Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots October 26, 2017 - The Chargers' Pass Rush

Episode Date: October 26, 2017

Mark Schofield dives into the numbers and the tape to break down how the Los Angeles Chargers are rushing opposing passers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. Hey, everybody. Mark Schofield from Locked On Patriots. And I just wanted to let you know that today's episode is brought to you by our great friends at mybookie.ag. You're Locked On Patriots, your daily podcast on the New England Patriots, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Good morning, everybody. Welcome on into Locked On Patriots for Thursday, October 26th.

Mark Schofield here in the big chair as I am five days a week. Bringing you Patriots news, notes, analysis and more. Today's show brought to you by our friends over at mybookie.ag. Check them out. Use promo code LOCKEDON when you sign up. A little bit more on our great friends over at MyBookie later in the show. We're going to dive into the Chargers' pass rush here today. Going to talk about their defense as we look forward to Sunday.

Also want to plug some things here at the outset. Reminder, LockedOn on patriots.com. Check that out every day for more on the new England Patriots. A lot of the stuff that I talk about on the show, I'll break down over there. I got a breakdown of new England's first touchdown drive against Atlanta. That's up there on the site right now. Look for a piece a little bit later on this chargers pass rush,

which we'll talk about today also want to plug made an appearance over on locked on Jaguars a couple days ago came out Wednesday actually talks a little bit about Lamar Jackson some of the misconceptions about him as a quarterback prospect you might want to check that out. Also, every Thursday, I have a weekly radio spot on the playbook over at Sportsnet 650

out in Vancouver, British Columbia. Get a chance to talk to the host, Satin John, two great guys. You can check that out if you want. Again, it's at 1 p.m. Eastern every Thursday. You can check that out. Sportsnet.ca slash 650.

You'll find a link to the playbook there. You can also check out past episodes. They make those available as well. Gives me a chance to talk about quarterback stuff, passing game stuff league-wide. But I always work in some good Tom Brady talk, so that's also something you can check out. But let's start to dive into this Chargers defense here,

and I want to start with some numbers, some statistics. Because despite their poor start, both in terms of wins and losses, and their defense's slow start, both in terms of wins and losses, and their defense's slow start. This pass rush, this pass defense, is something to be very concerned about as we look ahead to Sunday. As we get into the numbers here,

23 sacks from this Chargers defense. That's fourth most in the NFL right now. They're giving up only 185.4 passing yards per game. That's fifth best in the league from a defensive standpoint. Only the Carolina Panthers, the Cincinnati Bengals, the Jacksonville Jaguars, and the Pittsburgh Steelers are giving up less per game. One of the new sort of en vogue stats when it comes to quarterback play is adjusted net yards per attempt.

It's a formula where you take passing yards, you multiply, you have a multiplication factor for touchdowns, you subtract interceptions and sack yardage lost, divide that by attempts. I know, it's math. But a lot of people point to that as perhaps one of the newer, better statistics to measure quarterback play. Maybe it's better than quarterback rating that we've used in the past or even QBR, which is a newer statistic. People point to ANY as sort of the new gold standard for evaluating quarterbacks. So you can also take that and look at what defenses are doing, what defenses are giving up by that statistic.

Chargers have given up an ANY of 5.3 this year. That is 10th best in the league. And if you're curious, Tom Brady's A&Y right now is 8.25. Second best in the league behind only Alex Smith. So that's one of those something's got to give situations, right?

And finally, I've talked a little bit about Football Outsiders. They have their DVOA. They have a DVOA system for pass defense, run defense. They adjust it every week after the games. Right now, Football Outsiders has the Chargers as the eighth best pass defense in the league. Before we get into the Chargers personnel,

I want to take a moment and remind everybody about the great opportunity with our friends at mybookie.ag. Hey everybody, Mark Schofield from Locked On Patriots. Ever since I've been in the podcast business, people have been coming to me for advice. Usually it's questions like this. Hey, who do you get this weekend, Pats or Jets? What should I do in the Texans versus Raiders game? Hit the over or hit the under? And I've been trying to give you some

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We can start with Joey Bosa, second year defensive end out of the Ohio State University. You'll have him coming off one edge most of the time. On the other edge, you'll usually see Melvin Ingram, a more veteran player. He's your defensive end slash outside linebacker hybrid player. And we'll talk about them, but there are some names that are flying under the radar perhaps that we need to be aware of and talk about. Damian Square, their nose tackle, number 71. Tenny Palapoy,

a backup defensive end, number 95. Chris McClain, another backup defensive end, number 40. And Jeremiah Adichu, another backup defensive end, number 97. And now you might be asking, why are we talking about backups? It's because, and I te tease this in Wednesday's show, it's because of their NASCAR package.

