Closer look at Game 2 Offense vs Minny

1st Quarter OFFENSIVE observations

1st and 10 at SF 30 A.Dixon left guard to SF 32 for 2 yards (E.Henderson; C.Greenway).
AD did enough to shield his man from the run up LG... successful pull block Rachal... good job controlling DT Baas... pretty good blocks by Iupati and Staley... good lead block, Norris... defense just swarmed quickly

2nd and 8 at SF 32 A.Smith pass short middle to A.Dixon to SF 38 for 6 yards (C.Greenway; E.Henderson). Caught at SF 36.
AD stayed in front of his man well enough on this quick pass.... remaining OL blocked well... watched the other targets, and this was the right throw

3rd and 2 at SF 38 (Shotgun) A.Smith pass short right to T.Ginn to SF 43 for 5 yards (A.Winfield). Caught at SF 43.
AD doing just enough, and he had help from Rachal soon to keep LDE from spinning through AD... very nice blocking from the rest... good throw to Ginn to convert

1st and 10 at SF 43 A.Dixon up the middle to SF 44 for 1 yard (E.Henderson).
Rachal trips to the ground on pull block... good run block Iupati... Baas hits 2nd level looking for someone... AD did his job getting in front of DT... pathetic outside block Norris... Staley beaten inside by Allen's speed... great trip tackle by ILB

2nd and 9 at SF 44 A.Dixon right tackle to SF 49 for 5 yards (E.Henderson; A.Winfield).
AD good job making sure Edwards' outside rush takes him away from run... Rachal with tentative block of ILB, but it's enough to help Dixon get a few yds.. Baas showing some power and leverage over K. Williams... Iupati hits 2nd level, can't quite get to LB... Staley planted someone into the ground

3rd and 4 at SF 49 (Shotgun) A.Smith pass short right to D.Zeigler pushed ob at MIN 38 for 13 yards (J.Sanford). Caught at MIN 41.
right side collapsing quickly, but AD does just enough (with Smith stepping up nicely in pocket) to wash Edwards out... great effort and awareness from Rachal to pick up blitz LB and DB (with help from Dixon)... Baas and Iupati do well teaming up vs stunting DT... Staley does well on other stunt DT... short pass in stride to Zeigler coming across to convert.

1st and 10 at MIN 38 A.Dixon up the middle to MIN 38 for no gain (E.Henderson).
AD with good job pushing open a rush lane inside... Rachal and DT engaged, but no push... stumble by Baas, not much help blocking there... Iupati pulls and gets decent block on LE... Staley did fine shielding off RE Allen... just not enough from interior OL there and useless lead block from Norris...

2nd and 10 at MIN 38 A.Smith pass short middle to Del.Walker to MIN 14 for 24 yards (A.Allen; M.Williams). Caught at MIN 25.
All blocking was impressive... Byham (as FB) gets great block on blitz LB... Dixon great block on blitz DB from same side... 3.5 second pass from Smith (stepping up) on the money to Walker.

1st and 10 at MIN 14 A.Dixon left guard to MIN 15 for -1 yards (E.Henderson).
Walker and AD engage blocks... no real push though... Rachal seemed to do well enough as the play continued... Staley couldn't sustain block of Allen... Iupati looks to have stumbled and couldn't be helpful... Byham with nice lead block... all LBs were clearly looking inside run

2nd and 11 at MIN 15 A.Smith pass incomplete short left to Del.Walker.
AD stayed in front of LE well... interior OL all worked well together to protect... Staley let Allen get too much on him, too close to Smith... still would have liked to see Smith turn his head for another option other than throwing it away, and he would have needed to move right to do so

3rd and 11 at MIN 15 (Shotgun) A.Smith pass short middle to Del.Walker to MIN 4 for 11 yards (A.Allen; E.Henderson). Measurement confirms first down. Caught at MIN 4.
Davis gives up too much to quickly outside from LE, but Smith stepped up nicely... Rachal shoved back too much, but held up just enough... Baas a little late to decide on which OG to help... nice blocking from Staley and Iupati... 3 second pass on the money to Walker for the conversion

1st and 4 at MIN 4 A.Dixon left end for 4 yards, TOUCHDOWN.
J. Allen slow to recover on pitch-out weak-side... Ginn gets just enough a block on CB... Staley crashes in to get a piece of WLB... FS (Williams) takes an awful angle, but still, nice run from Dixon...
--

(Guillory takes return at the 6 yd line... that, with the muff should seal his fate today)

1st and 10 at SF 15 (Shotgun) A.Dixon right guard to SF 17 for 2 yards (C.Greenway).
All nice blocking on play side from Byham and AD, everyone... poor decison-making by Dixon here costs us a few more yds

*false start, AD

2nd and 13 at SF 12 (Shotgun) A.Dixon up the middle to SF 10 for -2 yards (J.Allen).
right side blocked well and opened up the option... Dixon with another poor run decision... wasted movement in the mold of Kevin Barlow... Staley blocked Allen briefly, then moved on to ILB... stop dancing, Dixon!

