Evaluating the Commanders protection plan against the Steelers

Breaking down the issues with the initial protection plan against Pittsburgh and how Kingsbury adjusted to find some success.

Jayden Daniels didn’t play up to the usual excellent standard we’ve become quickly accustomed to seeing from him in the Commanders loss to the Steelers on Sunday. The rookie quarterback and his offense struggled to get things going early in the game with three of the opening four drives resulting in three-and-outs. Daniels was seemingly under a lot more pressure than normal and was missing throws as a result. However, the Commanders did make some adjustments which led to a change in production, scoring points on four of the next five drives. 

So did the Steelers find a formula to defend Daniels and what adjustments were made to get Washington going? There are two main answers to those questions. The first is the Commanders run game. The Steelers did an excellent job shutting down the rushing attack that has given so many teams issues this year. They took a different strategy with regards to the read-option. Most teams have employed the scrape exchange tactic, with the unblocked defensive end crashing inside on the run and forcing Daniels to keep it, only for a linebacker to scrape over the top and suddenly appear in the gap the defensive end vacated. 

The Steelers took a different approach. They opted to have the unblocked defender attack Daniels and force the hand off inside instead, knowing they had the big defensive lineman inside to make up for the offense not having to block the defensive end. This meant that the Commanders offensive line, missing Andrew Wylie, Cornelius Lucas and with center Tyler Biadasz battling through multiple injuries would have to try and create rushing lanes against a very stout Steelers front that allows less than 90 yards rushing per game. The Commanders struggled to do that and that got them behind the chains constantly. 

Being behind the chains is not where any offense wants to be, but particularly this offense which has been so efficient at staying on target and converting third and manageable situations. That leads into the second answer to the question of why the Steelers were able to get Daniels off his game: the protection plan. This is something I’d like to dive into detail on. The protection plan for the Commanders to start this game deviated somewhat from what has made them so successful this season. They’ve done such a good job providing lots of help to the offensive line, using chips from running backs, tight ends and even wide receivers on most plays to help out. They’ve also used things like play-action and tempo to try and slow down the rush. 

The Commanders knew that the Steelers were going to sell out to try and stop the run game and to do so, they were likely going to play a lot of man coverage. By playing man coverage, the Steelers can commit extra bodies in the box to defend the run. The downside to using multiple chips on the edge is that it takes away eligible receivers from running routes down the field as they have to stay in to chip before releasing into shorter checkdown routes underneath. Early in the game, the Commanders clearly wanted to get as many eligible receivers out into routes as possible to try and generate positive matchups against man coverage, but this meant the protection plan that has worked so well for them had to change. 

Here is the first passing play of the game from the Commanders. What you’ll notice here is that despite having running back Austin Ekeler in the backfield and tight end Zach Ertz close to the formation on the right side, neither look to help out in pass protection. Ertz releases freely into his route while Ekeler sifts back across the line before releasing into his route out to the left. That leaves the offensive line without any additional help. The Steelers only rush their front four here, so the offensive line should have an advantage. But the protection from Washington has been so good this year because they’ve often had lots of help, which they don’t get here. 

The problem spot for the Commanders here is back up right tackle Trent Scott working against Steelers star pass rusher T.J. Watt. Obviously the Commanders don’t want to leave Scott on an island against Watt, so they slide the line his way to try and help out. Right guard Sam Cosmi initially works to the defensive tackle on his right shoulder to slow him down before peeling off to slide outside and help Scott handle Watt. Center Tyler Biadasz then slides across to pick up the defensive tackle left by Cosmi. That’s a good plan to help Scott with Watt, however it does have an issue. 

