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Calm down everybody, I found LaMarr Woodley.
By Dagger | October 7, 2009
Calm down everybody, I found LaMarr Woodley. It turns out that he wasn’t MIA last week and he hasn’t lost all of his pass rushing abilities seemingly overnight. Hear me out on this one.
You didn’t see Woodley hauling down Philip Rivers on Sunday night but there is something else that you didn’t see that is probably much more important. You didn’t see Tomlinson and/or Sproles catching 2 yard dump offs and turning them into 30 yard gains. Say what you want about Vincent Jackson and Gates but Sproles and Tomlinson’s ability to catch balls in the flat and turn them into game-changing plays has probably been the biggest weapon in the Chargers passing game for the past few years.
Last year Sproles caught 6 balls for 100 yards in 2 games vs Pittsburgh. Tomlinson caught 3 balls for 45 yards. So far this season, Sproles has been a huge weapon in the passing game and has put up the following numbers:
Week 1: 5 catches for 43 yards
Week 2: 7 catches for 124 yards
Week 3: 2 catches for 14 yards
Against Pittsburgh Sproles only managed 1 catch for 16 yards.
Instead of focusing on this stat:
Perhaps we should be focusing on this one:
What does this have to do with LaMarr Woodley you ask? Well Woodley spent the better part of his Sunday night covering RBs and playing zone defense in the flats. This Steelers defense has always been about being unselfish and doing whatever the team asks you to do. A lot has been brought up over the past 3 weeks about James Harrison being asked to drop back into coverage at key moments; well it seems Woodley is being given the same duties.
First Quarter: The Chargers run 6 pass plays. Woodley drops into coverage on all 6 plays. WOW.
Second Quarter: The Chargers run 10 pass plays. Woodley drops in to coverage 3 times and rushes the passer 7 times.
Third Quarter: The Chargers run 13 pass plays. Woodley drops into coverage 7 times and rushes the passer 6 times.
Fourth Quarter: The Chargers run 12 pass plays. Woodley rushes the passer 11 times and drops into coverage one time.
That’s right people….Woodley dropped into coverage on 41% of all San Diego passing plays. For a frame of reference, Woodley rushed the QB on 72% of all passing plays vs the Ravens in last year’s playoff game. He rushed the QB on 56% of all passing plays in the playoffs last year against San Diego and he rushed the QB on 81% of all passing plays in the Super Bowl against the Cardinals.
This past Sunday, Woodley really wasn’t rushing the passer very much until the 4th QTR when the Chargers were passing the ball on every down. Woodley was often very close to getting his hands on Rivers but was missing by inches. Throughout the game we also saw examples of Woodley lining up as a MLB and rushing the passer right up the middle…taking on the Center and San Diego’s Guards. We put together a quick video to show you some of the alignments, near misses, and zone coverages.
Topics: NFL, Sports, Steelers | 19 Comments »
October 8th, 2009 at 2:53 am
Great Post Dagger. I'd be interested to know if he was in Pass coverage
that much in the Playoff game last year against SD or if this was a change of strategy.
October 8th, 2009 at 3:05 am
He blitzed 56% of the time against SD in the playoffs. Perhaps he's dropping into coverage more because without Polamalu those RBs in the flat are a bigger concern.
October 8th, 2009 at 3:32 am
Didnt he do something wrong on that late touchdown pass? Seemed confused.
Anyway, great post!
October 8th, 2009 at 3:44 am
Thanks for putting this together, makes me feel better about woodley's season so far. He was half a second from destroying rivers twice near the end of the game…
October 8th, 2009 at 4:29 am
thanks Adam, that was the goal.
October 8th, 2009 at 6:39 am
Thanks for this. Great work as usual!
October 8th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Great post guys.
October 8th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Nice work guy's…you just received a nice compliment on ESPN Radio 1250 this morning as well….
October 8th, 2009 at 11:15 am
I think missing Troy has a lot to do with it. The front 7 really miss him.
October 8th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Damn! I mised it. Listen to the show all the time and of course I missed it today.
October 8th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Did you see Big Snack drop into coverage at the 57 second mark?
I keep forgetting how passionate Steelers fans are. At the beginning of the year everyone was really, really worried about our offensive line. And look how it turned out. Ben is having a fantastic year and leads the league in completions %. By my count only 2 or 3 sacks can be blamed on the line. When you get 6 seconds to throw the ball and still get sacked, it is on the quarterback.
Yeah, our defense isn't what is was last year but we can put up a lot of points to counter that. Last year our defense had a short field most of the games due to poor punting and offense struggling. This year they have to defend longer fields and give up more yards. We are not getting the sacks because Woodley and Harrison are getting a lot of attention and also 'cause opposing quarterback get rid of the ball quickly. Think Bengals and Bears.
Don't get me wrong. I would love for Steelers to have #1 offense and #1 defense but that's pretty hard to do. However, I'll settle for #6 rated offense and #5 rated defense just as long as we keep winning.
October 8th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Great post Dagger!
October 8th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Dagger – You listed to my suggestion – I figured it was because he was dropping.
Did you get the new show?
October 8th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Nothing new here. I posted this last year about the Steelers defense:
Breaking this down further:
PLAYERFooteFarriorHarrisonWoodleyTimmons
BLITZ %16%23%66%62%28%
The above table breaks down the individual linebackers on pass plays, and the percentage of time they blitz the quarterback. Note that even though Harrison and Woodley blitz frequently they still drop back in coverage approximately 35% of the time. The inside linebackers also blitz approximately 25% of the time with Timmons taking over for Foote as the season progressed.
The Steelers require their OLB's to drop in coverage much more often than other 34 teams. I would suggest one other thing to look at is who is guarding Woodley the majority of the time he is rushing. He cooled off during the 2nd half of the season last year, but turned it up during the playoffs. However, the majority of those sacks came at the expense of tight ends and running backs. My theory is that teams have adjusted and are now blocking him more with OL.
October 9th, 2009 at 3:15 am
They went to an empty backfield so he checked to a QB Spy, look how he is tracking Rivers
October 9th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Apparently nobody else found Waldo, but I did.
Also, very nice article.
October 9th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Waldo = Top Left standing next to the table with boots on it? haha
October 12th, 2009 at 4:31 am
Good observations. I still see issues with Woodley dropping into coverage, when he drops on the hook zones or those middle coverage zones, he seems to be stuck in "no-mans land" Nobody around him. I dont think Woodley is really experienced enough as a coverage LB, nor is he fast enough to really cover the flats that well. He is a Bull-rush DE/LB conversion all the way. This is like dropping Julius Peppers into coverage… Kind of not the point of woodley at all.
October 12th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
I agree, but sometimes it works… James Harrison in the SB