and 60 yards) the Panthers still had a respectable 4.0 ypc. A lot of this blame can be placed on all of the LBs for not playing at the downhill speed they usually do and also not shedding blocks like they are capable of. Even Fletch was hesitant with his footwork, often caught flat-footed and second guessing his angles. I guess pure speed will intimidate any veteran…some blame can be placed on Reed Doughty, who took some questionable angles in his run support and made poor tackles. Andre Carter is undersized and not expected to be stellar in his run D, but he even got handled by tight ends which is pretty inexcusable.
In the following frame K. Campbell (yellow) has contain on the outside…he wont let Stewart and his 4.4 speed bounce out to the outside for nothing. Doughty is reading the lead blocker…in this case the fullback, and will meet him head on at whichever gap the fullback wants. Doughty and Campbell both do their job and funnel Stewart right to McIntosh and Fletch (boxed in red):
In this next frame you see Stewart trying to follow his lead block, but Doughty closes that gap and Stewart makes a cutback, he also can’t bounce the run outside because Campbell is waiting for him:
The next frame is key. First off, BOTH Fletch and Rocky (circled) get blocked and taken out of the play…highly uncharacterisitic of them, ecspecially Fletch who can shed almost any block. Secondly, Andre Carter is unable to get off his block by a tight end. A little holding by the tight end sure, but come on…seriously, it’s a tight end.
Now compare that to a frame from a game last year against the Eagles:
Look at how DE Phillip Daniels (the one with an arrow pointing out from his stomach) is able to take away the gap while being blocked and force Brian Westbrook to the outside. Also notice that Fletch (the one with an arrow pointing from his helmet) is unblocked and moving downfield to make the play. Last year both outside LBs, usually Godfrey and Washington, were able to keep bodies off of Fletch by taking on all lead blockers. I’m not worried about our LB play though…that will get better when the regular season starts. Having two undersized DE’s however could be a liability.
The following frames show us in our base 4-3 defense with Fletch playing deep so he can get good downhill speed as he attacks the line…this is no different than last year. However, look at how far away from the line of scrimmage (red line) K. Campbell gets blocked. This allows for angles to form that are favorable for the RB and not our LBs. Campbell was stopped so far away because of his hesitancy in reading the play. What you end up with is Fletch having to avoid a lead blocker AND take an incredibly poor angle in order to stop Stewart.
It’s a foot race and Fletch gets burned:
Blitzes
| Down | Blitzers | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1st and 10 | Rocky and Campbell (Fletch on the delay) | Completed pass for 20 yards |
| 2nd and Goal | Campbell and Doughty | Sack by Golston and Doughty |
| 2nd and 10 | Rocky and Campbell | Run for -1 yards |
| 1st and 10 | Rocky and Campbell | Pass for 16 yards |
| 1st and 5 | Fletch and Rocky | Pass for a 24 yard touchdown. |
5 blitzes called out of 31 (televised) plays. The blitz dialed up in our red zone netted a sack…Doughty was looked like he got shot out of a cannon on that one, otherwise we generated little pressure off of the blitz and the result was 3 completions for 60 yards and 1 TD. Interestingly, Khary Campbell was involved in all the blitzes except for the last one, Rocky also was in on 4 blitzes. Fletch usually has the primary responsibility of reading the RB before coming in. If the RB stays back to block, then Fletch can come on in, usually this results in a delay blitz with Fletch comming up the middle in one of the A gaps (between the center and guard.) No blitzes called on 3rd and long, looks like Blache is following Williams’ philosophy of max coverage. On a 3rd and 11 we sent Golston back into coverage for a total of 8 back in coverage and 3 rushing. D. Evans had a deflection, A. Carter got a pressure and Safety K. Moore got an INT and forced fumble.
Doughty only got targeted twice but one was for 20 yards and the other was for 24 and a TD. The announcers claimed he had good coverage on the touchdown but I thought he got beat pretty bad, and he got a coach em up session on the sidelines after he gave up the TD…overall I think we can’t trust this guy one-on-one. He’s a young Adam Archueletta. K. Moore played pretty well, he took a poor angle once on run D, but overall he looks to be a keeper.
