Defensive Notebook: Bobby McCain and Daniel Wise stand out for Commanders
Breaking down a few standout performers from the Commanders defense during their preseason opener against the Panthers
After watching back the All-22 footage of the Commanders preseason opener against the Panthers, I thought I would highlight a few stand out performers on the defensive side of the ball. Washington’s defense struggled to contain the Panthers starters, particularly on third down, but that doesn’t mean every player on the field was bad. A couple of players stood out, so lets break them down in this defensive notebook.
Bobby McCain
Safety Bobby McCain re-signed with Washington this offseason and while some fans didn’t like the move, he provides the Commanders with a solid, affordable option at free safety. He also started to build a solid partnership with Kam Curl when Curl took over for Landon Collins at strong safety last season. With a year under his belt in the system and a year playing together with the likes of Kendal Fuller, William Jackson and Kam Curl, McCain looked far more confident in his reads and aggressive in attaching to routes to take away options for the quarterback, instead of just sitting deeper.
On this play, the Panthers run a simple bootleg fake to their left. This consists of the quarterback faking a hand-off to the right before rolling out to his left. The receiver to the left of the formation runs deep to try and clear out the deep defenders, including McCain, while the receiver to the right of the formation crosses the field into the vacated space. This is a fairly basic play but one that almost every offense in the league runs because it’s effective. Teams typically do one of two things to defend this concept; either having the corner pass off the deep route to the safety and then peeling off to match the crosser, or having the safety drive on the crosser and the corner on the back side sink back to replace the deep safety.
Washington struggled last year to defend it because it requires communication and everyone being on the same page with the strategy to defend it. Often last year, McCain would drive down on the crosser and nobody would replace him, or he’d sit back to take the deep route and the corner would stay with it too, leaving the crosser completely unaccounted for. But with a year of experience playing in this system and with his teammates, we can see that Washington looked more in sync here. McCain reads the bootleg fake and the crosser early and immediately drives down on the crosser to take that option away from the quarterback. The back side corner, in this case William Jackson, sinks back to replace McCain in the deep middle, giving the Commanders protection against both receivers. This forces the quarterback to hold on to the ball as long as possible before dumping it off to the checkdown underneath,
It was a really good play by McCain and the secondary as a whole unit. It shows they’re more on the same page this year, which they clearly weren’t entering last season. Being on the same page and knowing the system better enables players to see the bigger picture, which can lead to them making plays they aren’t necessarily expected to make because they understand where they can help out other parts of the defense. McCain did this against the Panthers too.
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