Defensive Review: Giants

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My shortest game note of either side of the ball was in response to watching Ahmad Bradshaw lose three yards on a first down run in the third quarter. Here's how I described what I saw in my spreadsheet:

"Haynesworth is a god damn monster"

That's really all that needed to be said about the Redskins $100 (actually 48) million dollar man, who took the Center and the fullback in either arm, and exploded into the running back. As for the rest of the unit, well, a lot more words would be necessary.

There were a lot of great individuals plays made by the Redskins defense in this game, but perhaps that's the problem. Haynesworth, Andre Carter, Brian Orakpo, London Fletcher, LaRon Landry, and Carlos Rogers are all great individual talents, but the team pass defense just isn't there.

What is there this year that was not last year is the pass pressure. The Redskins forced Eli Manning into two or three mistake throws, and they did it by getting pressure on the quarterback. The two best edge pass rushers on the Redskins are Lorenzo Alexander and Andre Carter, but Chris Wilson and Orakpo are also threats to the quarterback's health. Some insiders I have talked to are disappointed that the Redskins pass rush isn't more consistently effective, but I think that's just the nature of pass rush. We think of a pass rush such as the Giants in Super Bowl 42 just pounding the quarterback consistently, but there's a reason that there isn't a more recent example of "consistent" pass rush.

What a pass rush can do is create big plays, such as sacks and fumbles. The Giants might have won this game because of a fumble. And while the Redskins might have gotten away with a facemask, they hurried Eli Manning 6 times, sacked him twice, and hit him another time. 3 quarterback knockdowns is perhaps a bit underwhelming over the course of a game, but add to that six hurries and the flurry of Eli mistakes that came with it, and the pass rush was probably adequate to win the game.

What wasn't adequate was the Redskins coverage against secondary and tertiary Giant receivers, and the run defense of Ahmad Bradshaw. Phillip Daniels is one of my favorite Redskins, but the guy just looked old out there. He was a non-factor against the pass and a liability against the run, and looked like a 36 year old who hasn't played since he was 34. Brian Orakpo makes a lot of questionable reads against the run; he just doesn't look comfortable with flow coming at him, he'd much rather chase the play (all the plays he made in this game were in pursuit in the backfield). Rocky McIntosh, who didn't have a particularly bad game, overran two or three plays which a back like Bradshaw can make him pay for (and did).

Outside of Daniels, the Redskins defensive line played exceptionally well. Alexander, Carter, and Haynesworth were outstanding. Griffin looked like a young version of himself when he was destroying Chris Snee, a match-up Snee usually wins. Jeremy Jarmon played well when he got snaps. I did not see Anthony Montgomery on the field in this game, and he has historically dominated against the Giants. Golston was adequate, and excellent on the sack he got that turned into a holding call against Rich Seubert. I thought Chris Wilson played very well in the multiple looks we use him for.

The Giants' plan in the passing game was obvious by who they targeted*:

• Carlos Rogers: 3 targets
• DeAngelo Hall: 7 targets
• Fred Smoot: 4 targets

The plan: if Smoot is in the game, throw at him. If Smoot is not in the game, throw at Hall or to Kevin Boss against Chris Horton. If you have to go at Carlos Rogers, try a double move.

Horton was his usual in-the-opponents-backfield self against the run, but he's still very questionable in coverage. In the second half, Reed Doughty played on every defensive play, with Horton only in during 3 safety formations. Doughty isn't as unbelievable in run support as Horton is, but he's better in coverage, and is as a good blitzer at the line.

Blitzin' Greg Blache

With Doughty back in the lineup, the Redskins are a much better team when the blitz. I charted 13 separate Redskin blitzes. 6 of these resulted in successful plays for the offense so it's hard to say the Redskins are better off blitzing than rushing four. I do think if Blache can generate additional pressure with the occasional blitz, it's worth doing, but the all-out blitzes have to stop.

