Lions Video Rewind

For this week's video rewind I focused on the Eagles' defensive line.  The big fellas up front had a great game, so I wanted to see how they did it.

First let's talk numbers.  Much has been made of the team's d-line rotation.  Although this wasn't the most normal game, I wanted to get a sense of how much each of these guys was playing. 

As a side note, let me just say it was really, really hard to read the numbers on those Team Sweden jerseys the Eagles were wearing on Sunday.  I'd like to personally thank Juqua Thomas for wearing those arm bands that make him so easy to pick out.  Also, my DVR cut out before the last four plays, so with that caveat in mind, here's what I found:

You can see from that table that the starting tackles (Bunkley and Patterson) are getting a lot more rest than the starting defensive ends (Kearse and Cole).  This is primarily because Jim Johnson likes to bring in Howard and Reagor to man the middle on passing downs since they're both more adept at getting to the quarterback than the young guys. 

It's also apparent that Darren Howard is getting a lot of playing time.  He was third last week in total snaps logged, split between 27 at the tackle position and 17 at end.  He truly looks better inside these days anyway, so I can see why they're using him there.  He also seems to have a knack for doing a decent job in pass coverage.  At least once I saw Johnson drop him off the line and then ask him to run out and cover the flat, which seems like a heck of a request for a guy playing tackle, but he pulled it off.  Since he's used to playing end, he's also a logical person to have slant to the outside when Johnson asks the defensive end to drop into coverage.

You may remember that after the game Cole talked about the Eagles coming out with a different game plan.  I'm sure it was the case, but it wasn't anything I was able to pick up on.  The Eagles ran a number of early stunts -- including on the first play where Bunkley sacked Kitna -- but it didn't seem like an unusually high number.

I also wanted to call attention to two very good, back-to-back defensive plays by the Eagles.  Take a look at the video for more (and I guarantee it's straightforward, no funny voices this time):

Other things I noticed while watching the defense:

• On the Lions' first touchdown, Spikes left his gap because he thought Kevin Jones was trapped behind a stack of blockers.  Jones slid off and walked in where TKO should have been.  Hard to blame him though, since Jones really did disappear for a second.
• On the good news side of things, at the 3:35 mark in the first quarter, the Lions attempted a screen pass.  Gaither read it all the way and was ready to wrap up the running back had the pass been better.  It's a good thing he was, because the Eagles had nine guys on the line of scrimmage on that play.  The back might still be running. 
• On the bad news side, at the 10:58 mark in the second quarter, the Lions ran a pick play for one of their backs swinging into the right flat.  Roy Williams ran a five-yard in and then looked to pick off Gaither ... who had so badly blown the coverage that Williams didn't even have to run into him.  He did anyway.  The play resulted in a 16-yard gain before a nice ankle tackle by Considine.
• Three plays later, Trent Cole managed to knock the ball out of Kitna's hand even as he was being blatantly held/tackled into the ground right in front of the ref.  After the play, the ref gave him some explanation for why it wasn't a hold.  Yeah right.  (Maybe now that Trent is leading the league in sacks he'll actually get a call once in awhile.)
• At 12:46 in the third quarter, Jevon Kearse was easily blocked one-on-one by one of Detroit's tight ends (I believe PSU and Bonner alum Sean McHugh).  The play made me wonder whether Kearse really has the strength back in his injured left leg, because that was the leg he was trying -- and failing -- to push off from.  The next play he jumped offsides.
• Brian Baldinger praised Joselio Hanson for "always being around the ball."  Yes, because they constantly throw at him.
• Finally, Trent Cole saw a lot of solo blocks in this game.  He shouldn't get used to that.

On the offensive side of the ball, easily the coolest thing all game was this alignment the Eagles used on a couple of short-yardage plays (click for full-size):

Yeah baby, check the shadows, that's an unbalanced offensive line.  I got your power football right ... HERE.  (And note how confused the Lions defense looks.) 

Beyond that, I can tell you that my expert opinion after watching the game again is that the offense looked really, really good and that Brian Westbrook fellow might have a future in this league. 

Here's why I think the Eagles attacked the left side in their run game on Sunday.  Detroit's basic defensive alignment looked like this:

   X     X

.X    X     X  X

  O  O  X  O  O 

That gave the Eagles two "bubbles" to run at, either the left-side B gap or the right-side A gap.  The frequently chose the former.  Herremans had a fantastic day at left guard basically doing one thing.  He'd block down on the DT for a beat and then hustle out to the second level where he'd blow up a linebacker.  Tapeh would take care of the other LB, Justice handled the end and then Westbrook would work his magic on the safety. 

The Eagles have a lot more creativity in the run game than I remember seeing in the past.  They ran a nice tackle trap where they pulled Runyan through that same gap.  They also had an interesting pass protection off play action where Andrews would come over from his RG spot to handle the opposite defensive end.  The first time they tried to run that protection it didn't work, with McNabb getting sacked and fumbling.  It was more successful later.

A couple of injuries on the line meant we had a chance to see how Winston Justice and Max Jean-Gilles would do in real, live NFL action.  My MJG notes read like this:

• MJG came in here.  Cody gave him a nice spin move but he had RB help.  McNabb didn't wait around to see if that help would be successful; he just took off.
• Decent backside block on a run the other way
• Double teamed DT with Runyan
• Stood up Redding without help
• Got nice push on Redding on run play
• Got out pretty well on screen -- nice quickness for his size -- but missed everyone he tried to block. Westbrook is Superman so it didn't matter.

And that was it.  He came in again later, but nothing much consequential happened.

As for Justice, I was very impressed with his play.  He started out a little rusty, which is probably inevitable when you're standing around all game and suddenly they ask you to go protect Donovan's blindside.  On his first play, Corey Smith got into his kitchen a little bit, but the coaches smartly called a quick drop passing play.  On the second play, he again got collapsed back into Donovan, but then from that point forward he was very, very solid.  He looks seriously quick out there. 

The best measure of his success is probably the fact that Tra Thomas checked himself back into the game on the next series, even though he was clearly laboring with his knee.  Justice came back in again a few plays later and stayed in the rest of the game. 

As for his run-blocking, either he's better than I realized or the Lions had pretty much given up by the time he entered the game.  Justice had a huge collapsing block on the Tony Hunt touchdown that allowed Hunt to walk into the end zone.  (Although he failed to finish a block on a linebacker in his first series that might have given Hunt his first NFL TD a few minutes earlier.)

As a final note, it's certainly far more fun doing these things when the game in question is an Eagles victory.  Please keep it up, guys.

Comments

[sixersshawn]

Great analysis. I noticed all of the run action left as well. The Eagles lines on both sides of the ball are seriously deep.

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[BenZ]

really great job, very insightful. I didn't realize that was Gocong on that stop because I was watching at a bar with no audio. Good for him.

[slackerjoe]

I love this video rewind feature. Very insightful. Please keep it up.

I hope that Andy Reid continues to commit to the running game early and often, because when the defense doesn't know what's coming, it opens up so many things (unlike the first two games of the season).

Last year the D-Line was so poor, everyone in Negadelphia forgot how unusual that has been for the Andy Reid/Jimmy Johnson era.

According to the advanced stats on Football Outsiders, last year the Eagles DL was only 21st in the league. In '05 they were 5th. Going bank further, Philly has virtually always been in the top 5 or 10 in Run D, Pass D or both.

It is clear this year the problems with the DL have been addressed, and that last year was an exception, not a trend. This bodes well for the Eagles, and will allow JJ to work his magic with the rest of the D, knowing the front 4 will do an exceptional job by themselves.