Preseason Notes vs. Redskins 8/25/11

[Shas]

Levoir (0/0): He played 70 snaps at RG with 8 missed blocks and 1.5 penetrations by my count. That works out to a score of .81, which is better than expected because none of his misses led to a TFL, QH, or sack. He was not penalized. He was asked to pull 7 times and found a block on 6, but I don’t think that’s representative of just how awkward he looks when moving. He looked like a tackle playing guard, but nonetheless, I don’t think he hurt his stock as a swingman too much.

Mattison (-1/-1): He played every snap Thursday. His blocking highlight (and that for the entire offensive line) came on Rice’s 18-yard run (Q1, 12:40). All 5 offensive linemen delivered a pancake on that play, which is the first in the years I have been using this method for OLine scoring. Mattison otherwise had some significant mistakes including a shared pressure with Levoir (Q2, 0;29), a QH by Bowen (Q1, 5:06), a holding penalty on the Shannon’s sack (Q4, 6:38), and the “entire offensive line” false start where it’s pretty clear he forgot the snap count.

Good assessment on LaVoir. I'll add that while he didn't let up a sack, his butt was saved by Ricky Williams who stepped up and decked the rusher LaVoir had badly whiffed on, to prevent a sack. And you're right, he was not as smooth on his feet as I expected. A lot of lunging and not sinking his hips.

On Mattison, just a side note that the holding call was complete BS. It was a terrible effort to stop the rusher, but it was in no way a hold.

[Tspot-D-Ravenator]

Reid (-1/-2): Reid is still having trouble with blitz recognition which in part led to the relentless 7 and 8-man blitzes the Redskins dialed up in the 4th quarter (5 7s and 2 8s in Q4 alone). By my count, Reid missed 7 blocks (all on running plays), allowed 3 pressures, shared a QH, and had sole responsibility for Kerrigan’s sack (Q1, 1:32). I like the fact that he was able to twice catch Kerrigan for a neutral zone infraction. There is clearly talent here, but I can’t see him on the field again after Labor Day.

Who's job was it to pick up Kerrigan on that interception? Kerrigan was right in Joe's face as he was releasing the ball. Rice and Leach went up the middle..

[NC Raven]

You can't go by a rookies reaction...particularly one who has not had an offseason and missed a week and a half of TC.

It looked to me like Smith got sucked up to the flat...Cary Williams was already chasing the guy running out there, Smith paid attention to him, got flat footed, and didn't pay Moss any attention at all.

Reed was playing the deep middle...how would he be able to come all the way over to cover the deep corner?

It looked like cover 1 or cover 3 and Smith simply let Moss run free.

Gruden (or maybe Jaws, can't recall now...) emphatically said that in that coverage, Moss is Smith's guy all the way.

[The Excellector]

From what I saw. Smith initially thought that it was Reed's assignment. However, Ed Reed handled the aftermath pretty well on the sidelines. You could see Reed standing near Chuck Pagano as he likely explained to Smith that it was he (Smith) who blew the assignment and that he shouldn't have called out Reed like that (Gesturing) on the field.

[Jsmoove]

Levior is tackle a guys his size and range its rather hard to move and turn in limited space at gaurd. Foxowrthless needs to go at this point.

[psuasskicker]

Gruden (or maybe Jaws, can't recall now...) emphatically said that in that coverage, Moss is Smith's guy all the way.

Jaws said he thinks Reed blew the coverage. This is far more likely. Smith looked to be playing a mid-zone on the play. Gruden tried claiming that Smith was caught peeking into the backfield and cheating up on the underneath receiver as if he thought the ball was going that way.

But that doesn't make sense with what Smith was actually doing. If that's what Smith was doing, he'd have been cheating up to cut off the underneath route. But he wasn't. He was pretty clearly standing in coverage of a specific area - which was about five yards deeper than the underneath route - until he saw the QB about to throw the ball, at which point he turned back to run to where the ball was headed.

I think it's more likely Reed blew the coverage on that one. We'll never know cause we don't know the coverage assignment, and it's very possible Smith thought he was supposed to play mid-zone and instead he was supposed to have the deep zone. But the way it was played, it looked like Smith had mid and wasn't responsible for that deep part, which would mean either Pagano has no clue how to run a secondary leaving an entire section of the field uncovered, or Reed was caught freelancing and out of position.

- C -

[Raveninwoodlawn]

I don't think Reed blew that...it wasn't 2 deep because there was no deep safety on the right side (granted...there was no WR on that side, but in a 2 deep, you still would want another guy deep to the right of him.

Cary Williams had the guy in the flat...looked like he was in man to man really with that guy. Considering that he was in the flat, I don't think the defense called for Smith to ALSO be covering the flat in a zone. He was really in no mans land, not covering the flat, and not covering the guy running right past him to the corner.

Really looking at the play, I know Reed sometimes leaves guys out to dry, but on that play, it's not like he was leaving to jump a route...Reed was backpeddling to cover the deep middle...I have a hard time believing that he just didn't know his responsibility there...and if he did immediately run over to the cover the deep left, there would have been nobody at all deep in the middle or left side of the field...that would have been a very weird and dangerous play call IMHO.

That looked like a rookie who got suckered in, and didn't get the correct call and was stuck in no mans land.

[RAVENOUS52]

Yeah, I thought the responsibility fell on Smith, who is still learning his position and the defensive calls.

Call it seniority benefit of the doubt, but I still think our secondary will perform well when the games actually count.

[Dark&Stormy]

My take is that by the time we saw Smith's reaction he was already trying to explain himself to Reed's criticism, who was on him quick. He seemed to argue his point a little before he realized he was wrong.
BTW, that PD on Moss before the td would have been a pick if the veteran Moss hadn't done such a good job of becoming the defender himself.

[Shas]

It was pretty clear Smith blew the coverage.

[SC_Raven_Fan]

There were several botched plays in this game. I'm still laughing at Flacco hiking the ball while Ed Dickson was in motion RIGHT AT THE MOMENT DICKSON WAS BEHIND HIM! Ed had to jump back to avoid tackling his own QB. comical.

As for Smith, he's the rookie, thus automatically wrong. It's like being a freshman at Poly :D

[psuasskicker]

It was pretty clear Smith blew the coverage.

Obviously it wasn't since there's no consensus on that at all, including from the media.

- C -