Offense and O-line analysis - week 9 (Updated)

BACH

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Kudos to the D
This is meant to be an offensive analysis, but simply cannot write this without a shout out to the D for an excellent performance.

Great game by the D. Surprisingly high amount of pass rush. Scheme was more innovative and aggressive and it showed. Was it due to a bad Bears O-line? Putting pressure on a rookie QB? Or could it be, because the secondary and its young CBs are starting to play at NFL starter level? Hoping the latter. Williams and Melton are ascending players. I like it.

SCHEME
Back to the O....

I praised Petzing last week for adjusting the passing game and having a intermediate passing game with crossing routes instead of the outside deep passes to compliment the good running game. Most of the game was in 12 or 13 personel and Petzing has found away to make it work out of that keeping the defense on it's heels, because the offense can both run and pass effectively from that formation. This game was next level of that. The Bears clearly watched the Dolphins game and didn't want to let Kyler have the same type of game and put focus on shutting down the passing game. That left the running game WIDE open and Petzing attacked the Bears defense with multiple types of runs that left the Bears gassed. When the defense adjusted, so did Kyler and Petzing and the passing game was still fairly succesful in the intermediate route tree and several succesful dump-offs to the RBs

Before we go into that, one observation on Kyler. He was sacked 3 times. Obviously, that is not great, but the Bears had good coverage and it seemed that Kyler tried to stay more put in the pocket. Not saying that the O-line were good and it was pure coverage sacks, but at the same time no free rushers and the O-line formed a pocket throughout the game (some collapsed quicker than they should).

What I really liked about this game was the crazy variety of run plays. I've done a quick summary of what Petzing threw at the Bears in the run game.

1st & 2nd drive
Pretty standard gap blocking without much succes. Seems like the O-line was struggling with stunts.

3rd drive
Change of blocking scheme with immediate results.
Off tackle left with Adams pulling for a huge Connor run.
A wedge block with Higgins as lead blocker in motion.

Tight-End sweep to McBride.

4th drive
New blocking again.. This time misdirection pulls to the right in a designed run left.

5th drive
Another new twist.. Reiman motions out as a receiver than drives across the field to take out the MLB on a good Benson run designed to go right behind Reiman.
Off tackle with Colon & McBride pulling into the hole.
New Blocking again. This time an off-tackle right double trap by both guards that springs Connor for a big run with Froholdt holding the key block
Back to power out of 12.
The off tackle left with Colon pulling.
Then back to the power runs twice with Higgins laying an excellent block on the play, where Connor gets flipped.
On the Benson TD Reiman in motion through the hole with Colon pulling behind.

6th drive
Petzing "special" sweep with Froholdt and playside G pulling outside (the play repeatedly run against the Rams). Brown makes an excellent reach block. McBride as well. Bears get caught in blitz. Demecato 53 yards.

7th drive (2nd half)
Another sweep but this time from a passing formation. Zay Jones cracks the Edge. Beachum & McBride pulls and Froholdt is at the 2nd level with a key block.
Off-tackle with both guards pulling.
Fake hand-off, designed run by Kyler where he slides way early.
Another fake, roll-out pass to McBride.

Game, Set & Match.
This drive killed the Bears. The Cardinals had been running at will for over at quarter out of basicly only 3 different formations. They took over 5 minutes off the clock and showed with the designed run with zero effort from Kyler and play fakes to McBride, that there is a 2 more levels of this, if the Bears wanted more.

What this showed me is that all O-linemen incl. Adams and Colon & all 3 top TEs can operate seamlessly in this scheme and Petzing can send so many different types of runs at opposing teams and there were not only two more levels to the run game, but 2 more levels to the passing game with a crazy total of 7 targets to receivers. It just wasn't necessary... Higgins 25 snaps. Reiman 29 snaps, so almost equalized the snaps after a trend of Reiman taking more and more snaps.