With Biadasz and Cosmi sliding to help Scott deal with Watt, the left side of the line has no help. Left guard Nick Allegretti has to try and block Cam Heyward, one of the best interior defensive lineman in the NFL for the last decade, one-on-one. Rookie left tackle Brandon Coleman is also left one-on-one against Alex Highsmith, who goes under the radar because Watt takes the national attention but he has developed into a very good rusher in his own right. Heyward drives Allegretti back significantly off the snap, but Allegretti does battle to stay in front of him. Coleman, however, loses his battle with Highsmith on the edge. Highsmith dips under Coleman’s hand flash move and bursts by him on the way to hitting Daniels.

Fortunately on this play, Daniels was able to get the ball out quickly and avoid taking a big sack from Highsmith, but that play immediately set the stage for the struggles the Commanders were going to have early in this game with pass protection. That play set up third down, where the Commanders immediately felt the heat of not helping out the offensive line in pass protection. 

On this play, the Commanders are again looking to get all five of their eligible receivers out into routes to try and generate as many good matchups against the Steelers man coverage tendencies as possible. The issue here though is that the Steelers show a pressure look. They line up in what’s known as a double mug front. Both linebackers line up on the line of scrimmage in the A gaps either side of the center. Typically teams will deal with this look by having the running back stay in to protect and blocking one of those linebackers while the center will block the other. But the Commanders want the running back to release into a route, so the protection plan changes. 

Instead of having the back stay in to protect, the Commanders opt to use a full slide to the right. This means every lineman slides to the right off the snap and blocks the defender in that gap. That would result in Biadasz blocking the linebacker to his right, Allegretti picking up the other linebacker and Coleman blocking the defensive tackle in the B gap between himself and Allegretti. That then leaves Highsmith on the edge unblocked for Daniels to deal with. Teams do typically use full slide protections like this in Cover-0 situations where they have a few quick hitting options for the quarterback to throw to in order to beat the unblocked defender. 

But the Steelers aren’t running Cover-0 here. In fact, both linebackers in the A gaps drop out into coverage. It’s a bluff from the Steelers which works perfectly. As the ball is snapped, you can see both Allegretti and Coleman stepping inside as part of the slide protection, only for the linebacker to suddenly drop out into coverage. Allegretti then fans back out to the left and picks up the defensive tackle while communicating for Coleman to do the same, but Highsmith is far too quick off the edge for Coleman to get back out to him in time. Daniels feels the pressure of the unblocked defender off the edge and rushes his throw, falling away from it and missing his target as a result. 

This continued as the game progressed in the first quarter. The Commanders looked to get every eligible receiver out into routes, leaving the offensive line without any help. The Steelers saw this and looked to attack, consistently sending a fifth rusher to try and generate as many one-on-one matchups in pass protection as possible. 

On this play, the Steelers bring an extra linebacker to join the front four to make a total of five rushing the quarterback. The Commanders don’t keep a tight end or receiver in to chip on either edge. Austin Ekeler does appear to look to help from the backfield, but ends up not making contact with any defender before he releases into his route. In fact, he ends up spotting the other linebacker, who is responsible for Ekeler in man coverage, and thinks he’s blitzing. Ekeler works to pick up that linebacker, but he doesn’t actually rush, which means Ekeler is delayed getting out into his route. 

The result of all of this is that the Steelers essentially generate five one-on-ones across the board. With the likes of Watt, Highsmith and Heyward rushing, it’s likely at least one of those five will win a one-on-one. The Steelers do a great job keeping every lane pushed, collapsing the pocket around Daniels. Highsmith and Watt pressure off the edge, forcing Daniels to try and step up, but Heyward drives Allegretti backwards and pushes the pocket from the inside. Daniels attempts to break free but Heyward gets off his block and brings him down for the sack. 

Clearly this protection plan wasn’t working for the Commanders and it was having a negative impact on Daniels. He’s been very efficient against pressure this season, but in this game he struggled early against this pressure. That speaks to a lack of trust in the protection plan, which was a plan that deviated from what had worked so well for Washington this season. So after struggling for multiple drives early on, offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury made the adjustment to go back to the protection plan that had been so successful for Washington so far this season.