Linebackers Bobby Wagner and Frankie Luvu provide bright spot for Commanders defense
The Commanders defense has struggled so far this season, but against the Giants, linebackers Bobby Wagner and Frankie Luvu stood out.
The Washington Commanders’ defense has mostly struggled and underperformed to start the season. The Commanders opened the season giving up 37 points to the Bucs and followed that up by allowing a poor Giants offense to score three touchdowns against them. There is no hiding from the multiple issues the defense has right now, but I thought I would look at a positive performance from the Giants game. Linebackers Bobby Wagner and Frankie Luvu stood out against a solid rushing attack, despite not always being put in great positions schematically.
For years now in Washington, we’ve seen the linebacker group fail to back up the defensive line, leading to the run defense struggling. On Sunday against the Giants, we finally saw a pair of linebackers making numerous plays in the run game, particularly Bobby Wagner.
On this play, the Giants look to run the ball inside with the right tackle assigned with climbing up to the second level to block Wagner. The Commanders opted to play a lot of this game with two deep safeties to try and protect their problems at cornerback, but that meant the front was often left light in the box to defend the run, which is the Giants primary threat. Because of that, Wagner has to be ready to fill multiple gaps depending on how the run plays out. The Giants use a jet sweep fake to change the picture just before the snap, which takes Wagner further inside and creates a nice angle for the right tackle to make his block.
Despite all this disadvantage, Wagner reads the play beautifully. He spots the right tackle initially working inside before peeling off to work up to him. A lot of linebackers would read this as a run to the left side of the offensive line, but Wagner has eyes in the backfield and spots the back working the other way. He immediately works around the block of the right tackle, anticipating the back bouncing his run to the right. He’s exactly right with his anticipation and because he acted so quickly, he completely avoids the block of the right tackle and makes the tackle for a minimal gain.
Many people thought Wagner looked a step slow last week against the Bucs and perhaps there was some rust there for him to knock off after not playing a snap in the preseason. But against the Giants, he was mentally sharp and his anticipation skills had him in position to make plays faster than many more athletic linebackers are able to.
Here, the Giants look to run a duo scheme inside. The idea of a duo scheme is to generate as many double teams as possible up front, using those double teams to drive defensive lineman back towards the linebackers. In this situation, the left tackle and tight end combine to block defensive end Clelin Ferrell before the tight end then peels off to try and block Wagner. The Commanders are again keeping both safeties deep at the snap which leaves them light in the box. To try and make up for that, they run a stunt with Ferrell stunting inside and Wagner replacing him on the edge to mess with the blocking scheme. Wagner hits the stunt so quickly that the tight end isn’t able to peel off the double team in time to pick him up. Wagner penetrates into the backfield and makes the tackle for a loss.
Wagner made multiple plays in the run game throughout the day, consistently reading plays quickly and beating blockers to the spot.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Bullock's Film Room to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.