Rex Ryan's Box of Tricks

[flgreen]

BGA Weekly: Rex Ryan’s Box of Tricks

By Bent on May 25, 2011, 3:43 pm

During the offseason, I’ll be looking back at certain aspects of the Jets’ season by analyzing data compiled from all nineteen games, rather than watching film. I will be tackling as many diverse topics as possible, but welcome your suggestions or requests in the comments.

The Jets have one of the most versatile defenses in the NFL, operating a variety of different three and four man fronts, 46 formations and multiple DB sets, while rotating defensive personnel as much as any team in the league. In contrast, the Steelers almost always stick with a 3-4 formation with everyone in the same position, bringing in a slot corner for a lineman on passing downs and only rotating their backups in for a handful of snaps per game. Despite this, the Jets can still develop tendencies within these multiple looks and then do something out of the ordinary in an effort to confuse the opposition.

This week, I’m going to look at some of the things the Jets did with their personnel to confound the offense and examine how successful each of these strategies was. More after the jump.

Once again, this article has used data exclusively provided to us from the guys at PFF. Our thanks, as ever, go out to them.

Rex Ryan: Mad Scientist

Rex Ryan arrived from Baltimore with a reputation as a mad scientist. Much of this was borne out of his aggressive and creative blitz packages. However, he also experimented with Haloti Ngata at middle linebacker and Adalius Thomas at cornerback, so there was another level to his creativity that was likely to be duplicated with the Jets. Sure enough, in his first training camp they were experimenting with Sione Pouha as a middle linebacker and he has been incorporating some unique formations and packages into his gameplans ever since.

A lot of these formations and ideas would never work on an every-down basis, because the offense will easily be able to find a mismatch. However, if you can surprise them with it, then this could force them to burn a timeout or cause the play to fail. It may even cause a play later on to fail, because they are expecting you to repeat what you did earlier. You just need to hope that the offense doesn’t find that mismatch, otherwise you could get burned.

So, let’s look at some of the ways Rex switched things up during the season and determine how successful these ploys were….

Brodney Pool: Defensive Lineman

The first time I saw Brodney Pool get down in a three-point stance on the line, I was pretty confused. Had Shaun Ellis lost a load of weight and my eyes saw “22″ when it was actually “92″ on his jersey? Had the Jets given Jamaal Westerman a jersey with the numbers glued on back to front? Nope, that was definitely Brodney Pool shoulder-to-shoulder with Sione Pouha and ready to get after the quarterback. What the heck?

Whatever the heck, it was something the Jets did seven times over the course of the season. Although it was mostly on third down, two of these plays were on 2nd down and two were on 3rd and two. So what was the plan? I have several theories:

- The Jets were hoping the linemen wouldn’t be prepared for his superior quickness and that he might be elusive or slippery enough to take them by surprise and shoot a gap.

- Since Pool is 6-foot-2 with a big vertical leap (39″ at the 2005 combine), he might be better than any of the linemen at getting his hands up to disrupt a passing lane and perhaps deflect a pass into the air.

- If they drop him into coverage, he might be more likely to make a play on the ball and potentially get a big return than if a lineman was to do the same thing.

- On third and two (and second and five) perhaps the plan was to bait the offense into running straight at Pool, but with the linebackers primed to attack that gap as the ball is snapped.

- It just gives their next opponent one more thing to prepare for.

- Maybe it was literally just an effort to confuse the offense into second-guessing itself.

Whatever the reason, they went ahead and did it, so let’s see how successful those seven plays were:

One-for-five passing, five yards, no TD’s, no interceptions.

The other two plays saw the Jets jump offside and the Steelers, perhaps confused, commit a delay of game penalty.

On the whole, that sounds pretty successful. Three of those incompletions came on third down and led to the Jets getting the ball back (Punt, 4th down interception, had to settle for a field goal). One of these even saw the Quarterback flushed from the pocket. However, one of the incompletions (against Cleveland) came on second down and the Browns were still able to convert on third down and go on to score a touchdown. The one completion came on second and five, so this was also good enough for a first down and the drive again culminated in a touchdown. Finally, the delay of game did not prevent the Steelers from driving for a touchdown either.

