Why the Commanders defense started so poorly against the Broncos
Breaking down why the Commanders gave up three touchdowns on the Broncos opening three drives.
The Washington Commanders pulled off a fantastic comeback against the Denver Broncos on Sunday, turning around a 21-3 deficit in the first half into a 35-33 win. While it’s certainly worth celebrating the ability to stay in the game and overturn such a bad start, it’s also worth exploring what went wrong at the start of the game that got them in such a hole in the first place.
The Broncos started the game scoring touchdowns on all three of their opening drives. In fact, their first three drives totalled for 17 plays, 226 yards and three touchdowns. The Commanders then suddenly turned things around. The next six Broncos drives contained 25 plays, 40 total yards, a fumble, an interception, three punts and a field goal. So what went so wrong early? Let’s take a closer look.
To start the game, the Broncos came out looking to run the ball. The Commanders have a stout run defense on paper, especially with the defensive line led by the likes of Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne. However, every defense has a weakness and part of the weakness the Commanders have is on the edge. That’s not to say the defensive ends are poor, far from it. It’s a schematic choice that the Commanders make.
The Commanders love to keep two safeties deep in order to help them run their quarters and match coverage concepts, which have given them lots of success in protecting against explosive passing plays. However, the downside of keeping both safeties deep is that it leaves the defense light in the box. Something Washington has struggled with quietly for a while now is pin-pull run schemes, where the offense uses a tight end or receiver to crack down on the defensive end, pinning him inside and allowing the tackle to pull to the edge.
This was the Broncos opening run of the game. They use the pin-pull scheme I just talked about with the tight end cracking down inside on the defensive end while the left tackle pulls around to the edge. The reason this is so hard for Washington to defend is because it puts a lot of stress on the linebackers and corners, while other teams that play with a strong safety in the box have that extra body to help them out.
When facing a scheme like this, the cornerback has to read the run quickly and be willing to get involved instantly. They have to do what is often referred to as “crack replace”, which means when the defensive end gets cracked inside, the edge is lost so the cornerback has to replace the defensive end on the edge and force the run back inside. That’s a tough assignment for any cornerback because they have to come up and be willing to take on a pulling tackle on the edge and attack their outside shoulder to force the run back inside to the rest of the defense. It’s made even tougher when the corners play off coverage due to the coverage system.
Rookie corner Emmanuel Forbes does a relatively good job recognizing the play and working down to crack replace on the edge. Unfortunately though, there’s a mix up between him and linebacker Jamin Davis. Davis actually reads the run extremely well and instantly sprints outside to try and make a play. But in his eagerness to get outside, he ends up beating Forbes to resetting the edge and taking on the left tackle. This on its own isn’t necessarily a mistake, but it then puts the onus on Forbes to read the situation and adjust his fit, which probably doesn’t come naturally to a cornerback.
With Davis and Forbes both outside the tackle, they manage to force the runner to cut back inside. However, because both are effectively in the same gap outside the tackle, there’s still a big lane inside for the back to work into. Ideally, Forbes would have gotten down to the tackle quicker and Davis would have fill the gap inside, or Forbes would have been able to react to Davis re-establishing the edge and adjusted to fit the inside gap instead.
The rest of the defense gets pinned inside, with linebacker Cody Barton reached by the right tackle on the back side and the center being allowed to work all the way up to the deep safety. With Davis and Forbes unable to stop the back from making his cut as he bursts through the line of scrimmage, the back then has open field to work with and picks up 15 yards before Kam Curl is able to shed the block of the center and make the tackle.
Now I’ve spent a lot of time on that one play, but it had huge significance in this game and in how teams have been looking to attack the Commanders defense for a while now. Trying to block that incredibly stout and talented defensive line is tough for any opponent, so instead they look to pin them inside and pull to the edge where they can block corners instead and force Washington’s linebackers to make up for the fact that they’re playing with a light box to keep both safeties deep.
With this in mind, it’s no surprise that the Broncos opening touchdown came from the same type of run scheme.
The Broncos get to this scheme from a different look, with two tight ends and a fullback on the field, but the core of the scheme remains the same. The tight end motions across the formation to align outside defensive end Chase Young. He then cracks down on Young to pin him and the defensive line inside. The wide receiver on the outside does his role by working inside to crack block Kam Curl, pinning him inside too. This means the Commanders are relying on cornerback Kendall Fuller and linebacker Cody Barton to make the stop.
Fuller comes up looking to reset the edge, but with a big left tackle running towards him he knows he can’t take that block head on or he’ll be run over. He attempts to get outside and cut the tackle to force the run back inside. He technically does this, but is far too easily shoved wider and to the ground by the tackle, meaning the back’s path is only marginally impacted. Barton attempts to get outside and make the play, but the fullback is there to pick him up, giving the running back a path to the corner of the end zone, on which he goes untouched for the opening touchdown of the game.
Now I suspect defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio was extremely frustrated by this because defending this type of run has been an issue for the Commanders for a while now. To some extent, it is just part of the trade off for being so stout in the middle and playing the two deep safety coverages that have been so successful for them. Each defense does have its weakness and this is it for the Commanders. However, on the second drive, it appeared as though Del Rio made a call trying to combat this scheme which immediately blew up in his face.
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