Redskins Video Rewind

Dear McNabb Haters,

We regret to inform you that rumors of the Philadelphia Eagles' quarterback's demise have been greatly exaggerated.  You're stuck with him a bit longer. 

You may continue complaining amongst yourselves.

Sincerely,

Everyone else in Philadelphia

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(Tonight's rewind might be a bit less well organized than usual.  Also a little shorter.  Hope you'll forgive the obvious distraction.)

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The annoying thing about the video rewind is the way it forces me to revise things I've written before.  To wit:

I have my theory for what the biggest problem is, as outlined in last week's video rewind.  Tonight was more of the same.  Opportunities downfield are being missed and Checkdown Charlie has entered the building. 

Yeah, well, it was a nice theory and it worked for one week, but upon further review, it doesn't explain what we saw against the Redskins all that well.

The core problem with the Raiders game was that we had a downfield approach going in, which didn't work out due to a combination of good pressure / coverage by the Raiders and missed chances by McNabb.  When that didn't work, we had no Plan B, and that's a good way to lose ballgames.

The Redskins' game plan was completely different.  Reid and Mornhinweg have seen the way opposing defenses are playing soft up top to take away the big play.  In response, the plan this week was all short passing and (in theory) effective running. 

Yes, McNabb threw a lot of short passes, but the vast majority of these were called that way.  Here's how the first half played out:

First drive -- one pass -- Short read on third-and-two.

Second drive -- four passes -- Short read on first down, a WR screen and a little flare on third-and-two, along with one intermediate in-cut to Maclin that McNabb put on the money in great rhythm.

Third drive -- three passes -- One screen and two checkdowns (one off McCoy's hands and one well short of a first down on a bad D&D of third-and-eight) -- interesting note on that second checkdown, however, from this video:

Avant seems to be pointing something out and Reid's pissed about something.  Probably a missed opportunity there.

Fourth drive -- two passes -- One the throw by Vick, another intentionally short call on third-and-four.  The weirdest thing about this drive, though, was the way Vick's pass didn't really surprise the Redskins:

So next time we bring in Vick and a bunch of receivers, look for a run.

Fifth drive -- two passes -- Checkdown to Weaver, but McNabb was about to get sacked and it was a good play, and then the play where he missed the open Maclin and (worse) made a really bad throw to DeSean who was coming open in the middle of the field.  Not a good one for him there.

Sixth drive -- two passes -- Tight end screen, sack on a poor blitz pick-up by Shady, and the home run ball to DeSean.  While we're here, the idea that the throw to DeSean was "poor" ... come on.  It went 50 yards downfield and the one thing you don't want to do there is miss him.  The throw was fine.

And that's your first half.  McNabb had 13 passes, seven of which were called short, three of which were checkdowns, and three of which were intermediate or deep routes -- and he hit on two of those three.  So while it certainly looked like the Raiders' game all over again, it wasn't.  The Eagles had a different plan, they executed on it (in the first half), and what looked like a never-ending slew of checkdowns was more intentional than it appeared.

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Of course, I'm not arguing that McNabb played great.  He won't be putting this DVD into his post-career highlight reel. 

But what concerned me about last week's game is that it looked exactly like the kind of game we see from McNabb when he gets into a funk.  He sees the windows get smaller and smaller, won't pull the trigger and the Eagles grind to a halt as a result.

This week, the reason the offense sputtered in the second half wasn't because of McNabb.  It would have been nice if he'd made a couple more plays, but he wasn't why they kept punting.  These were:

3rd and 13 at PHI 17
(sack on second down)

3rd and 8 at WAS 41
(Maclin danced too much on a WR screen and then McCoy got only two yards)

3rd and 10 at PHI 7
(no gain on first down and then incomplete by McNabb on second)

3rd and 9 at WAS 44
(one yard on first down and then a smart throwaway on a play that wasn't there on second)

3rd and 16 at PHI 3
(two holding penalties and an incomplete on this drive)

Those are the drive ending D&D's in the second half -- and they just aren't drive-sustaining downs.  And herein lies the problem, because it's all well and good to say, "They're playing us deep, so we'll just keep picking away short and score that way," but if you're not playing with a comfortable lead and you can't run the ball all that effectively, you're going to have some issues.

You can play that way without a running game if Drew Brees or Tom Brady is your quarterback, because those guys will keep hitting the same throws over and over again.  With McNabb, you're going to have to mix in some big plays or effective runs.

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Speaking of running the ball, I obviously paid very close attention to Shady McCoy.  After watching his every carry, I'm now pretty convinced he isn't the problem.  He's not yet a Westbrookian solution, but he's far down the list of guys you want to blame for all those two-yard carries.

Example one:

I mean, seriously, you have a pulling guard and a fullback going that way.  Someone needs to at least get in the way of the $#@! defensive end.

Number two, this is not a guy who doesn't know how to run the ball (And you're welcome):

Number three, nifty little extended screen ... except Winston Justice forgets what the playcall is and helpfully directs the DE right into Shady's path:

Last one, and this is actually Westbrook, but look what happens to Celek here:

Is that a play where we see the experience of Westbrook, whereas McCoy might just have run where the arrow in the playbook points?*  Possibly.

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Sticking with the offense for a bit longer, here's a Wildcat play that actually, in a nice change, sort of worked:

The good thing about that play is that we didn't just line up, let the defense count out its gaps, and then politely run where we were supposed to. The late shift and movement clearly mixed up the Redskins.

