I was going to write about the 49ers offense and what went wrong against the Colts in week 3, but I ran into two problems. The first
was that the 49ers just played Thursday night and if I
had written something, it was probably going to be a little behind the times by the time I posted it here. The other problem was that Cian Fahey at
Football Outsiders covered pretty much everything I would have covered and more
in his
“Film
Room” article last Wednesday. Instead of focusing on the Niners’ past
problems, I’ll look at the pass rush they will deal with a week from
Sunday when they play the Houston Texans on SNF. Houston’s front seven is loaded with
talent, headlined by other-worldly J.J. Watt and supplemented by a stable of
pass rushing linebackers.
Houston’s
pass rush consists of Watt (1st round 2011), Brooks Reed (2nd
round 2011), Whitney Mercilus (1st round 2012) and Brian Cushing (1st
round 2009). Veteran free agent Antonio Smith has averaged 5.5 sacks in the
four years he’s been in Houston even though he’s a 3-4 DE, for whom rushing the
passer is not a primary responsibility. Houston uses speed on the outside and a mix of power and twists on the
inside to generate its pass rush.
2nd & 10 HOU37 1Q – Flacco is in shotgun with 1RB 3WR and 1TE and Houston counters with
its Dime package: 6 DBs, only 2 DL and 3 LBs.
There’s a big hole right in front
of the Center where the 3-4 NT would normally play, meanwhile there’s a glut of
Texan defenders lined up in front of the right side of Baltimore’s OL (our
left). This alignment is interesting because Reed (#58) is lined up inside the TE, next to Watt. Usually,
the OLB will line up outside of the TE, so both OLB and DE each have space to operate. DJ Swearinger (#36) is creeping up to the line as Houston is trying to sell its overloading of Baltimore’s right side. After the snap, however, Watt is going to cross the Center’s face while Cushing (#56) blitzes the vacated area.
You can see Reed take his first
step inside before swinging back out, drawing RG Marshall Yanda with him. While
Watt crosses the Center and draws Gradkowski with him, a hole opens up for the blitzing
Cushing. Bernard Pierce sees Cushing the whole way and does a nice job filling
the opening in the protection. Watt eventually gets the angle on Gradkowski and
gets the hit on Flacco, but not until the ball is already out. In Shotgun, Flacco sees the safety blitz, looks down the middle of the field to hold Ed Reed
and throws it Torrey Smith in single coverage along the right sideline. The Texans
get good rush and a hit on the QB, but Flacco’s ability to read the coverage
and get the ball out nets the Ravens a first down after a somewhat dubious pass
interference call on Kareem Jackson.
1st & 10 at BAL20,
the opening play of second half. Baltimore uses an offset I form backfield and
balanced WR set. Houston is in its base 3-4.
With a NT back in the game, both
OLBs are lined up mush wider than in the play above and Watt is lined up on
Michael Oher’s outside shoulder. Houston’s OLBs will press the outside pass
rush while bringing Cushing on the blitz again and using a twist stunt with DT
Earl Mitchell crossing RG Yanda’s face while Watt comes back inside again.
Mitchell easily engages Yanda and
takes him to the right as Watt hand fights with Oher before making his move to go inside
with Cushing. Oher is unable to maintain contact with Watt as Mitchell and
Yanda screen him off his block. Pierce steps up again and plugs Cushing, but
Watt rumbles through the gap like a man possessed to take Flacco down. The
Ravens are using seven men to block only five rushers, but the Texans scheme
leaves Geno Gradkowski (#66) with no one to block while Watt is able to break
free of Oher by scraping his stunting DT’s rush.
3rd and 33 at BAL24 in
1Q: Two Bryant McKinnie Personal Foul penalties set up this third and forever
scenario, so the Texans are only going to rush three guys.
Whitney Mercilus (#59) was
Houston’s number 1 pick in 2012 and was Football Outsiders 2
nd best
pass rushing prospect according to their
“SackSEER”
projection. Mercilus possesses prototypical NFL OLB size and speed to
press the edge. He’s lined up outside of Dallas Clark here and you can see RT
Michael Oher is already thinking about how he’s going to get off the line and get into
position to protect Flacco. With no need to worry about stuffing the run,
Antonio Smith is playing DT over the Center with Watt lined up to the
outside of Bryant McKinnie.