O-Line Performance (draft grades below - final grades in attachments)

Overall grades points on the O-line:
5th best O-line over the last 4 games.
4th in the league over the season in effective run games.
2nd most effective overall offense in 12 and 13 personel behind Ravens.

Extremely high praises from PFF to Petzing and the offense for the ability to atteck with so many different formations.
In Cardinals wins - 49.2% run vs. pass. In Cardinals losses - 37.2% run vs. pass.

Final conclusion from pff: This is a VERY dangerous team, when you can win like this without Kyler having to play "hero-ball"


PJJ - PBLK 73.2 - RBLK 68.2 - 71.6 overall grade
Very average game by PJJ, but still at solid starter level.

Brown - PBLK 78.4 - RBLK 81.9 - 86.8 overall grade
Brown is really turning it on with the second game in a row with a very high grade. Great signing.

Froholdt - PBLK 53.2 - RBLK 78.9 - 77.8 overall grade
Old-School Froholdt. A beast in the run game and struggled per the grade in Pass-block. Not overly concered as Froholdt is asked to do so much more that the guards and almost always has man on man blocks in pass protection and the player asked to do the critical block to enable the pulls.

Colon - PBLK 74.1 - RBLK 81.5 - 85.9 overall grade
Very very high grade, which is of course great, but Colon benefits from Froholdt and OTs getting asked to do more. I do not believe I saw a single 1-1 block at the line

Adams - PBLK 79.1 - RBLK 72.6 - 76.9 overall grade
Surprise of the week is Adams having the highest pass blocking grade. If this is an indication of Adams having turned the corner, watch out.

Beachum - PBLK 68.6 - RBLK 63.9 - 66.8 overall grade
Solid all around.

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Cardsfaninlouky

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I noticed Colon pulling quite often & being very successful with his blocks, I think he's a nice addition. Adams is also playing well, the coaching staff were high on him during the draft, i guess he's finally healthy. Great analysis BTW.
 

Harry

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Higgins has proved to be a fine pick. Reiman was the best blocking collegiate TE and just gets better. He can catch as well. Colon has been much improved since moving right. Petzing is wearing down every tram they play. Jets will be tougher, but still the best strategy.
 

football karma

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what i have noticed: the rookies are improving as the season goes on.

Trey Benson early was indecisive, wanted to run east/west and didnt run behind his pads. The last two games he has been wayyyyyyyy better on all those things.

Max Melton had gotten better week to week. Still a way to go, but the growth has been encouraging.
 

ASUCHRIS

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Higgins has proved to be a fine pick. Reiman was the best blocking collegiate TE and just gets better. He can catch as well. Colon has been much improved since moving right. Petzing is wearing down every tram they play. Jets will be tougher, but still the best strategy.
Yep - it's so nice to see a Cards team that just mauls opponents, something we've never really done. Just running it right up their asses!
 

oaken1

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Nice writeup.

What I want to see is a breakout type receiving game from Tip.
We know he can catch but with the other weapons it rarely goes his way.
Right now Higgins indicates pass and Tip indicates run for the most part.
But if Tip gets a game like 6 or 8 catches for 70 yards and a TD that changes...
We could line up in 13 personnel and have 5 viable targets in pattern. We already know Tip can do this...but I want to see it during the season...to throw off defenses,and to see if Tip is comfortable being a focal point of the offense... it will protect us from injuries and help us keep moving the ball when the D is shutting down Marv and Trey... I don't want to need to turn to him in the playoffs and he has the yips because he was a focus in the gameplan all week.
 

Cheesebeef

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I would just like to give a mea culpa for earlier in the pre-season and game 1 and 2 where I questioned the O-line depth of this team, rather incredulously.

@BACH , you were right on there. Even with multiple injuries at RT/RG, this O-line is still pretty decent in pass blocking and they are just road-graders in the rushing attack.
 

Crimson Warrior

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Kudos to the D
This is meant to be an offensive analysis, but simply cannot write this without a shout out to the D for an excellent performance.

