Film Room Preview: Week 11
Jordan Matthews Is Going to Be a Star, but Maybe Not in Week 11
Coming out of the draft evaluation process this spring, I thought that Jordan Matthews was as good of a wide receiver as there was in the 2014 NFL Draft class. His measurables were all very comprable to those of Sammy Watkins, and his statistics were stellar despite less-than-ideal quarterback play at Vanderbilt. He had huge hands, good speed, and showed the ability to hit a home run on a screen, slant or post thanks to good speed and route running.
In fact, here’s how his combine measurements stacked up with Watkins, who was deemed valuable enough to be worth two first-round picks by the Buffalo Bills
Matthews did have his fair share of drops in college, and didn’t seem to put all of his speed to use on the field, especially when it came to his short area quickness, so he wasn’t quite an elite prospect in the eyes of most analysts and teams. But that only helped him land on a better team than he would have earlier in the draft, winding up with the Eagles in the second round. There wasn’t a better place Matthews could land in the draft, as his ability in the screen game and his quickness and burst made him a great fit for the fast-moving Eagles offense.
It didn’t take him long to make an impact in the NFL, scoring twice on nine targets in his third NFL game, and posting another two-score effort this past week against Carolina. So what has Matthews been doing right in the NFL that’s led to his early success?
He’s trusted the system.
When I previewed Mark Sanchez’s move to the starting spot for the Eagles, I mentioned that in starting Sanchez, you’re starting Chip Kelly in your fantasy lineups. You’re trusting his system to continue to produce regardless of who is under center. Kelly himself said in a recent press conference (per the Eagles’ official website) “I would say any system that’s not QB friendly, then it’s probably a bad system.”
The same is true at the receiver position. Kelly’s offense is designed to get receivers open in space to make plays, and that’s what Matthews has done this season, and especially against Carolina.
On this play, Matthews is lined up in the slot (where he does nearly all of his work) and will drag across the field. His defender is backed off of him by a few yards, so he’ll get a clean release and instantly have inside leverage for his route moving from right to left.
Matthews is too quick to be covered on a route like this with off-man coverage, and the Panthers had no help over the middle. The stack of three receivers to the offense’s right drew most of the defense’s attention in that direction, so Matthew’s route over the middle wound up being wide open.
Safety Colin Jones had no chance of keeping up with Matthews, and the play is an easy gain for the Eagles.
The Panthers didn’t adjust to this play, however, and were burned by it again just moments later.
Once again, Matthews is in the slot to the right with Jones in coverage playing off of the Eagle wideout. There’s a play action fake on this play, which draws up the linebackers and gives Matthews plenty of room to run his route in the intermediate area behind the linebackers.
Jones hands Matthews off to Thomas Decoud in coverage, who is positioned quite poorly to defend a receiver breaking in his direction. He’s turned his hips inside, meaning that a quick move from Matthews would flip him around and cause him to lose a step as he changes direction.
The linebacker short of Matthew’s intended route is occupied with Mark Sanchez, who has rolled out into open space off of the play fake. This defender cannot drop into coverage, or Sanchez would be able to walk into the end zone for six points.
Decoud’s poor positioning leaves him unable to turn and track Matthews, who speeds past him and makes a nice hands catch at the goal line for a touchdown.
Later in the game, the Eagles would bunch Matthews with two other receivers to the right yet again, and for some reason, the Panthers left defensive end Charles Johnson with coverage responsibilities on Matthews. This led to the Vandy product’s second score of the game, as Sanchez simply flipped the ball over the overmatched lineman’s head, and Matthews did the rest.
The system in Philadelphia works. Receivers get open because Chip Kelly is as forward-thinking of a playcaller as there is in the NFL, and he understands how to get wideouts in space in his offense. He said after the game that it was all based on matchups.
Per ESPN, Kelly said after the game that coming into the contest with Carolina, he thought that Matthews and the tight ends could have a big game against the inside pass defenders for the Panthers, and that’s exactly what happened. The same won’t be true next week against Green Bay.
