Commanders pass defense trending in right direction
The Commanders have struggled with coverage issues throughout the season, but they appear to have fixed a few issues and are now trending in the right direction.
The Commanders defense has quietly started to put things together over the last few games. After the Titans game, I wrote about how the defensive line, particularly Jonathan Allen, Daron Payne and Montez Sweat have all been consistently playing well. Against the Bears, the coverage unit started to mesh together better too, marrying the coverage and rush units together. This was evident as early as the first play of the game.
On this play, the Bears look to run a fake tunnel screen, with the outside receiver working back towards the quarterback on the fake screen while the two inside receivers both fake a block before working vertically. In the past, the Commanders might have had multiple players bite on this fake, but here, they group sort it out efficiently. Slot corner Rachad Wildgoose spots the outside receiver coming back inside and immediately charges down towards the line of scrimmage to attack the screen. Meanwhile, Benjamin St-Juste on the outside holds his ground and quickly adjusts back to stay on top of the slot receiver.
A combination of linebacker Cole Holcomb and safeties Bobby McCain and Kam Curl handle the inside receiver. Holcomb initially bites on the fake screen, but then manages to peel off and sink back underneath the seam route from the inside receiver. McCain gains depth to stay on top of the route while Curl reads it from the far side and works across the field to cut off the receiver if he breaks inside.
It’s strong coverage from everyone involved on the fake screen side of the field and they do a great job matching up the concept and negating all possible options. With quarterback Justin Fields unable to make a throw to his primary reads, he’s forced to hold onto the ball for just a tick longer than he would have liked. That allows Montez Sweat the opportunity to work inside the left tackle and pressure Fields. Fields does a terrific job of avoiding the sack and scrambling to turn the play into a positive for the Bears, but it was a good example of the coverage and rush working well to help each other. The coverage managed to take away the primary options, which gave the rush time to get home. The rush then prevented the quarterback from progressing to the back side, where he may well have had an open target as Kendall Fuller sunk back deep, leaving the receiver to someone else underneath.
The Commanders showed this improved ability to match up the coverage to the route concepts a number of times in this game.
Here, the Bears align with three receivers to the left of the formation and have the running back motion out of the backfield to join those three receivers, giving them four eligible receivers to that side of the field. Having four receivers on one side of the field is irregular and can cause lots of issues for coverages, but the Commanders handle this well. They appear to push the underneath coverage further outside to help manage the four players to that side.
The defenders initially sink back into their coverage roles, waiting for the routes to declare themselves. Then the defenders begin matching their coverage to the routes nearby. On the back side, St-Juste sinks back and matches the deep over route, allowing Darrick Forrest to shift his focus across the field to the deeper route. Forrest and McCain combine to cover that deeper route that initially looks like a go route but turns into a deep corner route. Wildgoose widens to the flat to cover the running back while Holcomb drives up on the tight end crossing from the back side of the formation.
The only player that struggles here is Kendall Fuller, who slips as he looks to break inside with the receiver running a deep dig. But fortunately, the nature of that route is that it’s a longer developing route and because the rest of the coverage is good, Fields has nowhere else to throw the ball. He tries to wait for the dig to open up, but Sweat and Allen both generate pressure and Fields is again forced to scramble.
Matching and passing off routes is an incredibly effective form of coverage if run correctly. The Commanders have long tried to run these types of coverages, but if just one person isn’t on the same page as everyone else, then the entire coverage can fail, as has been the case a lot over the last few years. But it was consistently solid against the Bears.
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