The Opening Drive 11/21: Raiders Blitz Plans and Friday Special Teams Analysis
Whether the Raiders will get after the rookie and how the specials did in Week 11.
Happy Friday, everyone. Today we dig into our usual special teams analysis of the week but before we get there I want to discuss with you the single biggest subplot of the weekend for the Browns success in Las Vegas: beating the blitz. Last week against the Ravens, Zach Orr and his defense dialed up a bunch of pressure looks to mess with rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders. They did a slew of different mug fronts (as you see below) and sim pressures.
With these sim pressures you don’t often get a full out 7-man blitz very often but what you do get is the deception of bringing specific players and then dropping others. Often times you will still only get four rushers, sometimes five, and then you get zone droppers on opposite sides. This concept is a trademark for defenses trying to manipulate offensive line protection and quarterbacks into mistakes. The Ravens had Sanders head in a frenzy last week.
Sanders’ data against the blitz and pressure situations paints a clear picture about where the rookie struggles most. Whenever Sanders feels pressure you will see him bring out the drafting tendencies and that has led to many issues.
The question to focus on is whether or not the Raiders will actually dial up some blitz concepts. They are among the worst in pressure percentage across the league but also rarely blitz. Pete Carroll’s trusted Cover-3 system is the trademark and they don’t often want to expose their weak secondary to one-on-one situations.
I do expect to see the Raiders try to dial up some more pressures than what you see above. They aren’t comfortable doing it, but with the Browns lack of weapons, a weaker offensive line, and a rookie with a propensity for mistakes against it, I would be stunned if you don’t see a higher blitz rate than their current 18%.
More than likely those pressure packages come out when the Browns are in 3rd and pass. The goal has to be to keep those third downs in the medium to short territory to alleviate the burden on Sanders. Let’s see how Tommy Rees manages it on Sunday.
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Below you will find your weekly Special Teams update in the form of EPA. Big bounce back week for the Browns as they move up to 25th from 31st in large part because they were solid on their special teams roles and they created a turnover. This is a welcome sight.
Punt Return
Gage Larvadain had four opportunities on he day but only was able to return one punt for 13 yards even though he should have caught it in the air. Can’t let those balls bounce near the 20-yard line as those become easy to be downed deep in your own territory but nice job getting something out of it. Later in the game he did a nice job fair catching a shorter punt to hold a punt to just 26 yards.
Punt Coverage
Corey Bojorquez finally had a solid day punting where he averaged 49.8 yards per punt and flipped the field on several occasions. He also pinned one deep in Ravens territory that should have been downed at the one yard line but the NFL has an awful set of rules on how the coverage unit must keep their body out of the end zone. It was also nice to see them pounce on a football when LaJohnntay Wester muffed a second quarter punt. The wind was swirling in that stadium.
Kickoff and Kickoff Return
This Browns only allowed a long of 33 yards on the day across four kick coverage opportunities but they almost let another slip through. There was over-pursuit off the returner’s left side and they were fortunate he ran into his own man.
Really poor day in return as they took six returns and the best they could muster was 29 yards as a long for the day. Two returns went for under 20 yards and another was called back for holding.
Field Goal and Field Goal Block
The Ravens kicked two short field goals on the day (24 and 25) so the Browns didn’t rush hard off the edge. They also didn’t make much of an impact off the edge opposite Denzel Ward in the Ravens 44 yard make. It seems like if it isn’t Ward, they don’t get close.
Andre Szmyt made all three of his kicks and his PAT. The kick mechanics were clean and the Browns also went back to tight ends off the edge and it was a better process. Szmyt has moved up a few slots on the kicker EPA rankings because of it.
Overall Special Teams Grade: (B) They didn’t do anything spectacular on their own but they did do a nice job recovering the muffed punt, kicking it better in both phases, and just doing their jobs. They could use better kick return blocking and more consistent coverage but tough to be too down on that performance.
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