Film room: Raiders can take advantage of poor Browns OL

Cleveland gave up 8 sacks against New York last week

After suffering an embarrassing loss last Sunday, the Raiders desperately need a bounce-back performance in Week 4 against the Cleveland Browns.

A win pushes the Raiders’ record to a respectable 2-2 while keeping the team’s playoff hopes alive through the first month of the season. However, dropping to 1-3 will lead to more frustrations and put a damper on the clubs’ postseason aspirations.

Luckily, Las Vegas should have an advantage in the trenches on Sunday.

The Browns’ offensive line has been a mess this year. According to Pro Football Focus, the unit has the sixth-worst pass-blocking efficiency rating (79.8) and the team owns the second-lowest pass-blocking grade (48.0). In the running game, Cleveland ranks 21st in the NFL with a 60.2 grade and is coming off an abysmal performance with a 43.1 mark.

Additionally, the Browns have had several injuries on the offensive line with starting guard Wyatt Teller going on injured reserve this week, while the team’s other starting guard Joel Bitonio (knee), starting tackles Jack Conklin (hamstring) and Jedrick Wills (knee) are listed on the injury report. Also, backup tackles James Hudson (shoulder) and Dawand Jones (knee) and backup guard Javion Cohen (back) are banged up.

While not having Maxx Crosby hurts, Christian Wilkins and the Raiders’ defensive line are set up to have a big performance in Week 4. Especially considering Cleveland is coming off a game where running backs averaged 3.5 yards per carry and the team gave up eight sacks to the New York Giants.

So, let’s take a look at the tape and see how the Giants managed to take advantage of the Browns’ offensive line last week.

The Giants had a of success running line games or stunts against the Browns which is smart considering Cleveland’s offensive line has so many injuries.

Having pass rushers move and exchange assignments post-snap tests the offensive line’s communication skills as everyone has to be on the same page. But that’s hard to do when there are blockers who aren’t used to playing with each other.

Here, New York runs a T/E stunt while having the nickel blitz off the edge. The Browns do a decent job of picking up the defensive linemen, but Wills (the left tackle) is put in a bind as he goes to pick up the nickel which frees up Dexter Lawrence (No. 97, the right defensive tackle) to get the sack.

Also, the blitzer wins around the edge and so does Brian Burns (No. 0) which forces Deshaun Watson to step up in the pocket and into the twist up front. As a side note, the Raiders need to take advantage of Jones if he’s in at right tackle, more on that later.

This time New York has Lawrence lineup in the weak A-gap pre-snap but cross the center’s face into the strong A-gap post-snap while the two linebackers blitz and twist to muddy the look for the right guard and back. All three of those pass-rushers end up winning as the pass-rush game works to perfection with a sack.

Also, take a look at Jones at right tackle. He’s very quick to turn/open his hips and has slow feet which creates a short edge and is part of the reason why Azeez Ojulari (No. 51) wins and gets involved in the sack.

That’s four pass-rushers collapsing the pocket by the time Watson hits the top of his drop.

How about one more line game for a sack?

The Giants come out in a five-man front and have the nose tackle (Lawrence) and defensive tackle (Elijah Chatman) slant to the right (offense’s left) while the linebacker walked up on the line of scrimmage loops around into the opposite B-gap.

With so many threats on the line of scrimmage pre-snap, it’s easy for offensive linemen to lock their eyes on the defender that is lined up across from them. That’s what happens with the center here as he follows Lawrence and is late to see/pick up Chatman slanting into the A-gap.

The result is the first career sack for the undrafted rookie free agent.

To be honest, I’d be a little surprised if Jones plays on Sunday since he’s banged up and was pretty bad in pass protection last game. But if he is, the Raiders should be able to take advantage of him.

Again, Jones’ feet are slow and he’s quick to open the gate with his hips to create a short edge for pass rushers. This isn’t even a good pass rush by Burns, but Burns still wins around the edge and gets a strip-sack.

Moving onto the running game, Cleveland tried to run a handful of draws last week. I’d imagine that was probably because New York has a bunch of good pass-rushers, so the Browns were trying to invite them up the field and run underneath them.

Seeing as the Raiders also have a strong defensive line, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Browns use a similar strategy. That being said, the play calls weren’t exactly working for Cleveland…

Here, the left tackle and left guard aren’t on the same page as the tackle (Wills) thinks the guard will take the outside linebacker who slants into the B-gap. However, the guard goes to help the center with the nose before working up to the second level, leaving the edge player unblocked. On top of that, the nickel blitzes and Wills doesn’t block the nickel either.

To make matters even worse, the nose tackle quickly defeats the center’s block with a swim move to get penetration. That’s not even the Giants’ starter, it’s backup D.J. Davidson who had PFF run defense grades of 26.9 and 30.0 in the first two games of the season, respectively.

The result is a tackle for loss as the running back can make one defender miss in the backfield but not three.

This is what Wilkins and John Jenkins need to do this weekend and both are more than capable of executing it.

The Browns run inside zone which puts the right guard and center on a combo block against the nose tackle while the left guard and left tackle combo the 3-technique. Both defensive linemen do a good job of occupying their blockers and staying in their gaps, which helps keep the linebackers clean.

Watch the left tackle, Wills. He eventually releases to the second level but is off-balance after failing to generate movement against the 3-tech, which makes it easy for the linebacker to defeat the Wills’ block with a rip move and get involved in the play.

Also, the strong-side edge defender (Kayvon Thibodeaux) sets the edge well and closes the gap with the tight end. Especially with the nickel (No. 19) stepping into the weakside B-gap, the running back has nowhere to go and it’s a short gain.

We’ll end with another nice rep from two players who aren’t the Giants’ superstars.

First, watch the 3-technique on the right side of the screen. That’s Rakeem Nunez-Roches who is a starter but hasn’t been much more than an average player throughout his career. Now he is going up against a backup guard, but that could be someone the Raiders end up facing this weekend given the Browns’ injuries.

Nunez-Roches does a great job of winning at the point of attack and re-setting the line of scrimmage. That essentially cuts the field in half by taking away the cutback lane from the running back.

On the other side, Ojulari is at defensive end and isn’t much of a run defender, and he’s giving up quite a bit of size to Jones. So, Ojuari does concede a little ground but is doing his job by slanting into the B-gap while the nickel blitzes off the edge, which takes away another rushing lane for the running back.

Again, there’s nowhere for the running back to run so the unblocked defender is free to make a tackle for a short gain.