Sure, the Packers don’t really have a solid pass defense, but one of the best players on that side of the ball plays nickel corner. Casey Hayward has only allowed six receptions this season, according to Pro Football Focus, while intercepting three passes and breaking up another two.
Here’s an example of what Hayward can do, and why Kelly’s gameplan may not focus on Matthews quite as much against the Pack.
Hayward is in a short zone on this play, and will have a receiver cutting to the sideline underneath him. He stays back and doesn’t allow that short, largely unproductive route to distract him from defending his whole zone on that side of the field.
His eyes are in the backfield, where he can see Ryan Tannehill locked in on one of the two receivers behind him. He’s tracking the short route, just in case, but he has a good idea that this play is going to go over his head, and he’ll need to drop back to make a play.
So as Tannehill winds up to throw, he flips his hips and gets upfield to track down the pass…
…and makes a very athletic play to pick it off.
Hayward has the best PFF pass coverage grade on the Packers roster despite playing a smaller portion of the snaps. He’s a solid coverage corner with good ball skills, and that may render Matthews as a less-than-ideal play this weekend.
But moving forward, you can trust the Eagles’ slot receiver to make big plays when his matchup is right. He’s more than capable of playing within the Eagles’ fantastic system, and he’ll get his chances to post big fantasy numbers again in the future. Just don’t count on them against Hayward and Green Bay this week.
The Chicago Bears Defense Should Be Targeted Every Week in Fantasy Football
Last week I profiled the Tampa Bay defense, led by Lovie Smith, which has been an absolute mess all season. They didn’t disappoint this weekend, allowing a touchdown to Matt Ryan and the Falcons while getting lucky with a dropped touchdown and two underthrown passes that should have been scores as well. The Falcons’ skill position players may have disappointed in DFS lineups, but the Bucs defense wasn’t the source of those frustrations.
Smith’s old team, the Bears, are equally horrible on defense this season, as they’ve proven over their last few blowout losses. The Miami Dolphins had nine drives against the Bears (excluding kneeldowns) and scored on five, while missing two field goals on other drives. The Patriots then scored on eight of nine drives against Chicago, while the Packers scored touchdowns on their first five drives of the game in the Bears most recent defeat.
So what’s wrong with the Chicago defense? Everything. And that’s why you should target them every week in fantasy football.
Here’s a look back to the game against New England, and this particular play has two phases that show what’s gone awry for the Windy City’s football team. Rob Gronkowski is going to run an in-cutting route, which is pretty tough to defend for any team.
But you can see that there’s a linebacker patrolling the middle of the field, surely he’s there to help out on the best tight end in the NFL, right?
Not exactly. He’s going to chase the crossing receiver underneath, leaving an overmatched defensive back chasing Gronkowski, who made a great cut to get seperation over the middle.
So as Gronk is reaching down to make the grab, there are two Bears standing about five yards from the line of scrimmage covering one receiver.
Whether this was a mistake in playcalling or execution is impossible to say definitively without getting inside the minds of the defenders and their coaches, but we can definitely conclude that leaving Gronk alone over the middle when an extra defender was in the area and could have helped was a mistake.
But that’s not the end of the embarrassment on this play for Chicago.
Alex Gibbs is famous for telling coaches in a clinic he was teaching about zone blocking that in his system, they block safeties, not corners, because corners are “crappy” tacklers. However, if he were watching the Bears, he may have to rethink that approach, as we can see safety Ryan Mundy over-pursue Gronkowski and then get left on the turf as the big tight end rumbles up the field for a score.
The Bears’ issues didn’t go away by the start of their next game against the Packers, and their inability to execute their defense became quite apparent in the second quarter of that rivalry game.
A receiver will go in motion pre-snap, and safety Chris Conte will follow him to the other side, leaving just one high safety. Aaron Rodgers notices this coverage and makes a hand signal to his receivers to his right.
Aaron Rodgers knows the coverage that the Bears should be in on this play, but it appears maybe the corner and safety on Jordy Nelson’s side of the field did not.