So, that gives us three stops and three successful drives on those six plays with Pool on the line. That’s arguably no better than the Jets would achieve as a matter of course, even without any bells and whistles. However, I suspect that the point behind doing this is that they are hoping it will create a sack or a turnover. That didn’t happen, although an indirect result of the one other play I didn’t discuss yet – Ellis jumping offsides against the Vikings – was that Brett Favre threw a game-clinching pick six on the very next play. Who knows, maybe he was spooked into doing that by the confusion Pool created by lining up as a defensive tackle on that crucial third and ten play.

Other Positional Wizardry

The Jets obviously use several of their players at multiple positions. They have a number of guys that can play multiple front seven positions and several defensive backs who they effectively deploy as pass rushing linebackers or who can play both the cornerback and safety positions. Every now and then though, they will make a positional adjustment to rival Pool being a lineman. Here are some examples:

- Against the Browns, Shaun Ellis lined up as a middle linebacker on a key third and five play. Colt McCoy threw incomplete and the Browns were forced to settle for a field goal.

- Against the Steelers in Week 15, Calvin Pace lined up as a free safety on 3rd and 10. Unfortunately, Drew Coleman got beaten for a 12 yard catch and the Steelers went on to score a touchdown.

- Against Miami in Week 3 and New England in Week 13, Sione Pouha rushed the passer from a standing position. Here he was effectively a linebacker. Trevor Pryce did the same thing against New England in the postseason. This was not very successful, as on each occasion a pass was completed for a first down – 43 yards in total. All three drives ended up with scores, although Miami had to settle for a field goal.

Sending The Guys You Least Expect

With all the stunting and overloading of the Jets’ blitz packages, they don’t send guys off the corner very often. This may be because they don’t trust their other coverage guys to be able to prevent a completion off a quick read. However, with versatile guys like Marquice Cole and Dwight Lowery on the roster that can line up behind the cornerback as a deep safety and then pick up the receiver in off-man coverage when the corner blitzes, it may be something they look to do more of next season.

After Darrelle Revis was only sent after the quarterback once in 2009, the situation didn’t change much in 2010. Both Revis and Antonio Cromartie blitzed just once, and both in the same game:

- In Week 15, Cromartie went after Ben Roethlisberger on a second quarter cornerback blitz. It was a good call because Cromartie was completely unblocked, but Roethlisberger slipped the tackle and completed an 18 yard pass. The Steelers went on to score a touchdown on the drive.

- Later on, the Jets sent Revis on a third-quarter blitz on 3rd and six. Roethlisberger found Mike Wallace for 17, although the Steelers were ultimately forced to punt.

Clearly, Roethlisberger was able to make something happen anyway. A lesser quarterback may not have done so – Revis blitzing in Buffalo in 2008 and coming away with a strip-sack in the red zone springs to mind. You can perhaps understand the Jets saving this for use in a game against a particularly tough opponent, though.

Dropping The Guys You Least Expect

While dropping defensive linemen into coverage is hardly something that’s unique to the Jets, it does represent another way that Rex Ryan will switch things up in an effort to create a stop. The Jets dropped Pouha, Pryce, Ellis or Mike DeVito into coverage a total of 30 times in 19 games. That may not necessarily have always been by design – sometimes it appears that a lineman will realize he isn’t going to beat a double team, so he will cut his losses and drop back into a shallow zone underneath. This might also happen if the quarterback rolls out and the lineman knows the quarterback is going to have to get rid of the ball before he can get over there. However, most of the time, the lineman does make a definite move to drop at the snap.

Let’s consider how successful the Jets were when this happened:

- When Pouha dropped into coverage, quarterbacks were 4-for-11, 46 yards and two sacks. Three of the four completions went for a first down. Five of the 11 drives ended up with touchdowns, four with punts and two with turnovers.

