Playoff Preview: Commanders run defense vs Saquon Barkley

Previewing the threat of Barkley and how the Commanders can try and slow him down.

One of the biggest challenges facing the Washington Commanders in the NFC Championship game against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday is trying to contain Saquon Barkley. Barkley led the league in rushing with 2005 yards this season. In the two games the Commanders played against the Eagles during the regular season, Barkley totaled 55 carries for 296 yards and four touchdowns at an average of 5.4 yards per carry.

That’s obviously not a great look for the Commanders run defense, but it is worth pointing out that 130 of those yards came on three explosive touchdown runs. In the first game, Barkley had a 23-yard touchdown run and a 39-yard touchdown. In the second game, he had a 68-yard touchdown run. If you take those three plays out of the equation, Barkley had 52 carries for 166 yards at 3.2 yards per carry, which is significantly more manageable for the Commanders run defense.

Now, before any Eagles fans that might be reading this get angry, yes I understand that those runs did happen and you can’t just take them out. That is very much the way Barkley goes about his business. He can be contained for long spells of the game but at any given moment he can hit a home run and rip off a hugely explosive touchdown run. I’m not trying to diminish that ability at all. But from a Commanders run defense perspective, this presents a different type of challenge.

The Commanders have treated run defense as an opportunity to attack. They will frequently use stunts up front, trying to create disruption to the blocking scheme in search for a negative play. Run stunts can largely be hit or miss. They are almost as likely to result in a big hole being left open for the running back as they are to create a tackle for loss, but the Commanders are willing to live with giving up a few 5-10 yard gains to try and hunt for that negative play on first or second down that can set them up with a third and long situation.

That can work quite well against a lot of teams, but against the Eagles and particularly Saquon Barkley, you can’t risk that style because Barkley is explosive enough to score a touchdown from anywhere on the field if you don’t hit the stunt correctly. That means the Commanders have to take a different approach to run defense. They still need to maintain their aggression in terms of how quick they attack the run fit, but they need to play in a much more gap sound manner instead of stunting and looking for a negative play. If they have any mistakes, Barkley will make them pay, as we’ve seen multiple times already this season.

Here we have Barkley’s 23-yard touchdown run from the first game between these teams back in Week 11. The Eagles run a zone concept with the tight end sifting back across the line to seal off the back side of the run. Many would call this a split zone scheme. The Commanders are in a nickel package with four defensive lineman, two linebackers and five defensive backs on the field. Both safeties are back deep here, leaving the Commanders with just six in the box. The Eagles have six blockers so the Commanders are playing a gap light here.

Just before the snap, linebacker Frankie Luvu shifts down from his linebacker position to working off the edge. That leaves just Bobby Wagner as the only remaining second level defender. This is a big problem for Washington. The Eagles are able to split the defense in half. The left tackle and left guard are able to cut off Johnny Newton inside, sealing him behind the play. Defensive end Dante Fowler and Frankie Luvu are both in the same gap while waiting for the tight end to sift back to them. On the front side of the run, Daron Payne gets doubled by the center and right guard, while the right tackle kicks out Dorance Armstrong on the edge, who bursts too far up the field.

The result of all of this is Wagner is put in a bad spot. He either has to play over the top and contain outside, forcing Barkley to cut inside where there is already a big gap between the two defensive tackles, or he can fill the gap inside and force Barkley to bounce his run to the edge. Wagner fills the gap inside, knowing it’s the most immediate threat. Barkley sees that and opts to take his run to the edge.

With Armstrong kicked out and Payne caught on a double team, Barkley works through the line of scrimmage completely untouched. Safety Quan Martin was rotating back deep at the snap due to his coverage assignment, but that made him late to read run and get back down to the line of scrimmage to support. By the time he’s working down to Barkley, it’s too late. Barkley bursts through the line of scrimmage and into the open field. From there, he turns on the jets and accelerates towards the corner of the end zone for a touchdown.

On the very next drive of that game, Barkley hit another long touchdown run.

This time we have Barkley’s 39-yard touchdown run. The Eagles are in a different personnel this time, with three tight ends on the field and just one receiver out wide. They run a toss play to Barkley to work outside behind those three tight ends. The Commanders come out in a different front. We saw a four-man front previously, with four defensive lineman and two linebackers, though Luvu did shift down to the edge just before the snap. This time though, the Commanders use a three-man front that closely resembles a 3-4 defense. They have three defensive lineman with their hands in the dirt. Clelin Ferrell and Sheldon Day line up shaded just slightly inside of the two tackles, while Johnny Newton takes on a nose tackle position directly over the center. Dorance Armstrong then stands up as an edge defender on the three tight end side of the line while Luvu does the same on the other. Safety Percy Butler plays down in the box, acting as another linebacker next to Bobby Wagner.

Despite this being a different scheme and a different defensive front, a similar problem arises for the Commanders. The Eagles have eight blockers on the line of scrimmage and the Commanders have eight defenders in the box, which leaves them a gap light again. As the ball is snapped and tossed to Barkley, you can quickly see the same issue as before emerging. Newton anticipates having to fight through a block from the center and comes off the snap low, expecting contact quickly. The center almost ignores him and immediately climbs up to the second level. That leaves Newton off balance and he falls down, with the help of the left guard pushing him down. The center then works up and is able to block Butler on the back side.

Those two blocks seal off the back side of the defense, cutting them off from the front side and splitting the defense right down the middle again. You can see as Barkley secures the toss, there is already a lane right up the middle of the defense for him to hit. But he doesn’t immediately attack it. Instead, he presses the run to the right side because he knows the Commanders defense is light of a gap and have to run to the edge to try and keep the run contained. As he presses his run outside, the defense on that side all pursue the run to the edge, which just creates more of a cut back opportunity for Barkley.

As Barkley makes his cut, you can see why he pressed the run so far to the right instead of hitting the lane immediately. Safety Quan Martin works down to the line from deep, trying to help support the run. However, he’s forced to work to the right side of the line with Barkley pressing the run that way. That leaves him in a very tough spot as Barkley makes his cut. He fails to get within two yards of Barkley, who accelerates away from the defense as he runs into the end zone untouched for a 39-yard touchdown.

This home run hitting ability from Barkley makes it so tough because you have to be extremely disciplined, while still trying to be aggressive. If you make any sort of mistake, he will punish you for it, as we’ve seen there. That was still the case in the second game too.