Offensive GT Review -- Philly's Run D now Scorched Earth

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The outcome of this one was amazing for a few reasons. Probably for no greater reason than that the Eagles defense usually plays a lot better when it has a lead. The Redskins offense was able to keep the ball out of the hands of the Eagles offense for pretty much the entire game, which is more impressive when you consider that the defense and special teams spotted the Eagles a 14-0 lead before the Redskins had run their fourth offensive play.

This week, and from every week on, I’ll move the offensive summary paragraph to the front. I’m doing this for two reasons: 1) it is a critical part of the entire summary that I sometimes half-ass if I spend an hour typing before I get to it. 2) The statistics I use are far more explanatory if I tell you what I saw first, and use the stats to back up the argument, rather than just throwing a series of numbers at you and telling you what to make of it at the bottom.

Summary: The Redskins made a bunch of offensive mistakes in this game. There were no perfect series. Santana Moss was completely taken away by the Philadelphia game plan. The pass blocking struggled early on, and the Eagles defense confused the Redskins. So if all the above is true, how did the Redskins dominate? Two major things: Campbell was money on third downs in the second and third quarters. Even considering the three dropped passes by Antwaan Randle El, Campbell still found him over the middle multiple times on third down. Number two, Chris Cooley was great on Sunday. He was often covered by a safety or a linebacker against the blitz, and he was open every time the Eagles brought pressure. This helped Campbell make up for the OL’s shortcomings when all he had to do is know where Cooley was going to be. Finally, the offensive line beat up the Philadelphia interior tackles and linebackers in the second half, and Clinton Portis had his best half of football as a Redskin. This was possible because the Eagles refused to move a safety into the box fearing that the moment they did so, Campbell would just audible and hit Moss. The Eagles might have given Asante Samuel a deal worth $57 million, but the coaching staff over there is too smart to think that he can handle Santana Moss on an island.

Now lets hit the stat sheet and dole out some well-deserved credit.

Jim Zorn – 74 plays called

35 passes (47%) {4 screens. 14% of all passing plays}
39 runs (53%)

Personnel Packages:

Fullback - 22 (30%)
2 TEs - 13 (18%)
3+ WR - 41 (56%)
4+ WR - 3 (4%)

Zorn doesn’t yet have a lot of reason to go to the 4 WR set, especially since Cooley or Portis has to come off the field, but he clearly drew up the formation against Philly.

Shotgun - 14 (19%)

This is the first game that I would say that the Shotgun was a significant cog in the overall gameplan. Clearly, the evidence says that Zorn was planning to come out and throw it all over the yard. However, after the mess that was the first drive, and after Clinton had a few nice runs off the 15 play script, Zorn simply adjusted for the shell coverage the Eagles were playing to stop Moss and decided to run the ball.

That, my friends, is the number one reason that Jim Zorn’s team is 4-1, and Al Saunders’ offense ranks 30th in total offense. Has Saunders’ been taking notes? If he hasn’t, I think we’ll have a blood bath at FedEx on Sunday. (I wanted to make a lamb’s blood joke, but nothing came to me. Got a good one? Put it in the comments.)

Passing Efficiency

Vital Statistics
Total Adj. Pass Yards - 190
Total Adj. Y/PA - 5.43
Passing Success Rate - 40%

Some early game blocking issues really de-railed the passing game early, but they played much better in the final three quarters. It’s hard to post an above average success rate when your first successful play in the passing game comes on your third drive.

Here’s how the receiver performance broke down. You WILL notice a lot of interesting things:

(targeted, receptions, catch %, y/a)
Chris Cooley — 10, 8, 80%, 11.0
Antwaan Randle El — 7, 3, 43%, 4.7
Devin Thomas — 2, 2, 100%, 13.5
Clinton Portis — 2, 2, 100%, 7.0
Ladell Betts — 1, 1, 100%, 7.0
Todd Yoder — 1, 1, 100%, 3.0
Malcolm Kelly — 0, 1, 0%, 0.0
Santana Moss — 0, 1, 0%, 0.0

Cooley “wins” all the statistical categories for receivers, of course, only two met the qualification of 4 targets. And yes, Randle El’s day was horrific, but he was the only player to throw for a touchdown on either team.