Last season against Baltimore, the only touchdown drive of the second half for the Ravens happened because we inexplicably sent an 8-man all out blitz which somehow did not get to Joe Flacco. Blache scapegoated Carlos Rogers for the touchdown, ignoring that Rogers had been doing just fine against Derrick Mason all game before his double safety blitz failed to get any sort of pressure on Joe Flacco.

The only score of the day for the Giants on Sunday came on an equally inexcusable blitz. The Redskins were in the nickel, and blitzed both linebackers and both safeties at Eli Manning. Manning knew it was coming, so he got the ball out to Mario Manningham quickly. The blitz put Fred Smoot in an awful situation: having to come up and make an aggressive open field tackle with no pursuit to come before the first down would be reached. Smoot's tackle attempt only compounded the problem as he basically tried to faceplant at Manningham's feet in the hopes that he would trip somehow, but Smoot isn't going to make that play very often. Manningham went in for a touchdown after DeAngelo Hall came over and tried to think-push him out of bounds.

The play encapsulated the potential struggles of the post-Springs Redskin defense: Blache ran a crazy blitz because he was getting burned on third down too much, and because it's easier than playing a rookie DB. Fred Smoot is a walking mismatch on the field, and well, DeAngelo Hall is getting his $27 million whether Manningham scores on that play or not. Of course, if Springs had been banged up in the preseason, nothing would have been different. Maybe Byron Westbrook can play some defense. It's a longshot, but he can't be any worse than Smoot.

The Redskins also have a schematic issue with their seven and eight man blitzes: the fact that they don't have any bump and run corners outside of Rogers anymore means that the receivers get a clean release on more or less every play. It kind of defeats the purpose of sending a bunch of guys at the quarterback. On the third and goal play for the Redskins offense that preceded the fake FG touchdown, the Giants ran a seven man blitz in which they matched up in an aggressive man to man scheme and hit the four Redskins receivers and dared someone to get behind the coverage. The blitz got a free shot on Jason Campbell because there were 6 blockers and 7 rushers and the corners knew they only had to bump and run for about 5 or 6 yards, and then the ball would come out.

When the Redskins run these blitzes, they run no sort of aggressive coverage. Despite the pack of wolves coming at the quarterback, he's really not under any sort of specific duress: he can throw the ball whenever he wants to. The result is obvious: the Redskins never generate a hit on QB because professional receivers are smart enough to adjust their routes and take 10-12 yards against this defense, and they even have the time to run double moves if the QB is willing to stand in and take a hit.

The bottom line: the eight man blitz as the Redskins currently execute it is not a viable defense.

The Final Word

The Redskins defense is such a dominant unit up front that it's hard to imagine them giving a yard to any team that needs it this year, but I can see them having an issue with fast backs this year. The poor coverage is a result of questionable cornerback depth. For the Redskins to be a threat against the quarterbacks who will populate the playoff field in the NFC, they will need an unexpected development from at least one of their current 4-6 CBs on the current depth chart. I really do not see Fred Smoot making it through the season on the roster.

In the immediate, the Redskins can use three safeties to help limit rushing attacks and provide good zone coverage to limit damage as the defensive line creates havoc and forces mistakes and turnovers. This can work. It just can't work in the way the Redskins are currently executing.

Here are the macro-level defensive numbers for the game:

• 5.44 yards per play
• 39% success rate against
• 4 defensive penalties
• 2 turnovers forced
• 9 successful runs against

The difference between the Redskins and Giants in this game is not that the Giants were any better. It's that the Giants ran more plays, and when both quarterbacks fumbled: the Redskins fell on the ball for no return and the Giants returned the fumble for a touchdown. That seems like more good fortune than great football.

The game really didn't even come down to third down conversions, where the Redskins offense went 5/12 (41.7%), and the Giants offense went 6/12 (50%). In fact, once you take away the two drives to end the halves, the Giants had 8 total drives to the Redskins' 10. The Giants got to run 15 more plays than the Redskins at about the same rate of efficiency because they averaged 8 plays per drive to 5 plays per drive for the Redskins. They did that by converting twice as many first downs, seeing fewer third downs, and they did that by playing well on all downs.