They will bring these guys onto the field and have three, four defensive ends up front to try to get good matchups in the past Russian game and to get pressure on the quarterback. But let's sort of start with their sort of base look here. And all these plays are from last week's game against Denver. I've got breakdowns on them going up over at LockedOnPatriots.com. And this is sort of a first and 10 situation. We get a look at sort of how their more base package lines up.

And they still have three defensive ends on the field for this. They have Melvin Ingram. He lines up in that wide nine alignment. So he's well outside the left tackle alignment so he's well outside the left tackle he's so far outside the left tackle they have a tight end in a 2 point stance and Ingram is still lined up outside of him

then Tenny Palapoy again he's a backup defensive end but they line him up in the B gap, the gap between the left tackle and the left guard. He's in a three-point stance. Damian Square, their nose tackle, he lines up in the opposite A gap. So he's on the left shoulder of the right guard, in between the center and the right guard. And then on the other edge, you have Joey Bosa.

He's in a three-point stance in sort of a wide nine alignment outside the right tackle. That's kind of their base pass rushing package. So you've still got three defensive ends on the field. One of them, Ingram, in a two-point stance. And on this play in question, they don't really do anything exotic. It's just straight speed and power rushes from the edges. They get it blocked up fairly well.

They handle Palapoy on the inside. They get a double team on Damian Square. And the right tackle does a pretty good job on Joey Bosa. But Ingram, Ingram does something here that we talk about when we get to draft season. Transferring speed to power. Because he uses a speed rush upfield.

He runs the arc. And the left tackle kicks slides with him. And at some point, these two players are going to come together. And it's at that moment, after sort of starting upfield, when Ingram turns the arc, turns that corner to get towards the quarterback, that's when he transfers that speed to power

because he gets into that left tackle and he drives that left tackle backwards right into Trevor Simeon for the sack. He basically uses the left tackle as a weapon to sack the quarterback. Again, nothing exotic Nothing exotic here. Nothing crazy from a scheme perspective. It's just using that wide nine alignment to get that momentum, to get that speed rush off the edge. And when it comes time to make contact with that left tackle, transferring that speed, that momentum into power, and then using it against him,

driving him backwards into the quarterback for the sack. But they could also get pressure with those backups. If you're watching the game on Sunday and you hear the announcer saying, oh, Melvin Ingram, Joey Bosa, they're heading to the sidelines, that doesn't mean you can get excited. That doesn't mean that the Patriots offensive line can take a playoff. I'm going to talk about another first and ten play against the Broncos. And here it's more of a even

more standard offensive alignment. You get Jeremiah Adichu, the backup defensive end. He lines up just a little bit outside of the left tackle. Just kind of on his left shoulder. Damian Square, their nose tackle. He lines up in the A gap between the center and the left guard. Palapoy still in the game. They use him on the inside even though he's listed as a defensive end. He's in

that B gap between the right guard and the right tackle. And Chris McClain. The other backup defensive end. He's head up. On the tight end. So you've got two backup defensive ends on the edges. You've got Palapoy. Another backup defensive end. Where they use him as a defensive tackle.

But this is kind of their B squad edge group. So what happens? Strip sack of Trevor Simeon for a fumble. And again, it's the speed rush on the outside. Because remember, it's Chris McClain who gets to him, and he's lined up over the tight end, meaning the right tackle, it's a tough alignment for him because he's got to try to get wide.

It's basically like a wide nine alignment given where Chris McClain starts. And he just runs right around the right tackle. Trevor Simeon tries to escape, tries to break the pocket and roll to the left, but McClain chases him down from behind. Simeon doesn't do a good enough job of securing the football,

of getting it away, getting it tucked. McClain strips him for the sack, the fumble, charges football. So again, we see that sort of wide nine alignment come into play. The ability to use speed off the edges.

