A new season is with us and with that new season comes a new focus for our weekly Marquee Matchups piece. With our expanded game previews, Marquee Matchups will now take on a review role, looking back at three intriguing matchups from the week.
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We’ll be looking at the very best against the very best, the uneven matchups that turned a game, and also those uneven matchups that weren’t exploited and allowed an upset. Week 1 brought a lot of points and a few surprises so let’s take a look at the first three matchups that fall under the microscope for 2011.
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Winning in the Trenches – Green Bay Interior OL vs. New Orleans Interior D
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For a game that displayed such fantastic output from both passing games, possibly the most dominant and one-sided battle came in the trenches when Green Bay’s offense was on the field. With a new starter at left guard and question marks at both tackle spots, the Packers were under pressure against a revamped New Orleans interior. If this was a test of their credentials, the trio of T.J. Lang, Scott Wells and Josh Sitton responded positively ….. very positively.
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Almost the only blot on their copy book all game long was the brace of false starts from Lang in the opening quarter – they were silly but not indicative of his individual performance or that of the group. Excluding those two penalties, the Packers’ trio was graded negatively only five times in this game, five negative grades on 67 offensive snaps between three offensive players is an extraordinary level of consistency and dominance.
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To emphasize that, Shaun Rogers – who the Saints were widely lauded for picking up as a destructive presence in their aggressive defense – didn’t get a single positive grade on any of his 19 snaps against the Packers interior trio. The job Wells did driving him back on John Kuhn’s touchdown run was indicative of the control these three had of him for the entire game.
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Lang, Wells and Sitton were not only able to control the line of scrimmage in both run and pass game (only one pressure conceded between the three players) but also exhibited such domination that they were able to make a menace of themselves at the second level. They shared nine positively graded second level blocks (all three earning at least two) to neutralize the athletic threats of Jonathan Vilma and Jonathan Casillas on top of the quartet of Rogers, Aubrayo Franklin, Sedrick Ellis and Mitch King at the line.
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Headline Play:
Running the ball has largely been a secondary consideration for the Packers in recent seasons but they still need to be able to do it, most notably on third downs to keep drives alive. These three stepped up their game in this area and all three linemen picked up positive grades on 3rd-and-short plays. On one of these (at 6:26 in the second quarter), all three combined with positive blocks to allow James Starks the room to convert on a 3rd-and-2. However, the headline play I'm going with can be none other than Wells’ domination of Rogers on Kuhn’s touchdown run. This play encapsulated the entire game in the trenches: a decisive victory for Green Bay’s interior offensive line.
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Controlling the Edge – Pittsburgh LT Jonathan Scott vs. Baltimore DRE Terrell Suggs
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Considering that protecting the blindside of the quarterback is the most important job an offensive lineman can do, it seems astounding that the Steelers have done so little to upgrade their left tackle. Jonathan Scott entered the starting line-up in Week 10 last season and from there produced a series of poor performances. Scott only had two games that would legitimately be considered as good, fortunately for the Steelers one of those came in the Super Bowl. Considering the pass rushers you would expect to face on a playoff run it seems surprising that the Steelers would settle for Scott as their left tackle. But settle they did and the harsh reality of their decision was brought to bear on Sunday. Terrell Suggs gave him a flogging of similar proportions to what the Ravens handed the Steelers overall.
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The stat line doesn’t always tell the truth but in this event it does, Suggs recorded three sacks (two of them yielded by Scott) to go along with a hit and two hurries while pass rushing. Suggs was easily as comfortable beating Scott inside as he was outside, this is the mark of a great pass rusher as it doesn’t allow the tackle to set up and take away the rushers’ strength.
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Scott looked completely out of his depth in this game and Suggs was able to finish plays against the Steelers which he hasn’t always managed to do in the past. In the past Suggs had some excellent games in terms of pressuring Ben Roethlisberger but, along with the rest of the Ravens defense, he has missed opportunities and gave Roethlisberger second chances. That wasn’t a problem this week.
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Suggs also made an impact on Scott in the running game and won his one-on-one matchup as decisively as any starter in the league on opening day.
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Headline Play:
Suggs set the tone in this matchup early in the game. On a 1st-and-10 on the Steelers first drive of the game, Suggs takes off to the outside and rides Scott straight back into Roethlisberger. Hitting the Pittsburgh QB as he threw and disrupting the pass. It may not have been a sack, it may not have been the big stop in the run game, but it typified the physical dominance that would come to define this matchup and the game as a whole. These two teams will meet again this season at least once – how will Scott and the Steelers rebound from this kind of a beating?
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Marshall Law – Miami WR Brandon Marshall vs. New England CB Devin McCourty
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For a game that produced 62 points and over 1,100 yards of total offense, you could be excused for thinking that not a great deal of defense was played. However there was, and it proved the difference. New England was able to make some plays at key moments on defense whereas Miami was abject for almost the entire night.
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For our marquee matchup from this game, we’ll take a look at an intriguing one-on-one matchup: Brandon Marshall and Devin McCourty. For people who read this column last season you will be aware that our attempts to pick receiver vs. defensive back matchups often fell on their face as the receiver would be moved around to avoid the opposing DB. However, that wasn’t the case here. McCourty lined up opposite Marshall on 47 plays, 34 of those were passes and Chad Henne went to Marshall on 11 of them; plenty of snaps for us to look into.
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The stats and our grades suggest that Marshall came out on top of this match up. Marshall had a receiving grade of +1.8 in this game while McCourty graded at -1.6 for his coverage. In their direct match up, Marshall was able to pick up 114 yards on six catches, 50 of them after the catch and a longest play of 31 yards. That looks entirely one sided and to an extent it was but there was some good defensive moments in the game; McCourty was able to come up with a few key plays here and there to help make the difference for the Patriots. He picked-up two pass defenses, one of them while covering Marshall on a hitch route to prevent a first down in the third quarter. He was also able to lay a hit onMarshall on a slant to separate him from the ball on a second down in the fourth. Overall, the matchup goes to Marshall but that McCourty was able to make key plays here and there made the difference and helped the Patriots edge this shootout.
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Headline Play:
“Physical Freak” is a phrase that’s thrown around a lot these days, but on a hitch route in the third quarter, Brandon Marshall showed why the tag fits – and also why he is such a nightmare for defenses to cover when he’s on his game. Marshall and McCourty lined up outside the numbers and Marshall brought his hitch inside the numbers on a slight angle to make the catch in front of the young Patriots corner for the first down. But it’s from there that Marshallshowed his real strength. Turning on a dime back to the outside, Marshall threw off McCourty’s tackle before stiff-arming Jerod Mayo in pursuit and skipping past an attempt by Dane Fletcher up the right sideline on his way to a 22 yard gain. Marshall is phenomenal when you get the ball in his hands, this play was him at his best and why McCourty had such trouble with him on Monday night.
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