Remember charts are starting from when CBS got their technical difficulties worked out…I’m not sure if we missed anything on D though:
Drive I
| Yard Line | Down | Formation | Play Call | Coverage | Yards | |||||
| Panthers 38 | 1st and 10 | 4-3 (1WR) | Run Middle | — | 12 | |||||
| Doughty comes up in the box. Fletch gets swallowed up by Otah and a hole opens up on the backside. Either Golston took the wrong shoulder, Carter didn’t close the hole fast enough or Fletch over pursued. I’m going with Carter not closing the hole fast enough. | ||||||||||
| Midfield | 1st and 10 | 4-3 (3WR) | Run Left | — | 0 | |||||
| Fletch eats up a block and allows Rocky to come in and make the play. | ||||||||||
| Midfield | 2nd and 10 | 4-3 (2WR) | Pass | McIntosh | 5 | |||||
| LBs plays deep and Rocky keeps it in front of him | ||||||||||
| Skins 45 | 3rd and 5 | Dime | Pass | K. Moore | INT | |||||
| Pretty cool to see Blache deploy the dime early on…Williams hardly ever used this formation. | ||||||||||
| Turnover, 10:12 left in the 1st qtr. Drive: Delhomme tried attacking the Cover 2’s soft spot even though D. Jarrett was wide open underneath for a 1st down. Thanks for that | ||||||||||
Drive II
| Yard Line | Down | Formation | Play Call | Coverage | Yards | |||||
| Panthers 49 | 1st and 10 | 4-3 (3WR) | Pass | Rogers | 0 | |||||
| 4 man rush. Great closing speed by Rogers. | ||||||||||
| Panthers 49 | 2nd and 10 | 4-3 (1WR) | Run Right | — | 13 | |||||
| Theisman gets this one right…Fletch gets caught up in traffic and can’t reach the sideline in time | ||||||||||
| Skins 38 | 1st and 10 | 4-3 (2WR) | Pass | K. Moore | 11 | |||||
| Great catch by Smith. Jason Taylor gets manhandled by #69, Jordan Gross | ||||||||||
| Skins 27 | 1st and 10 | 4-3 | Pass | Doughty | 20 | |||||
| Doughty plays press coverage and gets shown up. That blitz was pathetic. (Blitz – Rocky and K. Campbell. Fletch on the delay) | ||||||||||
| Skins 7 | 1st and Goal | 4-3 | Run Left | — | 0 | |||||
| Fletch eats up another block and in doing so plugs up the initial hole. D’Angelo is forced to bounce outside where K. Moore brings him down for no gain. | ||||||||||
| Skins 7 | 2nd and Goal | 4-3 | Pass (Sack) | — | -4 | |||||
| Doughty is pretty darn fast coming off the edge. (Blitz – K. Campbell and Doughty) (Sack – Golston and Doughty) | ||||||||||
| Skins 11 | 3rd and Goal | 4-2-5 | Pass | Smoot, K. Moore | 0 | |||||
| Incomplete pass. 4 man rush…man they are picking on Moore, and he’s done well so far. | ||||||||||
| FG (0-3), 5:26 left in 1st qtr. Drive: They are using Doughty the same way Landry was used in the last pre-season. Landry will most likely play centerfield with Doughty being the aggressive SS who can’t cover…it’s the Arch Deluxe Greg Williams always wanted! | ||||||||||
Drive III
| Yard Line | Down | Formation | Play Call | Coverage | Yards | |||||
| Skins 19 | 1st and 10 | 4-3 | Run Middle | — | 2 | |||||
| Doughty in the box. Doughty and McIntosh plug up the holes and the RB has nowhere to go | ||||||||||
| Skins 17 | 2nd and 8 | 4-3 | Pass | Penalty | -5 | |||||
| No idea what the penalty was. All out blitz is once again ineffective. (Blitz – Rocky, Campbell, Fletch) | ||||||||||
| Skins 22 | 2nd and 13 | 4-3 | Run Middle (Draw) | — | 13 | |||||
| K. Campbell gets eaten up by a freakin TE…ridiculous. Fletch is left to guess which way Stewart will go which is just unfair. Doughty misses the tackle. | ||||||||||
| Skins 9 | 1st and Goal | 4-3 | Run Left | — | 1 | |||||
| Smoot penetrates and makes a great open field tackle. | ||||||||||
| Skins 8 | 2nd and Goal | 4-3 | Run Middle | — | 3 | |||||
| That’s the Fletch I know…he sheds a block and makes the textbook tackle. | ||||||||||
| Skins 5 | 3rd and Goal | 4-3 | Penalty | — | -5 | |||||
| False start. | ||||||||||
| Skins 10 | 3rd and Goal | 4-3 | Pass | — | 0 | |||||
| 4 man rush and D. Evans gets his hands up to deflect the pass (Deflection – Evans) | ||||||||||
| FG (0-6), 14:53 remains in the 2nd qtr. Drive: some questionable LB play by K. Campbell, but all in all a nice stand by our D. | ||||||||||
Drive IV
| Yard Line | Down | Formation | Play Call | Coverage | Yards | |||||