3rd and 15 at SF 10 (Shotgun) A.Dixon right guard to SF 19 for 9 yards (M.Williams).
AD allowed his man to run himself out of play... terrific blocks by Rachal, DWalker, and Morgan outside to spring nice hole for Dixon... probably would have had the 1st if Baas could have made a block in 2nd level in time

4th and 6 at SF 19 A.Lee punts 53 yards to MIN 28, Center-B.Jennings. A.Allen to MIN 28 for no gain (R.Smith).

End 1st Quarter

Seriously, Dixon picked up one block nicely, other than that he looked civilian out there.

Originally posted by Chief:
Seriously, Dixon picked up one block nicely, other than that he looked civilian out there.

Pick out the play(s) you are mentioning please, and I'll happily review them again. Otherwise, I saw good awareness and effort so far from him in regards to protection.

I missed the game last night, but I'm having my morning coffee and in the perfect webzone thread to catch up!

Man thank you sir for doing all this!

Wow I can't believe how excited I am to hear the offense had a progressive opening drive.

Thanks, great stuff as usual oldman9er, I always look forward to these posts from you

Two suggestions, however: I think with both Anthony Davis and Anthony Dixon having way too similar names, AD might be a little bit confusing as an abbreviation
And please try not to use a Kevan Barlow ever reference again, those bring back bad, supressed memories…

Originally posted by NoOffseason:
Thanks, great stuff as usual oldman9er, I always look forward to these posts from you

Two suggestions, however: I think with both Anthony Davis and Anthony Dixon having way too similar names, AD might be a little bit confusing as an abbreviation
And please try not to use a Kevan Barlow ever reference again, those bring back bad, supressed memories…

Haha, gotcha on the Barlow issue. I think I'm consistently calling the OT = AD and always call Dixon = Dixon.

glad you liked, NoOffseason + verb1der.

As long as you take the time for these extensive reviews, I'll keep reading them. Thanks for posting!

Good breakdown. O line begin tested pretty nicely, and they will be tested again vs the Raiders this week. They seemed more cohesive thought they had some problems. Davis seemed to use his hands a lot more this game. Alex looked great on the 1st drive, but after that was pretty average. But so far in the 1st 2 games I'm gonna say I'm very troubled about the WR play. It seems like the WR's aren't even on the field. I know Crabtree is out but can Morgan and Ginn get some separation and catch a pass. i seriously don't recall either making a catch with the 1st team offense at all this pre season.

Originally posted by oldman9er:

Originally posted by Chief:
Seriously, Dixon picked up one block nicely, other than that he looked civilian out there.

Pick out the play(s) you are mentioning please, and I'll happily review them again. Otherwise, I saw good awareness and effort so far from him in regards to protection.

His pass protection was good for a rookie, I was talking about his running with the ball that lacked anything.

He looked like s**t running the ball and dropped at least one pass I can remember.

Originally posted by Chief:

Originally posted by oldman9er:

Originally posted by Chief:
Seriously, Dixon picked up one block nicely, other than that he looked civilian out there.

Pick out the play(s) you are mentioning please, and I'll happily review them again. Otherwise, I saw good awareness and effort so far from him in regards to protection.

His pass protection was good for a rookie, I was talking about his running with the ball that lacked anything.

He looked like s**t running the ball and dropped at least one pass I can remember.

Yea he did a little too much p***y footing instead of just hitting that hole.

It all comes down to O-line play. Backups like D. Walker, Ziegler, and Dixon benefited from good O-line play. It was nothing special that Smith was hitting those guys down field, he got good protection for the most part so he can do that.

Originally posted by Chief:

Originally posted by oldman9er:

Originally posted by Chief:
Seriously, Dixon picked up one block nicely, other than that he looked civilian out there.

Pick out the play(s) you are mentioning please, and I'll happily review them again. Otherwise, I saw good awareness and effort so far from him in regards to protection.

His pass protection was good for a rookie, I was talking about his running with the ball that lacked anything.

He looked like s**t running the ball and dropped at least one pass I can remember.

To me it looked like Dixon was working on letting the hole form in front of him, where as last week he was just hitting it full speed sometimes not giving the OL time to set up their blocks. Rathman probably had him focus on letting things happen in front of him, which led to some indecisiveness and dancing. He's still a rookie and will learn the proper times to let the hole form and the other times where you just take what you can get.

Good read dissing the Favre fest that was Sunday Night Football:
LINK

Originally posted by mcbaes72:
As long as you take the time for these extensive reviews, I'll keep reading them. Thanks for posting!

This. Thank you.

Originally posted by Chief:


He looked like s**t running the ball and dropped at least one pass I can remember.

Yeah, I hear you. I thought I described just that on at least 2 of his runs... indecision leading to stoppage for no or little gain. (but we're on the same page now)