What HAPPENED!? A deeper look at the two plays that ended the Baltimore game
It has always been said that the difference between winning and losing in the NFL always comes down to the team that makes the big plays. You never know when they are going to happen and which one will be the big play. That is why you have to play all of them 100% and to the best of your ability all the time. The most important play in football has and always will be... the next one. The two touchdown runs in the 4th quarter sealed the game in the Ravens favor. Many of us were wondering what happened and who was to blame. I will (as any coach does) go through the tape with you to disect what happened to our defense on these two critical plays. Here we go:
The McGahee Run
The formation is Baltimore's Tackle-over left (unbalanced) set. In ordinary fashion Dallas sets the strength to the overloaded side (their right). Spears is lined up in a weak 1 shade on the right eye of the Center. Ratliff is in a strong 3 (outside eye of the left Guard). Canty in a 9 outside of the over Tackle. Ware in a loose 9 outside of the 3rd Tackle (the TE Heap is on the offensive right with the Guard). Spencer is in a 5 outside Heap. By alignment Thomas (55) is responsible for the weak-side B gap. This is the gap between the Right Guard and TE. James has the strong-side C gap between the 2nd and third tackle. Hamlin should be the extra fitter on James' side and Davis the extra fitter on Thomas' side. The formation looks like this:
............................TB
.
............................QB.................... ........................Z
X.................. /Y..G..C..G./T..T/.T/
C..................L../../.E_/..N.../.E...R.............................C
....................../..W...........S
...................../..................\
...................SS...................._FS
When the ball is snapped, Dallas runs an "Eddie" line slant to the strength. This tells the End (Spears) he is responsible for the strong-side A gap (between the C and Guard on the right side). Now gap assignments move over 1. This tells Thomas he must now take the weak-side A gap and Davis has to fit into the weak-side B gap. Then we see the problem. As Thomas sees the double-team on Spears he must attack the Guard that gets up to his level with his left shoulder and spill the ball to the unblocked defender Davis. But he doesn't. He engages the Guard with his right shoulder, tries to look behind him, and re-direct too late. As Davis comes to fill his gap he finds Thomas in his way, whom while turning essentially blocks him. Hamlin takes a bad angle and misses and McGahee is off to the races. Spencer is also bad on this play. When he gets this base block by Heap, he needs to bench-press him off of him, fold over, and come flat down the line of scrimmage to make a play on the ball-carrier. He could have easily made this play, but he spends too much time mucking with Heap and not getting down the heel-line. As for Thomas, when he takes in the Guard with the wrong shoulder and not keeping his inside shoulder free, he creates a north-south seam through the heart of the defense. At this point the only thing that will stop McGahee is the goalpost if he hits his head on it. First Thomas, then Spencer, then Hamlin. DO YOUR JOB! PLAY YOUR GAP!
The McClain Run
This is one of the most common running plays in the game. 24 Power-O. Every lineman blocks down, pull the backside Guard to kick the End, and lead with the Fullback. This one is 90% on Spencer and 10% on James. Spencer is reading the outside knee of Heap. As soon as he blocks down, Spencer has to close on the pulling Guard, take his helmet and put it in the knee-cap of the pulling Guard. this will cause a road block and force the ball to bounce outside. James should be there to make this tackle. You can see that James is expecting this to happen and it doesn't because Spencer tries to run around the block to make the tackle. You never ever do this and the end result is why. It allows the hole to expand and allow the Fullback to lead up on the backer and he does. James gets too high on the block, doesn't stay square, and is blasted to the ground. Davis is bad here because he has to come in from outside-in and attck with his inside shoulder. Hamlin has to get lower and take the runners legs out from him. His effort here is pathetic. Above all though, Spencer is aweful. He has to sacrifice his body here to allow James to make this play.Again, DO YOUR JOB! PLAY YOUR GAP! Also, Bradie James you have to decide if you are the hammer or the nail. The nail always loses.
In conclusion these are only two plays in many, but two costly plays nonetheless. I can only think that had the offense been more productive and kept the ball longer over the course of the game, the defense would have been better late. There are only so many bullets an NFL offense can fire at a defense before they hit you on one of them. The less they have the ball the fewer opportunities they have to do so. Outside of these two plays the defense played well. They are directly responsible but they cannot face anybody in this league for that many plays and not expect to give up one or two big plays when they are provided no rest and relief from Romo and company. These are fixable problems but they are running out of time to do so. God-willing they will use this week in practice to cure these problems and get to the playoffs via a Philadelphia win. But, they can do this if the injury bug keeps them from practicing this week. Get out and practice. They will have the whole offseason to heal up if they don't. I hope this clears things up a bit.
