BACH
Superbowl, Homeboy!
As promised, shifting format not to overlap with Gandhi's 10 takes and trying to create something different than two similar threads.
As I'm nerdy about the O-line and have most knowledge on the offense, I'll try to make an analysis of each game.
High-Level rant...
NFL has evolved into a more and more passing league over the last 10 years and we are seeing a shift of that. Over the last 3-4 years the defenses has countered this by becoming more and more complex with rotating coverages and overall lighter and faster. Best way to describe this is the defense putting up multiple "umbrellas" of coverages opening and closing at different times utilizing two high safeties in order to take away options for the opposing QBs.
We are seeing two trends from offenses to counter this.
1- Speed (KC, MIA, SF). Utilizing speed at WR and RB to mess up the umbrellas' timing and beating the two high safeties deep.
2 - Heavy (BAL, BUF, AZ, LV) - explore the lighter defense by having a heavier run game and showing multiple gaps that can be exploited by the power mismatch.
Overall observations vs. the Lions
This is a hard game to analyze, because the gameplan and scheme was quite different than the two first games + what we saw from Petzing last year. Watch the run game and how many pulls, fake pulls and inside runs out of an atypical formations for inside runs we had in the two first games. We did not see that in this game. There was a dramatic drop in 12 and 13 personal - best explained by the offense having 1 less snap overall compared to the Rams, but Higgins having 18 less snaps and Reiman having 17 less snaps. So I will no go as much into detail on the O-line as I intented and more talk about overall scheme.
It's obvious that the Lions has a very strong front 7 - the best in the league or at least top 3 in the league. The game plan was clearly adjusted to mitigate this meaning the O-line couldn't play to its strengths and the formations changed significantly. Jackson Barton played well for what you can expect from a 5th string OT, but the entire offensive scheme was also changed to help him. Perfectly understandable when you have a 5th string OT matched up against a top 2 DPOY candidate the entire game. There were an increase in chip blocks from TEs and RB and even skip pulls in pass protection (Barton and Hernandez block down and Brown skip pulls to block Hutch). This also contributed to change of scheme, but IMO Petzing abandoned the running game way too early and the team having a 66% pass play ratio.
O-Line performance
Scheme was different and decrease in run plays and less creative blocking and formation leaving the O-line to a more traditional hat on hat with more gap blocking in the rungame.
The conclusions of the game is "The cream rises to the top". Two players shined against a strong Lions' front 7 in PJJ and Froholdt. Both played really a good game.
I didn't see Froholdt have a single BAD block - doesn't mean that it was pure outstanding blocks, but no ERRORS earning a 74 rating on pff (top 10 at position rating).
Paris struggles on reach blocks and much better on straight blocking. He looked really good in pass block, but did give up the one sack to Hutch.
Maybe it was the lack of different looks that made the job easier for the Lions' defense or it was simply the quality of the Lions' front 7, but Brown and Hernandez did not have good games. The O-line tried in the beginning to deploy the multiple looks and various pulls, but unsuccesfully after the first drive. Brown was decent in his blocking, but Hernandez really struggled this game losing his 1-1 in pass blocking and creating hurries for Kyler.
Overall Gameplan
I said it on sunday and will repeat. We took a top 5 team in the league and the game went down the wire, so objectively the game was a success. I am, however, not pleased by the way the offense played. It started well, but the adjustments were not there. Not sure if that was on Petzing or Kyler - most likely a combination.
The success of this offense has been the creative running game that enabled a creative passing game from a heavy formation. The Lions took the running game away, but instead of continue to try to run and build a passing game of the usual formations, Petzing shifted trying to beat the Lions on top. That was a mistake IMO. The success of MHJ against the Rams was based on isolating him using the heavy formations and utilizing McBride and Higgins underneath. That was lacking. MHJ was never isolated and the Lions played everything underneath in man.
This is where the adjustments were not made IMO. I feel Petzing abandoned the run-game and the 12 & 13 personel too early and didn't use the passing games strengths to create mismatches well enough.
When abandoning the heavy formation, I do not understand the play-calling. Kyler tried to force it over the top to MHJ being doublecovered. The underneath passing was not great either due scheme or man coverage and all the WRs struggled trying to create seperation. Why not call what the defense gives you? I am missing the quick slants and quick outs for 6-7 yeards. We saw it in glimps with Dotch and Wilson, but why abandon this as well ? I think the "death by a 1000 papercuts approach" could have been successful in the game. It's clear that having Hutch against a 6th string OT in the last two drives changed that, but still feel hitting the short routes to Wilson and Dortch would have been more successful than hoping MHJ would win against double coverage.
