Film Breakdown - The Blocked Punt

At his press conference Sunday immediately after the Rams game, Redskins Coach Mike Shanahan alluded to a guy "leaving early" as the assignment breakdown that caused the critical blocked punt.

Here's the play. The pain is still fresh, but watch if you can bear it. Pay particular attention to the end zone replay beginning at :31.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wysIxiOJjTQ&feature=player_embedded

The end zone replay shows that Shanahan was referring to #37 Reed Doughty, lined up as the up-back behind and to the right of the center. At the snap, Doughty scans immediately in front of him, but doesn't see the Ram breaking through from the left before he releases to cover the kick.

But even before Doughty releases, watch Perry Riley, #56, who is lined up as the 2nd man to the left of center. He literally sidesteps contact with #83 Matthew Mulligan, the Ram who then breaks through to block the punt. Perry avoids contact as if HE were being blocked. His action is simply inexplicable to me. That, more than anything else, is what caused the blocked punt.

A lesser offender is DeJon Gomes, #24, the left wing on the play. He clearly has outside responsibility, but he's so locked into his assignment that he makes no effort to slow the Ram who breaks through to his inside, even though the man lined up opposite him is making no effort to rush. If Gomes reaches out with his right arm for a quick shove on Mulligan, that may slow him enough to prevent the block.

Three guys could have prevented the block. None of them did enough on the play.

Maybe the players are secretly on board with the plan to remove Danny Smith from his position.

*Conspiracy theorist me. :cool:

Hail.

All boils down to poor coaching IMO.

All boils down to poor coaching IMO.

Agreed. Completely. They are obviously not spending enough time practicing this. Any issues should be solved by repetition and coaching. How this could have possibly happened in Week 2 after what happened in Week 1 is inexcusable and should cost Danny Smith his job.

Good post, good information, but I'm sorry:

BLAH BLAH BLAH, we've been doing this and breaking down film over and over and over and over and over and over.

And over and over and over and over. We all know the one common problem.

Ole Gummy has diplomatic immunity and will never leave....until the head is dead the monster remains.

Thanks for posting that. I'm blaming Riley for that. Which brings me to the question of why our Starting MLB is out there playing special teams? Does he practice with them on a daily basis? Was somebody else hurt and he was taking their place? Seems odd to me. How's his special teams in general? He's not somebody I hear much about.

Sorry! It's not Reed Doughty -- this is on Perry Riley who got blown up big time, and Gomes, who preferred to stare down at his assignment rather than take a small step to the right and chip off-stride that breakthrough Ram coming through his side. And frankly that's on Gomes to be able to cover that.

Reed would need much wider peripheral vision to even see what was happening and would have had to back-step to get in the way..

Doughty was watching the right side of the line, and when no one broke through -- he went downfield, as per his assignment.

FYI -- oddly Gomes started to head downfield too. It's like he didn't even see Riley get blown up -- and that was easily in his field of vision.

This was Gomes failing at backing up Riley-- unless you feel that Doughty needed to watch Gomes side of the line too.

Heck, this was vanilla and man up-- Riley failed and Gomes failed.

All boils down to poor coaching IMO.

hit the nail on the head

Frankly, I thought Gomes got schooled a lot during that game. He's my goat after numb-mass Morgan.

EDIT:

I am so tired of Danny Smith. Would it be too irrational to fire him right now... and if we did, who is the next man up to coach teams? Slowick? Morris? Haslett and move Morris to DC? Someone off the street?

I'm just a young buck, so I don't really remember dumping a coach two games into the season, other than for all intents and purposes Jim Zorn.

Sorry! It's not Reed Doughty -- this is on Perry Riley who got blown up big time, and Gomes, who preferred to stare down at his assignment rather than take a small step to the right and chip off-stride that breakthrough Ram coming through his side. And frankly that's on Gomes to be able to cover that.

Reed would need much wider peripheral vision to even see what was happening and would have had to back-step to get in the way..

Doughty was watching the right side of the line, and when no one broke through -- he went downfield, as per his assignment.

FYI -- oddly Gomes started to head downfield too. It's like he didn't even see Riley get blown up -- and that was easily in his field of vision.

This was Gomes failing at backing up Riley-- unless you feel that Doughty needed to watch Gomes side of the line too.

Heck, this was vanilla and man up-- Riley failed and Gomes failed.

I agree with you for the most part. I thought Shanahan's blaming of Doughty was misplaced. I'll say this - if Doughty has responsibility for anyone who breaks through, right side OR left, then it seems to me he needs to be lined up further back from the line of scrimmage.

