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.