Offense and O-line analysis - Week 12 vs. Seahawks (L)

BACH

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Family is asleep in South East Asia and had time to watch the game in peace.

Before we start with the Offense, I want to give huge credit to the defense. They played their butts off and held the Seahawks to 10 (16) points. They more than did their part for us to win the game.

The Seahawks Defense dominated this game. Plain and simple. How did it get to this? A couple of observations.

SCHEME
Seahawks
Have to give credit to the Seahawks and the defensive scheme Mike MacDonald drew up. Seahawks secondary is very very good and MacDonald relied on them to do their part in order to get creative with the fronts and scheme upfront. Maybe MacDonald read my bye-week analysis with ratings of the O-line, because it seems like their plan was to exploit the weaker parts of the O-line.

The Seahawks did a couple of things that really got the offense out of sync.

They continuously shot the gaps inside, which resulted in three things:
1. it made it impossible for the tackles to downblock with Froholdt and playside G pulling
6:41 left of 3Q - Williams shoots the gap inside forcing PJJ to close 2.5 gaps. Impossible to make and loss of yards
2. It occupied Froholdt and made it difficult for him to reach the second level.
3. It isolated their DTs against Colon and Brown in the Cardinals scheme and the guards lost that match-up all day.
0:52 left of 1Q - Colon has to seal on a runplay. Gets pushed into the backfield, never gets his hips squared in the right angle of the run and gets called for a holdning penalty. This is a prime example of what I mentioned in my bye week analysis. Froholdt and PJJ are asked and make these blocks frequently, the Gs are not.
7:50 3Q - Brown is isolated with Murthy II and pushed back into the runner.

Basicly. It forced the guards to make blocks that they have been protected from doing most of the season and it showed.

The Seahawks showed multiple fronts and Froholdt overall makes the right calls to block them, but having to adjust for the shown blitzes that would either come or not spread the line assignments and again isolated the guards.
1:30 left of 1Q - Colon 1-1 with Williams resulting in a hit and fumble that was called incomplete
1:07 left of 2Q - double inside with a stunt. Froholdt comes out looking bad, but the fault is actually on Colon as he leaves Froholdt alone


Cardinals
This was a painful game to watch and I have to wonder what the bye week was used for.

The O-line looked not ready coming out of the gate. 1st play from scrimmage Colon is basicly still sitting in his stance as defenders are running by him. On the second sack of the first drive. Froholdt decides to watch the game instead of playing the game. REAL bad look as the pocket is formed for Kyler to step up or run. Froholdt just let go of his block.

My biggest issue with this game however goes on Petzing and Kyler and the adjustments during the game.

1. The first sack of the game on the 1st drive is an exact copy of the sack that nearly got Kyler killed against the Jets. Quick real play with a back-side blitz. Kyler never looks, never checks down and gets smoked again. How can you NOT have prepared for that blitz? Kyler cannot hold the ball that long for that play against that front.

2. The standard formation is out of 12, but as explained above the Seahawks kept shooting the G gaps, so why did Petzing, Kyler and perhaps even Froholdt insist on continuing with the pulls. If the Seahawks plays nickle and we play 12, then use zone blocking. There was an excellent example on a good Benson run in 3Q, where the blocking was a simple straight ahead block with 2xdouble teams on the DT and Froholdt making an excellent job to reach the 2nd level.

3. But for some reason this was also the call against the a 8 man box with 5:39 left of the 2nd and Connor is stuffed. Against a 8 man box, Kyler should have audibled into a pass to take advantage of the 8 man box. The flexibility of the 12 personal that I have praised Petzing for earlier was not there.

3. The Seahawks plays press outside with an aggressive pass-rush. Where were all the quick passes? The single quick slant in the game to MHJ was an easy completion. Why not more? Why no dump offs from Kyler?

4. If the 12 personal is to be a success and have the flexibility of both run AND pass there much be other targets than McBride and MHJ against a defense like this. Yet, Higgins only had 2 targets. Reiman 0 targets. It's time to involve Reiman in the passing game, because the Seahawks had zero respect for him in the passing game.

5. Where was Dortch? 12 plays and often the dump-off target. 2 targets in the game. Zay Jones had 22 plays and 0 targets?

6. I would like to see more designed rolled out passes for Kyler. Take the pressure of the O-Line and keeps the defense on their toes.

We got out-schemed and the O-line had a bad showing in this game.

However! It looked worse than it Actually was

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Gandhi

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Thank you for this great post, Bach. Could I ask you to talk a little about Paris Johnson? I think he has had issues in pass blocking all season, and that he loses several one-on-ones. I know that you wrote about him in your bye week-analysis, but I feel like it is not being talked about much.
 
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BACH

BACH

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Thank you for this great post, Bach. Could I ask you to talk a little about Paris Johnson? I think he has had issues in pass blocking all season, and that he loses several one-on-ones. I know that you wrote about him in your bye week-analysis, but I feel like it is not being talked about much.
Well. I do not know if I would fully agree with that assesment. As I wrote in my Bye week analysis, PJJ is a Good pass-protector - just not elite.

When analyzing the O-Line there is blocking scheme and player performance to evaluate.

First off. PJJ did NOT have a Good game Yesterday. Froholdt did NOT have a Good game Yesterday. Pff number clearly States that. When your Two best linemen have bad games then it’s hard to win. But! On a normal statsheet PJJ gave up 2 sacks Yesterday. If you look at the game that is not the case. PFF has PJJ with 0 sacks, 0 hurries and 0 pressures. Why the difference? Because the PJJ was not responsible for the sack based on the scheme.

