Geno Smith gets rattled when blitzed.
That’s not some grand revelation on the veteran quarterback. It’s the plain truth and Raider Nation is all too aware of this.
Smith was the Las Vegas Raiders starting quarterback last season for then-head coach Pete Carroll and the West Virginia product was like a lamb to slaughter that year. Due to a porous offensive line — due in large part to both talent and coaching — Smith was sacked a league-high 55 times while throwing 19 touchdowns and an NFL-leading 17
interceptions as a 15-game starter.
Smith is enjoying a rebound season in his return to the New York Jets — the team that drafted him 39th overall in the 2013 NFL Draft — as he’s completing 70 percent of his passes with 10 touchdowns, two interceptions, and 1,623 passing yards. Smith is keeping Gang Green in games and still continues to throw a nice deep ball.
But when opponents dial up the pressure and send extra defenders beyond the standard four-man rushes, Smith continues to wilt.
Behind New York’s offensive line, Smith has been sacked 21 times which is fourth-most behind the Cleveland Browns’ Deshaun Watson (25), the Carolina Panthers’ Bryce Young (23), and the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Aaron Rodgers (22).
Conventional wisdom says Las Vegas doesn’t need to blitz to create pressures. According to Pro Football Reference (PFR), Rob Leonard’s Raiders defense ranks fifth with 73 total pressures and is third in pressure percentage at 29.2 percent. That’s percentage only behind the league-leading (and domineering) Minnesota Vikings at 35.7 percent and the Seattle Seahawks at 30.9 percent.
Coincidentally, the defensive play callers for both the Vikings (Brian Flores) and Seahawks (Mike Macdonald) are coaches Leonard learned from during his career enroute to getting elevated to defensive coordinator by Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak.
Seattle paces the league with 77 total pressures with the Denver Broncos (76), Vikings (74) and Atlanta Falcons (74) ahead of Las Vegas in that regard — for comparison.
But to truly shake Smith’s confidence and ground the Jets air attack, blitzing is a solid course of action to create chaos. Blitzing shouldn’t be relegated to just quell the pass but stonewall the run, too. Leonard’s defense got gashed badly in Las Vegas’ four-straight losses giving up 656 total rushing yards total in those games. The 199 yards yielded to the Los Angeles Rams’ ground game in Week 7 being the highest tally so far this season.
And the Raiders have given up 30 or more points in the last four games with a total of 143 points allowed in that span. No other team approaches that sum as the closest team to allow that amount: The Arizona Cardinals at 127 points.
Blitzing the run can help mitigate the loose rush defense the Raiders exhibit.
Offensive coordinator Frank Reich is orchestrating a Jets offense that’s 27th in points scored (137) and 23rd in yards gained (2,121). New York’s passing attack is ranked 21st in yards gained (1,445) and 19th in touchdowns (10) while the ground game is 22nd in yards (675) and 26th in touchdowns (four).
If there’s an opponent to deploy blitzes upon, it’s the Jets.
So far this season, PFR charts the Raiders defense with 61 blitzes (which is tied for 16th most among the 32 NFL teams with the Seahawks) for a 24.4 percentage on 1,611 passing attempts. The Vikings boast the most blitzes by far as Flores dialed up 140 so far (league-leading 67.6 percent of passing attempts). The Broncos are second with 95 and the New England Patriots are third at 92. (Interestingly enough, the Jets are tied for fourth most blitzes dialed up by head coach and defensive play caller Aaron Glenn).
The trio of defenders Leonard’s activated on a blitz are: Linebackers Quay Walker (29) and Nakobe Dean (20) and slot cornerback Taron Johnson (13). Walker and Dean have four pressures apiece and two and 1.5 sacks, respectively. Johnson has our pressures, in comparison. Leonard also dials up the rush from safety Jeremy Chinn (five blitzes with a pressure and sack) and outside cornerback Eric Stokes (four blitzes, two pressures, one sack), and rookie safety Treydan Stukes (three blitzes).
Disguising and selectively sending extra defenders at the Jets offensive line is an opportunity to both stop the run and attack the passing game. And at 3-4 overall and fourth-worst defense in terms of points allowed (197) and yards given up (2,616) the Raiders should go for broke and dial up the pressure to help a young secondary and give sack leaders Kwity Paye and Malcolm Koonce (three sacks, apiece) and Maxx Crosby (two) much-needed reinforcements.
Leonard expects a fundamentally sound effort against New York this Sunday and in order to create the pass rush opportunities, need to be much more effective and stymie Gang Green’s ground game. Las Vegas has the eighth most missed tackles at 41, according to PFR. The Broncos pace the NFL with 56 whiffs, for comparison.
“In the offense, you always hear them say they want a hat for a hat in the run game. One-on-one, they want to account for everybody and typically leave the corners unblocked. The expectation one-on-one is to win,” Leonard said during his media session this past Thursday. “So, it’s block release, pad level, hand placement and, like you said, whooping the guy in front of you. To me, we try to train the process of doing that. We obviously have got to do a better job. When you play like that, that starts with me.
“When you have mis-fits, missed tackles and different angles to the ball, that is 100 percent on me. I have to be better there.”
Quotes of Note
“I told the defense yesterday I’m looking at it for everybody. There are very few, ‘Hey, Nakobe (Dean) is the starting Mike (middle linebacker). 98 (Maxx Crosby) is a defensive end.’ Everybody is competing for the job, myself included, every day. I want them to feel that because it’s true. There’s nothing guaranteed. I tell them, you have to put someone in a position to say, ‘How can I not play this guy? He does everything right.’ And until that happens with everybody, then competition’s on every day.”
—Las Vegas Raiders defensive coordinator Rob Leonard when asked about the competition between cornerback Darien Porter and Hezekiah Masses
“We’re always scouting ourselves after games, looking at a one-game sample or a seven-game sample, and then just being honest with what we are doing well, how we can build on that, what we aren’t doing well, and the whys behind it, and then we take those things and try to formulate a plan to be ready for the next opponent.”
—Las Vegas Raiders offensive coordinator Andrew Janocko when asked how the coaching staff determines where major adjustments need to be made
