Commanders disconnected on defense

Looking at some interesting quotes from the loss to the Giants that suggests Washington’s defenders aren’t at all on the same page.

There have been some interesting quotes doing the rounds after the Commanders loss to the Giants this week. Giants wide receiver Isaiah Hodgins was asked about how the Commanders defense was looking to play them and gave some insightful quotes via The Washington Post’s Tramel Raggs. 

"They play a lot of man, so for us we do a lot of meshes. Trying to get some picks and make their defenders pick themselves for our receivers. They were kind of struggling with the meshes that we had and we [had] seen that and started calling them even more."

Hodgins was then asked if he saw the Commanders adjusting as the game went on.

"Not really. There main plan seemed to be that they wanted to play man and then let their DLine do what they do. They had some success with the sacks and stuff, but playing man in the NFL for an entire game isn't easy and we got guys who can make plays. So we started doing that and I didn't really notice a counter. They stuck with their plan."

That checks out with what we’ve seen from the Commanders of late. Despite drafting a cornerback in the first round with a skillset suited to playing zone, they’ve tended to play more man coverage this year. That on its own is a questionable decision, but when you compare these quotes from the Commanders defensive backs after the game, it leads to bigger questions. Cornerback Benjamin St-Juste seemed to have a different opinion when speaking to ESPN reporter John Keim.

"We've got certain plays where we have to exchange players and pass it off... Every play we have to communicate. If we just play straight, 'you've got this man the whole time,' we wouldn't have that issue. But we play a more complex defense where you have to talk consistently every single play. ... We've seen it work; we've seen how it is. We know we'll find the pieces to put it together and once it clicks there's no turning back."

So while opposing players are saying the defense is very simple and playing a lot of man, St-Juste suggests its a lot more complex than that, which has caused some issues. Again this is a problem because ideally, you want your defense to look complex to the opposing offense but be simple for the players running it. It appears as though currently, the Commanders defense is the opposite, where opposing players see it as simple while the players running it think it's complex. 

But just to add another layer on top of this, Emmanuel Forbes gave his take after the game to The Washington Post’s Nicki Jhabvala:

"I would say we just gave away what we were in a little too good, you know? Just try to disguise a little better."

So Forbes’ quote tends to lean more towards what Giants receiver Isaiah Hodgins was suggesting that the Commanders were a bit too basic and just playing straight man coverage, which is obviously an issue on it’s own. But the bigger issue overall here is the disconnect between what Forbes said and what St-Juste said. One thought it was too simple, the other thought it was too complex. Having two cornerbacks playing in the same system with such drastically different views on the scheme reflects poorly on the scheme and coaching staff. 

When watching the All-22, you could frequently see that disconnect too. Not just from St-Juste and Forbes, but across various parts of the defense. 

This play is a good example of players not being on the same page and also not being put in great positions. The first thing to note here is with linebacker Jamin Davis and defensive end Andre Jones. Just before the snap, Davis walks up to Jones and gives a signal while making a call. This could have just been a simple not for Jones to shift a bit wider in his alignment or it could have been something else. But after that signal is made, the ball is snapped and Jones suddenly peels off from his rush and attempts to match the running back in the flat. 

That on it’s own isn’t a terribly bad thing. Teams will often run what’s known as a peel blitz or peel rush, where the defensive end rushes but peels off if the running back releases out to the flat on his side of the field. The problem that occurs here is that Davis also follows the running back out to the flat, meaning they have two guys covering a running back in the flat. Jones quickly realises the issue and attempts to correct it by rejoining the rush, but by that point its far too late for him to generate any pressure. 

Now the second part of this play is linked to that first part. It’s impossible to know who was at fault there. Jones could have just made a rookie mistake or maybe Davis made a bad call at the line. But it could also be Davis that was in the wrong and Jones should have been covering the back. The reason I say that is because of how the rest of the rep plays out. On the other side of the field, the Giants have two receivers running crossing routes at different depths. One receiver runs shallow while the other gets to about 10 yards before breaking inside. This is known as a drive concept, every team in the league runs it. 

The Commanders are in man coverage, so Emmanuel Forbes has to match the shallow cross while Kam Curl has to match the deeper cross. The problem is, crossing routes are very hard to cover in man coverage and typically, defenses will keep a hole or plug player in the middle of the field to help cut off crossing routes. In theory, that could have been Jamin Davis’ assignment here. But because he works out to the running back in the flat, there’s nobody else available in the middle of the field to play that hole/plug role and cut off the crossing routes. That leaves both Forbes and Curl in a bad spot and in the end, it’s Forbes’ shallow cross that gets the ball for a completion. 

