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The Wrong Football

~ A UK American Football fan writes about the game he loves

The Wrong Football

Tag Archives: Michael Bennett

AAF: Deshaun Watson

05 Sunday Nov 2017

Posted by gee4213 in Amateur Adventures in Film

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Tags

Breno Giacomini, Deshaun Watson, Dwight Freeney, Earl Thomas, Houston Texans, Justin Coleman, Kam Chancellor, Michael Bennett, Nazair Jones, Ryan Griffin, Seattle Seahawks, Will Fuller

I am running out of time a little bit this weekend, but with the injury curse hitting the Houston Texans and me planning to take a look at their offence versus the Seattle Seahawks defence – I thought I would look at the good and bad of Deshaun Watson whilst I still could this season.

To do this I’ve picked two plays from the first and second quarters which represent the pass that stood out to me, the interception, Watson’s longest run and the sack that lost the most yards.

The first of these plays was a fifty-nine yard touchdown pass to Will Fuller. In a way this is a simple play. The Texans lined up in 11 personel, with tight end Ryan Griffin initially lined up wide left and then motioning back onto the line whilst Deshaun Watson is stood back from the play to complete the shotgun formation. The Texans then run a simple play action pass, with the fake being enough to hold Seahawks safety Earl Thomas at his starting position for long enough that he is not able to turn and get over to a streaking Fuller to stop him catching the ball behind the defence and scoring a touchdown. The impressive thing about Watson on this play is that Dwight Freeney is coming off the right side of the defence and it is running back Lamar Miller who has to block him. This is not an easy assignment and Fuller can only shove Freeney to delay the rush, but whilst keeping his eyes downfield Watson shuffles in the pocket to avoid the rush and then throws a deep ball over the defence for Fuller to get under and catch falling into the end-zone.

If that was the good, the equalising touchdown for the Seahawks was an interception thrown by Watson on his next series demonstrates some of his youthfulness. Again the Texans lined up with 11 personnel in a shotgun formation, this time on third and ten, with Watson executing a straight drop and throwing an interception. Watson does look right before locking onto Deandre Hopkins coming across the field from the left and throwing the ball, but Earl Thomas simply sits in his starting position watching Watson and jumps the route to intercept the ball and takes it back for a touchdown. I have no way of knowing what Watson’s read should be for this play, but given that Earl Thomas is one of the league’s best safeties, I have to imagine that accounting for him should be part of this and this will be a pass Watson would love to have back..

The run that I want to talk about demonstrates the danger of an athletic quarterback. The Texans are lined up with 11 personnel again, still with Watson in a shotgun position but with Lamar Miller lined up to the left of Watson and further back while Ryan Griffin lined up as full back to the left and further forward of Watson. This is another play action play, but this time defensive tackle Nazair Jones gets good pressure while being held up by right tackle Breno Giacomini, but the pair are very close to Watson when he looks up from the play action hand off. Watson evades the pressure and having seen that Kam Chancellor and both linebackers of the Seahawks have dropped back into zones leaving plenty of space in front of him; Watson takes off and runs for a first down before he has to slide – a very safe way for Watson to pick up eighteen yards.

Towards the end of the second half on second and eight with fifty-two seconds left on the clock, the Texans line up in shotgun with an empty backfield. I am pretty certain they are in 11 personnel with Ryan Griffin lined up to the right of the line, and running back Alfred Blue lined up wide right, but it is hard to make out Blue’s number to be certain. What is clear is that the Seahawks are lined up in a nickel with corner Justin Coleman looking into the backfield from the right side of the defence. Coleman is lined up in a press position opposite the Texans’ stacked receivers on the left hand side of their formation, but when the ball is snapped Coleman immediately rushes the passer and does not get picked up at all. Coleman rushing from the right and Michael Bennett who lined up as left end meet as they sack Deshaun Watson. In this play Watson starts of looking right, and doesn’t sense Coleman’s pressure until it is too late for him avoid the sack.

So what do I make of this overall? There is a huge amount of potential in Deshaun Watson, and whilst his interceptions ultimately cost the Texans the game, without his play they would never have been in the game and how many rookie quarterbacks could throw for over four hundred yards against the Seahawks’ defence in Seattle. Yes Watson is athletic, but the pocket movement on the touchdown to Fuller is as exciting as the long run play. The injury is yet another frustrating one for a league that seems beset by them to franchise players, and it really sucks to have the rookie season of an exciting prospect cut short like this. However, it does seem like the Texans have a quarterback they can develop and I’m sure everyone will be excited about him next season.