PFF grades:
As I'm nerdy about the O-line and have most knowledge on the offense, I'll try to make an analysis of each game.
High-Level rant...
NFL has evolved into a more and more passing league over the last 10 years and we are seeing a shift of that. Over the last 3-4 years the defenses has countered this by becoming more and more complex with rotating coverages and overall lighter and faster. Best way to describe this is the defense putting up multiple "umbrellas" of coverages opening and closing at different times utilizing two high safeties in order to take away options for the opposing QBs.
We are seeing two trends from offenses to counter this.
1- Speed (KC, MIA, SF). Utilizing speed at WR and RB to mess up the umbrellas' timing and beating the two high safeties deep.
2 - Heavy (BAL, BUF, AZ, LV) - explore the lighter defense by having a heavier run game and showing multiple gaps that can be exploited by the power mismatch.
Overall observations vs. the Lions
This is a hard game to analyze, because the gameplan and scheme was quite different than the two first games + what we saw from Petzing last year. Watch the run game and how many pulls, fake pulls and inside runs out of an atypical formations for inside runs we had in the two first games. We did not see that in this game. There was a dramatic drop in 12 and 13 personal - best explained by the offense having 1 less snap overall compared to the Rams, but Higgins having 18 less snaps and Reiman having 17 less snaps. So I will no go as much into detail on the O-line as I intented and more talk about overall scheme.
It's obvious that the Lions has a very strong front 7 - the best in the league or at least top 3 in the league. The game plan was clearly adjusted to mitigate this meaning the O-line couldn't play to its strengths and the formations changed significantly. Jackson Barton played well for what you can expect from a 5th string OT, but the entire offensive scheme was also changed to help him. Perfectly understandable when you have a 5th string OT matched up against a top 2 DPOY candidate the entire game. There were an increase in chip blocks from TEs and RB and even skip pulls in pass protection (Barton and Hernandez block down and Brown skip pulls to block Hutch). This also contributed to change of scheme, but IMO Petzing abandoned the running game way too early and the team having a 66% pass play ratio.
O-Line performance
Scheme was different and decrease in run plays and less creative blocking and formation leaving the O-line to a more traditional hat on hat with more gap blocking in the rungame.
The conclusions of the game is "The cream rises to the top". Two players shined against a strong Lions' front 7 in PJJ and Froholdt. Both played really a good game.
I didn't see Froholdt have a single BAD block - doesn't mean that it was pure outstanding blocks, but no ERRORS earning a 74 rating on pff (top 10 at position rating).
Paris struggles on reach blocks and much better on straight blocking. He looked really good in pass block, but did give up the one sack to Hutch.
Maybe it was the lack of different looks that made the job easier for the Lions' defense or it was simply the quality of the Lions' front 7, but Brown and Hernandez did not have good games. The O-line tried in the beginning to deploy the multiple looks and various pulls, but unsuccesfully after the first drive. Brown was decent in his blocking, but Hernandez really struggled this game losing his 1-1 in pass blocking and creating hurries for Kyler.
Overall Gameplan
I said it on sunday and will repeat. We took a top 5 team in the league and the game went down the wire, so objectively the game was a success. I am, however, not pleased by the way the offense played. It started well, but the adjustments were not there. Not sure if that was on Petzing or Kyler - most likely a combination.
The success of this offense has been the creative running game that enabled a creative passing game from a heavy formation. The Lions took the running game away, but instead of continue to try to run and build a passing game of the usual formations, Petzing shifted trying to beat the Lions on top. That was a mistake IMO. The success of MHJ against the Rams was based on isolating him using the heavy formations and utilizing McBride and Higgins underneath. That was lacking. MHJ was never isolated and the Lions played everything underneath in man.
This is where the adjustments were not made IMO. I feel Petzing abandoned the run-game and the 12 & 13 personel too early and didn't use the passing games strengths to create mismatches well enough.
When abandoning the heavy formation, I do not understand the play-calling. Kyler tried to force it over the top to MHJ being doublecovered. The underneath passing was not great either due scheme or man coverage and all the WRs struggled trying to create seperation. Why not call what the defense gives you? I am missing the quick slants and quick outs for 6-7 yeards. We saw it in glimps with Dotch and Wilson, but why abandon this as well ? I think the "death by a 1000 papercuts approach" could have been successful in the game. It's clear that having Hutch against a 6th string OT in the last two drives changed that, but still feel hitting the short routes to Wilson and Dortch would have been more successful than hoping MHJ would win against double coverage.
PFF grades:
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