Great game by the D. Surprisingly high amount of pass rush. Scheme was more innovative and aggressive and it showed. Was it due to a bad Bears O-line? Putting pressure on a rookie QB? Or could it be, because the secondary and its young CBs are starting to play at NFL starter level? Hoping the latter. Williams and Melton are ascending players. I like it.

SCHEME
Back to the O....

I praised Petzing last week for adjusting the passing game and having a intermediate passing game with crossing routes instead of the outside deep passes to compliment the good running game. Most of the game was in 12 or 13 personel and Petzing has found away to make it work out of that keeping the defense on it's heels, because the offense can both run and pass effectively from that formation. This game was next level of that. The Bears clearly watched the Dolphins game and didn't want to let Kyler have the same type of game and put focus on shutting down the passing game. That left the running game WIDE open and Petzing attacked the Bears defense with multiple types of runs that left the Bears gassed. When the defense adjusted, so did Kyler and Petzing and the passing game was still fairly succesful in the intermediate route tree and several succesful dump-offs to the RBs

Before we go into that, one observation on Kyler. He was sacked 3 times. Obviously, that is not great, but the Bears had good coverage and it seemed that Kyler tried to stay more put in the pocket. Not saying that the O-line were good and it was pure coverage sacks, but at the same time no free rushers and the O-line formed a pocket throughout the game (some collapsed quicker than they should).

What I really liked about this game was the crazy variety of run plays. I've done a quick summary of what Petzing threw at the Bears in the run game.

1st & 2nd drive
Pretty standard gap blocking without much succes. Seems like the O-line was struggling with stunts.

3rd drive
Change of blocking scheme with immediate results.
Off tackle left with Adams pulling for a huge Connor run.
A wedge block with Higgins as lead blocker in motion.

Tight-End sweep to McBride.

4th drive
New blocking again.. This time misdirection pulls to the right in a designed run left.

5th drive
Another new twist.. Reiman motions out as a receiver than drives across the field to take out the MLB on a good Benson run designed to go right behind Reiman.
Off tackle with Colon & McBride pulling into the hole.
New Blocking again. This time an off-tackle right double trap by both guards that springs Connor for a big run with Froholdt holding the key block
Back to power out of 12.
The off tackle left with Colon pulling.
Then back to the power runs twice with Higgins laying an excellent block on the play, where Connor gets flipped.
On the Benson TD Reiman in motion through the hole with Colon pulling behind.

6th drive
Petzing "special" sweep with Froholdt and playside G pulling outside (the play repeatedly run against the Rams). Brown makes an excellent reach block. McBride as well. Bears get caught in blitz. Demecato 53 yards.

7th drive (2nd half)
Another sweep but this time from a passing formation. Zay Jones cracks the Edge. Beachum & McBride pulls and Froholdt is at the 2nd level with a key block.
Off-tackle with both guards pulling.
Fake hand-off, designed run by Kyler where he slides way early.
Another fake, roll-out pass to McBride.

Game, Set & Match.
This drive killed the Bears. The Cardinals had been running at will for over at quarter out of basicly only 3 different formations. They took over 5 minutes off the clock and showed with the designed run with zero effort from Kyler and play fakes to McBride, that there is a 2 more levels of this, if the Bears wanted more.

What this showed me is that all O-linemen incl. Adams and Colon & all 3 top TEs can operate seamlessly in this scheme and Petzing can send so many different types of runs at opposing teams and there were not only two more levels to the run game, but 2 more levels to the passing game with a crazy total of 7 targets to receivers. It just wasn't necessary... Higgins 25 snaps. Reiman 29 snaps, so almost equalized the snaps after a trend of Reiman taking more and more snaps.

O-Line Performance (draft grades - will update when final grades are avaialble)
PJJ - PBLK 73.2 - RBLK 68.2 - 71.6 overall grade
Very average game by PJJ, but still at solid starter level.

Brown - PBLK 78.4 - RBLK 81.9 - 86.8 overall grade
Brown is really turning it on with the second game in a row with a very high grade. Great signing.

