Brandon Coleman battles through struggles against Eagles

Breaking down Coleman's performance against the Eagles

Commanders rookie left tackle Brandon Coleman had a tough outing against the Eagles on Thursday Night Football. It must be said that Coleman, along with fellow tackles Andrew Wylie and Cornelius Lucas were all listed as questionable entering the game due to ongoing injuries. Seeing the top three offensive tackles all on the injury report on a short week is never a good thing. But Coleman managed to pull through and start the game, playing every snap instead of rotating with Lucas as he had to start the season. 

The Eagles boast a strong group of pass rushers up front including edge rusher Josh Sweat, who typically lines up and rushes against the opposing left tackle. Sweat was the man Coleman faced most in this game. Sweat offers a good speed threat off the edge, but it became clear pretty early on that Coleman would struggle with Sweat’s ability to convert speed to power if Coleman was left unassisted on the edge. 

This was one of the first plays of the game for the Commanders. They attempt a play-action pass, hoping the threat of the run will slow down the edge rushers enough. Coleman isn’t provided any help against Sweat. As such, his first priority is to cut off the speed rush to the edge. Sweat anticipates that’s what Coleman’s plan would be so he bursts quickly up the field off the snap and then transitions from speed into power. On his third step, he actively looks to engage in the block with Coleman, getting his left hand inside onto Coleman’s chest. From that position, Sweat can convert his speed into power and extend his left arm out, locking out the elbow to begin a long-arm rush. 

While Coleman is still focused on protecting the edge, Sweat’s focus changes to the inside. Having landed that inside arm well and extended it into a long-arm rush, he drives Coleman backwards and opens a lane inside. Sweat then drops his outside hand and rips through on the inside. He closes quickly on quarterback Jayden Daniels, who hastily gets the ball out to the flat on a checkdown. 

Those type of rushes gave Coleman plenty of issues in this game. He appeared focused on trying to prevent Sweat beating him outside that he would leave the door open inside. Sweat did a good job taking advantage of that situation. 

Like before we see Coleman working one-on-one against Sweat without any help. At the snap, Sweat looks to burst up the field and Coleman actually has the foot speed to match him and cut him off. He throws a two-handed punch as he looks to engage with Sweat, but Sweat gets the better of him. Sweat stays much lower and turns his body to extend one arm out. Coaches will always tell you one arm is longer than two and you can see that clearly here. Sweat lands his long-arm punch to Coleman’s chest and uses his other hand to clear Coleman’s outside hand. By clearing the outside hand, Sweat can then drop his own outside hand and rip inside of Coleman like we saw before. It’s a nice up and under rush and Sweat breaks through Coleman’s block to get inside for the sack. 

With Coleman struggling to handle Sweat on his own, the Commanders adjusted their protection plan. They shifted the running back to his side of the field and used the back to chip on the edge.