And as we're about to talk about, they'll do that when they get their NASCAR package, their speed package on the field. They can do that with a four-man front. Again, talking about a play from LA's game

against the Broncos. This is one of the opening plays of the game. And Simeon actually manages to get a completion on this play. But again, we get Chris McClain onto the field now. He lines up outside of the left tackle. Palapoy, remember, he's a defensive end

now they kick him even more inside he's in the A gap now between the left guard and the center Melvin Ingram a guy we usually see on the outside on the edges he's in the other B gap he's between the right guard

and the right tackle and Joey Bosa he's in that wide nine alignment. Well outside the right tackle. So now you've got four defensive ends on the field. Two of them, Ingram and McClain, are in two-point stances. And what happens here is this. We've talked about this. Getting athletic edge types on guards

because that's exactly what happens. Off the snap, Ingram, he's over the right guard. He takes one quick step to the inside towards the A-gap with his right foot, and what does the right guard do? Wildly over-corrects. Wildly over-compensates to that side. Ingram then cuts through the B gap. So to look at this from the guard's perspective, the guard sees that first quick step.

He steps and mirrors it towards his left. And then when Ingram tries to cut to the other side through the B-gap, he's trying to now scramble back to his right. The guard doesn't have a chance because he's not quick enough to handle a move like this from Melvin Ingram. Ingram, again, an edge outside linebacker type. This is a quick move. And it's really tough for a guard to stay with this, especially when you put yourself at a disadvantage by overcorrecting, overcompensating with your first step.

So Ingram blows by the guard, and Simeon sees this. So again, now he's pressured and he's flushed to his left. But that puts him right in the path of McClain, who's now coming off the opposite edge. McClain's now in position to drag him down for a sack. So, Simeon uncorks this awkward, off-balance, back-foot-type throw, where he just lofts it up in the direction of a player. And the throw comes under such pressure, such duress that it's wildly underthrown, but the receiver is actually able to make the adjustment and get back and catch it. He goes on to fumble it and the Chargers recover. But stripping all that away and getting back to what we're talking about here there's how that NASCAR package

their speed package could impact the pocket you get Melvin Ingram in a two point stance matched up against the guard he makes one quick move with his right foot before cutting to the left and he's able to get right around the guard and impact the play right when it starts.

One last play to talk about with this little speed package. And this is a play that kind of got teased yesterday when I was doing that Timeline Takes edition of the Locked On Patriots podcast. And I talked about a tweet that Mike Reese put out there where Melvin Ingram lights up Trevor Simeon. And this is that play. It's a third and six situation.

And Ingram actually gets flagged for a personal foul penalty here. I'm not sure if I quite agree with it. Again, this play will be broken down over at LockedOnPatriots.com, so you can see it as well.

He's flagged for sort of a blow to the head. I think he got his head down and towards his shoulders, but everything that happens up to that moment, again, is something to worry about from a Patriots perspective. This time, they have their speed package on the field, but they add an extra defender.

Instead of a four-man look up front, it's now a five-man look. They've got Chris McClain on the outside, on the outside of the left tackle. Ingram now, they kick him inside again. He's now on the left shoulder of the left guard. So you've got McClain

and Ingram both in two-point stances on the left side. And this is even crazier. Palapoy, a defensive end. He's now lined up head up on the center. So we've seen them move Palapoy all over the place.

You know, they put him in the B gap over the guards, on both sides of the formation. Now they've kicked him head up on the center. Looking at the right side now from the offense's perspective, they bring Jatavius Brown, a rookie linebacker, into a two-point stance. He's now in the B-gap between the right guard and the right tackle.