Froholdt - PBLK 53.2 - RBLK 78.9 - 77.8 overall grade
Old-School Froholdt. A beast in the run game and struggled per the grade in Pass-block. Not overly concered as Froholdt is asked to do so much more that the guards and almost always has man on man blocks in pass protection and the player asked to do the critical block to enable the pulls.

Colon - PBLK 74.1 - RBLK 81.5 - 85.9 overall grade
Very very high grade, which is of course great, but Colon benefits from Froholdt and OTs getting asked to do more. I do not believe I saw a single 1-1 block at the line

Adams - PBLK 79.1 - RBLK 72.6 - 76.9 overall grade
Surprise of the week is Adams having the highest pass blocking grade. If this is an indication of Adams having turned the corner, watch out.

Beachum - PBLK 68.6 - RBLK 63.9 - 66.8 overall grade
Solid all around.

Thanks Bach! Wow amazing work and love the passion! You are an asset to this board!

I see Beachum is the lowest rated not least of all because I believe he's nursing a couple of injuries.

He's filled in courageously, and I appreciate him, but I'm wondering if Jonah Williams returns at RT will that give the line another boost? What do you think?

Probably hard to tell since we have such a small sample size of Williams in a Cardinals uniform?
 
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BACH

BACH

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what i have noticed: the rookies are improving as the season goes on.

Trey Benson early was indecisive, wanted to run east/west and didnt run behind his pads. The last two games he has been wayyyyyyyy better on all those things.

Max Melton had gotten better week to week. Still a way to go, but the growth has been encouraging.
Exactly.

I think this is a general misconception from us fans. Most rookies, even the talented ones, doesn't catch up until mid rookie season. Sure the 1st rounders often step right in, but of the entire draftclass, who actually looked ready from day 1? 1st rounders and Rabbit?
We see improvements from Melton, Benson, Reiman, Adams at this point.
 
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BACH

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I would just like to give a mea culpa for earlier in the pre-season and game 1 and 2 where I questioned the O-line depth of this team, rather incredulously.

@BACH , you were right on there. Even with multiple injuries at RT/RG, this O-line is still pretty decent in pass blocking and they are just road-graders in the rushing attack.
Well. I praises Gaines the most, so I wasn't exactly right either :)
 

Rohinaz

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what i have noticed: the rookies are improving as the season goes on.

Trey Benson early was indecisive, wanted to run east/west and didnt run behind his pads. The last two games he has been wayyyyyyyy better on all those things.

Max Melton had gotten better week to week. Still a way to go, but the growth has been encouraging.
Max looked great against the bears covering really good WRs
 

PJ1

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Thanks Bach. Great summary. JG said we would be physical and he has delivered.
 
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BACH

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Thanks Bach! Wow amazing work and love the passion! You are an asset to this board!

I see Beachum is the lowest rated not least of all because I believe he's nursing a couple of injuries.

He's filled in courageously, and I appreciate him, but I'm wondering if Jonah Williams returns at RT will that give the line another boost? What do you think?

Probably hard to tell since we have such a small sample size of Williams in a Cardinals uniform?
If he is fully back to his old level, I would expect status quo in pass-blocking and an improvement in run-blocking.

The scheme have the guards are making these crazy plays pulling all over the place. That looks Great in the Highlights.

Beachem Almost always has a TE next to him.

What Makes this happen? PJJ and Froholdt being asked to make the key block to enable the scheme. Been saying multiple times that the 2 keys of the Line is PJJ and Froholdt. If you look at the huge runs with guards and TEs leading. Those plays do not happen without Froholdt not only Takes on a NT 1-1 But also blocking them in the right angle to get the backside LB caught in traffic.

PJJ had an amazing play Where the run is off tackle Where the puller Takes out the edge, PJJ blocks the DT in a combo with Brown and then release to the MLB.

Maybe when Williams is back he Will be asked to do the same.
 
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