The Washington Defensive Line Thread

[Warhead36]

9 hours ago, TrancesWithWolves said:

It will be a travesty If two or three of our d-line don’t make the pro bowl.

Aaron Donald has one DT spot in the NFC guaranteed. Beyond that I'm not really sure. Its hard to compare 3-4 guys to 4-3 guys.

[Fresh8686]

 

 

[Est.1974]

This line is going to thrive if this winning streak continues. Knocking their backs out every game. Now the results are coming. The mentality to do damage will be stronger than ever. 

 

The rotation definitely keeps them fresh too. Let’s keep going.

[Warhead36]

Imagine if we can actually consistently get a lead. Then this DL can really feast.

[Skinsinparadise]

https://www.espn.com/blog/washington/post/_/id/40797/washington-football-team-on-a-roll-thanks-to-young-defensive-ends-alex-smith

Budding stars

Washington's line anchors the defense, and while the interior has been good, it's the young ends who provide the flash. Sweat and rookie Chase Young have combined for 10.5 sacks, but those totals don't fully reflect their impact. Against Dallas in Week 12, Sweat made a leaping interception of quarterback Andy Dalton and returned it for a touchdown. Monday, he deflected three Ben Roethlisberger passes, the last resulting in an interception by linebacker Jon Bostic.

They both play the run well; Young plays with a veteran's savvy when it comes to his awareness of plays. He broke up a screen pass, among other plays, because of this Monday.

"You guys see more of the pass rush, but for me I see what they do in the run game," Bostic said. "That's what makes those guys special. A lot of ends are just pass-rush guys."

[method man]

5 hours ago, KDawg said:

 

I think most of the folks who are mad we didn't have a second rounder weren't upset because of Sweat. A lot of us preferred we take Sweat at our original draft slot and not trade up into the first.

 

But Sweat is and always has been worth the first rounder. For sure. 

 

Agreed. Many of us did not like Haskins, Jones or Lock and we wanted Sweat or Brian Burns at #15.

[Est.1974]

6 minutes ago, method man said:

 

Agreed. Many of us did not like Haskins, Jones or Lock and we wanted Sweat or Brian Burns at #15.

As did Gruden to be fair to him.

[Anselmheifer]

12 minutes ago, Warhead36 said:

Imagine if we can actually consistently get a lead. Then this DL can really feast.

 

Imagine if we consistently get a lead ,AND get Ioannidis back next year.  Pair that with a 2nd year Chase Young, a 3rd year Montez Sweat, and an improved Tim Settle. And with a little extra investment, a FS, MLB and CB, this defense could be scary, scary good next year. 

[Darth Tater]

15 hours ago, Snagletooth said:

Still reminds me of Andre Carter.

 

I was just remembering how Phil Daniels was such a great pass deflector.  He had such great timing. So often when you see a pass batted down at the LOS, you are seeing a potential big play stopped.

[JaxJoe]

I think what impressed me most about the goal line stand was Cole Holcomb lining up on the outside shoulder of Steelers backup RT #65, Jerald Hawkin.  Pre-snap, Rothlesburger must see the obvious mismatch and has the running back shoot for the hole hopefully created by the two right tackles.  This is the Steelers Heavy Jumbo lineup. The RT and RG double team Settle who holds is own and that leaves #65 to simply keep Holecomb to the outside and open up the lane.  But Holecomb, who’s 50-60 pounds lighter, not only holds his ground but prevents himself from being turned and in fact, slides #65 into the running lane causing the RB to run into the back of his lineman. This delay allows Chase Young to get A TFL and Bostic the clean-up assist.  Just fantastic teamwork.

