Late night bullshit: Direckshun is mad at the run defense.

[Direckshun]

This will be an ongoing thread this week.

I'm going play-by-play through each of the Raiders' 32 run plays (average: SIX-POINT-FOUR ypc) and I'm going to shame the fuck out of who is blowing up this shit.

I will start this tonight. I will not finish it tonight. But it's going to take however long it takes, or a week max if I don't finish it by the Panthers game.

[Direckshun]

FIRST PLAY OUT OF THE GATE

1st quarter, 15:00

Yeldon takes the handoff out of the shotgun and hits the leftside B gap for 4 yards.

Chiefs are ALREADY in nickel, like, to start the game. Howard is shading the center to the left, and Poe is directly over the RT. The only player we have at the LOS where the play is going is Zombo, who's standing up to the outside shoulder of the LT. He is easily blocked out.

Howard sees the play going behind the LG and bursts to eat up the gap, which he does excellently. However Yeldon just darts up the gut to the space Howard vacated. Both guards release to the second level and negate Wilson and DJ, and Poe is like a mile away from the middle of the line.

Wilson does wriggle free and take Yeldon down immediately.

This is actually pretty good run defense out of the nickel.

[RealSNR]

I love it when you talk dirty

[Direckshun]

1st quarter, 13:01, 2nd and 10

Dumb playcall by the Jags.

They give Bortles the option to hand it over to Chris Ivory up the gut or tuck it and go himself. He fakes the handoff to Ivory and runs right into the teeth of a Chiefs D that has completely swallowed the line of scrimmage, gaining four.

Chiefs are again in nickel. Hali is technically a down lineman off the LT's outside shoulder, Poe is right over the LG, and Chris Jones is over the RG. Dee Ford is upright off the RT's shoulder.

Ford explodes, unblocked (by design) and eats up Ivory. Ford's descent forces Bortles to tuck it and run right to where Ford vacated. DJ was walled out of the play by a lineman.

Chris Jones read it and was just a step behind Bortles, managing to bring him down as he cross the line of scrimmage. Parker would have forced Bortles down a yard or two later.

[Nickhead]

umm, it was the jags bro, the jags. not the raiders :D

[Direckshun]

1st quarter, 8:07, 1st and 10

Play action fake by Bortles, hands it off to Ivory who plows right behind the LT for a gain of 10 yards.

We are, again, in nickel. This is the third run play against the Chiefs nickel defense -- there's yet to be one against our base defense. Poe is in the 1 tech off the center's right shoulder, Howard is shading the LT's left shoulder, and Hali is in a three point stance on the same side, even farther out. And I'll record this for posterity sake since the play plowed through the LT, but DJ is standing about three yards off the LOS directly over the LT.

So what the hell happened here. You had three guys in the area where the play was directed (Howard, Hali, and DJ) as well as two other guys close by (Poe and Wilson) and yet it goes for 10.

Far as I can tell, here's what happened:

Hali blows upfield, forcing Ivory to cut in. Howard (at least I think it's Howard?) is double-teamed by the C and RG and is completely blown out of the play, creating a gigantic hole for Ivory. DJ reads the play initially as going off tackle, but reacted late to Hali shutting that lane down, and is waaaay late getting back to the hole.

Poe gets some pretty good penetration as the RT can't quite get to him, but it doesn't matter, Ivory has already barrelled through. Wilson is effectively negated by the RG who goes to the second level and puts him on rollerskates.

DJ doesn't get a hand on him til he's 8 yards down the field. First down Jags.

[Direckshun]

1st quarter, 7:23, 1st and 10

Out of a shotgun, Bortles hands it off to Ivory for another romp, this time off the RT, for 14 yards. God.

The Chiefs are actually in base defense here.

What's truly maddening here is that the Chiefs have a shit ton of personnel right at this side of the line. Two down lineman (Jones in the 3 tech and Poe in the 1 tech) are to the right side of the line. Ford is standing off the outside shoulder of the TE next to the RT, and Parker is at the LOS in the TE's face. How did we give up 14 yards running into this crew?

Well, it may have been just exploiting our playcalling, but Jones looped behind Poe in a stunt up the left side of the line, leaving a hole behind that Ivory eventually ran through. Poe blows up the center but couldn't fill the lane. Ford ran far wide, blocked by the TE, and Parker was bulldozed by the RT.

Ivory doesn't go down until Berry goes for his ankles about ten yards down and DJ comes over to put him down.

[Direckshun]

1st quarter, 6:52, 1st and ten

Very next play, the Jags are in a run game groove here. Out of a shotgun, Bortles hands it off to Ivory who again plows through the B gap. Chiefs have a ton of folks fly to the gap, though, and it only goes for 3.