- When Pryce dropped into coverage, quarterbacks were 0-for-2, although one of these plays saw a first down awarded for a roughing the passer penalty on James Ihedigbo. These two drives ended with a punt and a missed field goal.

- When DeVito dropped into coverage, quarterbacks were 2-for-5, for 30 yards. There was also a five yard scramble for a first down. The two completions were a 35 yard gain and a five yard loss. Only one of these six drives ended with a touchdown.

- When Ellis dropped into coverage, quarterbacks were 3-for-7, for 30 yards and two touchdowns, with two sacks. The completion that wasn’t a touchdown went for 19 yards, but that drive ended up with a turnover. The rest of the drives ended up with punts.

- In total, when a lineman dropped into coverage, quarterbacks were 9-for-25, 106 yards and two touchdowns, with four sacks. Despite the low completion percentage, that’s still a 76.4 QB rating. Mixed results, clearly.

Obviously, you can get burned when you drop a lineman into coverage, because you have one less guy rushing the passer and you might end up with a lineman chasing after a skill position player. Some media members mocked the fact that DeVito ended up covering Danny Woodhead on a play that went for a 35 yard gain, but a review of the film clearly showed that this was David Harris’ assignment, only for him to take a mis-step after biting on a playaction fake and then finding himself swallowed up in traffic. A good quarterback will always punish that sort of thing though, which brings us to an interesting breakdown.

If we generalize for a moment and assume that the playoff teams are the ones with good QB play, let’s see how those numbers break down between playoff and non-playoff teams:

- Playoff teams: 4-for-8, 98 yards, 1 sack

- Non-Playoff teams: 5-for-17, 8 yards, 2 TDs, 3 sacks

Clearly you can see how – as a general rule – doing this against non-playoff teams has a higher success rate. How about if we extend this to all of the plays listed here, not just when a defensive lineman drops into coverage:

- Playoff teams: 9-for-14, 175 yards, 1 sack, 107.7 QB rating

- Non-Playoff teams: 6-for-23, 26 yards, 2 TDs, 3 sacks, 68.6 QB rating

This leads us to an obvious conclusion – doing these sort of things is less likely to fool a good team and is more likely to be punished. On the basis of these numbers, the Jets would be better off just lining up and playing a standard defense when they are facing a top team. However, the numbers don’t necessarily always tell the story. If there were lots of plays where the defense was just half a step away from making a big play to the point where incrementally better individual performance would have made a material difference to the numbers, then it is something they should persist with – albeit with caution. As noted earlier, if it can make you less predictable and give your opponent more to prepare for, then it can still be productive, even if those plays are unsuccessful themselves.

Goalline Defense Personnel

While it perhaps doesn’t fit perfectly within the category of defensive trickery, it is still quite interesting to look at the Jets goalline personnel during the season. Although it again isn’t unique to the Jets – at least one of their opponents this season did the same – the Jets’ use of backup offensive linemen to anchor the defensive line in goalline situations was interesting.

In the very first game, the Jets were forced to make an adjustment, because Kris Jenkins was presumably originally intended to be anchoring that unit. After his injury, the middle of the Jets’ line was anchored by Matt Kroul and offensive tackle Wayne Hunter – himself a former defensive lineman. DeVito and Pouha were lined up outside them, with two other down linemen on either end of a six man line. After that game, with Kroul mostly inactive, the Jets used Rob Turner alongside Hunter for most of the season. Pouha and DeVito kept the same roles with the end positions being filled by the likes of Pace, Bryan Thomas and Vernon Gholston. When Hunter was called into full time action on offense, the Jets stopped using him in that role and instead went with Marcus Dixon for a couple of games. In the postseason, with Dixon inactive, they had to move Pouha inside and used Shaun Ellis, surprisingly for the only time all season at the goalline. Martin Tevaseu took Hunter’s role in the AFC Title Game.