Watt and Mercilus both rush
upfield at the snap, drawing the tackles with them. Antonio Smith takes on C
Gradkowski’s left side. LG Osemele (#72) is in position to give
Grakowski some help, but he’s too concerned with Watt and ultimately blocks
nobody. Oher does his best to work his way around to the outside to cut off
Mercilus, but he can’t get into position soon enough and Mercilus is able to
get his hands around Flacco. The extra second that Flacco needs to try
and fight through Mercilus’ tackle allows Antonio Smith to work around
Gradkowski and swing down on Flacco’s back for the strip sack. Baltimore had
plenty of personnel available to stifle a three man rush, but too much concern
for Watt and not enough concern for Mercilus’s speed resulted in the strip sack
(although fumble luck did not smile on HOU as BAL was able to fall on the ball
and instead of 1st & 10 at BAL23, Houston had to start at their own 28 after
the punt). I’m not sure what kind of freedom or responsibility Bernard Pierce
has on this play, but he could have helped out Oher by getting even the
smallest of chips on Mercilus as he leaked out of the backfield.
3rd & 4 BAL 12 3Q:
Baltimore has Vonta Leach in the backfield with 3 WRs and Dallas Clark flexed
outside of the RT. Houston is using its “small” Dime three DL and two LBs.
Antonio Smith is back to a
traditional LDE position across from the LT’s inside shoulder while Mercilus is on the
outside. On the right side, Watt is across from RT Oher’s inside shoulder,
Cushing is up on the line on Watt’s outside hip with Reed outside of the flexed-out TE Clark.
Watt does a good job of pushing Yanda back deep into the
pocket towards Flacco. On the other side, we see Mercilus vary his technique
against LT McKinnie. Instead of pressing the outside the whole
time, Mercilus takes McKinnie back, plants, then pushes off and moves back
inside to get a good shot on Flacco. Unfortunately, Mercilus planted his helmet
right on Flacco’s chin drawing a Roughing the Passer penalty. Cushing appears be a Green Dog (if your man stays in to block, you get
to blitz), but Leach is only feinting pass protections and
instead Cushing has to follow him and Flacco is able to dump the
ball off when
the pressure arrives.
2nd&7 HOU32 3Q:
Baltimore, 1RB, 1TE, 3WR. Houston in base 3-4, but Jared Crick is in at RDE
giving Watt a breather.
The two OLBs will both press the
outside rush, as usual. Cushing has man coverage on Dallas Clark. LDE Antonio Smith will take his rush
outside to bring LG Osemele with him and DT Earl Mitchell will engage C
Gradkowski and bring him to the right before pushing off and engaging RG Yanda,
creating a gap on the left side of the Baltimore O-line. Jared Crick (#93) is going to
twist inside and hit the gap in Baltimore's protection along with MLB Darryl Sharpton (#51). Pierce gives himself up to take down Sharpton, but Gradkowski
can’t recover in time to slow down Crick who is able to get a hit on Flacco.
All told, the five plays above had
mixed results. One traditional sack, a strip sack recovered by Baltimore, a QB
hit with defensive pass interference, a hit with roughing the passer tacked
onto a short first down completion and an incompletion. Credit Joe Flacco for hanging in against pressure as well as looking off the safety, allowing him to throw to receivers in single coverage so they can make a
play or draw a penalty. Houston has a talented group of pass rushers and well
developed schemes to create pressure on opposing QBs. The Texans stretch the
protection with their OLBs off the edges and then try to create openings in the
middle with stunts and MLB blitzes.
Bonus screen shot. After a great
punt by Lechler that pinned Baltimore on its own one-yard line, the Ravens
faced 2nd and 9 from their own two. Houston brings out a 3-5-3 defensive
alignment. Five LBs on the field at one time is a rare sight in the NFL. Nickel
and Dime packages featuring five or more DBs are commonplace nowadays and teams
will often go five or six DL in goal line situations, but seeing five LBs out
there, even for one play, was a treat. Well, a treat for me at least.
