Cut up of Preston Smith vs Tyron Smith last year

[Woz]

One other thing I noticed: Kerrigan got significantly more pressure in the eight clips I watched (I'm reviewing the rest now) than Galette did when he was lined up on the left side.

[Woz]

18 hours ago, turtle28 said:

So, I’ll ask again, what moves does Kerrigan display that those ROLBs didn’t/don’t?

Just watched the 0:44 clip again, and noticed this: Kerrigan bulled Collins back with just one arm.

[Woz]

At 0:50 - Pathetic. A perfectly clean pocket all the way around. The center is completely unoccupied, and the guards have created a good 4-5 yard wide throwing lane. Kerrigan is kind of close, but not really. TSmith has PSmith locked up.

At 0:55 - Not really any time for any of the linemen to do anything. Prescott gets the snap at 0:56-ish out of the shotgun, takes a step back, bounces on his feet, and has the ball of his hand by 0:58. No one is close. Timing route. TSmith punches PSmith once up field, but PSmith gets by him. However, given the speed at which the ball leaves, I think TSmith knew he didn't need to lock horns and just did enough to get it done. Collins does the same to Kerrigan on the other side. The three interior linemen for Dallas collapse on the two interior DL for the Redskins. If it wasn't for the one look pass, Elliott is running out of the backfield with no one in front of him except a linebacker on the right side (Brown?). Said LB is frozen and Witten goes right by him after a half-hearted chip from said LB. I don't know where the pass was going but the middle of the field for both Elliott and Witten was wide open. Another ugly defensive play.

At 0:59 - This one I'm giving to PSmith. He gets into TSmith's body as he blows past him. Prescott just gets the ball away to the receiver (looks like Dunbar got his ankles broken by the double move by the WR allowing for what I suspect is a completion). Had Dunny covered his man better, that's probably a sack or at worst an incompletion. Kerrigan was blocked well by Collins. That's one of those "QB hurries" that doesn't really amount to much, even though PSmith got his hand on Prescott.

[second game starts here]

At 1:04 - Nice play design by the Cowboys. Instead of a traditional pocket, they have TSmith walk PSmith deep, and the rest of the line creates a line of bodies. This creates a clean 5 yard wide throwing lane (NO one is there) for Prescott. However, it looks like his target is well covered by the corner (Norman?) after a sit route. None of the DL does anything to make Prescott sweat. It doesn't help that the RDT goes to his left to try break the A gap. It looks like Spaight was blitzing, but he had a bad first step which allowed the center to help chip the RDT before disengaging to deal with Spaight.

At 1:10 - I haven't started the play, but I notice the following:

1. Line of scrimmage is the Dallas 13.
2. There are eight Redskins in the frame at the snap.
3. The DTs are almost over top the tackles, and the ends are out wide.
4. The two inside linebackers are almost right behind the tackles.
5. [starts play] Shockingly, it's a six man blitz. I'm shocked, SHOCKED.

Bad play call by the Cowboys and bad pre-snap recognition by Prescott there. The RB (Rod Smith?) originally moved outside to help with PSmith, but shifted back inside to pick up the free running blitzer (the RILB). This saves Prescott from getting smashed in the face, but the pocket has collapsed and the LILB (who stunted over behind the RILB) comes into clean up. To PSmith's credit, he closed off the deep out lane, which forced the sack. Unfortunately, had he not done so, it's possible this would have been a safety. Still, he did his job, so I cannot fault him for not getting the bonus.

At 1:19 - Again, haven't started the play. This one is not looking good: Swearinger is yelling at the players and six guys on the Cowboys' left (from TSmith over to the sideline). Dunbar starts the clip by running across the field of play towards the opposite sideline, but then turns around and heads back to the left sideline (I guess that's who DJ was yelling at?) as the ball is snapped. As a result, there are four guys more or less in a line on the left hashes. Oy. Somehow, Prescott doesn't find an open man, but has a wide open running lane up the middle that he takes for a good ten yards. While he bailed out of the pass since the yards were there, he probably didn't have to. The pocket was generally holding. PSmith got forced around behind by TSmith and Collins had Kerrigan locked up. A more senior QB probably steps up in the pocket and hits his man.

At 1:25 - What the hell is this play call by the defense? At the snap, all four defensive linemen more or less converge on the same spot. In theory that sounds great, but that means the offensive linemen can just tighten up and use their collective bulk to prevent any pressure. As Prescott took the shotgun snap, he hasn't had to move. The only guy on the entire left side of the formation remaining is the RB who ran a simple escape valve route. Prescott has essentially a practice field view of the entire left side of the field. Zac Vigil is left to cover a vast swath of territory ... and I suspect unsuccessfully.

At 1:30 - Another wide open lane for Prescott to escape from. PSmith gets stoned by TSmith, and while Kerrigan spins Collins to the turf, Collins manages to get him deeper than Prescott. It might have led to a sack, but Ioannidis stunted over to the other side (Lanier went the other way, but got stood up almost immediately), leaving a massive escape hatch for Prescott. Ugly. Even worse, after they realized that he was running, Lanier got blocked into Ioannidis taking both out of any hope of being in the play.

At 1:34 - Nice speed rush by PSmith. TSmith gets enough of an outside block to give Prescott time to get the ball away, but between PSmith and Stacy McGee (!!) blowing past the left guard, Prescott has to get rid of it sooner than I think he'd like. Possible knockdown there, but the clip cuts out so it isn't clear.

At 1:42 - Pre-snap problem: you have Deshazor Everett on Jason Witten. This is not good. PSmith is lined up outside of both, but Witten doesn't seem to touch him as he goes out into the route. Prescott knows exactly where he's going with the ball (I'll leave it to the reader to figure that out). No pressure beyond TSmith doing a bit to just keep PSmith off, but this was another timing route combined with a bad personnel matchup.

At 1:47 - It looks like the Cowboys are in the same spot as the previous play? I backed it up to just before the clip cut out and it looks like there's a corner out there as well, so maybe it was broken up? Anyway, another weird formation: Lanier as the RDT is lined up almost over the center, with Ioannidis in front of the RT and both Kerrigan and PSmith out wide (like 2-3 yards outside of their respective tackles). Brown is slightly to the left of Lanier and off the line by about five yards. Everett is behind Kerrigan. Safety/corner blitz with a gaping wide hole on the left side? Nope, Everett backs off (possibly a late call by Brown), goes with Witten. Brown has the middle zone (maybe a spy?). No real pressure anywhere.

 

 

Probably some combination of the Cowboys studying what the Redskins did in game one plus the loss of players plus the growth of Collins made the second game clips look so much worse than the first game clips.

[turtle28]

On 5/30/2018 at 2:32 PM, Woz said:

Fair enough. Just was what I was noticing from both ends when I stopped and watched the clips repeatedly.

The other thing I noticed: the pocket almost never collapsed from the middle (the exception being the possible screen pass by PSmith). It always came with outside pressure.

Yep, that’s why we missed Jonathan Allen last year after the first month. Allen would have and will certainly help collapse the pocket. Now we have Payne to go along with Ioannidis and Allen also so we should see the pocket collapsed from the inside more this year.