Rams at Redskins: Blitz Fail

St. Louis Rams (0-1) at Washington Redskins (0-1)
1:00 p.m. FedEx Field
Ok, you are Greg Blache. Your owner signs Albert Haynesworth to a monster contract. Your GM and coach decide to draft Brian Orakpo. You have existing playmakers like London Fletcher, Andre Carter and Laron Landry on the team. What should your game plan be coming into the 2009 season?

Well, apparently the answer was to only blitz one of the most immobile quarterbacks in the NFL, a quarterback with no reliable targets, a grand total of four times. I would be willing to bet that any of the other 31 defensive coordinators in the league, if they suddenly inherited the Redskins roster and had to open against the Giants, would make it a point to get pressure on Eli Manning however possible. Rushing three or four guys on third-and-longs isn’t exactly how you do that.

Manning has proven over and over that he simply can’t handle pressure up the middle. Lo and behold! The Redskins signed Haynesworth for a ton of scratch to take up two blockers in the middle of the line so someone, maybe Orakpo or Fletcher, can come behind him and blitz the quarterback without being touched. Or maybe with Haynesworth occupying the middle, and all the offensive line assignments forced to shift, Carter would be 1-on-1 with an offensive tackle. That would open a window for an outside linebacker or corner to come off the edge with no blockers to take him. Whatever the case may be, Manning has proven that he can’t handle pressure, but can pick your defense apart if he is given all day in the pocket. No, he won’t be able to burn you deep if you drop seven or eight guys back. But he’ll nickel and dime you to death on six to seven minute drives. That’s exactly what Manning did last Sunday.

The worst thing is that the four times the Redskins blitzed (and my definition of blitz means bring more people defensively than the opposition has on the offensive line…so a five-man rush hardly qualifies as a blitz), four bad things happened for the Giants. The interception and fumble were both caused by blitzes. The other two blitzes forced two incompletions. So if you were a defensive coordinator, and you know the quarterback you are playing can’t handle the blitz, and the blitzes you have sent at him have worked, then why in the world would you only blitz him four times out of 30 pass plays? Why would you blitz 13% of the time when the league average is somewhere close to 33%?

I don’t want to hear that Haynesworth played poorly, which is the initial reaction. He was the one who stuffed Brandon Jacobs during a fourth and 1 at the Redskins five. No, he didn’t sack Manning. But he did exactly what he was brought here to do. Occupy two blockers a play so someone can blitz behind him. Except that the blitz never came. Haynesworth can’t control the play-calling. Go back and watch Haynesworth, and you’ll see that time and again he opened up potential blitzing lanes that the Redskins never took advantage of.

I know that DeAngelo Hall didn’t have a great game. The missed tackles weren’t Blache’s fault. The secondary as a whole missed way too many tackles. However, when you rush three or four guys and you can’t get to the quarterback, then the secondary more than often is going to get burned for 10-15 yard gains. You can only cover NFL receivers so long before one of them gets open.

I also know that it wasn’t Blache’s fault that Jason Campbell had a lousy game. It wasn’t Blache’s fault that the Redskins offense didn’t exploit the holes in the Giants secondary. It wasn’t Blache’s fault that the Redskins couldn’t score a touchdown when they got the ball at the Giants’ 12-yard line. There were other issues as well. But the one that contributed the most to the opening week loss was Blache’s inability to take any chances defensively. He went in with the mentality that he would rather lose on 10-15 yard plays than make the highlite reels by being on the wrong end of a 50-yard bomb. That mentality cost the Redskins, but because the Skins were beaten “boringly”, you won’t see any complaints against Blache or the way he called the game.

For the past few years, the Redskins have been really passive on defense. It started with Gregg Williams, and he passed that strategy along to Blache. But most of those Redskins teams weren’t built to blitz a whole lot. The secondary wasn’t good enough to bail out a failed blitz, so the reward was definitely not worth the risk. However, this Redskins team is good enough and is built to put pressure on the quarterback. This is a defense that needs to take chances. This isn’t a defense that has to rely on coverage sacks or lucky bounces to get off the field. This is a defense that was built with the sole purpose of putting more pressure on the quarterback. Dan Snyder has said that. Jim Zorn has said that. Even Blache himself has said that. Now Blache has to put his money where his mouth is and allow his defense to do their job.

The Redskins were done no favors by having to open in the Meadowlands two years in row. However, the schedule makers made up for it by putting the next five game slate together: St. Louis, at Detroit, Tampa Bay, at Carolina and Kansas City. Carolina looked to be difficult at the beginning of the season, but who knows what Jake Delhomme’s mental state will be like by Week 5. All those games, at least for the time being, appear to be winnable.

Of course there’s winnable, and then there’s winnable for the Redskins. I said the same thing last season about games against St. Louis, Cincinnati and San Francisco. Those losses cost the Redskins a playoff spot. It’s easy to look at all those games and see a way the Skins can lose. They lost at home to the Rams last season. God knows the Lions are due, and with each loss, there is actually more pressure on the team the Lions are facing to not be the team that allows Detroit to snap their losing streak. The Bucs can still play defense well. So can the Panthers. The Chiefs could be feisty if Matt Cassel returns at full strength. In other words, the next five games are winnable, but the Skins will most likely find a way to lose at least one or two of those contests.

The Rams are an offense similar to the Giants, just with a lesser offensive line. They have a back that can pound you and go outside (Stephen Jackson). They have a bunch of decent, but non-descript receivers. Most importantly, they have a quarterback who has made the Pro Bowl, has had postseason success, but can’t handle a blitz up the middle. Marc Bulger has taken so many hits and has dealt with a variety of injuries over the last few seasons. With the offensive line going through a rebuilding phase, he’s definitely gun-shy. What better way to take advantage of that situation then with a couple of blitzes up the gut? The earlier in the game, the better.

As for the offense, whose performance was even more disheartening than the defense, this should be the unit to get healthy against. The Skins faced four of the best defenses in the league during the preseason and the Giants were another top unit last week. The Rams have one of the worst. Seattle managed to score 28 points against them without a running game. I would assume the Redskins should do something similar.

I wouldn’t count on the Redskins losing this one. Yes they lost last year to St. Louis. However, there were about two or three fluky plays that allowed the Rams to win it. I wouldn’t count on an offensive lineman fumbling a tipped pass and allowing the Rams defense to score on the play for a second year in a row. Unlike other teams they usually overlook, the Redskins know that the Rams can beat them if they play lousy. The Skins are the better team, and hopefully their coordinators will allow them to play like it.