I wouldn't say Riley got "blown up," though. That implies he got overpowered by contact. He didn't get beat by contact, he got beat because he AVOIDED contact. It was just weird to watch. He went immediately into punt coverage mode and completely neglected the punt protection part of his assignment.

i said this before in another thread, but the guy who left early appeared to be riley. the only scenario i can see in which you hang that block on doughty is a designed play thats specifically designed to get riley down the field a second quicker- in other words, he completely lets his guy go by him (which he did) and doughty is supposed to pick him up. but thats risky in that you are gambling that everybody else holds their blocks and extra rushers get through.

being that reed makes him money being a good special teamer, and he appeared to not be aware of such a design, i'm guessing riley just whiffs on the guy thinking he wont get there by the time the punter boots it.

still, i dont know how in the hell a guy who is supposed to be blocking can just, essentially, sidestep the rusher, allowing him a free lane to the punter.

how in the hell smith keeps a job, i have no idea.

At his press conference Sunday immediately after the Rams game, Redskins Coach Mike Shanahan alluded to a guy "leaving early" as the assignment breakdown that caused the critical blocked punt.

Here's the play. The pain is still fresh, but watch if you can bear it. Pay particular attention to the end zone replay beginning at :31.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wysIxiOJjTQ&feature=player_embedded

The end zone replay shows that Shanahan was referring to #37 Reed Doughty, lined up as the up-back behind and to the right of the center. At the snap, Doughty scans immediately in front of him, but doesn't see the Ram breaking through from the left before he releases to cover the kick.

But even before Doughty releases, watch Perry Riley, #56, who is lined up as the 2nd man to the left of center. He literally sidesteps contact with #83 Matthew Mulligan, the Ram who then breaks through to block the punt. Perry avoids contact as if HE were being blocked. His action is simply inexplicable to me. That, more than anything else, is what caused the blocked punt.

A lesser offender is DeJon Gomes, #24, the left wing on the play. He clearly has outside responsibility, but he's so locked into his assignment that he makes no effort to slow the Ram who breaks through to his inside, even though the man lined up opposite him is making no effort to rush. If Gomes reaches out with his right arm for a quick shove on Mulligan, that may slow him enough to prevent the block.

Three guys could have prevented the block. None of them did enough on the play.

Nice breakdown Dan, thank you

Strange, from what I read this offseason, Perry Riley was the next Antonio pierce.

Guess not.

Good write up Dan.

It looked to me like Riley and Doughty were much more interested in a fast release then paying attention to the play.

Riley's olé move is ridiculous, Doughty, who the hell knows what he's looking at, hell knows he can't hear the guy coming. (I don't care if it sounds mean,, the dude can't play football, and he can't hear. Put him in place where he can do minimal damage.. let him be the damn gunner if he's so gung ho.

He pays no attention to the play.. the personal protector as it is.

Sloppy. Undisciplined..

to call it a pattern would be the understatement of the year.

~Bang

Woohoo! I haven't had this much vomit on my laptop since swinging gate.

Maybe I should come back after we beat the Bengals.

Agreed. Completely. They are obviously not spending enough time practicing this. Any issues should be solved by repetition and coaching. How this could have possibly happened in Week 2 after what happened in Week 1 is inexcusable and should cost Danny Smith his job.

You'd think after last season, this preseason, and the first game of the regular season, it would have been drilled into everyone this past week of practice... what the heck!!???!?!

Not to beat a dead horse with this thread, but it sounds like poor ST coaching to me.

Funny, no one seems to want to look at what Gomes was doing on this play. Or didn't do.

The eventual punt-blocker ran right past his right shoulder, and Gomes didn't even try to nudge him. Meanwhile, Gomes primary assignment, hadn't even taken any steps forward towards the punter.

Terrible scheming and coaching. If I'm the Bengals I would be licking my chops for a punt or FG block.

Funny, no one seems to want to look at what Gomes was doing on this play. Or didn't do.

The eventual punt-blocker ran right past his right shoulder, and Gomes didn't even try to nudge him. Meanwhile, Gomes primary assignment, hadn't even taken any steps forward towards the punter.

I covered that in the OP.

Gomes looked a step slow a couple of times Sunday, like he was in a fog. I've seen good things from him too, though. With experience, I think he'll grow into a decent safety.

Terrible scheming and coaching. If I'm the Bengals I would be licking my chops for a punt or FG block.

I would tell Pacman.. "Look, i know you returned one 81 yards thru the entire Browns team, but we're rushing ten on every punt. You practice fair catches this week"

~Bang

Good break down. This is on Riley, if you ask me. Any player who makes it thru Training Camp knows better.

Sloppy on his part.

He's making 6 figures plus....he's accountable.

no team had more than 1 punts blocked last year....

hell, a lot of teams didn't have punts blocked last year

a ******** joke

A crappy play all around. Unacceptable.