Retired NFL lineman Geoff Schwartz revisits this weekend’s Wild Card games.
“Your strengths get you into the playoffs and your weaknesses get you out,” is how Bill Cowher put it on the CBS pregame show Sunday.
And Wild Card weekend delivered. Three of the four games came down to the final possession. Three underdogs, who are now 15-1 against the spread in their last 16 playoff games, advanced, with the Cowboys being the lone home team to win. There’s so much to digest, so I’ll try my best to break it down.
Seattle’s offensive malpractice
Guess what folks? Seattle opened another series with a run play. They ran it again the following play. Then, they threw the ball incomplete and punted. Disgusting. Seattle went into Dallas with an offensive game plan designed for Blake Bortles and not Russell Wilson. It was malpractice.
The Seahawks continued to run the football when it clearly wasn’t working. Meanwhile, guess what — the Seahawks passing game was humming right along. Wilson was 10/11 on play action passes, and threw an awesome fourth-and-6 pass that kept Seattle in the game. I’m not one to call for firing of coaches after one bad coaching performance, but the Seahawks game plan was a fireable offense in my opinion. Just can’t be that conservative.
I’ve been lukewarm on the Cowboys during their entire run to the playoffs. Something about them just doesn’t have me fired up. Maybe it’s time to warm up to what they are doing, because they keep winning games. That’s what matters.
It’s not always pretty on offense, but Dak keeps throwing touchdowns and limiting mistakes. He’s a threat in the red zone using his legs, and I’ve been wondering why the Cowboys don’t expand his role in that area of the field. The Cowboys can go into Los Angeles and bully the Rams with their defense and their run game. I’m excited to watch.
I can’t explain what Nick Foles is doing
Starting last season with his three playoff wins, plus the three wins to end this season and the victory Sunday night, Foles is now 7-0 in must-win games in the last two seasons. It’s remarkable for a backup quarterback.
I think what Foles does best is two fold. First, and this isn’t a knock on Carson Wentz, but it seems like the team, especially the offense, just plays with more confidence with Foles. I’m not sure that’s fair to Wentz, but it just looks that way. Second, and this might explain the former point, Foles does exactly what the offense is designed to do. He’s not the athlete Wentz is. Foles doesn’t have his cannon arm. He can’t, and probably shouldn’t, make plays late in the down. So when a play is called, Foles does exactly what the play calls for him to do. He hits his check down. He throws the short pass. He gets rid of the ball quickly. Wentz is still young. He still tries to hit the home run ball. He holds on to the rock too long in the pocket. Foles is almost the opposite of that. So that’s why the offense runs smoothly with Nick Foles in the game.
Blame Cody Parkey for the loss. Sure. He missed the final kick. Or the kick was blocked. Whatever you’d like, but the kick was going left anyway. However, the real blame for this game is on Matt Nagy and the offense. Parkey might have missed the final kick, but he was three-of-four on the day. He had nine points for the Bears. The Bears offense had six points, total. Six! At home against an Eagles secondary that was starting their 13th player back there. Speedster and all around weapon Tarik Cohen had a single rush and five targets at receiver. That’s poor game plan design.
But it was Nagy’s first playoff game as a head coach. The future is bright in Chicago. He did an outstanding job this season. I know winning window’s close quickly in the NFL, but the Bears window is still wide open. Another year for Trubisky to grow within the offense and they return everyone on defense. The Bears will be fine.
The Chargers knew exactly what to do
Don’t be fooled by the last four minutes of the Ravens-Chargers game. The Ravens new look offense failed yesterday. I tried to tell everyone who’d listen the Ravens offense wasn’t here to stay. Of course I got push back from the Twitter scouts. I wrote as much heading into this weekend.
The Chargers were playing this college offense a second time in a month. Gus Bradley, the Chargers defensive coordinator, designed an excellent game plan to contain it. He used seven defensive backs on 58 of 59 defensive snaps. Putting these safeties down in the box at linebacker allowed them to run with Lamar Jackson and use speed to attack the pullers.
What made Bradley’s job easier is the Ravens have ridiculous tendencies that are easy to exploit with some game planning. They’ve not pulled the right guard once since Jackson took over this offense. Yes, you read that right. Not once. Only the left guard. The Chargers took advantage of this by doing two things. First, they shot the backside defensive tackle up the field to beat the center on his down block. Second, the safeties and the lineman pulling into the hole to create a pile of bodies. Hard to run downhill with a bunch of bodies on the ground. Also helpful was having the best player on the field yesterday. Melvin Ingram was a monster. He harassed Jackson and made multiple tackles for a loss. He was the Chargers MVP.
Credit is also due to the Chargers offensive game plan. Their game plan differed from what I thought it would be, but it was simple — body blows. They weren’t going to make mistakes. It worked well, outside of the fumble by tight end Virgil Green. Rivers threw the ball quickly, and he used his wheels to make things happen with his legs. Rivers got the ball out fast against pressure and tried to avoid holding it too long in the pocket. It worked because they knew their defense would shut down the Ravens.