I don’t think it would be a mistake to say that the passing attack was mistake-laden all day long. Campbell bailed out his team on third down often enough to keep the sticks moving and keep control of the ball. Cooley played great, but outside of that, not a whole lot of slack being picked up for Santana Moss. He’s just NOT replaceable at this point in the season.

Devin Thomas had two first down receptions, and as critical as I’ve been of the guy, that did not go unnoticed.

Offensive Line

I said at the open that one of the keys to the game was when the OL dominated the Eagles smallish interior defensive lineman and linebackers. They did what they had to do to keep the Eagles’ attack at bay. With that said, this unit was not a strength in this game. Overall, I’d say they did an average job, all things considered. I understand that exotic blitz package put a strain on OL communication, but the communication was piss poor in the first half. Way, way too many free rushers. Only one sack, but that was a criminal play by the offensive line where the entire RIGHT SIDE decided to take Brodrick Bunkley out of the play. This while the Eagles came with an overload blitz on that side, leaving Chris Cooley to block Juqua Parker one on one. With the way Parker dominated Jon Jansen in this game (and I’m not blaming Jansen, that’s just a mismatch), Cooley should never be anywhere near Juqua Parker on a passing play. However, there was that, and then Brian Dawkins blitzed off the corner. Ladell Betts whiffed on the block against Dawkins, and gave up the sack, but Parker wasn’t far behind him. The line needed to shift it’s protection to get Jansen on Parker and Cooley/Betts would be responsible for Dawkins.

If Campbell is calling the protections at the line, it’s possible that Jim Johnson just fooled him a few times. However, on the play in question, the Redskins were in max protect (7 blockers), and the Eagles only brought 5 rushers. Last season, C Casey Rabach had the same issue with not knowing when to shift the protection, and ended up in a lot of double teams on nose tackles while Campbell got crushed.

The good news is that Randy Thomas was much, much improved this week, and though Pete Kendall struggled in run blocking at times this week, he and Chris Samuels pitched another near perfect game. While I mock Rabach for his knack for getting his QB killed in pass blocking, he really came out and attacked in the running game these last two weeks. He’s frequently getting the the second level and that makes a big difference in the size of holes that Clinton Portis and Ladell Betts see. Mike Sellers and Chris Cooley were both excellent again for the third week in a row in driving guys off the edges. Fred Davis had a pair of nice blocks in his first serious action at TE, INCLUDING the seal block that sprang Portis’ 21 yard rumble. Jon Jansen played his RT role very well, all things considered. Though he appeared overmatched by Juqua Parker’s pass rush, he got the best of him most of the time in the running game.

There’s no doubt in my mind though that when Stephon Heyer is 100% (and only when), he’s the best option at RT. Jansen is much more than a stopgap in the meantime, and he probably won’t see another elite pass rushing left end until Heyer is healthy.

Rushing Efficiency

Vital Statistics
Total Rush Yards - 189 [note, Campbell’s scrambles were included in pass yardage]
Rush Yds per play - 4.84 (!)
Rushing SR - 54% (!!)

Did I mention the running game is why the Redskins won?

Clinton Portis — 29 carries, 5.0 YPC, 1 TD, SR of 52%
Um, yeah, Clinton Portis is having his best season as a Redskin. Send that guy to Honolulu!

Ladell Betts — 9 carries, 4.9 YPC, SR of 67%
Okay, so it really doesn’t matter who is running the ball. Betts is having a nice little rebound season after last year. On a per play basis, Betts was even more valuable in this game than Portis was. Of course, that would be discounting the guy with 30 key touches, so we’re not going there.
No crazy misdirection plays this week, although they did run an end around reverse pass for a touchdown!

Total Offense

Vital Statistics
Adj. Total Yards - 379
Adj. Yds per Play - 5.12
Success Rate - 47%

The Redskins are 4-1 against the toughest schedule in the NFL through 5 weeks. The rest of the division still has the toughest schedule in the NFL ahead of them. The next time the Redskins have to play an opponent that they won’t be heavily favored against, they have a chance to be 7-1 or 8-1.

It’s great to be a Skins fan right now!