 

[Burgundy Yoda]

1 hour ago, JaxJoe said:

I think what impressed me most about the goal line stand was Cole Holcomb lining up on the outside shoulder of Steelers backup RT #65, Jerald Hawkin.  Pre-snap, Rothlesburger must see the obvious mismatch and has the running back shoot for the hole hopefully created by the two right tackles.  This is the Steelers Heavy Jumbo lineup. The RT and RG double team Settle who holds is own and that leaves #65 to simply keep Holecomb to the outside and open up the lane.  But Holecomb, who’s 50-60 pounds lighter, not only holds his ground but prevents himself from being turned and in fact, slides #65 into the running lane causing the RB to run into the back of his lineman. This delay allows Chase Young to get A TFL and Bostic the clean-up assist.  Just fantastic teamwork.

 

Great analysis, you can see Holcomb and Chase were the two big reasons for the goal line stop here. Holcomb simply refused to get out of the way which caused the RB to dive right into the back of his lineman instead of a gap. 

 

We have blue chippers on this defense, but make no mistake these gems we are finding in the late rounds are going to be the catalysts that allow our stars to play like stars in the future. In the last 3 drafts we've found gems like Settle, Holcomb, and now Curl after the 5th round, simply awesome finds. 

Edited December 9, 2020 by Burgundy Yoda

[Koolblue13]

4 hours ago, JaxJoe said:

I think what impressed me most about the goal line stand was Cole Holcomb lining up on the outside shoulder of Steelers backup RT #65, Jerald Hawkin.  Pre-snap, Rothlesburger must see the obvious mismatch and has the running back shoot for the hole hopefully created by the two right tackles.  This is the Steelers Heavy Jumbo lineup. The RT and RG double team Settle who holds is own and that leaves #65 to simply keep Holecomb to the outside and open up the lane.  But Holecomb, who’s 50-60 pounds lighter, not only holds his ground but prevents himself from being turned and in fact, slides #65 into the running lane causing the RB to run into the back of his lineman. This delay allows Chase Young to get A TFL and Bostic the clean-up assist.  Just fantastic teamwork.

 

I don't like it. Human beings aren't suppose to fly like that and definitely not have the power to wrap up a large man moving in a different direction like that. There's no way he's a human being. Young really is from Yautja Prime I suppose.

[Burgundy Yoda]

On 12/7/2020 at 10:41 PM, TrancesWithWolves said:

It will be a travesty If two or three of our d-line don’t make the pro bowl.

I dont think any of them make it. They should, but the stats aren't there and the popularity isn't there. 

Edited December 9, 2020 by Burgundy Yoda

[Koolblue13]

Just imagine what a great LBer and a FS would do for this team.

[fearlessNelms]

I saw some NFL Films footage yesterday of Mike Tomlin walking up to Chase Young during the TO when Curl got hurt and said to him "I hope I never lose enough games to get a guy like you, you have to lose 14 or 15 games to get a guy like you". Classic Tomlin quote- he's the best! 

[Bacon]

43 minutes ago, Koolblue13 said:

Just imagine what a great LBer and a FS would do for this team.

 

Oh yeah, if we had prime London Fletcher and Sean Taylor on this team along with our line, forget about it. We could run the league without a great QB like the 2000 Ravens did. 

[Going Commando]

I didn't realize how far Chase had to go to get there for that stop in real time.  That is amazing.

[Est.1974]

Much like Inman whiffing on the block on our failed 4th down try, Ebron is the same on that. Maybe he just motioned half a step too far on purpose, didn’t fancy Chase putting him on his arse.

[Going Commando]

From watching that Jon Allen clip, looked like our game plan was set up to keep Roethlisberger in the pocket rather than get wide to get home.  You can see they were coached to muddy the passing lanes in the middle of the field as opposed to going all out for sacks.  Helped those underneath zone defenders out.

 

I guess the thinking was Roethlisberger wants to hold the ball by nature and we can't match up with their WRs and TEs on the back end or in the middle so we need to keep him in the pocket and try to disrupt the quick crosses.  That put a lot of the onus for success on Allen and Payne, and you see that Allen's consistent B gap pressure was a key to disrupting the rhythm of their short passing game.  The commentary has mostly been about Pittsburgh puking away the win because their receivers dropped the ball, but the timing of their pass game was off.  Allen was winning up front.