| Panthers 45 | 1st and 10 | 4-3 | Pass | Rogers | 0 | |||||
| Nice use of the force out rule by Rogers. Andre beats his guy to the outside. (Pressure – Carter) | ||||||||||
| Panthers 45 | 2nd and 10 | 4-3 | Draw Middle | — | -1 | |||||
| Doughty in the box. Doughty comes up and along with Fletch, plugs up the middle…Fletch eats the block, Doughty makes the tackle (Blitz – McIntosh and Campbell) | ||||||||||
| Panthers 44 | 3rd and 11 | 4-2-5 | Pass | Golston, McIntosh | ? | |||||
| Smith makes a circus catch. We drop a DL in coverage to cover underneath routes…just like we did with Williams, only problem was that Steve Smith was underneath. (DL Coverage – Golston) | ||||||||||
| Skins 41 | 1st and 10 | 4-3 | Run Middle | — | 6 | |||||
| CBS was showing a replay, so hard to recap this play | ||||||||||
| Skins 35 | 2nd and 4 | 4-3 | Run Middle | — | 4 | |||||
| Doughty in the box. Campbell keeps contain and forces the run up the middle, Doughty cleans up. JTaylor gets hurt on the play, out 10-14 days. | ||||||||||
| Skins 31 | 3rd and inches | 5-3 | Run Left | — | 31(TD) | |||||
| It’s hard to tell what Rocky was doing here…he takes on an OL, but In doing so…there is nobody left to plug up the hole. Replays focus in on the ensuing fumble and scoop by Steve Smith for the TD, so I never really get a good angle to see if McIntosh blew his assignment or if the safety was playing too deep (K. Moore was the only safety in on the play, so I’d imagine he’d have to play pretty deep.) (Forced Fumble – K. Moore) | ||||||||||
| TD (0-13), 8:10 remains in the 2nd qtr. Drive: Fluke play pretty much sums up the whole night | ||||||||||
Drive V
| Yard Line | Down | Formation | Play Call | Coverage | Yards | |||||
| Panthers 34 | 1st and 10 | 4-3 | Pass | Rogers | 16 | |||||
| Maybe we are blitzing from too far back. This same problem of ineffective blitzes has plagued us for too many years (Blitz – Rocky and Campbell) | ||||||||||
| Midfield | 1st and 10 | 4-3 | Run Left | — | 50 (TD) | |||||
| Doughty in the box. Fletch, Rocky and Doughty pursue to the outside. Fletch contains the outside, Rocky takes on a block from an OL and Doughty has a real hard time shedding his block. Andre Carter was at the point of attack and got swallowed up by his blocker. Remember that talk about having undersized DE’s and how that would affect us in the run game? I think this might be exhibit A. Either way…our pursuit has to be there…and Doughty did a poor job shedding his block. | ||||||||||
| TD (0-20), 5:24 remains in the 2nd qtr. Drive: I’ll have plenty to show on that run during the frame by frame analysis of this game. | ||||||||||
Drive VI
| Yard Line | Down | Formation | Play Call | Coverage | Yards | |||||
| Panthers 21 | 1st and 10 | 4-3 | Pass | Springs | 0 | |||||
| Quick swing pass to Smith and Springs is all over it. Mike Patrick compares Springs to Poseidon and Zeus. | ||||||||||
| Panthers 21 | 2nd and 10 | 4-3 | Pass | Smoot | 19 | |||||
| 4 man rush gets nowhere | ||||||||||
| Panthers 40 | 1st and 10 | 4-3 | Run Middle | — | 60 (TD) | |||||
| Wow. Doughty just…I don’t even know how to explain it. He freezes or something and then does a half-ass tackle. | ||||||||||
| TD (0-27), 2:27 remains in the 2nd qtr. Drive: Doughty was playing pretty well the whole game before that happened. I hope that was just a mental lapse…because we need someone to be the SS enforcer in this D while Landry plays centerfield. | ||||||||||
Drive VII
| Yard Line | Down | Formation | Play Call | Coverage | Yards | |||||
| Panthers 45 | 1st and 10 | 4-2-5 | Run Middle | — | 11 | |||||
| Doughty comes in and makes the tackle. Fletch has been playing almost hesitantly. Usually he plays downhill all game long, but he’s shuffling and sidestepping, almost waiting for Jonathan Stewart to make the first move before he attacks…as if he respects Stewart’s speed and quickness. | ||||||||||
| Skins 44 | 1st and 10 | 4-2-5 | Pass | McIntosh | 0 | |||||
| Nice pass break up by Rocky. | ||||||||||
| Skins 44 | 2nd and 10 | 4-2-5 | Pass | Smoot | 15 | |||||
| #11 pulls a move on Smoot to get open…caught Smoot sleeping. | ||||||||||
| Skins 29 | 1st and 10 | 4-2-5 | Penalty | — | 5 | |||||
