TE blocking against the Redskins

After going through the game again I have to say this was our TEs best game blocking in quite some time. Tye especially did very well. Donnell had a couple plays where he struggled, but mostly did his job. I didn't see Tye have a bad block during the game. By my count when Tye was in the game the Giants ran the 9 times for 74 yards. That's over 8 yards per carry! (He was also in for 5 and 6 yard runs that got called back for penalties on Richburg and Flowers.) His blocking has been up and down, but in this game it was excellent this past week.

I also thought Hart played a good game. He looked like our second best linemen in this game (after Pugh). Richburg and Flowers were both mostly solid in pass protection but struggled with run blocking more than I'm used to seeing. Jerry had one of his better games too. He still had some bad plays, but his run blocking looked much better than in the past. The Giants didn't run the ball with Brett Jones at center. Once Jones came in the game the Redskins blitzed a lot more frequently, and Jones did a very good job. I have no idea how his run blocking is, but he did very well with pass blocking.

Here are 2 plays that show good blocks by our TEs. These two plays had limited success even with good blocking because the defense knew what was coming.

1-10-(7:30 in 1st): Eli in shotgun changes the play yelling “panther, panther.” Will Compton immediately starts pointing to his right yelling “It’s going right. It’s going right.” He is right, it is a run left (defenses right). As the ball is snapped Hall (orange circle) begins running forward. Hart does an adequate job keeping Kerrigan to the outside and away from the play. Flowers combo blocks with Pugh and then moves on to the LB, Pugh and Richburg both do a good job of blocking their men to the right. Donnell (red circle) is blocking Trent Murphy and completely stonewalls him. Donnell has him sealed to the outside for the entire play and doesn’t get driven back at all. This opens up a huge hole with Jerry pulling through it. Jerry gets a block on the LB, hitting his outside shoulder to give Vereen a chance to get through the hole. Unfortunately by this time Hall has sprinted into the hole. Jerry gets pushed back some by the LB and so Vereen doesn’t have much room to make a move on Hall. This play was well blocked all the way around, but the Redskins stop it for a 3 yard gain because Hall was able to come up so quickly.



2-12-WAS 32(1:26 in 2nd) Eli in shotgun again yells “panther, panther.” And again Compton starts shouting that it’s going right. They shift their defense and you can see Compton and Phillips are motioning to Norman to readjust and come to the inside. Norman doesn’t move and Eli snaps it pretty quickly. Compton was lined up on the 27 basically on the right after they shifted he moved up to the 29 and right in the middle of the field. It’s the same play as before. Hart does a good job of sealing Kerrigan to the outside and away from the play. Flowers (red circle) combo blocks with Pugh and then moves on to Compton. Since Compton has shifted up and to the more to the right of the defense, Flowers is not in position to block him to the inside after helping Pugh move his man. He now meets him straight on and blocks him to the outside, leaving a smaller hole. He also hits him high and gets both arms basically wrapped around his neck and gets a piece of his facemask as he tosses him to the side (this draws the flag). Meanwhile Baker sheds Richburg’s (yellow circle) block and moves in to make the stop after a 5 yard gain. Throughout this Tye (black circle) has been blocking Trent Murphy and has done a good job of sealing him to the outside. Murphy does start to drive him backward, but it is after Vereen has already gotten by. Pugh also has driven his man well out of the play and Jerry has found his man and cleanly blocks him to the outside.