Now there was a lot going on there for a single play and we’ll probably never know exactly who was at fault. It could have been Jones making a mistake and the call was just man coverage without any help inside, leaving Forbes and Curl in a tough spot. Equally, it could well have been Jones was right in peeling off and Davis should have stayed in the middle to help cut off those crossing routes. But whatever way you cut it, it’s clear to see that not every defender is on the same page and players aren’t being put in advantageous positions. 

Another example of this came on the Giants early fourth down attempt. Quarterback Tommy DeVito missed multiple opportunities to convert and the Commanders got very lucky.

On fourth and short early in the second quarter, the Giants elect to go for it. As Hodgins mentioned in his quote after the game, the Commanders played a lot of man coverage so the Giants looked to run mesh concepts. This play is a mesh concept with two shallow crossing routes working from either side of the field and a deep hook route sitting in between them. The Giants also add in a wheel route from the bunch set to the left of the formation. 

Now you can see there is a bit of chaos amongst the Commanders defenders before the snap. Over the bunch set to left, Washington has cornerback Emmanuel Forbes, safety Kam Curl and linebacker Jamin Davis. Davis and Curl appear to be talking to each other trying to communicate exactly how to handle this bunch set. Each team has various rules to deal with bunch sets and the different releases that can come with that. The Commanders clearly aren’t sure exactly what the rules are in this situation though, as Davis and Curl are speaking to each other right up until the ball is snapped, trying to get on the same page. 

That effort is wasted though, as once the ball is snapped, the Commanders have a number of busts. Forbes and Curl appear to be playing the snap as if it’s pure man coverage and each defender is locked on to their opposing receiver, but Davis plays it like they’re trying to pass things off. You can see at the snap how Forbes attempts to jam the receiver at the point of the bunch, but Curl runs into him while trying to match his receiver running a wheel route. That is why teams typically don’t just lock their coverages against bunch sets and look to pass things off. Meanwhile on the outside, Davis widens and leaves the tight end to run freely inside, expecting one of Forbes or Curl to pick him up. 

Curl runs into Forbes and traps his arm against the receiver, causing Forbes to go down hurt. Curl is then also out of position and can’t catch up with the wheel route. Davis widens to match the wheel route coming his way, but then allows the receiver to run by him and fails to stay on top of it. So in the end, the Commanders have Forbes down on the ground injured and both Davis and Curl sprinting to try and catch up to a wheel route running wide open down the field. The other two receivers run completely wide open across the middle, meaning all three receivers in the bunch set were open and somehow DeVito failed to hit any of them. 

It was a messy play for the Commanders and one they were extremely lucky to get away with. But it speaks to the issues they’re having defensively with players unsure of their assignments or the rules and checks to use against certain looks like a bunch set, despite it seemingly being simple man coverage to the opposing offense. The issue of players failing to be on the same page showed up throughout the game and even on plays where it wasn’t man coverage. 

On this play, the Commanders appear to be in a basic Tampa-2 zone coverage, with two deep safeties and five underneath zone defenders. This is as basic as it gets in the NFL and in all of football. The Giants run a simple slant-flat combination, which should be easy to handle. Davis sinks into his zone and should match the slant route while Benjamin St-Juste is the flat defender and should pass off the slant inside before buzzing down to the flat. 

However, as the ball is snapped, we see St-Juste play this like he thinks the call is man coverage. Everyone else drops into zone, but St-Juste steps up and instantly looks to attach to the slant route inside, leaving the flat wide open. The quarterback sees this and looks to hit the running back in the flat, but fortunately for Washington, defensive end K.J. Henry does a good job getting his hands up in the passing lane and batting the pass down. 

There are clearly some significant underlying issues going on with this defensive unit right now. We’ve seen them give up numerous explosive plays this year, including six in this game. But even when the explosive plays aren’t being given up, there’s issues with getting people on the same page. When you have one corner saying they were too basic and the other corner saying its a complex defense, there is obviously a big disconnect there, which ultimately falls on the coaching staff. They’ll have to get things fixed quickly because their next two games are against the Cowboys and Dolphins, who are the top two teams in the NFL for average points per game.