| Offsides on Erasmus James | ||||||||||
| Skins 24 | 1st and 5 | 4-2-5 | Pass | Doughty | 24(TD) | |||||
| Damn, Doughty might just suck. I mean he definitely can’t cover in man to man…we’ve found that out. (Blitz – Fletch and Rocky) | ||||||||||
| TD (0-34), 56 seconds remain in the 2nd qtr. Drive: Patrick and Theisman say it was a perfect throw and catch…so maybe I should lay off Doughty…but I thought he got beat by a few yards. And judging by the sideline lecture, so does the DB coach. | ||||||||||
Topics: NFL, Redskins, Sports | 12 Comments »
August 26th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Awesome. I’m so glad these posts are back!
August 26th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Dillweed,
will u do my breakdowns for me?
My team is probably more exciting to cover than yours is anyways. :)
Steelers vs Skins this season might cause our site to implode.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
man, it is nice to have you back again..
this is simply the best site for analysis EVER
keep it up, it is appreciated
August 26th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
On the game coverage, I don’t think CBS (local DC, right?) was to blame. Local Richmond, VA coverage (ABC affiliate) didn’t come in until almost 5 minutes into the game. I think it was a screw up on the Redskins production staff, who now broadcast these preseason games.
Keep up the analysis. All things considered, it was only 6-0 midway through the second (before the deluge). Not that it looked pretty (particularly on offense) before that.
August 26th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Thanks Dilweed! Always a pleasure reading your stuff, insightful as always. Can’t wait for the season to kick off so I can read more of your stuff…
Fletch looked out of place on every run I saw…
August 26th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Hey, FYI…
anybody who commented in this thread is already entered into the BLOG CONTEST provided you subscribe to our RSS Feed up top. Gracias
August 26th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Great job again Dillweed…..
the good news I suppose of all of this is that some of these mistakes appear fixable.
August 27th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Excellent.
Thanks Mr. Dill!
August 27th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
I need to be cut because I’m slow, can’t tackle, can’t cover and I can’t hear at all.
August 27th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
got sent here from thewarpath.net,everyone there loves your stuff,good work,keep it up
August 27th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Awesome. Had a lot of guys here from thewarpath last year I believe.
August 27th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Nice writeup as usual, but I have some issues with your assessment of a few plays.
The TD play in drive V, Doughty doesn’t “have trouble shedding his block”, he is blatantly held by the collar of his jersey from behind, then tackled by the blocker. If you can show me a safety who doesn’t “have trouble” shedding such a block, I’ll show you a future hall of famer.
Drive VI. The “freezing or something” by Doughty is the result of getting smacked in the face by 340 Lb OT Jeff Otah just prior to the arrival of the RB. He was knocked off balance, and not able to recover in time to make a play. Otah took out two guys on that play by the way.
Also, on the TD over Doughty, I think he was playing the required technique. As the announcers said, correctly, Delhome made a perfect throw and the TE made a great catch. Not much you can do about that one, and the “coaching up” on the sidelines was telling Doughty exactly that.
Some other things I noticed.
Kedric Golston was ridden 10 yards downfield by a single blocker on multiple occasions,(as is his habit) and most of the Panther’s big runs came right through his gap completely uncontested.
Kareem Moore took bad angles on several plays. He needs some time to learn how to play at this level, but I think the talent is there.
Jason Taylor was not doing a good job in the run game. OT’s are simply getting their hands into him and picking him up. Not good.