After Further Review: Giants Blitz
Since last week I was stupid and taped a channel of nothing instead of the Jets game, I decided to do this week’s After Further Review on the Giants amazing game they had versus the Eagles. Will the brittle Pennington and the developing line be able to handle the onslaught that sacked Donovan McNabb mercilessly last weekend?
Setting the Conversation
Although it’s doesn’t seem like much over their careers, but Pennington (10.9 YPC) has averaged about 0.7 yards less per completion than McNabb (11.6 YPC), who’s completion average numbers are more in the Tom Brady (11.3 YPC) / Carson Palmer (11.5 YPC) range. So what does this mean? McNabb could be more likely to hold the ball longer to throw more downfield passes.
During the game last week, the Giants did a great job of doing two main things. First bumping the receivers at the line of scrimmage, throwing them off their routes and timing, something very important in the Andy Reid / West Coast Offense, and second, throwing many blitz variations at McNabb, who just a few weeks ago many wondered if he had fully recovered from his injury last season.
The most common blitz they used was by their front seven, often bringing six or more blitzers, leaving many of the receivers in single coverage, and the middle of the field poorly defended against the short pass. These players were used in many variations off of this … stunts, flooding one side of the line, lining their Ends up very wide (almost in the slot) but it was pretty straightforward pressure. Here are some of what the Giants did effectively last weekend versus McNabb and the Eagles.
Front Seven – There were a few occasions, often at the beginning of a series or a key down on the short side of the field where the Giants would line up their front seven straight across the line and give everyone a shot at the QB. The Eagles protections often broke down, and even if the Running Back made a clean block, there were two or three others getting free of theirs to get to McNabb.
Corner Blitz – Dangerous, but they were so quick it didn’t matter. If wasn’t often that the corner was the one delivering the shot, but the disruption in protection was enough to get someone free to pressure McNabb effectively.
Zone Blitz – As the Eagles started getting into a rhythm, the Giants did more of this, where they would get a lineman to commit, only to pull back a linebacker and / or linemen into short zones to defend the pass. Often the lineman who committed to the zone player might not provide the proper help and one or two players might sneak through for the Giants to pressure the QB.
The “Dwight Freeney” – Not sure how to describe this other than this way. Lining up Umenyora almost to the slot, thereby abandoning run responsibilities near the Tackle. Osi Umenyora has some incredible speed for a guy his size, and he gave fill-in OT Winston Justice fits. There were a few plays where Justice and the player in the backfield did not pick up the blitz allowing Umenyora to get to the QB untouched.
Coverage Sack – The Giants did a good with coverage on the pass, but often in single coverage. I think the combination of the pressure at the front and the physical play of the corners made for a perfect storm on the Eagles’ receivers.
To Max Protect or Not to Max Protect? That is The Question.
Many people have been talking about using a Max Protect scheme for Pennington, and I do think that there are situations in which is needs to be used this weekend by the Jets. My problem with it is that it doesn’t play to Pennington’s strengths … finding the guy in single coverage and throwing it away from the defender.
Last year in Jacksonville, the Jets employed a Max Protect scheme and got burned for it … is this what the Jets need to do? Play into a team’s strength by keeping their front seven stacking in the box? Or trying to take advantage of mismatches? I say the latter, but it will all depend on how the game plays out.
Some Counters to the Giants Pressure
While running …
Cutbacks/Reverses – The Eagles set up a long gain on the ground nicely early in the game. After setting up the play to the left, the Giants’ D aggressively overpursued to one side and Correll Buckhalter made one cut back to the right and ran for more than 10 yards untouched as the Giants front seven were all bunched up on the wrong side of the field. This is something that both Thomas Jones and Leon Washington should be able to do fairly well, though Jones should be able to perform better if there is early contact.
Run at Umenyora – As I mentioned above, Umenyora to me is reminiscent of Dwight Freeney, he’s excellent in rushing the passer but his weakness is against the run … and lining up well outside of the tackle box to get a better angle at the passer doesn’t help. Checking to run in some 1st down or 2nd down passing situations might keep Umenyora honest.
While passing …
Checkdowns & Drag Routes – On blitzing plays, the Giants like to leave large swaths of the field open, quick passes to FBs or TEs as a checkdown in middle of the field might cause some big gains. Also look to see if the Jets use receivers on drag routes.
Screenplays – Catching blitzers upfield is a perfect time to run a screen pass, since the Jets have both Thomas Jones and Leon Washington, they should be able to run this well against the Giants.
Spread Offense – It could be dangerous in terms of keeping Pennington upright, but it’s also a good way to spread the defenders as well.
Shotgun – Having a better view of where the pressure is coming from, and for Chad to be able to skirt it while trying to make the throw will key.
Hurry-Up – The Jets use the hurry up / no huddle intermittently, using this more this weekend to prevent the Giants from subbing out of a base package for specialized players could be a help to the Jets to try and find and exploit the weaknesses in the pass.
Jets need to create an identity on offense, too much fooling around.
Run the damn ball, first and formost, keep the offense out of third and long.
Other than Brick, the Jets O Line is pretty big and better at run blocking than pass blocking.
Play to that strenght, then once the run is established use play action.
If Westbrook played last weeks game would have been totally different, Eagles had no running back to counter the blitzing. Jets have two of them, if only little schotty can make the decision to employ them and stick with that decision.
For the above reason doubt we will see the all out blitzing defense from the Giants anyway, they will likely return to the base package.