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Breakdown: Redskins vs Dolphins
By Dillweed | September 12, 2007
Offensive Breakdown was Monday, Defensive Breakdown was Tuesday. Today, we’re taking one last look at the game. “The 3 Plays that sent the game into Overtime”, “Reverse Left”, and my overall conclusions are after the jump, enjoy:
Jansen Injury
This isn’t so much a look at the injury as it is at our pass protection on a crucial 3rd and Goal. The whole thing starts with Taylor’s (1) early jump on the snap (unfortunately he wasn’t offsides):
The early jump does two things: 1. It gives Taylor a huge advantage in leverage over Samuels and 2. Attracts the undivided attention of Clinton Portis, who was on blitz pick up/pass protection duty:
The sh** hits the fan here: Taylor (1) uses Samuels’ unbalanced stance to his advantage, and tosses the 310 pounder aside with an inside move. Meanwhile, Zach Thomas (2) continues with his blitz through the B gap (the gap in between Guard and Tackle). General rule for RBs in pass protection: block the pass rusher who has the shortest path to the QB. In this case, Z. Thomas:
In what seems like an attempt to either atone for his mistake for not picking up Z. Thomas sooner or an attempt to make up for lost ground (or both), Portis lunges into Zach Thomas:
I’m sure coach Byner didn’t teach him that…perhaps that’s Larry Coker’s doing. Anyways…you know what the result of this was:
We give up a sack on top of losing our RT for the entire season…and to think that Ladell Betts is actually worse at pass blocking. I’m giving Portis the benefit of the doubt here…I’m attributing his mental lapse to a lack of playing time in pre-season. I’m sure he’ll improve over the next couple of weeks (let’s just pray we don’t lose another O-lineman in the process.) He also missed another blitz pick up later on, but that wasn’t as disastrous thanks to Campbell scrambling for the first down.
Reverse Left
Yards gained by the Dolphins when running left: 4, 1, 1, -1, 7 and 12. Those 7 and 12 yard gains came on reverses. The first reverse was partly Carter’s fault for not keeping contain, but can be mainly attributed to a drunken Carlos Rogers who ran into Carter and therefore completely ruined any chance either player had at stopping the play behind the line. Fortunately, the drive stalled and the play only had an impact on the stat sheet (Rogers drinking problems continued however…more on that later.) The 2nd reverse, and the focus here, came on 2nd and 10 and en route to the Dolphins only touchdown of the game. First the 4-3 Stack:
Versus the run, this defense is straight-forward. The DEs are playing wide, which makes them the obvious outside contain and primary force on an outside run. (When playing a cover 3 shell, a safety may be the primary force on an outside run.) Here, the OLBs are playing inside the DEs (which is different from an “over” or “under” formation where one of the OLBs lines up outside the ends). Now, the assignments of the DT and OLBs are up to the coach and players, but usually in this formation, two things are for sure:
1. The MLB controls the gap between center and guard on the side of the field that the ball is being run to (the play-side ‘A’ gap.)
2. The DE has contain and/or is the primary force on outside runs. Now back to the action:
As you can see, this is developing into a strong side (towards side with the TE) run. Fletch has two A gaps (gap between guard and center) he has too choose from based on which side the RB goes. Carter maintains contain on the outside just in case the RB runs a cut-back/counter/or a reverse is called:
They indeed do run the reverse (shocking I know), and it’s now up to Carter to seal off the outside. Notice the WLB shooting for the gap in between the guard and tackle.
Here is the mental lapse by Carter. Instead of contain, he keeps on shifting further and further inside. Almost as if he doesn’t trust that the WLB behind him has that gap covered….or maybe he just didn’t realize how far inside he was. Either way, he loses contain:
Or maybe he thought he was fast enough to catch up…..
NOPE!
The 3 Plays That Sent the Game to Overtime
Play 1:
I know I make fun of Rogers’ tendency to work with a cushion (and Dierdorf called him out on it too, by the way), but that doesn’t mean he has to set out to prove me, and the millions of people who agree, wrong.
