Breakdown: Wade vs. Heyer

[GTripp0012]

I will not have the chance to do a full breakdown this week. I go to school in Grand Rapids where I DVR the Sunday games, but I will be heading back to Chicago for the weekend tonight due to Thanksgiving and will not have access to my game tape.

I did take the chance to rewatch the 2nd half today, and specifically I had my eye on the right tackle position. Todd Wade was injured on the initial drive of the first half, and gave way to rookie RT Stephon Heyer. Here are some of my quick reads from this:

• Neither one seems to be adept at picking up blitz. On the draw play to Randle El, Greg Ellis brought pressure from the outside. Heyer did not make the adjustment, doubled on Marcus Spears, and Ellis came around and made the play.
• Heyer can be beat at the point of attack, but once he gets his feet balanced, there is no way you are going to move him back. He does a better job of getting the defensive lineman's hands down than any player on the team. He's so quick with his hands that defensive linemen are almost better trying to beat him to the outside.
• Wade is the better run blocker of the two. Wade has made big strides over the last few weeks in the way he attacks the linebacker level. His improvement definately shows.
• Heyer is an adequate run blocker. He's quick off the line, and again he can get overwhelmed at that point of attack. At times, he forgets to stay low going into the block. Hes a FAR superior backside run blocker than Wade is. He did not allow Ellis to cross his face once in the game. This was significant since after Wade's injury, a strong majority of our runs went to the left side. The Cowboys just won the battle up front on that side.
• Part of the reason we threw so much in the 2nd half is that that left side run is just a bad matchup against Dallas. Since we didn't trust Heyer to win the battle at the LOS, we really didn't run all that much at all.
• The only times Heyer was beat in pass pro was because he was unable to run the rusher behind the quarterback. Heyer can be had by the speed rush.

Overall, I'd say Heyer is a better RT for the type of offense we'd like to be. So that's going to be it for this week's breakdown, and hopefully I can throw out a better one next week.