Gridiron Cinema 9/28/2013: Week 3 Texans passs rush @ Baltimore

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 (1^st round 2011), Brooks Reed (2^nd round 2011), Whitney Mercilus (1^st round 2012) and Brian Cushing (1^st 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.

2^nd & 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. 

1^st & 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.

3^rd 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.

3^rd & 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.

2^nd&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 2^nd 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.

Gridiron Cinema 9/21/2013: Vikings D-Line Week 2 @ Chicago

There’s a lot going on Sundays in the NFL and it’s impossible to take it ALL in whether you try sitting at a sports bar with every game queued up on 10 different TVs or sitting at home playing couch commando with NFL Sunday Ticket while monitoring Redzone on your iPad. Oh, how I have tried. As a veteran of Football Outsiders’ game charting project, I get a second chance to revisit and study games beyond the highlight plays and uncover who is or who is not doing the “little things” needed to win. It’s always nice to get an ego boost when our assumptions are confirmed, but we can also derive a special pleasure from uncovering the unexpected. This week I was studying Vikings-Bears, specifically looking at how well Chicago’s offensive line played. Upon further review, to the surprise of zero Bears fans, Chicago’s O-line did not have a good game.

Minnesota has a talented defensive front seven, and the one player who stood out last Sunday was Brian Robison. Robison, if you’re not familiar, is a six year veteran from Texas who showed enough potential playing DE opposite of Jared Allen that the Vikings were content to let Ray Edwards walk as a free agent after 2010. Robison stepped right in and has put up 16.5 sacks over the last two seasons, matching the exact total that Edwards had in his final two seasons in Minnesota. Watching highlights from last Sunday, you would have seen Robison picking up a Cutler fumble and rumbling down the field for a touchdown. Robison contributed throughout the game beyond the highlight reel appearance in what was ultimately a one point loss for the Vikes. In the spirit of the “me too” business model, I’m going to jump into the crowded world of film review with the following plays from the Vikings-Bears game, with particular focus on Brian Robison and the Viking defensive line plan of attack against the Bears OL.

Play 1: 1^st & 10 at CHI 32 1Q – Bears are in “12” personnel (1 RB, 2 TE) and Vikings are in their base 4-3 defense.

The Bears are going to have Martellus Bennett block Jared Allen with help from Matt Forte while LT Bushrod will supplement the interior protection. On the right side, rookie fifth round pick Jordan Mills is singled up on Robison while RG Kyle Long and C Roberto Garza will double DT Letroy Guion.

As Cutler reaches the end of his drop back, he has a clear line of sight of Robison who has already knocked Mills’ hands down and beaten him to the outside. Bennett looks to be carrying Allen past the pocket and Forte seems to be in position to keep Allen at bay. Bushrod is standing alone in space, seemingly intent on not blocking anyone, but in position to assist LG Matt Slauson if needed.

Robison makes his way around Mills and forces Cutler to step up in the pocket. Bushrod appears ready to get in front of Floyd, while Long and Garza are keeping Guion occupied.

As Cutler steps forward and readies himself to make a throw, Guion is able to slide off the double team and get under Kyle Long and push him backwards, forcing Cutler to pull the ball down and scramble.

The end result is Cutler takes a not so nice hit from Chad Greenway for no gain.

Play 2: 3^rd & 9 at MIN 31 2Q – Bears are in “11” personnel (1 RB 1 TE) and the Vikings bring in their dime package (1LB 6DB).

This is the highlight reel play that ends with Robison scooping up the Cutler fumble and taking it to the house. Robison was lined up between the RT and TE in the play above, but now he's lined up Wide 9 (really far outside TE). The two DTs are in 3-technique (lined up on G’s outside shoulder) and will run a swap stunt. The ends, Allen and Robison, will be working a kind of pincher rush with Robison aiming deep and Allen cutting shallow. AJ Jefferson (#24) has man coverage on Forte.

At  the snap, Robison’s first step is up field as he tries to get around the outside before Mills can get to him. Everson Griffen (#97) takes a false step before he begins to loop to the left as Kevin Williams immediately begins his rush across LG Matt Slauson’s face trying to draw him inside.

Jared Allen's first action off the line was up field, but he then plants his outside leg to change his angle back inside, trying to get Bushrod off balance. Kevin Williams continues his cross as he looks to split the C/LG and free up Griffen to come around behind.

Robison has now rushed to the back of the pocket while Allen’s inside move as taken him into Forte. Unfortunately for the Bears, the play call did not involve Forte double teaming Allen this time, as Slauson and Garza leak to the left, Forte is supposed to follow them to await the screen.

Forte effectively knocks Bushrod off of Allen and since he’s supposed to receive the screen pass, he’s not trying to block Allen either, leaving Allen to run free. With Robison guarding the back door, Cutler can’t back pedal to try and float the pass over Allen and his only option is to try and escape the four-time All Pro.

Play 3: 3^rd & 5 at CHI 40 3Q: Bears run a bunch right with “12” personnel and Jeffrey on the inside. The Vikings are in nickel D with both MLBs and a DB up on the line.

At the snap, the Vikings drop into zone coverage and only rush four. Robison, who has been mostly rushing wide around Mills so far, slaps Mills hands up and goes right past him with an inside move.

Cutler has time just to plant and throw as Robison has broken free and locked onto the QB while Allen has dipped is shoulder to try and push by Bushrod, squeezing the pocket from both sides.

Cutler gets the pass off, throwing to the sideline while his receiver kept running up field. Robison knocks Cutler to the ground and the miscommunication almost nets a turnover.

Play 4: 2^nd & 12 at CHI50 4Q: Bears offense with “11” personnel and Marshall and Bennett flexed off the tackles. Vikings counter with nickel package with Kevin Williams lined up in the A gap and Griffen in the B gap.

At the snap, both Robison and Allen crash the C gaps trying to hit the Gs outside shoulder while bringing the tackles with them inside. While the Ends are crashing inside, the DTs move to loop around to the outside. Robison hits Long and completely knocks him off Williams, who now has a free rush around Mills who followed Robison and committed his hips inside.

Mills tries to get back into a position where he can slow Williams down while Long tries to recover against Robison. Allen’s rush from the other side has carried Bushrod and Slauson through the pocket and screen Long off from Robison and he’s also on the way to meet Cutler.

The Vikings D-line did a tremendous job creating the pressure on this play, but the pressure developed in Cutler’s field of vision enabling him get rid of the ball. To top it all off, Greenway looked unsure of his coverage responsibilities pre-snap and found himself out of position when the ball was released and slipped as he tried to recover, too late to defend the completion. The Bears convert 3^rd & 1 and go on to score the winning touchdown. And that’s NFL life.

The Vikings did a lot of interesting and disruptive things with their four man rush against the Bears. Jared Allen gets all the press, and rightly so, but Brian Robison is an effective counterpart. The Vikings have only notched one sack through two games (Allen’s strip sack above), but the amount of pressure that they are generating is a good indicator that the D-line will be eating soon. On the menu this week is Cleveland…