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The Defense, the Turnovers, and the Redzone Offense

Conditioning. With a half yard needed, we motion Zay Flowers to RB, and Devin Bush motions the three-stack of Isaiah McGuire, Jerome Baker and Grant Delpit to slide outside of our RT and Sniffer H-Back, Pat Ricard and Isaiah Likely.

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We run the fullback dive with Henry away from the stack, which is capable of picking up the yardage on its own. McGuire screams off the line in hopes of running down Henry from the backside of the play, but is unable to do so. Baker, lined up outside of the McGuire, is essentially there to contain, with neither him nor Delpit getting involved.

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Now check the next play out. We line up fast, we don't motion anyone. So McGuire is shading inside of the two furthest blockers. Baker is lined up on McGuire's righthand side. Neither is showing that they'll do anything other than crash inside, both looking to be involved left out of the contact on the previous play. Only Delpit is there on contain, and he's about to basically be in a one-on-two fastbreak against a mammoth FB and a stocky TE with room to accelerate.

To your point, Charlie Kolar? Chef's kiss. First, he seals. Then he gets a piece of Carson Schwesinger to spring the play into a TD instead of a 5 yard gain. But guys, what I can tell you, that second play likely does not happen without the first. The manipulation on back-to-back plays was fucking genius. One of my favorite calls leaguewide all year and it's on the heels of showing an attack, getting a reaction, expecting a counter on the next attempt and countering that counter. And it was executed to perfection, too.
This is a good breakdown but also just makes me sad that we can’t just convert those basic runs like we used to. If there’s anything that would piss me off as a coach, it’s that.
 
I think Faalele had taken a lot of undeserved flack early in the season, but I definitely think he's earned the callouts over the last few weeks, and I think today was probably the worst performance of them all based on the live eye test. The number of straight up missed blocks is unacceptable. I know they don't believe the other options they have are any better but I also can't see how you can continually watch this tape and say that we're rolling with the same old, same old. At some point, you just have to try something and see what sticks. Our inability to do anything meaningful on critical downs is a continued knife in the back.

i genuinely do think he was ok the first few weeks

but the last 3-4 weeks for Faalele have been abject
 
A part of me has thought maybe we're being conservative on purpose. Then with Harbaugh saying something along the lines of build then be sudden. Can't remember the quote. Then I watch them play and it's hard to believe it. Running seems to be "improving" while pass blocking is abysmal. Also when Ricard is in as an extra blocker doesn't it make more sense to keep him in the backfield? Him on the line doesnt feel like it has been effective

just in general i think we need to use pistol more - these shotgun runs are not working...
go back to pistol and get extra blockers in front of Henry
 
Ricard's block to the outside on Andrews' trickery run was simply awesome. The right edge block was very good too.
Kolar and Ricard made that play happen, no question there.

The outermost corner must have lit up when he saw Andrews running right at him on fourth down, then immediately shit himself when ricard popped out from behind the clutter.

I love what we’re doing with the andrews tush push, defenses are gonna get desperate in fourth and 1 situations against us despite short down and distance being by far our worst situation
 
3 PDs today for Chidobe Awuzie, including the one at the end. I don't know that Brandon Stephens breaks that up. Awuzie has been such an underrated signing. So far, just 179 yards given up on the year on a burn rate of only 51.6%. And the 5 pass deflections ties the most Stephens had for us in any of his 4 years.
This post deserves a thumbs up and an angry (Stepehens)
 
This is a good breakdown but also just makes me sad that we can’t just convert those basic runs like we used to. If there’s anything that would piss me off as a coach, it’s that.

Thank you, and look, to your point. If we could convert that 3rd and 1 without priming the next down, more power to us. But Henry's getting nailed in the backfield seemingly on every short-yardage attempt. It's infuriating. But I also would not have called The Hurricane on 3rd and 1 for that reason. That play was assembled out of the self-awareness of our own flaws. At this point of the season, barring personnel changes, our short-yardage woes on standard plays are here to stay. The gimmicks at least get some positives out of those failures.
 
Browns have such a tough defense. Why do they suck that bad?

Unfortunately for them, they've let their OL fall apart and they just don't have the guy at QB. They're a quality starting QB and two starting caliber linemen away from being formidable.
 
i know teams been doing it vs us but why does it seem like the spy is working much better vs us now
A lot of the time the Guards (and the rest of the line, to be fair) are so far into the backfield that Lamar is having to move around people, or try to squeeze through a narrow gap, even to get started on escaping the "pocket". It's killing his mobility and it's the same when he's trying to step into throws. The space he's trying to operate in is disappearing before he can even use it.
 
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