The goalline defense was able to stop the offense from scoring on only six of 17 plays over the course of the season. Let’s look at the success rate for each of the linemen on those 17 plays:

Kroul – 3 stops, 2 TDs (60%)

Hunter – 6 stops, 7 TDs (42%)

Gholston – 5 stops, 8 TDs (38%)

Pouha – 6 stops, 11 TDs (35%)

DeVito – 6 stops, 11 TDs (35%)

Thomas – 6 stops, 11 TDs (35%)

Turner – 4 stops, 10 TDs (29%)

Pace – 0 stops, 2 TDs (0%)

Dixon – 0 stops, 2 TDs (0%)

Tevaseu – 0 stops, 1 TD (0%)

Ellis – 0 stops, 1 TD (0%)

Obviously one person doesn’t make or break the success of a play on the goalline defense, but it is still interesting to see how successful they were with each of these guys on the line. It will be interesting to see how the new additions fit in here.

Conclusions

Aside from his creative schemes and the flexibility of the system, there are several subtle adjustments that Rex Ryan’s defense employs from time to time. (And at this point, Mike Pettine’s contribution should be acknowledged too.) It’s interesting to see the success of these moves laid out. It seems clear that these adjustments can give the Jets a competitive edge, but the better teams seem well-equipped to counter and potentially exploit these, much as you’d expect.

The 2011 season is only year three of the Rex Ryan regime and is the point at which they should be starting to put together a defensive personnel comprised mainly of his type of player. It’s only once that’s fully in place that these adjustments will be used to augment the effectiveness of the system, rather than to perhaps mask a weakness with “Smoke and Mirrors”. In that respect, despite the early success of this defense we may only just have scratched the surface with regard to its full potential.

That should be a sobering thought for the rest of the NFL.

BGA will be back next week. Please let me know if there’s anything you’d like me to investigate…

[Larz]

.

[Integrity28]

Goalline Defense Personnel

While it perhaps doesn’t fit perfectly within the category of defensive trickery, it is still quite interesting to look at the Jets goalline personnel during the season. Although it again isn’t unique to the Jets – at least one of their opponents this season did the same – the Jets’ use of backup offensive linemen to anchor the defensive line in goalline situations was interesting.

In the very first game, the Jets were forced to make an adjustment, because Kris Jenkins was presumably originally intended to be anchoring that unit. After his injury, the middle of the Jets’ line was anchored by Matt Kroul and offensive tackle Wayne Hunter – himself a former defensive lineman. DeVito and Pouha were lined up outside them, with two other down linemen on either end of a six man line. After that game, with Kroul mostly inactive, the Jets used Rob Turner alongside Hunter for most of the season. Pouha and DeVito kept the same roles with the end positions being filled by the likes of Pace, Bryan Thomas and Vernon Gholston. When Hunter was called into full time action on offense, the Jets stopped using him in that role and instead went with Marcus Dixon for a couple of games. In the postseason, with Dixon inactive, they had to move Pouha inside and used Shaun Ellis, surprisingly for the only time all season at the goalline. Martin Tevaseu took Hunter’s role in the AFC Title Game.

The goalline defense was able to stop the offense from scoring on only six of 17 plays over the course of the season. Let’s look at the success rate for each of the linemen on those 17 plays:

Kroul – 3 stops, 2 TDs (60%)

Hunter – 6 stops, 7 TDs (42%)

Gholston – 5 stops, 8 TDs (38%)

Pouha – 6 stops, 11 TDs (35%)

DeVito – 6 stops, 11 TDs (35%)

Thomas – 6 stops, 11 TDs (35%)

Turner – 4 stops, 10 TDs (29%)

Pace – 0 stops, 2 TDs (0%)

Dixon – 0 stops, 2 TDs (0%)

Tevaseu – 0 stops, 1 TD (0%)

Ellis – 0 stops, 1 TD (0%)

Obviously one person doesn’t make or break the success of a play on the goalline defense, but it is still interesting to see how successful they were with each of these guys on the line. It will be interesting to see how the new additions fit in here.

I knew our D-line was thin, but sh*t... makes me that much happier with the first 2 draft picks this year.