And then, yes, on the outside, Joey Bosa. They have an in-line tight end on this play. Bosa's outside of him. So he's well outside the right tackle. Now at the snap, they drop Brown. He doesn't blitz. So again, they're only rushing four here. But what's really creative here about what they do

is Brown shows blitz at the second, at the start, and that has to occupy the guard over him because he can't ignore him and go help somebody else, so Brown starts to show blitz, has to occupy the guard over him because he can't ignore him and go help somebody else. So Brown starts to show blitz, but then when the running back releases to the flat, Brown drops off into coverage. That leaves the guard sort of blocking nobody at this point, and he can't see what's happening sort of to the other side,

or basically behind him, because as the guard starts blocking Brown, he sort of turns his back to the middle of the field. So he can't see what's happening on the other side, which is basically behind him, and that's this. Palapoy, who started the play, had up on the center. He cuts to his right to attack the A gap between the center and the left guard. That occupies both linemen for a second.

Looping around into the vacated hole between the center and the right guard now. Remember, the right guard is occupied by Brown. The center is trying to stay with Palapoy, who's cut to his left. That parts the C for Melvin Ingram. This is that nut stunt. We've talked about it before, where that nose tackle cuts to one way,

and then the defensive tackle loops around behind him into the vacated alley. That's what this is. Only now you have two defensive ends doing it and they're doing it against a center and two guards. They don't have a chance of blocking Melvin Ingram here because of how well this is executed. And Ingram has a free shot,

a rutting start with a head full of steam at Trevor Symbium, and he unloads on him. Yes, it gets flagged for a personal foul. But everything until that moment is just textbook display of what the Chargers can do with this pass rushing package. So New England is going to have to be ready for this. Communication up front is going to have to be key. They're going to have to be smart, effective, and vocal when they make their exchanges.

They're going to have to do a great job of identifying where these guys are lined up pre-snap, who's on the field, what their alignment is. So protection is going to be key. But here's a potential trump card. Started this show talking about numbers. I want to end by talking about numbers. All those great statistics about their pass defense,

let's look at the Chargers' run defense. They've given up 140.6 yards per game on the ground. At a second most in the NFL. Only the Ravens have given up more on the ground per game. They are giving up 4.9 yards per carry on the ground. Second most in the league. Only Jacksonville has given up more. And returning to DVOA and Football Outsiders for one last second.

I told you how, according to Football Outsiders, Chargers have the 8th best pass defense in the league. Well, they have the 27th run defense in the league. So here's your trump card. Run the football. We've talked a lot about first down runs for New England. Since we first sort of addressed that topic, Patriots have continued to have success

running the ball on first down. They're now averaging through seven games, 4.79 yards per carry when they run the ball on first down. Only Kansas City at 5.87, Dallas at 5.24, and Atlanta at 5.16 have done better running the ball on first down. That might be the script. That might be the recipe.

Run the ball on first down. Get into those second and fives because then they can't the Chargers they can't bring on this speed package they can't assume pass and yeah we've talked about some plays where they assume it on first and ten and they bring on the speed package and they still might do that in these situations

but I think running the football makes a lot of sense for New England this week not only the speed package. And they still might do that in these situations. But I think running the football makes a lot of sense for New England this week. Not only do the Chargers have a shaky run defense, but it gives you the chance to establish the run on first down, get into those second and fives, second and fours, and keep that pass rushing package off the field. It makes a lot of sense for New England to go out and keep that pass rushing package off the field. It makes a lot of sense for New England to go out and do that. Now, as I've said

on this show in the past, you know, trying to get into the mind of a Bill Belichick and a Josh McDaniels has often stirred me, steered me wrong.

And they might come out and sling the ball all over the yard and throw it 65 times. But if it were me drawing up a game plan, if it were me coming up with a script, if it were me charting out those first 10 plays I expect to call, I'm looking to run the ball on first down.

My first and 10 call sheet is probably 85% runs. But we'll have to see about that. That's going to do it for your Thursday episode of Locked On Patriots. Hope you enjoyed it. Again, check out our friends over at mybookie.ag. Use promo code LOCKEDON when you sign up. If you can, drop in a note when you sign up. Tell them you heard specifically from Locked On Patriots.

That would be great. Friday's game day edition again. Asking for your help. Send in some questions. Either your thoughts on the Atlanta game, your expectations for this weekend against the Chargers, draft stuff, QB takes, book takes, book recommendations, whatever you want to hear about,

whatever you're curious about, I'm here to help. Help me help you. So until Friday, everybody, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriot.