Teaching Points (How Diche Blows Up a Poorly Conceived Play)

Mike McCoy and Sam Bradford have both said recently that they are trying out a number of different plays to see which ones fit their personnel. They said that they are going to sit down and chart the plays that they like best—-and scrap the plays that they don’t like.Here is a play to scrap—-for good—-from the playbook Authentic D.J. Humphries Jersey , with all of the reasons why.Shotgun formation (Josh Rosen #3), single RB (Chase Edmonds #29) left of QB—-sweep right to Edmonds, where McCoy wants RT Andre Smith (#71) to down block on DT Robert Nkemdiche (#90) so that C Mason Cole (#64) and RG Justin Pugh (#67) can pull and lead the sweep around the corner.Pre-snap observation—-once again we are seeing sloppy stances and play giveaways from the offensive line (atypical of a Ray Brown coached line).Look at RG Justin Pugh, pre-snap. He’s lining up and shading a half yard back from the center and tackle, which tips off that he’s going to pull on the play. Diche sees this and is already thinking attack mode.With Diche’s quickness off the snap, there is no way that Andre Smith is going to be able to make that down (reach) block. It would help if Smith took a flatter angle, but asking Smith to reach block on Nkemdiche is completely unrealistic.Not only does Diche blow past Smith off the snap, he takes out Mason Cole who, like Justin Pugh, is pulling on the play.After being blasted backward by Diche, Cole quits on the play which nearly allows Diche to get all the way to RB Edmonds.If you want to keep this play, you do not try to pull both Cole and Pugh and you makes sure that Cole helps Smith take care of Nkemdiche. Notice that on the backside, LT D.J. Humphries (#74) and LG Evan Boehm (#70) are pulling with the flow as well. But from their angle, it would be better to get downfield to the second level—-as both of them just get stuck and stopped in traffic. Look at Boehm’s feet—-it makes one question whether you would ever try to pull him. Play power with him, not finesse.Pugh has to give himself up because of the play side penetration by the ILB and DT Corey Peters (#98)—-when you pull you are taught to take out the first flash of color (opponent’s jersey color)—-but Pugh doesn’t pick up the penetration and heads to the second level. Maybe he was thinking that Cole (supposedly pulling right behind him) would take care of the penetration—-but that too is a mistake.The ILB (long dreads—-can’t make out the number), sees the flow and the pulls and storms the nearest gap, which further slows the play down to where by the time Edmonds gets started on the sweep he is met by Corey Peters and the chase ILB Josh Bynes (#57) for what would be a 2-3 yard loss.The TE (can’t see his number) misses badly on his down block of Peters—which begs another question—-do the Cardinals have a TE who can deliver a good down block on the best run stuffing DT on the roster?I have seen teams try to run zone blocking sweeps from a shotgun formation, but it’s a busted play waiting to happen.With the Cardinals’ current offensive line personnel Womens Mason Cole Jersey , they are best suited for a power running game. A cutesy finesse play like this with all its moving parts and unrealistic assignments is made to order—-for the delete button.What’s the best news about this play? This is exactly why the coaches are raving about DTs Robert Nkemdiche and Corey Peters. This play manifests Nkemdiche’s tremendous quickness and power—-to a tee—-or, better yet—-to a TNT.Cardinals’ Futility at Running Back Today, Seth Cox and I are going to tag-team our analysis of the Cardinals poor use of its running back personnel. Seth will be outlining OC Mike McCoy’s history of sub-standard RB play, while I will be focusing a little more strictly on McCoy’s questionable use of the entire RB room.First of all, it is very difficult to imagine that after 5 games, the Cardinals’ stud RB, David Johnson is not even averaging 50 yards per game on the ground. His rushing line is: 74/242/3.3/21/48.4. As Seth will graphically show you—-Johnson has been used almost exclusively as in inside the tackles runner. Defenses are loading the box, calling full-scale LB run blitzes and appear to know exactly when McCoy calls a run—-typically on the majority of 1st downs and almost always on 2nd and 10.Equally troubling is how McCoy is under-utilizing Johnson in the passing game. There has been talk of moving Johnson around to throw to him off of motion and to line him up in the slot to take advantage of coverage mismatches. This type of creativity has been glaringly absent from the game plans to date. Johnson is only averaging 3 catches a game. The one time McCoy ran him on a corner route he scored a 30 yard TD. If you take away that one 30 yard reception, Johnson averages only 6.4 yards per catch in 14 receptions. For a player of his ability, that stat is alarming.The Cardinals #2 RB, rookie Chase Edmonds is only averaging 2.8 yards per carry on 14 rushes, for an average of 7.8 yards per game. In 9 receptions, Edmonds has 39 yards for a 4.3 yards per catch average. That average would have improved had Edmonds not dropped a 3rd down flat pass versus the 49ers that was wide open with only one defender trailing him from the side.To this point, Edmonds is an enigma. When Steve Keim drafted him, Keim said he likened Edmonds to a star NFL RB, but didn't say which one. Many fans seem to think Keim was referring to former Eagle Brian Westbrook, who was a dynamic dual threat. However, Edmonds’ patient Womens Patrick Peterson Jersey , feel for the gap style is nothing like Westbrook’s. And Edmonds has yet to show an extra gear.The Cardinals actually have a RB on their roster with that extra gear—-someone should perhaps re-introduce him to coaches Wilks and McCoy. His name is T.J. Logan. Logan is a no-nonsense downhill runner who hits the hole in a flash. In the pre-season, did we ever see a run like this from Chase Edmonds or any other RB not named David? On this play, Logan is shot out of a cannon and not only does he hit the hole in a flash, he makes a good, quick deke on the FS that enables him to blaze into the end zone. If you notice—-one of the main reasons why this play was a home run—-it was because the Cardinals were using a FB to isolate on the ILB. That FB (Elijhaa Penny), who was arguably the best and most physical blocker in the pre-season, is now playing for the New York Giants, who poached him off of the Cardinals’ practice squad.Derrick Coleman, the FB whom the coaches kept, has been used sparingly—-but even on the few occasions he’s gotten into the game, he’s been used more as a receiver than blocker. In addition, McCoy uses Coleman on reverse FB dives in 3rd and short situations (which is a good play).The Cardinals need a FB who is a blocker first and then a runner and receiver. Again—-it’s hard to imagine that a healthy David Johnson is averaging a mere 56.4 all-purpose yards per game in 5 games. Chase Edmonds is averaging 12.1 all-purpose yards per game. And T.J. Logan has been watching the last few games from the sidelines as one of the inactives. Apparently the coaches believe that Brandon Williams is a better kickoff returner than Logan, even though Logan finished as the 4th all-time leader in all-purpose yards at North Carolina (4,926 yards) and was 2nd in the NCAA in kickoff return average his senior year (with a 32.9 average).In his college career, Logan scored 28 TDs—- 5 TDs on kickoff returns,19 TDs rushing and 4 TDs receiving.