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Other offensive miscellany:

• Winston Justice stuck out in a negative way a bit more this week.  A few notes like this: "WJ didn't block the end, which might be ok, except he didn't block anyone."  Hope he picks it up now that the real games are here.
• The nice thing about using Avant as a quasi-TE is that if he lines up close to the formation and runs routes a couple times, the DE gets really surprised when he suddenly lights him up.
• Herremans looked really good until he ran out of gas at the end.  I wouldn't take him out either.  He's so clearly superior to the guys they have running in behind him.
• I don't know how a RG gets a false start penalty on a Wildcat play with a silent count.

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On defense, I'm a little bummed, because I was hoping I was the only one (among the blogger/commen-tariat) who noticed this:

 

Alas, no, I checked Lawlor and he's all over it:

We used an interesting defensive twist. We played Bunk a yard off the ball. This was reminiscent of the Flex Defense that Tom Landry and Dallas used in their heyday. By lining up off the ball it changes the angles and flow of blocks. It also can affect the ability for Portis to do cutbacks. A blocker must really fire out to get Bunk and that lets the other guys see what is happening more clearly. 

I'd add some color on that from our own Andy Reid:

Basic positioning along the line of scrimmage has changed as well. A few plays in, Reid noted that the Giants defensive tackles, Dick Modzelewski and Rosey Grier, were “flexed back off the ball”—that is, set up more than a yard away from the Colts linemen. “That’s probably for the run game,” Reid said, explaining that by hanging back from the line of scrimmage, the defenders could get a better look at the direction of the play before attacking.

I asked, “Why wouldn’t you do that today?”

“Well, you give those big guys a head start on you,” Reid said. “At that time I would imagine that the linemen were fairly equal athletically, and now the offensive linemen are so big and the defensive linemen are relatively smaller.” If you’re a defender today, he went on, and you spot a 300-plus-pound blocker a two-step running start, he’ll knock you “right on your ass.”

The interesting thing is that the Redskins tried this.  They saw what Bunk was doing -- although it wasn't on every play -- so they tried to go after him. 

Brodrick Bunkley is not a man who gets knocked on his ass. 

He controlled everything, even when they fired off with a double team.  Impressive as hell.

(Oh, and if you haven't read the article I just quoted, you should stop now and go read that one instead.)

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While we're on the subject of defensive tackles, watch Antonio Dixon on this play (lined up over the center):

Holy crap this guy's a find.  He was again the first back-up DT off the bench this week, and they even used him on a semi-passing down of third-and-six with three DEs, since he actually gets some push when he rushes the passer.

I frankly don't understand: 1) How this guy wasn't drafted, and 2) How the Redskins cut him. 

Oh, here you go:

The 6-3, 322-pound Dixon, who has struggled with his conditioning, barely made it through his first series as the Ravens marched 89 yards in 13 plays and 5:22 before settling for a field goal that he had to try to block. "Antonio did a real nice job, but ... he could not have played a full game," Zorn said. "He was totally exhausted. (After the) long drive, he came off, but [he and] the field goal team had to go back on and you should have seen the look on his face." Dixon ran after practice with the quarterbacks last week, drawing praise from the coach for his effort to remedy the problem. "You love to see guys that are coachable and when you make a correction ... very soon after that, the guy gets it," Zorn said.

Thanks, Jim!

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Of course, the big innovation on the night was the further evolution of the five-man defensive line.  I first noticed it on the Witherspoon INT play (click for full size, two angles on the same play):

On this particular play, Babin (lined up at LDE) actually dropped into coverage, while Patterson rushed to the outside as a DE.  Then the blitzes came up the middle.

We saw this set a bunch of times later, sometimes with all five down with a hand on the ground, others with just three (like the Trent Cole offsides, where both he and Babin were in two-point stances).

This stuff is interesting in a few ways:

• You can get up to five legit pass rushers on the field.
• You can also use it as more of a heavy package on run downs.
• It has great disguisability, because guys like Cole and Babin (who has extensive OLB experience) can drop into coverage.
• You're changing blocking angles in the middle.

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Other notes:

• Speaking of Jason Babin, he's a great match-up for us on tight ends who can't block.  He certainly whetted my appetite to see what he can do against the bigger guys though.
• Macho Harris is regressing a bit.  That blown coverage on Cooley to start the game was a bad miss.  He had some injury issues, but I also wonder how much of his time on the sidelines was performance related.
• With that said, Sean Jones looks a little tall and stiff to me out there.  He had a terrible blown coverage where he tried to bump Moss about eight yards of the line and Santana just blew past him.
• I really didn't see the defensive holding on Mike Patterson, but he gets called for that a lot (for a DT), so I'm sure he's had his share.
• On the play before the Witherspoon pick six, the defense had five subs on the field -- the entire line and Trotter at MLB.  McDermott is absolutely committed to his rotation for now.
• Would the Eagles play Bunkley some at LDE against the Giants if they're having issues stopping the run?  I wonder...

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* In college, I coached a woman's contact flag football league.  My freshman year, when I was just helping out, we had a great tailback who would, however, always make a weird little side cut after getting through the line in one of our base running plays.  After this happened a few times, the offensive coach finally asked her what the heck she was doing.  She pointed to the card and said, "Well that's how the line is drawn."  And so it was.

Conscientious players, those women were.