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Week 7 Seahawks at 49ers

25 Sunday Oct 2015

Posted by gee4213 in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Aaron Lynch, Cliff Avril, Colin Kaepernick, Michael Bennett, NFL, Russell Wilson, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks

This game is possibly easier to write up than it was to watch. The 49ers were thoroughly beaten on Thursday night in a game that convincingly demonstrated the offensive line deficiencies of both teams, but the Seahawks looked more like the team we are used to as they ran out 20-3 winners.

Unfortunately for the fans in San Francisco, the 49ers first drive setup a familiar pattern for the rest of the game as they failed to move the ball or get a first down as they went three and out. They would have a further five three and outs in this game and punted the ball a ridiculous nine times. The opening drive included a play where Colin Kaepernick had lots of time in the pocket, and he found Vance McDonald for a yard, but that was the only time in the game that this happened. The protection was awful from the offensive line, and whilst the 49ers were trying to help Kaepernick by the extensive use of play action to provide simple reads, he was sacked six times and was hit a further eight. As a consequence the 49ers were unable to get anything going through the air with only four catches to going to wide receivers, a total matched by Vernon Davis on his own in a stretch where it looked like the 49ers might be able to take advantage of Seattle’s problems against tight ends this season. It was not to be, and combine this with a failure to run the ball or sustain drives at all, and it was all too obvious why they only scored three points.

If the 49ers offence was bad in this game, some credit must go to the Seahawks’ defence which looked a lot more like the frightening unit of recent years. In particular their defensive line was incredibly effective with Michael Bennett and Clif Avril combining for five sacks between them and seven quarterback hits as they terrorised the 49ers o-line and made life miserable for Kaepernick. The legion of boom looked more like their dominant selves, although this was not a stern test and the play of Cary Williams still needs to be monitored. More worrying still for this team is that they came into this game ranked thirty-first by DVOA in pass defence against tight ends, and if they give up six catches for seventy yards to tight ends against this offence, then they are going to continue to have problems. There is still time to turn things round, but this is something I will be keeping an eye on over the coming weeks.

In fairness to the 49ers, their defence looked pretty solid, although losing strong safety Antoine Nethea is going to hurt, but they got pressure of their own and picked off Russell Wilson twice. Some of this was due to the Seahawks bad o-line, but I was impressed with second year outside linebacker Aaron Lynch who had two sacks and a further two QB hits, and was causing all sorts of problems from the outside. The big plays they gave up to Russell Wilson will worry them, but the offence was giving them very little time off as the Seahawks had the ball for over thirty-eight minutes, and right now I would not be overly concerned with where their defence is despite their lowly ranking as it didn’t look that bad to me.

The Seahawks got back to their old formula on offence, with the opening drive a statement of intent as they repeatedly ran Marshawn Lynch, who looked much more like himself and was finally able to find the end zone after five previous snaps inside the five yard time on the opening drive, finishing the game with one hundred and twenty-two yard. The passing game was a bit more hit and miss with some big chunk passes going for twenty-three, thirty-six, and forty-three yards and a touchdown, but Russell Wilson also through two interceptions, one on a long bomb that I’m not sure why he threw the ball into double coverage, and one in the end zone where he did not see the safety. Wilson was again scrambling to keep plays going and they could have given up more than five sacks if he had not been so mobile. If they can keep the running game going then they can recreate the pattern that has served them so well in recent years, but it is still strange for them to have given up so much for Jimmy Graham and not utilise his skills more.

The 49ers played horribly in this game, and whilst they lost a lot of players in the offseason, it is still startling to see how quickly what was once one of the best offensive lines in football has fallen apart. They need more talent on both sides of the ball, but they have to find a way to generate more than one hundred and forty-two yards of offence if they are going to add to their win total this season.

We are going to need to see more than one sold win against a poor 49ers team to say that the Seahawks are back in the hunt, but it was a good start. However, they still need to find a way to provide Russell Wilson with better protection, and their trouble against tight ends could really hurt them if they can’t get it resolved.

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