Here’s the last step the corner will take with Nelson, who keeps running up the field into open space.
The single-high safety had to watch for Randall Cobb running a vertical as well, so the Packers’ two-verts look on the right side of the formation left him stuck in limbo. Once he realized that his boundary corner left Jordy Nelson for him to cover, it was far too late, as Rodgers knew this would happen all along and was already loading up a perfect throw for his receiver.
The Packers would later score again on another deep throw to Nelson, and the same scenario unfolded. The corner handed off his receiver early in his route, but the safety was nowhere to be found. The players may be failing to execute on these plays, but the fact that they continue to happen is a reflection on a coaching staff that has failed to prepare its players on a weekly basis, as well.
This weekend the Bears face the Vikings, which means a bit of a break from the future Hall of Fame quarterbacks they’ve faced over their last two games. But considering just how poorly the Bears have been playing, and looking at the big-play threats for the Minnesota offense, I would feel confident using Teddy Bridgewater in daily fantasy this weekend. It might be tough to predict which of his receivers will go off alongside him, but Bridgewater should have his biggest game as a pro in what could be yet another embarrassing loss for Chicago.
Mark Ingram Won’t Be Slowing Down This Week Against the Bengals
149, 220, 147, 171, 107, 132, 170.
Those are the rushing totals allowed by the Bengals over the last seven games, an average of 156 yards per contest.
But teams haven’t been breaking big plays to reach those strong totals, as the long runs in those contests have been 29, 43, 12, 15, 13, 39 and 14 yards, respectively. Which means teams are finding sustained rushing success against the Bengals, something that would have seemed like the butt of a joke just a year ago.
Last season Cincinnati allowed more than 130 rushing yards in only two games, and frequently kept teams under 100 yards overall. But with the loss of Mike Zimmer, Michael Johnson and Vontaze Burfict due to injuries, the team just isn’t the same when it comes to shutting down opposing rushing games.
Here is one example from the Bengals’ embarrassing defeat to the Browns on Thursday Night Football. The Browns are going to pull their tight end inside as a lead blocker, while their center and guard block the tackle to the outside allowing the center to get to the second level and block the linebacker as the play develops.
The center (who is a backup center to Pro Bowler Alex Mack) blows up his defender at the point of attack, and is able to get to the next level easily. This is a common theme for the Bengals, who have been physically controlled at the line for most of the season.
The center has his block on the linebacker while the pulling tight end has picked up the other backer on that side of the play, and the running back only has to fit through the seam between them to pick up a nice gain.
He does, and the play earns the Browns a first down.
The play went as it was drawn up on the chalkboard, which constitutes a failure for the Cincinnati defense. Nearly every run play in the book can be stopped by just one or two players winning their matchups at the point of attack, but in this case, no Bengal defenders were able to get a push upfield and throw off this rushing attempt.
Here’s an example of the Bengals attempting to defend a zone blocking scheme from the Colts. The Indianapolis offensive line will release left, with the in-line tight end on the left sealing his man to the inside to provide a running lane.
The Bengal defender across from the tight end has inside leverage, which means that Richardson will aim for the outside hip of the tight end as his read on the play. Zone blocking schemes call upon backs to read the helmets of blockers and their defenders to determine running lanes, and as you can see, the tight end’s helmet is outside of the defenders, which means the ideal running lane is outside.
As the play develops, the tight end’s block on his defender drives him into the tackle’s path, which means one of them can get free to the second level to make another block.
The tight end is able to get a block on the next defender in line, and the play goes for a nice gain. None of the Bengals on the left side of the offense were able to get a push upfield against their blockers, and the play was run as intended, like playing the CPU on Madden with the sliders tilted in your favor.
The Saints have been committed to the running game in recent weeks, giving Mark Ingram all the carries he can handle as the team’s lone healthy back. Pierre Thomas and Khiry Robinson are still injured and may not play again this week, leaving Ingram as the leading back for a team with a fantastic matchup on the ground. The Saints are one of the best run-blocking teams in the league, and they’ll open up plenty of room for the Alabama product to run in this matchup.