Also, for some unexplainable reason, Greg Williams blitzes Landry and leaves Rogers one-on-one with a WR. It doesn’t matter who the receiver was….I just can’t believe we let Rogers play one-on-one while we cling to a 3 point lead late in the 4th quarter. And for what? So we can blitz on 1st and 10?:
Look at Trent Green watch the inevitable sequence of events unfold. He’s not even trying to look off Sean.
By the way…when you play up on a WR like that…you tend to want to JAM HIM:
Play 2:
Here’s another 4-3 stack front. Refer to figure above to see LB gap assignments. Here, Rocky thinks he’s pulling double duty as our MLB as he attacks Fletch’s gap (first picture shows assigned gaps in a 4-3 Stack, 2nd picture has that too along with where Rocky actually goes (in red)):
This was tied for the longest run of the game for Miami (12 yards) and is by far the longest run when you take out the 2 reverses. So I’m not down on Rocky (or any of our LBs) by any means. For the most part, our run D abused this make-shift O-line all game long.
Play 3:
Ah, here we go again. If you think I’m being hard on Carlos now…just wait until he loses a game for us:
Again I ask…WHY BLITZ LANDRY AND LEAVE CARLOS ONE-ON-ONE THIS LATE IN THE GAME WITH A 3pt LEAD!!?!?!
I suppose you could argue the real key here isn’t so much Rogers play as it is Williams’ strategy. Why blitz?
Same picture with a different view:
At least Rogers remembers to actually bump the WR here…unfortunately, it was too late.
From here you can make your own call on whether you think Rogers committed pass interference or not. My take is he did hold the arm down. It’s hard to tell from the pictures though:
Conclusion
All in all, a great day by Portis and by the Defense…these are the ONLY major things I think we need to work on for next week. Well these and also Moss needs to stop falling down and dropping the ball, which I’m sure he’ll stop doing. I’m not sure why Springs wasn’t in the game as our #1 Corner, but he needs to be. Note to fantasy football fans: start Kevin Curtis next week. Smoot did fine on his side…sure he was picked on a lot, but he really held his own quite well.
Yards Smoot Gave Up Each Time He Was Targeted: 7, 13, 8, 8, 0, 0, 14, 0, 0, 4, 0, 0, 5 (PI), 0, and 0.
A lot of those zeros were drops but still…he was toe to toe with Chambers for most of the game (why not at the end of the game Greg??), and I think that those are great #2 CB numbers.
Rocky played well (as his fantasy points indicate) and was our primary pressure man/blitzer all game long. His mental lapse (playing the wrong gap) late in the game will be fixed for next week I’m sure.
Any questions/comments feel free to leave them below. I’d be happy to answer/hear whatever you got.
Topics: NFL, Redskins, Sports | 18 Comments »
September 12th, 2007 at 9:53 am
Nice work again! We need to chip in to get you a HD tv and DVR though. :^) The extra bit of the field you can see would help.
September 12th, 2007 at 10:55 am
Dilweed, great work. Question: How does the injury to Jansen effect their running game? Who is his replacement?
September 12th, 2007 at 11:22 am
I think I might nominate Dillweed for the Man on Fire award next week. Mofo’s on a TEAR
September 12th, 2007 at 11:59 am
recently discovered this site and am in love with your breakdowns dillweed. i have no idea why you do this but i’m glad you do!
question for you: what is your opinion of brandon lloyd? it seems to me, since last season right up to this game, that neither brunell nor campbell throws to the guy. what do you see on tape? does he just never get open? whats the deal? also, do you expect caldwell to fair any better this season (if ever)?
September 12th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
I think our running game improves with Heyer…he’s bigger and doesn’t get pushed around by bigger DE’s (especially 3-4 DE’s.) I haven’t really seen anything spectacular from Wade…if he’s our new RT then I’d call it a lateral move from Jansen. Wade excels in pass blocking compared to Heyer, but his run blocking is iffy as even he admitted to having pad level problems.