 

The game plan almost didn't work.  Roethlisberger is so tall and so skilled at pocket movement that he beat a lot of our pressure and just moved from window to window.  And he made his reads so fast.  We knew they were going to pass the ball every play and he still found openings.  And their skill guys still won match ups all over the field.  It's tough to defend a great QB playing behind a good offensive line who has a full panoply of weapons at WR and TE.  Pair that with a great defense and it's no wonder they have won so many games this year.  We caught them at the right time.

We need more talent in the secondary to truly capitalize on thus DL too.  And better coverage from the LBers.  Seeing DaRon and Chase effectively rush to close down middle passing lanes because we can't cover those underneath zones well feels wasteful.

[Going Commando]

8 minutes ago, UK SKINS FAN 74 said:

Much like Inman whiffing on the block on our failed 4th down try, Ebron is the same on that. Maybe he just motioned half a step too far on purpose, didn’t fancy Chase putting him on his arse.

 

You wouldn't typically expect the weak side end to be a factor on that play.  Looked like the motion was eye dressing to make Chase stay home in case the run was coming his way, but he ignored it and sniffed out the right gap immediately.  And had the extreme speed to pursue all of the way into that opposite C gap in the miniscule time between the snap and the RB diving into that lane.

 

Also credit to DaRon and Tim on that play for the yeoman's work they did to keep those three linemen from generating any push around the point of attack.  DaRon beat the center to the fit with speed and Tim submarines the guard/tackle double.  Combine that with Cole holding his ground and it left the play nice and clean for Chase and Bostic to finish.  I think we would have stoned an A or B gap run too because DaRon had his head up and was ready to make a tackle, and SDH was there in the B gap.

[Peregrine]

As we expected, with a good defensive coordinator this D-Line finally got to prove that it was indeed one of the best in the NFL.

 

We werent crazy after all, just Bruce and Jay were.

[Going Commando]

I feel like Jon Allen is right on the cusp of being elite, but that there are still a few too many snaps per game where you're kind of like "eh..."  You probably didn't see that kind of inconsistency from the truly elite interior linemen over the years like Donald and Justin Smith and Richard Seymour.  But if Allen just gets a little more consistently dominant, I think he can make that leap.  If he develops that truly elite motor and has the game slow all of the way down for him and he figures out how to deal with some of these big power run blocks that have a tendency to push him back, then I think he'll be an All Pro.

 

We have got to sign him to an extension.  If not, we will 100% regret letting him leave.

[Warhead36]

4 hours ago, stevemcqueen1 said:

I feel like Jon Allen is right on the cusp of being elite, but that there are still a few too many snaps per game where you're kind of like "eh..."  You probably didn't see that kind of inconsistency from the truly elite interior linemen over the years like Donald and Justin Smith and Richard Seymour.  But if Allen just gets a little more consistently dominant, I think he can make that leap.  If he develops that truly elite motor and has the game slow all of the way down for him and he figures out how to deal with some of these big power run blocks that have a tendency to push him back, then I think he'll be an All Pro.

 

We have got to sign him to an extension.  If not, we will 100% regret letting him leave.

Yeah this is what I see too. He's consistently good but has stretches of invisibility. He's our glue guy up front but he needs to string some dominant plays together to truly reach his potential.

 

The smart play might have been to resign him this past offseason where he'd likely have been a lot cheaper, assuming he would even want that. He might not even resign this offseason and just bet on himself having a huge year next year and then really cash out in 2022.

[KDawg]

Nothing (or very little) Allen does routinely shows up on the stat sheet, so half our fan base thinks he stinks.

 

He doesnt.

Edited December 10, 2020 by KDawg

[Burgundy Yoda]

7 minutes ago, KDawg said:

Nothing (or very little) Allen does routinely shows up on the stat sheet, so half our fan base thinks he stinks.

 

He doesnt.

Allen doesn't get a lot of TFLs, but he has stopped RBs for mere 2 yard games the entire season. Hes a machine against the run, I'd say he's even better than Payne against the run but a lot of fans will disagree with me on that im sure.