The first sack that was a copy of the Jets sack. That sack is 100% on Kyler. The way They block a Quick pass, PJJ has to block inside and the blitzer has to pick-upped by the back Or slot. When there is No back to Pick it up, then Kyler didn’t adjust Or Kyler decided if wasn’t needed. Problem is that if it wasn’t needed then the Ball should be out in 1 Second.

The sack he gave up to Williams, PJJ is doing his job. He slides to get Williams to go around and sets up the pocket. Unfortunately, there is inside pressure and Kyler Cannot step up - sack. If PJJ was an elite pass-protector, he would have shut down Williams entirely. He didn’t, But objectively he did the job he was supposed to do at an acceptable level.

I’m not overly concerned about PJJ. He is an Above average starter in pass-pro. He is a High quality starter in run blocking.

I wrote in my Bye analysis that the O-Line is playing better than the talent suggest and that the scheme plays to the O-Line’s strength. The Seahawks prevented that scheme and we saw the quality of the (especially guards) players when put in a situation not suited for Them.
 

Chopper0080

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Family is asleep in South East Asia and had time to watch the game in peace.

Before we start with the Offense, I want to give huge credit to the defense. They played their butts off and held the Seahawks to 10 (16) points. They more than did their part for us to win the game.

The Seahawks Defense dominated this game. Plain and simple. How did it get to this? A couple of observations.

SCHEME
Seahawks
Have to give credit to the Seahawks and the defensive scheme Mike MacDonald drew up. Seahawks secondary is very very good and MacDonald relied on them to do their part in order to get creative with the fronts and scheme upfront. Maybe MacDonald read my bye-week analysis with ratings of the O-line, because it seems like their plan was to exploit the weaker parts of the O-line.

The Seahawks did a couple of things that really got the offense out of sync.

They continuously shot the gaps inside, which resulted in three things:
1. it made it impossible for the tackles to downblock with Froholdt and playside G pulling
6:41 left of 3Q - Williams shoots the gap inside forcing PJJ to close 2.5 gaps. Impossible to make and loss of yards
2. It occupied Froholdt and made it difficult for him to reach the second level.
3. It isolated their DTs against Colon and Brown in the Cardinals scheme and the guards lost that match-up all day.
0:52 left of 1Q - Colon has to seal on a runplay. Gets pushed into the backfield, never gets his hips squared in the right angle of the run and gets called for a holdning penalty. This is a prime example of what I mentioned in my bye week analysis. Froholdt and PJJ are asked and make these blocks frequently, the Gs are not.
7:50 3Q - Brown is isolated with Murthy II and pushed back into the runner.

Basicly. It forced the guards to make blocks that they have been protected from doing most of the season and it showed.

The Seahawks showed multiple fronts and Froholdt overall makes the right calls to block them, but having to adjust for the shown blitzes that would either come or not spread the line assignments and again isolated the guards.
1:30 left of 1Q - Colon 1-1 with Williams resulting in a hit and fumble that was called incomplete
1:07 left of 2Q - double inside with a stunt. Froholdt comes out looking bad, but the fault is actually on Colon as he leaves Froholdt alone


Cardinals
This was a painful game to watch and I have to wonder what the bye week was used for.

The O-line looked not ready coming out of the gate. 1st play from scrimmage Colon is basicly still sitting in his stance as defenders are running by him. On the second sack of the first drive. Froholdt decides to watch the game instead of playing the game. REAL bad look as the pocket is formed for Kyler to step up or run. Froholdt just let go of his block.

My biggest issue with this game however goes on Petzing and Kyler and the adjustments during the game.

1. The first sack of the game on the 1st drive is an exact copy of the sack that nearly got Kyler killed against the Jets. Quick real play with a back-side blitz. Kyler never looks, never checks down and gets smoked again. How can you NOT have prepared for that blitz? Kyler cannot hold the ball that long for that play against that front.

2. The standard formation is out of 12, but as explained above the Seahawks kept shooting the G gaps, so why did Petzing, Kyler and perhaps even Froholdt insist on continuing with the pulls. If the Seahawks plays nickle and we play 12, then use zone blocking. There was an excellent example on a good Benson run in 3Q, where the blocking was a simple straight ahead block with 2xdouble teams on the DT and Froholdt making an excellent job to reach the 2nd level.

3. But for some reason this was also the call against the a 8 man box with 5:39 left of the 2nd and Connor is stuffed. Against a 8 man box, Kyler should have audibled into a pass to take advantage of the 8 man box. The flexibility of the 12 personal that I have praised Petzing for earlier was not there.

3. The Seahawks plays press outside with an aggressive pass-rush. Where were all the quick passes? The single quick slant in the game to MHJ was an easy completion. Why not more? Why no dump offs from Kyler?

4. If the 12 personal is to be a success and have the flexibility of both run AND pass there much be other targets than McBride and MHJ against a defense like this. Yet, Higgins only had 2 targets. Reiman 0 targets. It's time to involve Reiman in the passing game, because the Seahawks had zero respect for him in the passing game.

5. Where was Dortch? 12 plays and often the dump-off target. 2 targets in the game. Zay Jones had 22 plays and 0 targets?

6. I would like to see more designed rolled out passes for Kyler. Take the pressure of the O-Line and keeps the defense on their toes.

We got out-schemed and the O-line had a bad showing in this game.

However! It looked worse than it Actually was

You must be registered for see images attach
Lots of good nuggets in this.
 
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