Hogstar, unfortunetly that’s the limitation I’m working with: I can’t see the routes downfield. I gotta give Campbell the benefit of the doubt though (he’s finding every other option from Sellers to Cooley to ARE…) and put this one on Lloyd. He must not be getting open. He packed on 10 lbs to help him out in that area (muscle away from DBs) but it doesn’t seem to be working. Plus it looked like he gave up on the deep route that was intended for him and ended up in an INT.
I’ll know more about Caldwell when he plays a couple games, right now I don’t know much about him…other than he’s from Florida (based on history that would be a negative, lol.)
September 12th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
btw…my real name is Neil. In case you’re wondering who the hell that is.
September 12th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
We’re not worthy…
We’re not worthy…
Hell, yes, we are. Great stuff again!
So, how long is it before the media notices and takes you away from us?
RE: Wade
He played very well in both phases of the game (pass,run) last year in our win over the Saints. My concern is the torn labrum (shoulder) he will have to deal with the rest of the year (16 to hopefully 20 weeks of grinding).
September 12th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
your god … this is a dream come true man.
September 12th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
On the late Landry blitz, where was he in the first pic? Is he really that fast? Damn.
Cam Cameron said with Landry in the box no one will be able to run on us all season. I like that thought.
The Dolphin had a pass attempt towards the end of the half. I think the pass was to Booker, anyways, he went up for it and Landry came in from what seemed about 10 yards away laterally in a massive hurry. Other than that, I didn’t notice him in passing situations much. Were they avoiding his side of the field?
I think Wade’s pad level problem was from playing at G. He is too much of mammouth to be playing inside, IMO.
September 12th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
I am thoroughly impressed, very good read
September 12th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Fantastic stuff as always Neil. I don’t understand why you’re so terrible in our fantasy league considering the knowledge you possess. Haha, get your priorities straight man.
September 13th, 2007 at 1:53 am
Nice read. Are you an NFL coach moonlighting as Dillweed?
September 13th, 2007 at 6:21 am
lol…I wish.
Cornelius…yeah Landry is just that good. I did notice when we played a quarters coverage (Landry, Taylor, Smoot, and Rogers/Springs all playing deep) Trent would just target all the underneath stuff against Smoot (hooks and hitch patterns.) So yeah, they were pretty much not throwing in Landry’s direction.
Good point with Wade, when he referenced his pad level technique he was talking about his guard position.
September 13th, 2007 at 7:45 am
Thanks and excellent information. My question is what was Rabach’s responsibility on the blitz?
September 13th, 2007 at 7:57 am
haha…apparently he is just supposed to stand there and occupy space.
Seriously though, it looks like he was responsible for any pressure up the middle. I doubt the coaches had him responsible for picking up any overload pressure on the left or right sides, since that was Portis’ duty.
September 13th, 2007 at 11:48 am
Wow, What a great find! This is a great site. good work.
September 13th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Dillweed,
Great, great stuff. My question goes toward a tred I’ve noticed with our defense post 2004. In Williams’s first season, I noticed we did a ton of pre-snap movement on defense, faking blitzes, shifting in and of coverages, etc. It seems we do very little of that now. Any particular reason why?
Second, are Rogers’s issues more mental or physical? I personally believe his speed is suspect, and he seems to have no fluidity as an athlete; he plays very stiff. Can these things be corrected, or is it too late at this point?
Finally, can Williams please get Sean Taylor more involved!
September 14th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
Great question…sorry it took me so long to see this.
My thinking is that we got a lot of new/young guys on this defense. Landry is comfortable in the box obviously but I’m not so sure if he is as comfortable being the lone deep safety. That would be one reason why Taylor’s blitzing/being up at the line has been so limited.
Also Rocky is still learning the system. Perhaps too much motioning will confuse him. His gap control issue (shown above) is one incident, but there was also another where he had trouble recognizing the play action and took FOREVER to drop back into coverage.
Also, the LB unit as a whole is still meshing together. Greg probably wants to feel comfortable with the LB unit and Landry before he starts going 2004 all over again.