How the Giants Can Generate a Pass Rush Using Five or More Men
One of the biggest concerns for the 2020 New York Giants is their ability to generate pressure without a “blue goose” pass rusher.
It’s a legitimate concern heading into the season, though I, for one, am hopeful for the development of both Lorenzo Carter and Oshane Ximines into that "blue goose" status.
Retaining a talent like Markus Golden was a savvy move by Dave Gettleman and Giants team cap mastermind Kevin Abrams on many accounts and 28-year-old Kyler Fackrell, a year removed from a double-digit sack season, is a wise move as well.
Nevertheless, people outside the Giants’ organization question the unit's effectiveness and ability to generate pressure, even with five-man pressure packages.
Many Giants fans believe that New York subscribes to the New England model of defense, where they predicate their strengths on the secondary and rely on scheme and blitzing packages to produce the disruption of the quarterback.
This would have been a much more logical course of action if DeAndre Baker didn’t run into legal trouble and if Sam Beal was playing in 2020, but that’s a conversation for another day.
So how can the Giants generate pressure in 2020? Throughout this article, we’ll analyze pressure packages and techniques from the 2019 New England Patriots, because of their unique blitzes and “lack” of a “blue goose” pass rusher, and the 2019 Miami Dolphins because Patrick Graham was the defensive coordinator there last year.
Let’s see what techniques used, pre and post-snap, to help these players sack the quarterback that the Giants might incorporate into their defense. (All clips via NFL Game Pass.)
5-man pressure linebacker twist
Patrick Graham loved to blitz in Miami, a team that lacked a “blue goose” pass rusher.
Graham plays a lot of man coverage and blitzed 41% of the time (2nd in the NFL) on third downs. Graham relied on pressure to alter the quarterback and force him off his spot.
Giants head coach Joe Judge, in a video conference call this week with the media, referenced pressures as an attainable goal because sacks are rare, but altering the quarterback in the pocket and disrupting his timing is almost as important.
The Patriots knew how to scheme pressure, as shown in the following clip:
Cleveland comes out in a shotgun set on this third-and-9 play. They show six guys who can possibly come on the blitz while playing man coverage on the back end.
Five rushers end up being sent with one rusher green-dogging and spying the running back who is kept in for pass protection.
Dont’a Hightower, No. 54, is lined over the center with a 2i-technique to his right and a 4i-technique to his left. The Browns line slides to the right because of Jamie Collins’ (No.58) presence. This creates a 3-on-3 rush to the left, with one of the three blockers being a running back, taking on a linebacker with momentum.
Adam Butler, No. 70, is the 4i-technique who slants into the A-gap while Hightower loops around the slant into the B-gap. This happens while Kyle Van Noy, No. 53, takes a wide-angle to allow the B-gap to expand. That isolated twist against the guard puts the running back into an incredibly tough position, and the result is a sack for the Patriots.
A simple slant and loop (stunt) from the 4i-technique and the linebacker, combined with a wide rush from the end and pre-snap disguises to slide protection the other way, is all it took for this 5-man pressure package.
Both Collins and Elandon Roberts, No. 52 line up, sugaring the A-gap on this second-and-6 against the Eagles.
There are two 4i-technique’s and two wide rushers on this five-man pressure masked as six, but Van Noy is tasked to guard the running back out of the backfield.
This is important; watch both Lawrence Guy, No. 93, and Danny Shelton, No. 71. They attack the outside shoulder of their guards and open them up outside, which creates a 2 vs. 2 in the middle of the line of scrimmage with a running back in protection-- a potential mismatch.
Collins engages the center, and Roberts twists to his left, which puts the running back into a tough spot since he over pursued his blitz pick up initially.
Roberts had all the momentum, and Miles Sanders, No. 26, became overwhelmed with his power since Sanders wasn’t set. The pass-rushing path of the players not involved with the twist led to the double linebacker versus center and running back in blitz pick up. Very well done by New England.
5-man Pressure: Double Slant, Linebacker Loop
Here is some more New England brilliance featuring a 0-technique, two wide rushers, and two linebackers at the 1-4-technique (one yard off the line of scrimmage over the tackles).
At the snap, the 0-technique and Collins both slant to the right while Hightower opens the guard up with a quick upfield burst, but then goes lateral to stunt around the two players.
This forces three blockers on only two rushers with one free rusher coming around the right guard while both wide rushers force the tackles away from the middle of the line of scrimmage.
The scheme picks the interior lineman and creates an open path for the looping linebacker. The center has to engage the 0-technique, the right guard must respect Hightower, and the guard has to carry, No. 58 through his slant because the center is occupied.
Hightower moves right into the open alley and gets to Josh Allen in what's an incredibly nice pressure package from New England. That’s schemed by Belichick, the mastermind himself.
Now let’s take a look at some of Miami’s pressure packages with current Giants’ defensive coordinator Patrick Graham.
A 0-technique, two wide rushers, and two linebackers shaded in the B-gap end up giving the Browns a lot of trouble in this five-man pressure with man coverage.
Looks oddly familiar, right? The linebackers are lined up more over the 3-technique position, but the post-snap movement looks eerily similar.
Both the 0-technique and the left rusher attack the outside shoulders of their respective blocking opponents. Then, when they start to slant right, Jerome Baker, No. 55 slants left around the right guard.
The slanting movement from the two rushers, along with the edge player taking a somewhat wide-angle, creates--you guessed it--a huge alley for the defender to run through and sack the quarterback.
5-man pressure: Double Stunt
Here we see two defenders attacking the outside portions of the blockers to the slide side, which allows the looper to undercut his original intended blocker to loop into the vacant A-Gap, but the great Maurkice Pouncey, No. 53 is not fooled.
To the non-slide side of the line of scrimmage, Miami runs an end/linebacker stunt where the end aggressively acts as the hammer to pick the guard. At the same time, the linebacker simultaneously loops around the tackle who was just too late on his passing of the -end to the guard.
Quarterback Mason Rudolph flows towards the pressure in part due to the failed looping attempt of the slide-side stunt.
5-man pressure: Bluff Overload
This isn’t Graham or Belichick, but it’s a common way to manipulate offensive protections. There are six Bengals showing blitz with two linebackers sugaring the A-gap.
Yet again, against another six-man protection, a sack is recorded because of the scheme.
Initially, the offensive line slides left, but it’s only to one rusher since the end man on the line of scrimmage drops into the flat, and the linebacker Nick Vigil, No.59, drops into a mid-hook.
Since the center slid left, Patrick Laird, No. 42, is forced to step into the A-gap and absorb the blitzing linebacker's contact.
While this is happening, Sam Hubbard, No. 94 attacks the outside shoulder of the right guard and the inside shoulder of the right tackle, effectively engaging both players, while the wide rusher stunts around Hubbard, but is picked up by the guard.
This leaves Hubbard on the tackle, Laird in the B-gap with the linebacker, and no one on the blitzing nickel back to the non-slide side.
The result is a sack for Hubbard, which was mostly caused by the nickel back but was very much facilitated by the pre-snap look the Bengals sold the Dolphins.
Disguising intentions with pre-snap assumptions and then reacting differently post-snap is a great way to force hesitation of the quarterback and the protection.
These plays were all with five-man pressure packages, with the offense having the advantage in terms of numbers.
These kinds of pressure packages aren’t limited to five or more guys; if used effectively, four-man pressure packages can exploit protection issues.
We'll be looking to explore four-man pressures in an upcoming article here at Giants’ Country.
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