Brian Robinson shines in Commanders win over Broncos
Breaking down running back Brian Robinson’s performance against the Broncos
Washington Commanders running back Brian Robinson played a huge role in their comeback victory over the Denver Broncos this past weekend. As a runner, Robinson ran for 87 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries, while also converting what turned out to be a critical two point attempt. On top of that, Robinson added 42 more yards on three catches, bringing his total impact on the game to 129 yards, two touchdowns and a two point conversion.
Head coach Ron Rivera has spoken about how it’s taken Robinson some time to get used to new offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy’s system and how Bieniemy likes things to be run, but it appears as though Robinson is starting to get a good handle on things. In college, Robinson was more natural on gap scheme runs and while this offense does use plenty of gap scheme runs, it also calls for a lot of zone runs, which aren’t necessarily Robinson’s specialty. That being said, against the Broncos, he started to show some improvement in that area.
Here we see a wide zone run to the right with a tight end sifting back across the formation. Robinson aligns next to quarterback Sam Howell in the shotgun. Shotgun runs change the angles and aiming points for each run scheme, so it’s different than running wide zone with the quarterback under center, but Robinson adjusts nicely here.
Off the snap, Robinson aims very wide with the Commanders offensive line looking to generate as much movement as possible. As Robinson approaches his third step after securing the hand off, the path to the edge looks blocked but there does appear to be a lane developing inside for Robinson to cut back into. Robinson makes his initial cut towards the gap between right guard Sam Cosmi and center Nick Gates. As he approaches the line of scrimmage, however, the defender Cosmi is blocking gets some push back inside to close off that gap.
Robinson doesn’t panic and simply continues to cut his run back towards the left side of the line. There he finds that left guard Saahdiq Charles has moved the defensive tackle out of place with the help of left tackle Charles Leno, who is now peeling off to pick up another block. Tight end John Bates does a good job on his sift block to cut off the back side pursuit, opening up a big lane. Robinson works through that lane and bounces off some initial contact before being brought down past the first down marker.
Robinson’s improvement in the zone scheme continued later in the game.
This time we see the Commanders run a wide zone to the left, but this time from under center. They also add in a wrinkle of using a jet sweep fake with Curtis Samuel. Robinson’s path is different with the quarterback under center as he’s able to take a more direct path to the edge. However, as he approaches the edge, Leno loses control of his block, forcing Robinson to react. He cuts back inside where he finds a gap between Charles at left guard, who has his defender on his outside shoulder and Gates at center, who alongside Cosmi at right guard has cut off the back side of the run.
Robinson does a really nice job getting skinny and jumping through that hole before it closed quickly on him. From that point, he’s then up to the second level where his physicality can shine as he overpowers defensive backs trying to tackling him. The first tackle attempt comes from the defensive back pursuing from the back side. the defender dives at Robinson, who bounces off the tackle attempt easily while maintaining great balance. In fact, he uses the hit to help him spin out of a second tackle attempt from another defensive back.
From there, Robinson continues down the field where he drives Curtis Samuel into his block and helps him drive the defender backwards. The defender attempts to get outside to prevent Robinson running down the sideline, but Samuel is then able to kick him out and allow Robinson to cut inside of him. Robinson takes that path where he’s then finally brought down by safety Justin Simmons, but not before picking up 27 yards on the carry.
While Robinson is improving as a zone runner, he still remains efficient in other areas of his game that are strengths. He showed against the Broncos that he is still a very capable gap scheme runner and when he gets going, he’s incredibly hard to bring down.
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