We are again in nickel. Hali is in a three point stance off the LT's outside shoulder. Poe is three-teching it against the right side of the OL, and Howard over the LG.

Both down lineman do a good job here. The LG gets Howard pushed back a yard or two, but he sheds fast enough to get to Ivory just as Ivory reaches the LOS. Poe rhinos over to the hole Ivory is trying to hit and gets to him as well.

The play may have tried to go wide, but Hali cut off that angle. Wilson does a solid job here, too, as he helps clog up the lane, allowing Howard the opportunity to recover and make the tackle.

[Direckshun]

1st quarter, 1:44, 1st and 10

Bortles is finally under center, and has a three-receiver bunch formation off the LT side. He hands the ball off to Ivory who barrels through that blocking formation and rips off a 43 yard run. Christ.

So let's survey the fucking wreckage here. The Chiefs are in nickel with three down linemen. Far as I can tell, it's Nunez-Roches off the RG's right shoulder, Jaye Howard in 0-tech, and Reyes off the LG's left shoulder. Ford is well off the RT's outside shoulder, and Zombo is so far off the LT's outside shoulder that there are two receivers, one of them a TE, between Zombo and teh LT. Nelson is basically on Zombo's rear. DJ is playing middle field.

The play is to go wide off the LT. Hali has been blocking this route so far in the game, and Zombo tries to do the same, shooting directly upfield to try to force Ivory inside. Instead, the Jags' third receiver in the bunch formation bumps Zombo inside, allowing Ivory to bounce outside. DJ flinched at the start of the play in the other direction, and was nowhere to be found.

Once Ivory is outside, he's got nothing but DBs in front of him. The two corners are blocked by two receivers (Gaines sure looks like he's being held), and a pulling guard to rub Berry out of the play. It's off to the races while DJ tries to recover from the other side of the field (he doesn't), Parkers tries to lower the boom to take Ivory down (it doesn't), and the 290 pound Reyes has to sprint 40 yards downfield to catch Ivory (which he barely did). At least that's impressive.

[jjchieffan]

So that big running play had Poe and Jones on the bench while RNR and Reyes were our ends? That explains lot. This is is where losing Allen Bailey hurts. Our 1st string DE is on IR, second stringer is taking a breather, and the Jags exploit our 3rd stringer for a big gain. Ugh.

[Aspengc8]

Hard to evaluate this stuff without any film/vids attached.

[Buehler445]

Buehler445 was pretty disgusted too. You should however, point out the good stops too.

[philfree]

We miss Bailey.

[ThaVirus]

Berry is the best tackler on the team and he's quite the enforcer. He laid probably 2-3 really good licks yesterday, including one that sent Bortles flying on his ass. If I had to guess I'd say Bortles is probably 245. That was impressive.

Our issues with run defense lie in the box. We're getting washed and failing to make solid tackles.

[Rasputin]

Berry is the best tackler on the team and he's quite the enforcer. He laid probably 2-3 really good licks yesterday, including one that sent Bortles flying on his ass. If I had to guess I'd say Bortles is probably 245. That was impressive.

Our issues with run defense lie in the box. We're getting washed and failing to make solid tackles.

I think several times we had to knock people out of bounds to stop them.


Oh DJ had a nice licking tackle I remember too. He usually does. I could argue that DJ is the best tackler but more than likely it's a tie.



Fucking Peters whiffed a tackle then Sorensen hit the dude when he was out of bounds but I blame Peters because he should have made the tackle.

[Direckshun]

So that big running play had Poe and Jones on the bench while RNR and Reyes were our ends? That explains lot. This is is where losing Allen Bailey hurts. Our 1st string DE is on IR, second stringer is taking a breather, and the Jags exploit our 3rd stringer for a big gain. Ugh.

I'd argue that it wasn't the DL who failed the Chiefs on that play, it was Zombo.

Zombo and Hali had their assignment to cut off that wide run and force the runner inside. Hali succeeded at it (or at least has so far, in the 1st quarter), Zombo was unable to do it and it allowed Ivory to get outside with only DBs in front of him who were all being blocked.

[jjchieffan]

I'd argue that it wasn't the DL who failed the Chiefs on that play, it was Zombo.

Zombo and Hali had their assignment to cut off that wide run and force the runner inside. Hali succeeded at it (or at least has so far, in the 1st quarter), Zombo was unable to do it and it allowed Ivory to get outside with only DBs in front of him who were all being blocked.

Yeah, perhaps so. But still. If our starters were in on the line, Poe would have probably commanded a double team freeing up Howard to take on that TE. then maybe Zombo is able to clog up that hole.