The Tape: Brandon Jacobs 44 Yard Rush

by John Morgan on Oct 6, 2008 1:39 PM PDT in Game Recap Comment 4 comments

Here's one of the changes I'm making this week: More, shorter post, tape analysis throughout the day.

In which Lofa Tatupu "plays scared":

"But [Jacobs has] matured as a runner, and he's exploring his options, so to speak. He doesn't always take it downhill. He'll make guys miss. He'll sidestep defenders and make them look just as bad as if they were getting run over." -Lofa Tatupu

Third play, first Giants drive of the quarter. 1st and 10 from the Giants 24. New York breaks 2 WR, TE, I. Seattle in a base 4-3. Understanding how this run went down is a process of elimination. At the snap, Kevin Boss turns Lawrence Jackson in, opening the left "C" gap. Brandon Mebane gets a slow jump off the snap. He's a non-factor. Madison Hedgecock lead blocks right; Brandon Jacobs takes two quick steps right, but cuts left. The joint action has already drawn a response from Seattle's linebackers. Leroy Hill, Lofa Tatupu and Julian Peterson begin offensive right and extend their distance to the left "C" gap. Chris Snee and Rich Seubert pull left. Leroy Hill engages Seubert, holding his ground and opening a channel for Deon Grant or Lofa Tatupu to tackle. That's his job on this play, take out the lead blocker and setup the tackle, not greedily attempt the tackle himself, vacate his assignment and leave Peterson and Tatupu with Jacobs and two lead blockers. Snee, continues to pull out, nears Grant, misses engaging him and only accidentally contributes to the play. Unfortunately, Grant is no match for the charging Colossus, arrives at an angle that's best outcome is a broken arm tackle and doesn't even get that.

The remaining players are Tatupu, Peterson from the far side, Snee lead blocking and Jacobs. Tatupu decelerates, takes a false step towards the line of scrimmage, regains, but now with an impossible angle and can be seen in Jacobs dust cloud as he sprints past. Snee, running in, loses his feet accidentally tripping Peterson and removing the last barrier between Jacobs and Brian Russell. Russell runs around Jacobs and tackles him from behind. All things considered, it was the right move. Russell was the last line of defense. Do you trust him to take Jacobs head on?

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In this case...

I felt that if Grant had engaged that blocker rather than essentially swimmed inside, Hill, Tatupu, or Petersen could’ve made the play for a less destructive gain. While I hail the little people that play in the NFL, there’s also a lack of physicality by Jennings on this play. More physical corner play in this instance could’ve forced Jacobs up field sooner than he’d have liked and helped immensely.

by Azimeir on Oct 6, 2008 2:49 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Jennings is terrible against the run.

That’s something I’m about to address.

by John Morgan on Oct 6, 2008 2:59 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I completely agree this was Grant's fault

He tried to make too much of a play and instead of engaging his blocker, he let his blocker go by and take out Tatupu and Peterson. Then when he finally frees himself of Seubert, Jacobs is way past him.

Bad play Grant. After looking at the play on DVR tape on slow mo about 10 times, it’s clearly Deon’s fault.

by kmedic on Oct 7, 2008 10:20 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs